This illustration captures a simple street scene in Hay-on-Wye, the much-loved town of books. At the centre is a cheerful retro book character strolling through town after a guest appearance in Bartrums, no doubt signing a few copies on the way out. Hay-on-Wye earned its reputation in the 1960s, when second-hand books began to fill unused buildings and slowly transformed the town into something unique. Today it contains over 20 bookshops within a compact area, many devoted to highly specialised corners of the written world. It also hosts the internationally known Hay Festival, once famously called “the Woodstock of the mind” by Bill Clinton, drawing roughly 100,000 visitors each year. The design uses a two-sided layout nicely: a fuller back print showing the setting, with a smaller front chest graphic focusing on the character alone.
