Designer, letterer, and illustrator Emily Courdelle infuses texts and images with unadulterated joy. Emily Courdelle earned her First Class Honours Degree in Design for Publishing from Norwich University of The Arts. Since then she has worked in house at London based publishers. She now works as a freelance designer/lettering artist. A cursory glance at Courdelle’s portfolio reveals enchanting scripts, inviting layouts, and dazzling motifs. Spine recently chatted with Emily about three of her most recent covers: Jeffrey Boakye’s Black, Listed, Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses, and Nicola Mostyn’s The Love Delusion. Additionally, Courdelle got real with us about her creative process, her life as an artist, and her decision to go freelance. 

I designed the cover for Is Butter a Carb? while I was working in-house as a junior designer with the wonderful design team at Little, Brown Book Group. I put myself forward for this project in the cover briefing for two main reasons: 1) the title (who doesn’t love a Mean Girls reference?), and 2) that I felt this project could give me a chance to experiment with my love for hand/digital lettering.