Newcastle United Entertainers Book Cover Design

I am always open to a new challenge when it comes to design and opportunity. When I was approached to design the front, back and spine of a new book celebrating Newcastle United in the 1990s and the incredible work that Kevin Keegan did in the North East - I jumped at the chance. Especially as I am a life long Newcastle fan!

This was my first ever book cover design and the fact it was a Newcastle United Book cover design was the icing on the cake

There is no shortage of football books and Newcastle United, Like most Premier League clubs, has a massive and loyal fanbase that devours any content and literature about the Football club and I wanted this book to both fit into the bookshelves in peoples homes and shops, but look different enough to stand out.

Author Will Scott has already written two Newcastle books and both had similar covers, that were black and white head shots of the players he was writing about, original discussions where to create a similar look to those and keep a uniform look across his books - but this was a celebration of an ERA rather than a single player and couldn't be personified by just one man (not even Kevin Keegan - plus that runs the risk of being LOST among the many books on Keegan's time in the North East)

The key selling point for this book was that it features one on one interviews with 20 players and staff from the 1990s era within the club - it was truly the story of Newcastle United from those who were there and part of the era.

I was given a host of behind the scenes photos that had never been seen before and tasked with creating a cover.

I knew I wanted to create an image of Kevin Keegan with a list of each player interviewed - which I originally intended for the front cover, with St James Park in the back ground.

From playing with the design, it was too wordy andnot striking enough, yet as it was a key selling point of the book, Will and I decided to make it the back cover

The front became a montage of photos of the players, with the title forming a border across the middle and a png of Kevin Keegan and Sir John Hall holding the clubs flag above their heads on a black and white striped back ground

Since going to print - this book has been part of a brilliant 1990s reunion of players in Newcastle and signed copies are on sale in all the supporters memorabilia shops

Whilst I enjoyed creating the book, reading the book and being a small part of the process - my real joy is the fact my only requirement for taking the job on is getting my name in the book!