In early 2001 I got a call. I was running late for a meeting, and I debated whether to pick up the phone. I did and a voice at the other end said, “Do you want to design the best rock ’n’ roll book this century?”
I did. This is not the sort of offer a book designer gets everyday.
Work with Nick Hern Books grew rapidly. The play scripts coming through regularly, usually requiring a very quick turn around, had an added complication of needing to balance the time it took to print the scripts, against how the scripts may change during the rehearsal process. As many of the scripts also included cast details, they also served as show programmes.
In early summer I had a call from Nick, he said, “I’ve got something a bit different for you and you have some time on this one” I was intrigued, “I want you to come and meet the editor.”
Towards the end of 1991 I bumped into Nick Hern on the third floor of The Random House building in Vauxhall Bridge Road. Nick’s ‘list’ had just become one of Random House imprints, having been part of the Walker Books group since 1988.
Nick was (and happily still is) publishing plays and books on all things theatre. By setting up a specialist list of play scripts and play script programmes sold in theatres, Nick had quickly built on his reputation at Methuen and Walker, as the ‘go to’ man for every new and established playwright both in the UK and around the world.
Not long after my adventure in the Hollywood hills, I was commissioned to design the cover for Martin Booth’s A Very Private Gentleman. The book is about one Signor Farfalla, believed to be a painter by his rural village, in reality, Farfalla is the maker of custom-made assassin’s weaponery.
A couple of months after Kirk Douglas’s book had gone off to print Caroline Upcher sent me a fax from Irving Lazaar . Irving “Swifty” Lazaar was an American talent agent and deal maker. Dubbed “Swifty” by Humphrey Bogart for his speed at putting together deals, he was renowned in the 80s and 90s, such was his notoriety The Muppet Show claimed he was Fozzie Bear’s agent!
During the late 80s and early 90s Century’s fiction list was attracting plenty of attention following the global success of Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds and novella The Ladies of Missalonghi.
Working with Ann Suster and Tony Whittome, my name soon got passed round to other editors in the Hutchinson and Century fiction departments. Eventually, I started working with one of Century Books’ co-founders Rosie De Courcy, who also handled some of the big name non-fiction titles. Quietly spoken, immaculately well dressed and precise in her choice of words, Rosie was very influential in 1980s and 90s publishing. More importantly, she was a lovely person to work with and made you feel like you were part of the most important meeting of her day.
Towards the end of 1988 the announcement was made that Chatto, Jonathan Cape, Chatto Poetry and The Hogarth Press were to become part of Random House Group. This would also mean a move from Chatto’s lovely Georgian offices in Bedford Square to Random House HQ that occupied a modern building in Chandos Place, Covent Garden. The ground was shifting under my feet and as publishing world began to change it was a worrying time.
Seven months in to my fledgling freelance career a wide variety of covers and publicity campaigns kept flowing in from Chatto & Windus. The Royal Horticultural Society’s book on companion planting; anthologies of poetry by Norman MacCaig and Carol Ann Duffy; Farmwork a photographic book capturing agricultural life, The Pitman Painters by William Feaver and the cover design for her first book that set the seal on an enduring professional relationship with much loved novelist, Ann Victoria Roberts.
When we write down our stories it is very tempting to only portray the best version of a career or a life, but, it is never all plain sailing. When you start working for yourself the stones in the road can appear more like boulders and hurt just as much!
Starting out in business with little or no experience, the only way of building the long-term mental resources you need is often by solving what’s in front of you. Taking advice, yes, but also trusting your instincts, learning from mistakes and moving on.
At the beginning of 1988, and still at Slatter-Anderson, I was getting busier with self-employed work. I was being commissioned by Transworld books, plus regular cartoon and design jobs for Video Arts. Meanwhile, at Slatter-Anderson I was working on an extensive test packaging project for Elida Gibbs for All Clear hair products and “re-imagined” toothpaste tubes. I was doing all the lettering artwork and technical drawings – oh, the glamour!
Six months after joining Slatter-Anderson, I was offered work on a freelance, rather than a permanent basis. Looking back on that often intense and chaotic time, I’m sure it had a lot to do with their tax position and off loading full-time employees.
To their credit, my then current bosses Robin and Derek did me the massive favour of letting me use the Slatter-Anderson darkroom to make up artwork out of office hours. The deal was that I could do freelance work outside office hours and deduct any materials I used from my monthly invoice. They knew that in order to be seen as bona fide freelance by the tax office I would need to have income from sources other than their company.
Around this time Slatter-Anderson was also working on promotional work for Bruce Oldfield and I was tasked with designing a 12-page advert for Vogue for his range of tights, which he had designed for Charnos. Variety was ever the spice of life and on another day warm day I headed down to Bruce’s workshop in Fulham to meet him, select the photos and plan the 12 page spread.
My 20 months at Slatter-Anderson were a blur… Learning a lot in a short space of time, I worked on a truly diverse range of design jobs
After clearing my desk at Sphere Books on Friday afternoon, Monday morning found me sitting down at a corner desk of the Riverside Studios in Fulham. Perched on the north bank of the Thames with a view of Brompton reservoir and the most spectacular sunsets in West London, I was now a Senior Designer at Slatter-Anderson.
The announcement that Penguin Books were to take over Sphere, my first professional home, arrived hard on the heels of the euphoria of my first Frankfurt Book Fair. The chaff from the rumour mill finally drifted down to the ground floor design department revealing that our death knell had been, of all things, Christmas.
From a tender age I have loved cartoons. From Top Cat to The Flintstones, Roobarb and Custard to Asterix, I loved the anarchy and the invention. I have already written about my work with Ed McClachlan and, during my time at Sphere Books I went on to draw a number of cartoons for covers and company Christmas cards for Sphere and some of our suppliers. One morning I got a message to see Barbara Boote, Sphere’s Head of Editorial; with no idea what was in the wind, off I trod…
For relatively small publishers, like Sphere Books, there are always a few authors about whose axis the company’s survival often revolves. Prolific, high-profile, bestselling… Danielle Steel was just such an author for Sphere where she had full cover approval and maintained a very tight control on all design decisions.
During my time at Sphere Books I designed a series by Peter Tinniswood, which afforded me the opportunity, not only to design, but also draw all the cover images. An unlooked for, but hugely rewarding moment!
This was one of those jobs; as soon as I read the brief I had a crystal clear idea of the image I wanted for the book cover. In Designers that have influenced and inspired me. 1. I mentioned being a huge fan of iconic cartoonist Ed McLachlan’s work. So, when I was given Dig Up Your Family Tree and allowed to commission the illustration, I got the chance to brief and art direct one of my heroes. At 24, this was in equal parts exciting and utterly terrifying.