Summer Time was deliberately simple, open and languid, creating a sense of space and timelessness. Full bleed illustrations facing clean white pages give Summer Time a feeling of repetition and calmness, broken occasionally by immersive double page spreads. Each unit of time is handwritten, breaking up the 4 lines of rhyming verse, hinting at the structure underlying the book.

Bright and summery end papers wrap the book, with clock faces hinting at the passage of time (and bedtime!). NewSouth suggested using the gleeful swimming children (and dog) for the cover, capturing a quintessential moment of the Australian summer.