Cover Meeting

Steve Leard
Cover Meeting

Cover Meeting is the book cover design podcast. Hosted by Steve Leard, each episode features a discussion with a different cover designer about their work, the industry, publishing and everything else in between. Cover Meeting appeals to book cover designers, graphic designers, illustrators and anyone working in publishing. Covering a wide range of topics around creativity, the highs and lows of being a freelance designer, advice for students and a look at the process behind book jackets – Cover Meeting is a place for honest conversations and interviews with designers giving their unique perspectives on the job we all love doing.

Episodes

  1. Cover Meeting with Mike Dempsey

    10/17/2023

    Cover Meeting with Mike Dempsey

    Mike Dempsey has been a practising graphic designer since 1964. From the late sixties he worked as an Art Director for two leading British publishing houses. In 1979 he founded the design consultancy Carroll & Dempsey, which later became CDT Design Ltd. His work has earned him many awards and in 2012 he was presented with a special Black Pencil for the most awarded designer in D&AD’s 50-year history.  He’s acted as Design Advisor to the Department of Culture Media & Sport, was appointed consultant Art Director by the Royal Mail to create the two-year Millennium stamp programme and was the Art Director of the Royal Society of Arts Journal from 1997 to 2002. He’s written features for Eye Magazine, Design Week, Creative Review, The Times and many more. He was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1994 and was elected a member of Alliance Graphic International in 1998. He was the President of D&AD in 1997/98, was Master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry from 2005 to 2007 and was the external design advisor to the Design Council. He left CDT at the end of 2007 to form Studio Dempsey – and now lives and works in both London and Dorset.  Mike also hosts RDIinsights – a recorded series he devised in 2006, featuring interviews with world-class Royal Designers for Industry across all disciplines. Search and listen to the shows on Apple and Spotify. You can follow Mike on Twitter @graphicjourney. You can also follow him on Instagram @studiodempsey. His blog is full of interesting articles which you can find here. To read Mike’s four-part blog post on cover design here. For those who haven’t seen it, click here for Tom Gauld’s brilliant piece about cover design. Cover Meeting is hosted by Steve Leard and produced by James Ede of beheard.org.uk.

    1h 15m
  2. Cover Meeting with Micaela Alcaino

    09/19/2023

    Cover Meeting with Micaela Alcaino

    In this episode Cover Meeting speaks with Micaela Alcaino, a book cover designer and illustrator who relocated from her home in Sydney, Australia to London in 2013.  Selected as one of The Booksellers Rising Stars of 2021, named Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards 2022, and named in The Bookseller 150 most influential people in publishing in 2022, she has almost a decade of experience in her field working for both Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, before venturing into the world of freelancing in 2018. She currently works on projects in collaboration with most of the big publishing houses worldwide. Her work is characterized by a unique blend of creativity and artistry, shaped by her love of travel, mixed cultural heritage, and appreciation of the fine arts. In the episode we talk about life as a freelancer, the process behind creating covers and the research that goes into it, artificial intelligence and it's potential impact on book cover design and publishing and publishing's diversity problem. You can read Micaela's recent article on artificial intelligence here. Micaela also mention DPI when we were discussing the lack of diversity in publishing. DPI as an impactful mentorship initiative based in the UK for under-represented creatives and have assembled leading designers across the publishing industry as mentors. Their mission is supporting creatives from under-represented groups to develop the skills and acumen to pursue a career in the world of book design, while also offering existing designers in the industry advice on career progression. Visit their website to find out more. Cover Meeting was hosted by Steve Leard and produced by James Ede of beheard.org.uk.

    1h 15m
5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

Cover Meeting is the book cover design podcast. Hosted by Steve Leard, each episode features a discussion with a different cover designer about their work, the industry, publishing and everything else in between. Cover Meeting appeals to book cover designers, graphic designers, illustrators and anyone working in publishing. Covering a wide range of topics around creativity, the highs and lows of being a freelance designer, advice for students and a look at the process behind book jackets – Cover Meeting is a place for honest conversations and interviews with designers giving their unique perspectives on the job we all love doing.

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