Awards Book Archive

What Came Before
  • Winner

Designed by
Laura Thomas
Category
Best Designed Commercial Fiction Cover
Year
2015
Publisher
Viking an imprint of Penguin Random House Australia

About the Designer

Laura is a Melbourne-based book designer. She has a number of years of experience working across a wide variety of titles as an in-house designer at Penguin Random House, and is now a senior designer at Scribe Publications.

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Design Rationale

The dark, sexy, psychological thriller What Came Before was a tricky cover to work on. After numerous attempts including more abstract illustrations, shattered glass and flowers, I found this striking and simple image of an unclothed woman with messed lipstick which balanced between being seductive and violent. The scrawled text gives it another edge and hopefully helps it stand out from the condensed gothic fonts in the crime/thriller section. The ‘soft touch’ matt laminate emphasizes the skin-like feel of the cover and helps to enhance the creepy-factor.

Details
Dimensions
153 x 234 mm
No. pages
272
Special finishes
Soft touch lamination with spot UV
Credits
Author
Anna George