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Hodder & Stoughton reveals new structure and designer appointments for art department
Hodder & Stoughton has unveiled a new structure for the art department, including the hiring of two senior-level designers to “strengthen the skills and expertise within the team”.
Lucy Scholes will join Hodder & Stoughton as head of design, working across the list with a specialism in Sceptre and Hodder Fiction designs. Scholes joins from Pan Macmillan where she is currently senior designer, and where she has worked since 2018 creating covers for Jessie Burton, Lizzie Took, Charlotte Mendelson, Cecilia Rabess, Hannah Kent and Cathy Rentzenbrink. Scholes joins on 28th May and will report to Saffron Stocker, deputy art director.
Sofia Hericson will join as senior designer on 13th May, rejoining Hodder & Stoughton from her current role at John Murray Press, where she has worked since summer 2023. She previously worked at Hodder since 2017. Hericson started as a marketing designer before moving into art in 2022, and has created covers for authors including Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, Charlotte Wood, Our Moon by Rebecca Boyle and Sleepless by Annabel Abbs.
Hodder & Stoughton are also about to appoint a new designer specialising in covers for the Hodderscape imprint, plus highly illustrated covers across the list.
As part of these changes, existing team members Lewis Csizmazia and Natalie Chen have been promoted to head of design to sit alongside new starter Scholes. “They will continue to champion the areas of Commercial Fiction, Non-Fiction and Hodderscape”, Hodder said. reporting into Stocker. “This new structure creates a senior team of experienced and talented designers with clear priorities and skillsets, to best support the wide-ranging Hodder & Stoughton list”, the publisher explained.
The art department at Hodder & Stoughton is now part of a “creative collective” comprising both the art and marketing departments, following the arrival of creative and marketing director Vicky Palmer in November 2023. “This will ensure that creative direction is at the heart of every part of Hodder & Stoughton’s publishing, from the initial creative brief, pitch and positioning, through to a clear visual identity for every title and imprint”, Hodder said.
Day-to-day responsibility for the art department will be managed by deputy art director Stocker, who joined from Penguin General in December 2023. Stocker is the creative champion for the non-fiction lists at Hodder & Stoughton and she now reports directly into Palmer, following the departure of Alasdair Oliver who left Hodder in February.
Palmer said: “Since I joined Hodder & Stoughton in November, I have been working with my colleagues across the business to build the foundations of a best-in-class creative team, filled with passionate and talented designers. I am beyond thrilled to be able to do this alongside the immensely talented Saffron Stocker, who in a short space of time has proved invaluable to me and our renewed art team at Hodder, and to welcome Lucy and Sofia to the team in May. We are building a fantastic creative team here with changes already taking place, and I’m excited to see the team grow and develop together later this year.”
