McDougall joins S&S Children's from HarperCollins as creative director

HarperCollins Children’s Books art director David McDougall is joining Simon & Schuster Children’s UK in the new role of creative director.

McDougall will lead design across publishing and marketing and will be responsible for developing visual branding. He arrives in spring 2020 and will report to m.d. Rachel Denwood.

He has held art director positions at HarperCollins, Walker Books and Hodder Children’s Books working with names including Tony Ross, Jim Kay, Benji Davies, Rob Biddulph and Emma Chichester Clark.

McDougall said: "I am honoured to be given the opportunity to play a role in steering Simon & Schuster Children's' visual identity and exciting list going forward. Collaborating again with Rachel, the talented team and many cherished authors and illustrators was simply irresistible. I can’t wait to get started."

Denwood added: "David is an industry leading creative talent with great publishing intelligence and I can’t wait to work with him again. His appointment is a wonderful boon for the S&S Children’s list and for our fantastic design team. I’m particularly excited to see David work alongside our brilliant picture book art director, Jane Buckley, and I know they’ll make a phenomenal team."