Between the daily newspaper and our weekly es magazine, we work on over 300 covers every year.
They are the window into our world and we take pride in creating each and every one. A dedicated team of editors, designers, picture researchers, writers, photographers and illustrators — fuelled by copious amounts of early morning coffee – all seamlessly and effortlessly collaborating to bring you the most compelling and engaging front covers to the streets of London.
Okay, I jest about how seamless it is but there is a lot of caffeine consumed whilst deliberating over the best way to portray the news or topic of the day and setting the right tone. Here’s our selection of favourites for you, with the stories behind them…
COCAINE CAPITAL 3 August
With the news of London cocaine police seizures in London and restrictions around who and what we could picture on our cover, we jumped at the chance to chop out a line in the shape of the River Thames to create an eye-catching front. And no, we didn’t use real cocaine (it’s icing sugar, honest officer). Assembled and shot by photographer Matt Writtle on his kitchen table before his daughter returned from school.
THE PREMIER LEAGUE IS BACK! 11 August
We kicked off the return of the football season with a split-run of seven covers, one for each of the brilliant London football teams in the Premier League… and Tottenham Hotspur. The key was to choose a player from each club that wouldn’t stop a rival fan from picking it up. Everyone loves Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka. Only Chelsea fans love Enzo Fernandez. The covers caused a frenzy on social media as Londoners’ scrambled to collect all seven and the ES team regressed back into schoolkids in the playground as we debated who had the best player in their team (Saka, obvs).
BRING IT HOME 18 August
The Friday before the World Cup Final to be played on the weekend. The Lionesses were roaring through the tournament and the hopes of a nation were high. Would they be bringing football home, again? Sometimes you can spend hours painstakingly trawling through thousands of photos in the hope one will jump out but, in this case, there was only one image that summed up the unity and spirit of this team and as soon as we saw it we all knew.
INMATE NUMBER P01135809 25 August
Smile for the camera! As mug shots go, this one is up there as the most iconic. But it’s the combination of the coverline (or ‘splash’ as we call it) that makes this cover of Donald Trump’s police booking photograph as he voluntarily surrendered himself to authorities after being indicted on racketeering and other charges. The demise of a former president or a very brave PR move?
PLANE MADNESS! 30 August
Us creatives love a nod to a classic cultural reference and regardless of whether you understood our spin on Leslie Nielsen’s Airplane! Movie poster, our very own wondrous Political Cartoonist Christian Adam’s drawing of an airplane tied in a knot summed up the summer airport chaos perfectly. In response to being asked to draw it, Christian was quoted as saying ‘Surely you can’t be serious?’ ‘…I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley’.
WELCOME TO 20MPH LONDON 14 September
Sometimes we use the best live news photo of the day. From time to time, we meticulously plan out a complicated commissioned illustration or brief a photographer to painstakingly secure ‘the shot’. And sometimes we take a quick screen shot on our phone with the Waze app open on screen twenty minutes before we go to press. This was the case when faced with the question ‘20mph speed limits imposed across London. What shall we do?’ by the Editor… sometimes on-the-spot ideas are the best.
BRING IT ON! 19 September
Our exclusive IPSOS poll revealed PM Rishi Sunak was losing the race against labour leader Keir Starmer as the General Election debate gathered pace. Combining large ballot box style ‘X’s, Rishi and Keir’s profile head shots graphically facing off against each other and a rousing BRING IT ON! headline marked the starting pistol shot in the race to the final.
MURDOCH OUTFOXED 20 September
To mark the beginning of our new columnist Michael Wolff writing for us with exclusive extracts from his book charting the decline of Rupert Murdoch’s empire (think Succession), we commissioned European Cartoonist of the Year Ben Jennings to create a satirical cartoon cover. ‘Something Bond villain-like. Plenty of Fox News graphics… and maybe a rabid fox?’ What returned was nothing short of genius. Murdoch stepped down as head of Fox News the following day. Just saying…
ART FOR ALL x ALL FOR ART 11 October
To mark the start of London Creates as London Frieze kicked off, we asked everyone’s favourite London artists Gilbert & George to create two front covers to celebrate the new venture. The duo not only supported the cause with their ‘Art For All’ and ‘All For Art’ split cover concept, they also personally signed 25 copies to give away to lucky competition winners which sparked a stampede across the streets of London as our readers scrambled to collect both covers.
JUST STOP OIL ARE BACK 1 November
Possibly my favourite of the year. A simple idea and execution but one that resulted in an arresting and engaging cover. After a short hiatus as they regrouped and reconsidered their plan of attacks to highlight the climate crisis, we joined Just Stop Oil in their use of orange splats as their antics returned.
SALUTE TO A KING AT 75 14 November
I read the news today, oh boy… Charles turns 75 so we paid tribute to our new King with a special version of Peter Blake’s classic Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover for The Beatles, expertly illustrated by the wondrous Peter Quinnell. From his late father holding him as a baby to his favourite comedian Spike Milligan, we planted 75 people or objects in the photo montage. No, Prince Andrew didn’t make it. Nor did Harry and Megs. But who might be lurking in the allotment shed?
RISHI FEELS THE HEAT 12 December
Finishing the year strongly, our political cartoonist Christian Adams blended the news that 8 in 10 people think Rishi is failing with the revelation of a breakfast meeting amongst rebel Tory MPs with a cartoon of a Rishi-faced piece of bread popping out of a toaster. We heroically avoided the obvious pun headline of Rishi being toast…
Got a favourite cover or would like to hear more about how one was put together? Follow @pedros1976 on Insta and tag @evening.standard into your post.
