Penguin cover-design winners

Penguin Books has named Joe Bundock and Ivy Watts the winners of its 2026 Cover Design Award after asking entrants to redesign two fantasy novels. (thebookseller.com) Bundock, a student at Leeds Arts University, won the adult fiction category for Terry Pratchett’s *Night Watch*. Watts, a self-employed graphic communication designer, won the children’s category for Madeleine L’Engle’s *A Wrinkle in Time*. (thebookseller.com) Penguin’s official shortlist page says the 2026 brief covered 20 shortlisted designs across two categories and asked designers to treat both books as fantasy classics. The adult brief said *Night Watch* had to signal fantasy while engaging with the novel’s “political and moral themes.” (penguin.co.uk) Bundock said his *Night Watch* concept drew on medieval illuminated manuscripts and linocut printmaking. Creative Review said judge Beci Kelly praised the cover’s hand-crafted look and said it “could be adapted across a whole series.” (penguin.co.uk) (creativereview.co.uk) For *A Wrinkle in Time*, Creative Review reported that Anna Billson of Penguin Random House Children’s praised Watts’ “restricted colour palette” and “deceptive simplicity,” saying the design carried its concept across the front, spine and back. The Bookseller separately quoted Billson calling it “a striking and accomplished design.” (creativereview.co.uk) (thebookseller.com) The award is one way Penguin recruits and spots new cover-design talent at a time when publishers are paying close attention to visual branding. The competition has run since 2007 and is open only to entrants with no more than one year of paid creative experience. (thebookseller.com) (creativereview.co.uk) Penguin’s submission rules show how closely the contest mirrors a real publishing brief. Entrants had to submit a two-page PDF with a front cover on page one and a full spread on page two, using publisher templates and production specs including 300 dots per inch, CMYK color, 3 millimeter bleed, and a 5 megabyte file limit. (penguinrandomhouse.co.uk) The publisher also built in a blind first round. Penguin says art directors chose the shortlist from PDFs identified only by file name, without seeing entrants’ names or the rest of their entry-form details. (penguinrandomhouse.co.uk) The prizes are practical rather than ceremonial: each first-place winner gets a six-month mentorship with a member of Penguin’s art department, a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet, and £100 in Penguin books. Second- and third-place winners also receive tablets and book vouchers. (penguinrandomhouse.co.uk) Penguin tied this year’s result to reader behavior as well as design craft. The Bookseller reported that YouGov polling commissioned by Penguin found 49% of 18-to-24-year-olds said a cover matters when choosing a book, compared with 27% of people over 55. (thebookseller.com) That helps explain why Penguin put fantasy at the center of the 2026 brief. BookBrunch reported in October 2025 that the award took a genre-led approach “for the first time,” with fantasy chosen in response to current trends in the United Kingdom book market. (bookbrunch.co.uk)