Step by step 01

Issue 01
Written By Sarah Gory

How to design a trade book cover

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Tony Palmer has designed award-winning covers for books by the likes of Morris Gleitzman, Sonya Hartnett, Bryce Courtenay and Isobelle Carmody. So how does he do it?

Sketches with different ideas but the text 'Oliver' is the same

It starts with sketches
Morris Gleitzman’s Too Small to Fail tells the story of the global financial crisis through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy, Oliver, whose parents own a small investment bank. Morris definitely wanted a camel on the cover, even if it was on the back.


Multiple texts of the word 'Line of Sight' in different fonts

Hand-drawn type
Line of Sight is a noir thriller set inmid-1970s Perth as heroin floods into town. These ideas morphed into the final typeface for the title.

On the left is a person walking down a street. Middle shows a street at night. Right shows a sniper scope

Pulling it together
A series of photographic images were layered to make Line of Sight’s moody cover.

Sketch of the book 'The Midnight Zoo'.

Try and try again(and again and again)
This early sketch for the cover of Sonya Hartnett’s novel The Midnight Zoo stayed on the drawing board – the finished cover was quite different.

Red cover with animals like kangaroos, llamas, wolves and bears. White text at top says 'THE MIDNIGHT ZOO', and text at the bottom 'SONYA HARTNETT'.

Colour trial
Once the image elements have come together, there can be experimenting with colour to get the right feel.



Screaming boy in the bottom-right corner, a view at the top of the image is a city. Text in the bottom-left says 'MORRIS GLEITZMAN TOO SMALL TO FAIL'.

Finished art
The finished covers (with Morris’ camel on Too Small to Fail).

Book cover of David Whish-Wilson's book Line of Sight. Showing the edited elements of the person, the street and the gun scope.
Sarah Gory
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Studio space 04