Adult Fiction category

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

‘Daisy Jones and the Six is a transporting novel – at once a love story, a glimpse into the combustible inner workings of a rock-and-roll band, and a pitch-perfect recreation of the music scene of the Fleetwood Mac era. You’ll never want it to end.’ Cecelia Ahern  

Everybody knows Daisy Jones and the Six. 

Their sound defined an era. Their albums were on every turntable. They sold out arenas from coast to coast. 

Then, on 12 July 1979, Daisy Jones walked barefoot onto the stage at the Whisky. And it all came crashing down. 

Everyone was there. Everyone remembers it differently. Nobody knew why they split.  

Until now... 

The Brief

Daisy Jones and the Six is the story of a rock band in the 1970s, from their rise in the LA music scene to becoming one of the most famous bands in the world, and explores the reason behind their split at the height of their success. It was a Sunday Times bestseller and a smash hit Amazon Prime series. 

We would like you to design a new and classic cover for this book. The cover will nod to the heady haze of the 70s music scene whilst at the same time making it clear to the reader that it is very entertaining, aspirational and something that exists within the world of Popular Culture. If you can get your hands on a copy of the book in order to get a sense of the narrative this will only help to inspire your design.  

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy supplied and be designed to the Penguin standard design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine width 20mm) and must incorporate the Penguin branding and all the additional elements such as the barcode. Please refer to the submission details page for full details on how to submit your entry. 

Copyright must be cleared for all images used in your cover design and you must include a credit line on the back cover of your design for any third-party images used; for example: ‘Cover photograph by Joe Bloggs’. 

Read the book before you start designing

We recommend that you read the book before you start on your design in order to get a sense of the themes and of the author’s voice. Daisy Jones and the Six is stocked in most bookshops and libraries or if you would like to be sent a link to download a free digital copy please register your request here. 

What the judges are looking for in a winning design

Your cover design should encapsulate the essence or key themes of the book in an imaginative, instant and engaging way. To help you get started, we’ve set out the top things to consider when designing a book cover, and what we look for when narrowing down our shortlist. Read more here.

The Prizes

1st Prize 

The first prize winner of each of the three categories will receive a six-month-long mentorship programme with a member of the Penguin Art Department (dates to be confirmed). They will also receive a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet and Penguin Random House design books to the value of £100. 

2nd Prize 

The second-prize winners of each category will receive a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet and Penguin Random House design books to the value of £100. 

3rd Prize 

The third-prize winners of each category will receive a Wacom Intuos Medium tablet and Penguin Random House design books to the value of £100. 

The Judges

Loulou Clark - Art Director, Ebury

After graduating from UCA Farnham with a degree in Graphic Communication, Loulou began working as a freelance branding designer before landing a junior designer role at Orion Publishing. Over her thirteen years there progressing to Art Director, Loulou gained experience designing covers across a variety of genres in both fiction and non-fiction, as well as full book design and shoot art direction for many cookery titles. Loulou joined PRH as Ebury’s Art Director in spring 2020 and is thrilled to be working with an inspiring list of authors such as Ottolenghi, Bored of Lunch, Monty Don, Steven Bartlett and Gabor Maté.

Suzanne Dean - Creative Director, Vintage

Suzanne graduated from Kingston University, where she studied Graphic Design. Her first job was at The Greenhouse, designing food packaging and brochures. A year later she was asked if she might be interested in publishing. She joined Penguin Books as a Senior Designer, working for Hamish Hamilton. Three years later she joined Macmillan, to work on the Picador list. Five years later she joined Random House as Art Director for Vintage Books, whose many imprints include Jonathan Cape, Chatto & Windus and Harvill Secker. Here she established the design for the Vintage Classics list. She has worked on a wide range of cover designs for authors such as Mark Haddon, Haruki Murakami, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes, Yuval Noah Harari, Richard Flanagan and Rachel Kushner.

Richard Ogle - Art Director, Transworld

Richard became Art Director at Transworld, within Penguin Random House, in 2015, having previously been Art Director at Cornerstone, also within PRH, from 2002. His first book cover design role was as a junior at the design agency The Senate in 1992, before he moved in-house at Headline Books. He has also worked at Pan Macmillan as Associate Art Director. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire, in Preston, with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design. 

Over the years he has worked on a range of cover designs for books in all genres, including novels by Kate Atkinson, James Herbert, Paula Hawkins, Shari Lapena, John Grisham, P. G. Wodehouse, Lisa Jewell, Sophie Kinsella, Curtis Sittenfeld and Douglas Coupland, plus autobiographies by Peter Kay, Tony Blair, David Jason, Katie Price, Rod Stewart, Steve Coogan and John Cleese. 

Jason Smith - Art Director, Cornerstone

After graduating from the University of Derby with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design, Jason moved to London to further his education at Central Saint Martins. He began his career working for a company that specialized in packaging for CDs and DVDs, combining his passion for music and film with design. The move into publishing was a natural progression and in 2003 he secured a job at Random House as a designer, quickly followed by a more senior role. As Art Director of Cornerstone, Jason works on a wide range of authors from James Patterson to Andy Weir, including autobiographies by Tim Peake, Tina Turner and Tyson Fury.

Guest judges

To be announced