Harry Potter: Signature edition 2010

Set of seven front and back cover designs for J K Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series, published by Bloomsbury.

The ‘signature’ edition has Harry Potter’s signature as the title, and Clare’s cover pictures below. The designs were unveiled by Bloomsbury in March 2010, including foreign language editions. All the covers were approved by JK Rowling herself.

For ten months in 2009 the illustrator worked on a complete set of new covers for the seven Harry Potter novels.

“I was asked by the art editor at Bloomsbury, to design three sample covers while they were considering other options ” Clare explains. “Then, when they had decided that my style was what they wanted, I had to start again and complete all seven book covers. And seven back covers as well. It was top secret work. I had to cover up what was on my desk so even my friends didn’t know what I was working on.” Harry Potter is the most high-profile job Clare has ever done. “It was an extremely exciting commission, and it gets me a lot of admiration from my younger friends and neighbours.”