Type: Gallery
Category: Student stories

Four Falmouth students have been shortlisted for this year's Penguin Random House UK Student Design Awards.

The competition sees aspiring student designers reimagine iconic book covers. The 30 shortlisted cover designs were chosen from a record-breaking 2,310 submissions.

Graphic Design student Bethany Rush and Illustration students Beate Zarina and Josie Staveley-Taylor are in the Adult Fiction Cover Award for their redesign of Haruki Murakami's novel Norwegian Wood. Illustration student Lucy Rogers is up for the Children's Cover Award with her cover of RJ Palacio's Wonder. 

Bethany said: "I tried not to put too much thought into whether I'd make the shortlist or not because I didn't want to get my hopes up. My work is always driven by a passion and understanding of language and literature so this brief meant a lot to me. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity, and it's so lovely to see the other Falmouth student's designs up there too."

Josie added: "This year's brief really suited me as I was already a big fan of Murakami books. I wanted to convey the bittersweet mood of the book in my design, drawing on the qualities of Japanese woodblock prints to capture Murakami's distinctly Japanese way of writing. I was so excited when I discovered my design had been shortlisted for this award, Penguin is such an iconic company and it feels really good to be recognised by them."

Lucy said: "When I found out that I was shortlisted, I was so happy and couldn't believe it at first because it is such an amazing accomplishment to be on the shortlist and recognised by Penguin. I knew that I wanted to submit for the Wonder book cover because the story is very inspiring; I'd recommend it to anyone. It's about growth, acceptance, and kindness so I wanted to put my vibrant, fun style into the design to reveal the lovely story it is."

The Student Design Award aims to find the next generation of book cover designers by giving students the opportunity to experience real cover design briefs first-hand. The winners will be announced in June.

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