As part of our upcoming tenth-anniversary refresh, and following the debut of our new logo in August, we’re delighted to share the new hand-drawn illustrations now appearing across our website. They are the work of book designer and illustrator Katie Tooke, completely human-made, with every line drawn by hand.
Together, the illustrations showcase different writing spaces. Each one is personal, warm, and true to the stages of the writer’s journey.
You’ll find:
- A desk covered in Post-it notes and notebooks, for writers finding their story on The Big Idea
- A calendar counting down the days, for writers racing to complete their first draft on The Big Write
- A room strewn with papers, for writers deep in revisions on The Big Edit
- A room with a finished book (and a book award!) in pride of place, for writers on our flagship program, The Finished Novel Course
Blue appears in almost every scene. He is The Novelry’s Chief Wellness Officer, a Bichon Frise–Pomeranian cross who takes special care of our founder, Louise Dean. You’ll also spot a ginger cat stealing the best seat, as all writers’ cats are wont to do!
The illustrations were conceived by Louise and art-directed by our creative director, Katie Khan. They were illustrated by Katie Tooke, who also worked with us on our logo redesign. Katie Tooke was previously a senior designer at Pan Macmillan. She then became design manager at Picador, where she oversaw iconic jacket designs for novels including Room by Emma Donoghue, The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton, and The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal. She is now a freelance designer and illustrator.
Describing her process, Katie Tooke says:
“After discussing the brief with Katie Khan, I developed roughs to make sure the compositions and the placement of specific elements were right. Once the roughs were signed off, I painted all the separate elements in black ink.
“I then scanned the hand-drawn lines and edited them in Photoshop, layering the elements. I created textures with all sorts of media, including ink, pencil, found textures, wood textures, and printed textures. I scanned those too and layered them onto the scenes to add depth and interest.
“Lastly, I chose the colours by building up layers of The Novelry’s brand palette. Each illustration has a different brand colour as its highlight, but all use the rich apricots, cocoa, peach, and rusty orange of the logo.”
On why hand-drawn work matters now, she adds:
It’s wonderful to be commissioned by a company that embraces hand-drawn illustration in this age of AI. Human-made illustrations hopefully offer The Novelry community a sense of creative freedom, human connection, and a warm and welcoming hug. They were a delight to illustrate. I imagined all the desks out there where The Novelry community’s stories begin: a sacred space where creativity and imagination can flow.
— Katie Tooke
Our founder Louise says:
“We were keen to bring some of what we all love most about the novel writing process to the page: those cozy moments when you’re in a world of your own, creating something you’ll leave behind that speaks for your time here. And just like the writing process itself, the illustrations reflect that lovely engrossment in craft. One person, a pen, and your hand speaking for your heart.”
Take a closer look at each writer’s desk on The Big Idea, The Big Write, The Big Edit, and The Finished Novel Course pages, and see if you can spot Blue.
Watch Katie draw some of the illustrations in the video below.
The Novelry is the fiction writing school for serious writers. Bestselling authors and former Big Five editors take you from idea to a finished, submission-ready novel: a pitch that packs a punch, a plan, a draft, and an edit with notes from people who’ve worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins.
When your book is ready, we submit it directly to 40+ literary agencies, including CAA, WME and Writers House. We can’t promise a contract; no one can. But we can make sure your book is the best it can be. Where writers become authors.
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