First cover commission following Hachette UK Changing the Story Design Festival

24 March – Orion Books has commissioned an illustration by designer Yutong Liu, an attendee of Hachette UK’s inaugural Changing the Story Design Festival, to feature on the jacket of The Original Daughter by Jemima Wei (to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 June 2025).

The Changing the Story Design Festival was held in September 2024 and led by Charlotte Abrams-Simpson, Art Director at Orion, and held in partnership with Creative Access – the UK’s leading diversity, equity, and inclusion social enterprise – with a mission to bring together attendees from communities under-represented in publishing and to attract new talent that better reflects the world we live in. Art Directors from across Hachette UK delivered workshops and talks sharing their knowledge and expertise, and the day culminated in a networking event for the twenty-nine attendees and representatives from Design departments across the business.

Yutong Liu is from China and is a recent graduate of Kingston School of Art. Steve Marking, Art Director at Orion, commissioned Yutong’s illustration following a discussion with her at the networking event at the Changing the Story Design Festival. Steve Marking said: “I got chatting with Yutong at the end of the event and I asked to have a look through her work. I loved her simple yet expressive colour illustrations, but it was a couple of minimal black and white figurative illustrations that really caught my eye. I knew her style would be great for the right brief, and luckily it felt perfect for The Original Daughter which I was working on a few weeks later. Yutong took on the commission with great enthusiasm and energy, producing a number of sketched ideas until we settled on the two sisters sharing a bed.

We are always keen to give new talent and anyone underrepresented in publishing a helping hand to get started. So it was great to put our words into action and commission an emerging artist for a live brief. I love the end result, and I hope it helps Yutong kickstart her career as an illustrator.”

Yutong Liu said: “Participating in the Changing the Story Design Festival provided me with a unique opportunity as a recent graduate to engage with vibrant discussions and diverse perspectives that truly sparked my creativity. When Steve Marking commissioned me to illustrate The Original Daughter, it felt like the perfect chance to merge cultural narratives with visual storytelling. I am incredibly excited to be working with the Orion Books Team, and this marks an important new chapter in my career.”