On His Majesty’s Secret Service Cover Reveal
Having recently announced that we’ll be publishing a paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s On His Majesty’s Secret Service on 6 June, we’re now pleased to unveil the cover!
This bold new design was made by Mark Ecob of Mecob, and we took the chance to ask him about his creative process.
Firstly, could you tell us a bit about yourself and your work? How did you get into cover design?
My name’s Mark Ecob, I run a design company called Mecob and spend my time creating things for the fronts of books. I work for an inclusive client list of conglomerates, independents and self-publishers.
I fell into cover design after university and never fell out again. I think it’s the variety and creative control that keep me interested and there is a nobility in books I’ve always been proud of. I do a lot of work for independents and helping to get underrepresented books out there is a really nice thing to be part of.
Are you a James Bond fan? Did you have a prior connection to the 007 world?
The movies, yes. Anyone growing up in the UK in the ‘80s couldn’t escape some kind of Bond movie at the weekend or over Christmas, we taped them as kids and watched them over and over. As I got older, I started to appreciate the production design, the amazing title sequences. It’s a staple of our visual culture. On His Majesty’s Secret Service is my first Bond book.
What was your creative process for this design?
Reading first – I wanted to see if Bond’s voice was still relevant and I’m pleased to say the book reads beautifully. Then it was a case of picking out a theme that not only did justice to the text, but met the publisher’s aims whilst making the long title work in a mass-market paperback. I didn’t want to do yet another shadowy figure with a gun, Bond feels like it has more pedigree.
I spent ages on a single concept, utterly convinced it would work and in the middle of the commission, I had to have major hand surgery.
Simon and the team at Ian Fleming Publications were brilliant. As soon as I was upright, I started working haphazardly with my other hand, looking for more concepts to support the one I thought would get approved.
I was mindlessly picture-researching one afternoon and saw a macro photograph of a drop of milk that had just pierced the surface, sending these beautiful symmetrical shapes upwards. It said ‘crown’ to me, but I wanted it to be blood to suggest death and royalty in one image, so I worked hard to recolour the image, giving it added texture and finessing its shape and contrast. I sent it over to the publisher and crossed the fingers that were available.
Surprisingly, the concept I spent a few hours on with my wrong hand got approved, rather than the one I spent days polishing with the right one!
What inspiration did you take from the original hardback cover? What did you want to do differently?
The hardback is regal. The foil, the blue, the serif typography all combine gracefully. It has a serious voice, positioning the book upmarket for its first outing. The paperback needed to be more direct without going too far downmarket. I knew I wanted some of the gravitas, but it had to be more immediate.
On this kind of brief, it’s important to consider market trends and when to side-step them. In the final design, you’ll see big, finely-tuned sans serif type, typical in crime/thriller cover design. I took this and ran with it, filling the cover with the five-word title and carefully arranging the many typographic elements to work in hierarchy around the crown. The black, white and red work naturally with the blood concept and once I had the layout down, I had some fun integrating the blood with the other elements and emphasising ‘HIS’ in red. It was a nice nod to the re-work of Fleming’s On HER Majesty’s Secret Service.
To you, what makes a great cover for a thriller/crime novel?
One that captures the sheer atmosphere of the text. It takes you to a moment and reminds you later when you read it. It usually features stunning photography and the touch of an experienced designer. If you look very closely at crime/thrillers that are designed by people who know what they’re doing, you can tell the difference. Well-chosen type, intelligent use of colour, curating the right photograph, it’s a real skill that you won’t find using AI, for example.
What software and equipment do you use? What did you use for this cover?
I work on a Mac, designing digitally using a Wacom tablet, which is a handheld stylus enabling you to draw directly onto a screen. I worked entirely digitally for this cover with good raw materials from trusted sources and the results are really pleasing. Sometimes I get my hands dirty with some printmaking or I dust off my camera but nowadays the majority of my work is digital.
You have worked on lots of other iconic and classic books and series, and with many major authors. How do you go about designing a cover for something that is already loved? Do you feel pressure?
Of course! But it keeps me sharp. Knowing that I’m working for a name where the expectations are high makes me constantly evaluate my work.
I use ‘fresh eyes’ to know when a cover’s ready, it’s where I leave a design overnight and it looks different in the morning. I do this a few times over a project and above all, trust my instincts.
Somehow, I throw all the stuff into my head; the text, the market, the author’s preference, the client’s aspirations and nice cover designs come out!
Which of your cover designs are you most proud of and why?
I don’t believe in favourites, really. Each project gives me something different and there are thousands! Some are great for my confidence, some make me raise my game, some enrich me as a person. But if you were to put a Walther PPK to my head, I’d say that my work for Lego in 2022 was a defining portfolio piece and my repackage of Alexander McCall Smith was a huge confidence boost at a time when I felt anything but.
How does it feel to have contributed to the James Bond canon?
Just amazing, I’m really proud to have done it. That little boy who watched all the movies is too. Thank you!
Our thanks to Mark for answering our questions, and a reminder that the new paperback with bonus content will be available on 6 June. It’s available to pre-order here.