Designing Harper Lee's Go Set A Watchman artwork

So with the world's eyes eagerly watching, The Drum asked HarperCollins how it navigated the design process for the book's artwork.

The brief for the jacket design was unusual for HarperCollins as all six designers and art directors in its Cornerstone art department had the opportunity to submit proposals. For security reasons, access to the actual text was restricted and no-one was able to read it until publication day.

All the proposed ideas then went forward to a select group within Cornerstone. The process gradually refined down to a purely typographical version set on a textured orange background. It plays on the similarities in the wording of the two titles, Go Set A Watchman and To Kill A Mockingbird: the four words, each of a similar length.

However HarperCollins decided that a further visual element was required. At first a mockingbird "seemed too obvious in the weight of the previous book’s history" but the art team eventually settled on the bird silhouette as the best solution.

Take a look at some of the initial designs below and let us know in the comment box which you think should have been chosen.

Go Set A Watchman artwork

Design 1

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Design 2

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Design 3

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Design 4

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Design 5

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Final Design

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