Magazine cover of Wharton featuring vibrant illustrations and text promoting the Wharton Follies with the headline "Song, Dance, Comedy".

Penguin Random House: Margaret Atwood series

Client:

Penguin Random House

Year:

2019-2020

Services:

Graphic Design, Typography

Art/Creative Director:

Julia Connolly

A four-title cover series commissioned by Vintage for the reissue of Margaret Atwood's early-1980s backlist: Life Before Man, Bodily Harm, Dancing Girls, and Bluebeard's Egg. The series was commissioned, delivered, and paid, but ultimately unpublished · the author took the reissue in a different direction.

Each cover uses typography as its entire visual system. Letterforms drop, tumble, and fragment across the composition · a typographic response to the tension running through Atwood's writing.

A consistent masthead treatment and shared composition hold the series together. Each cover carries its own palette and typographic character, so the four titles read as a set without repeating one another.

Margaret Atwood 'Life Before Man' book cover with fragmented green typography on a dark background.
Margaret Atwood 'Bodily Harm' book cover with tumbling white typography on a red background.
Margaret Atwood 'Dancing Girls' book cover with cascading typography, designed by Gary Percival.
Margaret Atwood 'Bluebeard's Egg' book cover with dropped typographic composition, designed by Gary Percival.

A fortnightly newsletter for designers

Ideas on making better work, sharpening your judgement and building a more sustainable design practice.

A fortnightly newsletter for designers

Ideas on making better work, sharpening your judgement and building a more sustainable design practice.

A fortnightly newsletter for designers

Ideas on making better work, sharpening your judgement and building a more sustainable design practice.

A fortnightly newsletter for designers

Ideas on making better work, sharpening your judgement and building a more sustainable design practice.

Let's Create
Something Together!

Got a project in mind or just want to say hi? I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a line, and let's turn those creative ideas into reality.

Let's Create
Something Together!

Got a project in mind or just want to say hi? I'd love to hear from you. Drop me a line, and let's turn those creative ideas into reality.