Vida Kelly has worked with famous authors and illustrators from around the world, some while in London, but many from the comforts of her home in Raumati South where she talks to reporter Rosalie Willis about her career.
Vida Kelly doesn't agree with the age-old saying 'don't judge a book by its cover' but she has a reason to be biased.
The Raumati South resident originally hailing from England is a children's book designer who has worked with some of the world's most famous authors and illustrators. Yet, if she's doing her job well, you will barely notice her work.
"I dislike the question 'What do you do?' when I meet new people because so many people think I must be an illustrator or author. It's always my most dreaded question because most people don't know book designers exist. It's not an easy thing to sum up – art directing and designing."
But if you enter the children's section of a bookshop, the chances are you will see her work.
Books designed by Vida Kelly. Photo / Rosalie Willis
Vida's career in book design started after attending Norwich School of Design. Heading to art college because she loved art, Vida loved all the different disciplines the course started with including photography, illustration, animation and design.
When the course became more specialised, she headed along the graphic design route because that's where a lot of jobs were – that and she wasn't convinced she wanted to be an illustrator.
"I wasn't quite sure I was good enough for illustration so I went into the design side of the course which aimed towards you getting a job at a design company."
But one project changed Vida's direction. "We had one project in the second year where someone came in and did a course on children's book design.
"It was only a week-long project where you took a fairytale, made a dummy, did some rough illustrations and planned out what would go on each page but I just loved it. I felt even in that one week that it changed my thought process as to what I might do."
Doing placements at a number of design companies around London and not feeling quite right about it, Vida instead started sending her CV to book publishers. Receiving a reply from Harper Collins and taking on a maternity cover role, Vida said as soon as she started it felt right.
Drafts of Vida Kelly's colour treatment. Photo / Rosalie Willis
"It was instantly rewarding. I got to work with these amazing illustrators and still got to do some drawing myself. It ended up being the best of both worlds."
Very quickly the tables turned and Vida had one of her college tutors bring in illustration work to be considered for a book. Moving on to work for Penguin, Vida was involved in the re-covering and modernisation of the Roald Dahl titles.
"Roald Dahl at that point had been very popular, but middle fiction children's books (ages 9-13) were gaining popularity and it was taken for granted that Roald Dahl would always sell."
With more competition in the market, the publishers decided to re-cover all of Dahl's titles and turned them into a market research project. Because Dahl was no longer alive, a host of people from the Roald Dahl Foundation along with the famed illustrator Quentin Blake were involved.
"The whole children's book team submitted cover designs along with designs from other professional designers. The books were tested on children, with the children observed through one-way glass to really see what they reacted to. I took a really different approach with my design going really bright and out there, and for some, I used Pantone colours."
Books designed by Vida Kelly.
From all the designs Vida's was chosen and she went on to work on the whole Roald Dahl collection, developing a relationship with Blake. With Blake redoing all the illustrations for the novels, Vida started doing the colour treatment for his work.
"I took the black and white drawings, got prints of them on to watercolour paper and painted on the colour in his style, imitating what he would do. It was weirdly harder than I thought, but really good fun. He gave me lessons at his studio and I learnt so much about colour from him. He makes it look so easy, but everything he does is so considered."
Receiving a lot of guidance on the first book they worked on together, gradually the feedback lessened as Vida became more in-tuned with what he wanted. "The first book that came back without comment was amazing."
Vida has continued to do colour treatment of classics like Joyce Lankester Brisley's Milly Molly Mandy even after moving to New Zealand.
"It amused me that I'd be sitting in Raumati South painting Matilda for all these classic books."
Stepping up to be the art director of picture books and gift books at Pan Macmillan in London, Vida's success has largely been due to her openness to freely share her ideas and work collaboratively with a team.
Books Mophead and Tulip and Doug were both designed by Vida Kelly.
"Working as a designer, you always really care about the books but you always have to get approval from other people – it's not just your baby, you're part of a wider team."
The wider team includes the author and illustrator along with the book publishers, editors and even sometimes book stores.
Since moving to New Zealand Vida has transitioned to working for herself, taking on jobs as a contractor rather than an in-house designer. Originally moving over for just six months with her Kiwi husband Luke who is also a designer, the couple has stayed ever since, and now live in Raumati South with their three kids.
"It was quite daunting when we first moved here because I didn't know if I would get work."
Vida was able to continue getting some work from publishers back in the UK along with colour treatment for Blake as she started reaching out to New Zealand publishers.
"Coming to New Zealand, more people own their own businesses so it's a lot more normal. I don't know if I would have taken the risk to work for myself if I'd stayed in London."
Working on New Zealand books has helped Vida navigate and learn not just about Kiwi culture but Māori culture too.
"Being English, it's really special for me to work with some of these books that are special to New Zealand."
Recently Vida worked on Matariki Around the World: A Cluster of Stars, A Cluster of Stories by Rangi Matamua and Miriama Kamo which came out in time for New Zealand's first public holiday celebrating Matariki.
"I've been able to learn so much about New Zealand Māori culture and feel really privileged to be able to work on books like this. I feel very lucky to be involved in producing such New Zealand content."
Working a lot with New Zealand author and illustrator Gavin Bishop whose work includes retellings of Māori myths has been particularly special.
"Gavin does books that are really valuable for New Zealand - books people will end up keeping as a classic on their bookshelves. A number of them are up for PANZ Book Design Awards this year."
Not a stranger to the awards, in 2020 Vida won the Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children's Book and went on to win the supreme award, the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book for Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh.
"Mophead was a really fun book to work on. It was author Selina's story all about her upbringing of mixed descent, trying to find her way in the world."
When she was asked to work on the book Vida said Selina had done the drawings herself, but they weren't quite there.
"I took all her drawings, had a play around with them and she ended up redrawing them all after we worked out our approach."
When designing a book, Vida is there throughout the whole publishing process. "It's always important to have the right feel and to get the pacing right."
For Mophead this meant printing on heavy sketchbook paper and the text, in the judge's words, "interacted seamlessly with the hand-drawn type".
"A picture book is a work of animation. The page turn is really important - you have to make people want to turn the page," Vida said.
Not only has Vida worked with famous people, but books she has worked on have been given to famous people including one of Jacinda Ardern's favourite children's book Tulip and Doug which Ardern gave to Prince William.
"In a way, if I do my job well you don't know I'm there because it just works and you don't think about it. I want to be able to work to make the best books I can and for it to be considerate of the illustrations and the story, bringing them together seamlessly."
This story was first published in the Celebrating Kāpiti Spring/Summer magazine 2022.
