OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award - Former Children's Cover Award Winners

Last year's children's prize was for the book 'Noughts and Crosses' by Malorie Blackman. This winning entry is very clever in its design, particularly through the use of combining image and text, whereby the textual information is made to be part of the character illustrations, which can be seen as directly showing how these characters make up the book. The back and front covers work well with each other, with the colours crossing over on the spine, adding an interesting element which would make the spine stand out on a bookshelf. Many of the judges comments on this design refer to the simplicity of the design, which helped the illustrations stand out.

2017's children's prize was for the book 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole (Aged 13 3/4)' by Sue Townsend. This design is more chaotic than the current winning design, however it continues to feature similar elements, such as the use of illustrated imagery and handwritten type. This shows the importance of strong typography in appealing to the judges, as well as the use of illustration for the children's covers, which can be seen as representative of a more playful nature that would keep younger readers more engaged and want to pick up the book.

2013's childrens prize was for the book 'The Wind In The Willows' by Kenneth Grahame. Like 2018's winning entry, this design features minimalistic illustrations which create a consistency between the front and back covers.

Upon analysis, it can be concluded that for the children's prize category that the judges favour more playful and illustrated designs, which aim for attracting the attention of young readers. This is also paired with a strong use of typography, an element which was found the judges look for in all categories. Generally, it seems the judges also favour simplistic designs that create more of an impact, however focus is on the importance on consistency amongst the full design.