Pottermore Publishing joins Audible to re-tell all seven Harry Potter audiobooks with cast and sound effects

Table Of Content

• Make Magic with Your Book Covers
• Design Lessons to Be Learned From Harry Potter Book Covers
• Designing J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: Graphic Design Duo MinaLima On 'Harry Potter' & Beyond
• Play the official Sorting Ceremony in Spanish, French and German
• Harry Potter Book Covers Free Printables
• Free Printable Harry Potter Banner Letters
• Free Printable Banner Letters Templates

When we first started there was maybe a handful of people working in graphic design on movies and production in London, and now there are hundreds. It’s definitely growing and these movies really were the reason, I think. Everything involves design, you see it everywhere [points to logos and papers on the table, and shop signs outside of their studio window]. Signs are everywhere—the influence of design is everywhere.

Make Magic with Your Book Covers

It’s funny looking back now that there’s the [Warner Bros.] Studio Tour and everything else, but they sort of said, 'Well, it’ll be around four to five months, and we’ll see where it goes.' Then there was another, and another. We really didn’t understand what we had walked in to, and it’s so rare to get that kind of work, that kind of stability, as a graphic designer. Their "work marriage," as they call it, went beyond the Harry Potter movies, and saw them form their own design studio in 2009, as well as their own design team. MinaLima have since created their Collective Nouns collection, and continue to publish elegant and interactive illustrated editions of classic stories in their Illustrated Classics collection of books, prints and merchandise with HarperCollins.

Redmi Turbo 3 Harry Potter Edition: Exploring the magical & enchanting design - gizmochina

Redmi Turbo 3 Harry Potter Edition: Exploring the magical & enchanting design.

Posted: Thu, 11 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Design Lessons to Be Learned From Harry Potter Book Covers

‘We created loads of material and you don’t see any of it … it’s cinders.’ Between them, the joke shop and World Cup set pieces, though grandiose in scale (and, undoubtedly, budget), have a combined screen time of just minutes. Pottermore Publishing, the global digital Wizarding WorldTM publisher, and Audible today announced a brand-new co-production of the original Harry Potter stories, revisiting the beloved listening experience for the first time ever. As such, the team used those first Harry Potter films to establish a design vocabulary and a graphical language which would evolve as the eight-film saga became increasingly darker and J.K. Signature graphical elements in Philosopher’s Stone like the Daily Prophet newspapers, Hogwarts letters and various pieces of Wizarding World signage and insignia were the formative design pieces which helped establish the team’s sizeable graphical palette. That sheer volume of graphic design in the ‘Potter’ films, coupled with the fact that everything feels like it’s given such individual love and consideration, is why these projects make such interesting case studies. For every copy of The Quibbler magazine there’s an interesting blink-and-you’d-miss-it letter or leaflet.

Designing J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World: Graphic Design Duo MinaLima On 'Harry Potter' & Beyond

In Soho, not far from the location of Diagon Alley, the magical world of Harry Potter has carved out an intriguing legacy. The House of MinaLima gallery holds the work of the graphic design studio which created most of the props from the Harry Potter films including spellbooks, the Daily Prophet newspaper, tickets and posters. The Marauders Map covers the floor in the gallery’s exquisitely designed rooms. The House started as a pop-up in 2017 but looks here to stay – a second gallery has now opened in Japan.

Their enduring graphic partnership was formalised as studio MinaLima in 2009, the same year the penultimate Harry Potter book was adapted for screen. Graphic design duo Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima (known as MinaLima) have been helping to bring J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World to life on the big screen for almost 20 years. After setting up their own studio and opening House of MinaLima galleries in London and Japan displaying their work, the duo continue to work on new and exciting projects, and have high hopes for the future of the design industry. It’s like a more polished, shiny version of The Burrow... We’ve magically added a few extra floors to our house and thrown in some Extension Charms, brought over the content you know and love from Pottermore.com, and added some new, enhanced experiences.

But designing a theme park that hosts thousands of people each day is quite different from creating a film set that will be used for a few months or even hours. “We have to design with real people in mind,” says Gilmore. We wanted it to feel like a real town, except with the language of Harry Potter.” To achieve this sense of realness, the team focused on adding period architectural details and authentic (or at least authentic-looking) materials. “We’ve tried to eliminate the modern world and keep people fully contained,” Gilmore says. If there is a major tonal shift in your book series, you can easily show that through the color scheme without deviating from the overall feel and consistency of the other book covers.

You can take inspiration from these lessons while designing the covers for your next book series. Take one look at the original US edition of the Harry Potter book covers and you immediately know they are from the same series—as you should. When you work with a series, it’s important to consider which design elements will be carried throughout. While the film script identifies the hero props and might broadly describe a particular scene, there’s often a level of backstory and detail (particularly for background elements) that the team need to either source or, in some cases, invent. The seven ‘Potter’ books are one resource, providing an additional layer of exposition to help inform design decisions and fill in story blanks (‘I’m reading this for work,’ jokes Mira). What’s interesting about the Harry Potter films is that they presented a unique and exciting opportunity that is atypical of much graphic design for film.

Along with the ensemble cast, the wizarding story will be further enchanted by innovations in audio production, including a brand new score and real-world sound capture. Pottermore Publishing and Audible have announced all seven Harry Potter books will be magically retold with an all new cast and sound effects in a coup for Potterheads. The impact is being felt far beyond the studios as special effects firm Framestore, which created the spellbinding visuals in the Potter movies, said it expects margins "to be impacted" by the strikes in 2023. Some wands were immediately fixed upon first design, but others evolved during the course of the films, including Harry’s. While directing Prisoner of Azkaban, Alfonso Cuarón offered the young principal actors a selection of new wands to choose from. But this isn’t the only way you can consider culture when creating your book cover.

Consider how you can make readers collect and cherish your book covers. We see Harry flying on a broom and a unicorn running in the background. Not only that, but the title has swapped out “philosopher” for “sorcerer.” Now there is absolutely ZERO doubt that this is a story about magic. An effective book cover should use strong visual storytelling. It’s a good idea to include a key element or scene from within the novel to provide hints about the content of the book. LeakyCon 2011 was actually our first experience of reaching and interacting with fans.

You should think about the age of your target reader, of course, but you should also consider what will appeal to them culturally. Your book cover should, ideally, stop potential readers in their tracks. Creating a lot of movement within your imagery can do that.

After Harry Potter we started doing some work as individuals, but even if this hadn’t happened, if we didn’t make this studio or the gallery, I would never have set up something like this on my own. Our "professional marriage" as we like to call it has always been there—I wouldn’t have done this without her." We’re not going to prise your beloved Hogwarts houses away from you! We’re offering a fresh way to get sorted with a beautiful new design, featuring J.K. Scheduled for release in late 2025, the project plans to cast more than a hundred voice artists to to play 500 speaking roles of characters fans have loved for more than two decades. Britain has become a popular location for filming thanks to its generous fiscal benefits which give studios a reimbursement of up to 25.5% of the amount they spend in the country.

Clever, well-hidden technology adds the fantastical aspects of the books and movies to the park. Many of the windows in Hogsmeade are equipped with “Wand Magic,” which lets visitors wave their wands to turn on a light or make a flower grow. Neil Blair, Chairman of Pottermore Publishing described the project as a “sophisticated, immersive audio experience” — elevating the famous stories through high quality sound design in Dolby Atmos. These intricate details add depth to the story and invite readers to explore. Think about how you can incorporate subtle or hidden details into your book covers.

‘We had three different types of handles and sticks that Pierre cast in different colours and materials,’ she recalls. Upon looking at the book, you can’t instantly see that this is a story about magic. When targeting this book to a US audience, this became a concern. It was believed that American children wouldn’t want to read about a philosopher, and wouldn’t understand that Harry was a wizard. Distinctive typography can make your book series instantly recognizable. When choosing your font combinations, just make sure that your custom fonts are as legible as they are unique.

Take this Harry Potter book cover from Germany, for example. It nods to German heritage with a stunning heraldic crest-like design, which is instantly relatable to German readers. When considering how to design your book cover, your audience is just as important (if not more important) than the genre.

No wizard is complete without their wand, and we hope that your wizarding outfit has included a wand. We can make the wand look magical by adding a glow of light on the wand’s tip. It’s the perfect way to add magic and wizardry to your outfit. With just a little editing work, you can be the master of the levitation spell. At The Book Designer, we have a wealth of information to help you design better books inside and out.