The Penguin Random House Student Design Award

Students may enter a maximum of one design in each of the categories:

• Adult Fiction Cover Award: To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
• Adult Non-Fiction Cover Award: In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
• Children's Cover Award: The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4 (Sue Townsend)

The design must:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against

Often with book designs the adult’s books will be built on a strong concept; something that shows intelligence and originality. Whereas for the children's fiction, there is often an illustration theme of a key scene or character. It is important for these designs that they are either minimal or maximal in their aesthetic, this is to show confidence and belief in the design (there can be no in between.) Often with these books they have been written in a different period of design and they have to be made modern by contextualising the book's issues.