By Ruth Rowland
I was delighted to be contacted by Thames & Hudson to work on the book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards.
![Lettering Artist Ruth Rowland - hand lettered book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, Thames & Hudson](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/e311483b11de0a33c7710fd0bc9dbfa1/2ea60067-1b5f-463e-ade7-bae923f2744d_rw_1200.jpg?h=2975973d5446e1177c1cecf5e04ac669)
The Viking Great Army Book Cover Design: Front Cover
![Lettering Artist Ruth Rowland - hand lettered book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, Thames & Hudson](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/e311483b11de0a33c7710fd0bc9dbfa1/39509171-0c30-449f-8e26-890333e0a267_rw_1200.jpg?h=49ad37e11fabf3d5a5b42024d565bceb)
The Viking Great Army Book Cover Design: Full Cover
After discussing the brief, I spent some time researching the Viking subject matter and then started to pull together some initial ideas for the cover design. I normally start off with pencil sketches, then develop this further by adding colour to see how the design is working. We’d discussed the use of metallic when I was briefed, so this was something else to consider.
![Lettering Artist Ruth Rowland - hand lettered book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, Thames & Hudson](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/e311483b11de0a33c7710fd0bc9dbfa1/24b9a491-93b3-447c-9370-34fbf9db7018_rw_1200.jpg?h=1d98c88cee6f3c3745322f06fd0974e1)
The Viking Great Army Book Cover Design: Initial Ideas
I was working in two main directions for the title lettering, Insular capitals and Runic script. I also created a variety of illustrative borders for the designs to unify the lettering and typography. As the project progressed, I decided to paint a range of mixed media backgrounds to add more texture and depth to the design. Some were quite complex but the simpler versions worked better behind the detailed lettering.
![Lettering Artist Ruth Rowland - hand lettered book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, Thames & Hudson](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/e311483b11de0a33c7710fd0bc9dbfa1/fec3c5fb-fe19-4536-b5ef-2cb4705345e1_rw_1200.jpg?h=5ae6db07c21813a614f34fe30e4d1a8e)
The Viking Great Army Book Cover Design: Textured Backgrounds
The Insular capital design was chosen for the final artwork, the capitals were simplified to make the title more legible and a layer of texture added to the letters, to be used as a metallic print. You can see on the photograph, this adds real sparkle to the cover.
![Lettering Artist Ruth Rowland - hand lettered book cover for The Viking Great Army by Dawn Hadley and Julian Richards, Thames & Hudson](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/e311483b11de0a33c7710fd0bc9dbfa1/a5e999a6-289c-460c-af3c-f329228ded77_rw_1200.jpg?h=eb575db45d491cbd3f2b665ab55324f5)
The Viking Great Army Book Cover Design: Metallic Gold Foil
If you'd like to see more of my hand lettered and illustrated book cover designs, click through to my publishing folder or take a look at my design for Emmet and Me for Welsh Publisher, Honno Press.