About Me

Some fun facts

1. I’m a complete nerd and have managed to wrangle my two great loves of literature and art into a career.

2. I love solving problems with illustration and lettering. And I love the fact that I can help other people with that skillset.

3. I got into hand lettering because I was too broke to buy fonts when I first started out in design. Now it’s a core part of my artistic practice.

4. Aside from book covers, I have quite a lot of other skills and experience that is useful to authors. These include: book marketing, experience working in bookshops and book formatting.

Origin Story

Having Fun Isn’t Hard…

If you can complete that sentence, I want to be friends.

I’m sure you got into this industry because you love books, right? That was absolutely the case for me.

As a kid, the highlight of my week was our family trip to the library. My brother and I would come away with a massive box filled with things to read. It was like Christmas every week! Our library cards were constantly maxed out. Once, I even wrote and illustrated a little book that I put in one of the picture book boxes in the hope that someone else would read it.

Indeed, having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card.

The “Hermione” Years

At school, this love of art and words continued. I was that kid who was always drawing at lunchtime and taking on extra credit if it meant I could read and write more. Yes, I was a regular Hermione Granger and my classmates probably hated me for it.

Crisis Averted

Fast forward to the end of high school, I made the (very wise) decision not to study law and politics, and instead went to study English Literature and History of Art. My degree allowed me to spend more time reading and learning about the art world. It also gave me insights into things like genre expectations, which is super important when designing a book cover.

The “Call to Adventure”

I’m now quite helpful in pub quizzes but, ultimately, my degree left me wanting more. By the time my second year was coming to an end, I knew I needed more creativity in my daily life.

So, I set about teaching myself graphic design.

What they don’t tell you in careers counselling

I had a summer job at a bookshop at the end of my degree. It was then that I realised that someone had the job of designing all the books around me. That certainly wasn’t a job that had been listed by my careers counsellor. But why couldn’t that someone be me? I started to put together a portfolio of book covers. I also packed a suitcase full of books and moved to London.

Books in the Big Smoke

My first book cover was for HarperCollins in 2015. When the email came through, I was, like most Londoners at any given moment, waiting for a bus in the rain. I genuinely thought the email was a scam when it first came through. After Googling the art director and realising that she did, indeed, exist, I may have had a little “singing in the rain” moment as I did a little jig.

After that, it was a slow process of building a portfolio, working with more publishers and authors, improving my skills and learning about the industry. Through all of this time, I was working at bookshops and immersing myself in the world of books and publishing.

The Return Home

After moving back to New Zealand, I landed a part-time freelance gig working with a small press. They mostly worked with indie authors and my job was to help them with marketing. I got to work directly with authors and find out exactly what they were struggling with. I really liked this more personal connection with authors.

I also learned how to properly format a book manuscript for print, which was WAY more involved than I expected.

Finding my “Why”

I’ve developed a deep love of helping authors bring their stories into the world. Today, I’ve combined those skills into a successful business where I work with authors, like you, directly. I love reading authors’ manuscripts and translating their ideas into a visual form.

There is so much talent in the self-publishing space and so much potential for authors. It’s a really exciting time to be a writer.

Clients include:

• HarperCollins US

• HarperCollins Australia/NZ

• OwlCrate

• Awa Press

• Mary Egan Press

Interested in working with me?

If you're interested in working with me on a project please get in touch: 

info@hollydunndesign.com