About Holly Ovenden

Holly Ovenden @hollydrawsinink is an award-winning freelance designer and illustrator, specialising in book covers. She was shortlisted for Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards and has also been recognised as a ‘Rising Star’ by the Bookseller. Holly has received four awards from the Acadamy of British Cover Design (ABCD). Her work has been featured in various publications and exhibitions, including The Sunday Times, Guardian, and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. 

She has designed and illustrated book covers for classic novels by Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Philip Larkin, Nancy Mitford, Emily Dickinson and Mary Renault; as well as contemporary authors such as Elif Shafak, Michael Morpurgo, Emily Henry, Elodie Harper and Avni Doshi.

Holly previously designed book covers in-house at Bloomsbury and Penguin Random House, and now works with both large and independent publishers on a freelance basis.

While most of her projects involve adult-trade fiction books, Holly also enjoys working on children’s and YA covers, as well as non-fiction and cookbooks. Additionally, Holly is open to other creative projects and has recently partnered with luxury fashion brand Olympia Le-Tan on a collection of embroidered clutch bags.

If you have a creative project you would would like to discuss, please do get in touch using the contact form below, thank you.

CONTACT

Selected clients

Penguin Random House, Puffin Books, DK, Ebury, Harper Collins, Grand Central Publishing, Picador, Simon & Schuster, Disney, Amazon Publishing, Olympia le Tan, Bloomsbury, Bonnier, Faber, Orion, Headline, Little Brown, Canongate, Hodder & Stroughton, Mondatori, Women’s Prize for Fiction, Daunt Books, Oneworld, Hardy Grant, Europa Editions, Head of Zeus, Little Toller, Unbound, Profile Books, & Other Stories, Swift Press and Everything With Words.

Featured work and interviews

THE ACADEMY OF BRITISH COVER DESIGN (ABCD) 2024
Shortlisted (Classics Reissue) Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Shortlisted (Mass Market) Dazzling by Chikodili Emelumadu
Shortlisted (Crime Thriller) Bad Cree - Jessica Johns
Shortlisted (Literary Fiction) You, Bleeding Childhood by Michele Mari

THE SUNDAY TIMES - Interview (2023)
Revealed: the dark arts of book cover design

THE ACADEMY OF BRITISH COVER DESIGN (ABCD) 2023
Winner (Literary Fiction) for JOAN by Katherine J Chen
Winner (Children’s 6-12) for The Chestnut Roaster by Eve McDonnell
Shortlisted (Series Design) Miss Marple series by Agatha Christie
Shortlisted (Crime Thriller) Agatha Christie - Marple Twelve New Mysteries
Shortlisted (Literary Fiction) Sarahland by Sam Cohen

CREATIVE REVIEW - Book cover designs of the year 2022
Featuring design for JOAN by Katherine J Chen

LITHUB - The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022
Featuring design for JOAN by Katherine J Chen and Sarahland by Sam Cohen

THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION - BOOK BAG DESIGN
Worked in collaboration with the Women’s Prize for Fiction to design and illustrate a sustainable book bag.

THE ACADEMY OF BRITISH COVER DESIGN (ABCD) 2022
Winner (Crime and Thriller) for Lemon by Kwon Yeo-sun
Shortlisted (Non - Fiction) My Mess is a Bit of a Life by Georgia Pritchett and (Literary Fiction) Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi

SPINE MAGAZINE Book covers we loved 2021
Featuring design for The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

CREATIVE REVIEW The best book covers of the year 2021
Featuring Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi

LITHUB 101 Best Book Covers of the Year 2021
Featuring cover for My Mess is a Bit of a Life by Georgina Pritchett

ELECTRIC LITERATURE 2021
Finalist of Best Book Cover of the Year Tournament for Somebody Loves You by Mona Arshi

AIGA EYE ON DESIGN 2021
Afraid to Ditch Your Job and Pursue Your Passion? It Worked for Holly Ovenden

THE ACADEMY OF BRITISH COVER DESIGN (ABCD) 2021
Winner (Children’s 6-12) for The Acrobats of Agra by Robin Scott-Elliot
Shortlisted (YA) Elsetime by Eve McDonnell and The Wolf Road by Richard Lambert

THE BOOKSELLER RISING STARS 2021
An annual list of the book industry’s up and comers.

GUARDIAN 2021
In the Instagram age, you actually can judge a book by its cover

PRINT MAG 2021
30 of the Best Book Covers of the Year (So Far)

THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS 2021
Shortlisted, Designer of the Year

THE FEMINIST BOOK BOX (Hachette) 2021
Featured illustrator (and printed passion flower postcard) in the first ever Virago Press Feminist Book Box subscription along with best new writing to undiscovered gems from feminist writers.

THE CASUAL OPTIMIST
Notable book covers of the year 2020

GUARDIAN 2020
Featured internal illustrations from The Acrobats of Agra by Robin Scott-Elliot

TYPE DIRECTORS CLUB NEW YORK 2020
She Designs Books Exhibition - Featured the cover for If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE 2020
‘The Story Behind the Cover of Avni Doshi's Burnt Sugar’

SPINE MAGAZINE 2020
The Creative Process - If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha

THE STRATEGIST 2020
What Penguin Book Cover Designer and Illustrator Holly Ovenden Can’t Live Without

LITHUB 2019
The 78 Best Book Covers of 2019, as Chosen by the Experts, the Designers Themselves. A Spell of Winter by Helen Dunmore (Penguin Essentials) chosen by Coralie Bickford-Smith

BOOKRIOT (2018)
23 Designers to follow on Instagram