Book covers

Publishing up to half a dozen books a year for the Quakers often involved finding affordable images which conveyed very abstract concepts. We also wanted to use images with a fresh, contemporary feel. This challenge was a key part of embedding our corporate ‘look and feel’.

God is Silence

With this book cover, the key word was ‘silence’ – not an easy concept to illustrate! Reading the text made me realise that the author was concerned to convey the mystical possibility of silence. Hence the misty lake does a good job of conveying stillness and mystery. I also liked the muted palette in the image, which was an affordable royalty-free photo I sourced from a stock library.

Light to Live By

With this reprint, we again had a distinctive message to get across. That ruled out cheesy sunsets or candles. The notion of ‘light’ here is to do with light as a constant reference, often blurred by the ‘passing show’ of daily life. So I found this colourful image, showing stripes of blurred light.