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My Role

Illustration

My Role

Illustration

Agency

Together Design 

Client

Penguin Random House UK

Client

Penguin Random House UK

The home of great stories and ideas

The home of great stories and ideas

The home of great stories and ideas

The home of great stories and ideas

The home of great stories and ideas

I had the opportunity to dive into the essence of Penguin Random House UK—its principles, values, and mission—and bring them to life through a series of illustrations that would help attract new talent to their team.
I had the opportunity to dive into the essence of Penguin Random House UK—its principles, values, and mission—and bring them to life through a series of illustrations that would help attract new talent to their team.

When Heidi from Together Design approached me for the collaboration, I was very excited. It came at the perfect time—I had just attended OFFF, a design conference held in Barcelona, and planned on working remotely in the following couple of weeks. It was the ideal opportunity to put that newfound inspiration to use and explore my productivity outside the comfort of my studio in Sofia.

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Laying the groundwork

Laying the groundwork

Brief, mood board, research

Brief, mood board, research

Brief, mood board and research

Right from the beginning, I could tell that working with the teams at Penguin and Together would be a delight. They had crafted the project brief with a lot of care, paying attention to every detail — from setting the goals and providing comprehensive art direction to explaining the messaging and the key ingredients behind Penguin’s brand — everything was ready and waiting for me to dive in.

Photography Copyrights © Penguin Random House UK

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Turning ideas into illustrations

Turning ideas into illustrations

Concept sketches and coloring

Concept sketches and coloring

Concept sketches and coloring

The themes and prompts provided for the illustrations immediately sparked ideas in my head. I chose to work on the entire set of sketches at once, rather than splitting the scope into groups, to achieve a good balance of the metaphors and ensure that they all work together cohesively without being repetitive.

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At the start, I focused on getting as many ideas as possible out of my head. After the first round of feedback, we narrowed down the concepts we wanted to develop further, and I worked on polishing the characters and the details of each sketch.

Once we finalized the sketches, Penguin's vibrant color palette helped me bring the characters to life.

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I couldn’t recommend Radost enough. She is responsive and highly organised, keeping the momentum up on any project. She is a flexible creative, who is able to blend your needs with her style to meet your brief.

She has created an evergreen set of illustrations that clearly articulate our employer brand, in a way that can be adapted and further developed in the future should we need them to. She is also friendly and personable.

— Izy Cowling, Employer Branding Lead at Penguin Random House UK

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We support each other

We support each other

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Collaboration

Collaboration

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Feed your curiosity

Feed your curiosity

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Our unique contrasts

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Radost immediately understood the nuances of what we were trying to convey, which made the project collaborative and very enjoyable.

We are in awe of her creativity and craft but also appreciated the structured and organised way in which she works. Both ourselves and Penguin are very proud of the work.

— Heidi Lightfoot, Creative Director and Founder, Together Design

— Heidi Lightfoot, Creative Director and Founder, Together Design

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Copyrights © Together Design for Penguin Random House UK

Bringing neighbours together — Nextdoor

Bringing neighbours together

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Don’t be a stranger

Let’s chat on illustration process, the wisdom of animated movies or the pros and cons of social media.

Have a project in mind?  

If you're looking to join forces with an illustrator, I'd be happy to hear more about your goals.

© Joy Pepper 2023