The role of Head of Design at HarperCollins Publishers has been taken up by Lisa White, who joined the company this week.

Lisa said she was “really looking forward the challenge of the new role and hopes she can live up to the legacy of great work (her predecessor) has created over the years,” adding that she is “really excited to be working with the incredibly talented design team at HarperCollins.”

Lisa previously worked as the Senior Designer at Allen & Unwin, where she won multiple awards for her work including the 2013 Australian Book Design Awards’ Best Designed Fiction Book for The Secret Keeper.

Lisa replaces Matt Stanton who is leaving HarperCollins after 12 years to focus on his career as a children’s author and illustrator.

Matt’s book This Is a Ball, co-written with his wife Beck, was shortlisted for this year’s Australian Book Industry Awards’ Book of the Year for Younger Children. His next big project is a series of books aimed at middle-grade readers.