Discover some fantastic highlights on the WIA2023 Book Covers Longlist in this curated list. Featuring illustration for book covers in a range of genres, there is bold and striking imagery designed to entice readers in an exciting range of styles. The Book Covers category is sponsored by London Book Fair.
The World Illustration Awards 2023 Longlist features 500 projects by New Talent and Professional illustrators from all over the world across ten categories. This year, the awards celebrate great illustration!
Read on to see our Professional and New Talent Book Covers Category Longlist Highlights – and if you’d like to learn more, click through to see the full project and contact information!
Professional
This commission is for a book about Yeehok, who finds support for her trauma in the Noah Ark project. The illustration is inspired from Yeehok’s favourite drink, a bittersweet mix of lychee rose tea with espresso. The flavours and colours represent her stages of happiness and distress in one glass.
The illustration began life as a pencil sketch on paper, and then colours were added digitally.
Meanapas.c is a full-time Design Manager and freelance illustrator living in Thailand.
Professional
Commissioned by Bergli Books / Helvetiq, Niels created this illustration for an A to Z picture book with 26 double pages showing Switzerland from its most beautiful side. His use of basic geometric shapes and strong colour compositions characterise his clear, reduced style.
Niels Blaesi is a Swiss illustrator, designer and children’s book author based in Switzerland.
Professional
Commissioned by Deacon and Roth Publishing, this is a book cover for Refined, a memoir by Louisiana based Tracie Breaux. Tracie grew up in an abusive environment. A few blocks from her home was an oil refinery, serving as a kind of resting point for her to run away to during her young years.
Patrik Svensson is an illustrator and graphic designer who works from his studio in Gothenburg, Sweden.
New Talent
The illustration is based on the book and the West End musical The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. The artist undertook this project to explore the possibility of narrative Illustration, and think about how it translates across multiple products, such as a book cover or a musical poster.
They began by sketching on paper, and the finished outcome used Procreate.
Jan(Zixuan) Zhou is studied at Central Saints Martins in London, and is currently based in the UK.
New Talent
Re-designing this book that was originally published almost a century ago, Col explores the themes of introspection within the setting of the rocky isolated Scottish coast. This cover was illustrated digitally in a limited palette with hand lettered titles.
Col McElwaine is an Australian illustrator and designer with a focus on editorial, packaging and motion. They are currently based in Meanjin and studying at the Queensland College of Art.
New Talent
The Neapolitan Novels are a four-part series of fiction by Elena Ferrante.
The artist likes to depict female friendship in her illustrations. For this first book, she has illustrated characters Lila and Lenon watching the sea and reading Little Women together.
Rainbow Wu is a self-taught illustrator based in China.
If you enjoyed these highlights, why not check out the full WIA2023 Book Covers Longlist!