Olly Moss’ Covers for Harry Potter eBooks Revealed

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Graphic designer Olly Moss was commissioned to create new covers for the Harry Potter eBooks, and the results are gorgeous.

Olly Moss, the graphic designer out of the UK famous for his posters for Marvel, the Resistance video game series, as well as his Star Wars re-imagined posters, has been a fan of the Harry Potter books his whole life. So when he released his new designs for the eBooks yesterday, his first tweet was about how his 11 year old self would have been thrilled.

He also admitted this was his dream job.

The covers are amazing. Talking to Pottermore, he admitted that his inspiration come from the modernist school of graphic designers, “like Saul Bass… and more recently Jason Munn.”

“I like things to have more than one layer. The initial “oh that’s an attractive image” then it’s got a secondary reveal when you look closer. It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed doing.”

That certainly makes sense when you look at the seven new covers close up. Each has an initial image that you see, and then a secondary one that you don’t see until you stop and really look.

The opening image, that of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone looks, at first glance, to be the delivery owls with the invitation to Hogwarts….until you pause and realize the branch is a lighting bolt scar.

The cover for Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets. It’s a sectret passage. it’s a Wizard inside the scret passage. Look again at the light and the dark and you realize the passage is also the Basilisk.

The Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban cover. It’s the Shrieking Shack, on a lonely corner of the Hogwarts grounds. Look again and see the eye , and realize the house looks to be sitting on a dog’s nose.

One of my personal favorites, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The Goblet is on fire, until you look again and see the tens from the campgrounds outside the Quidditch World Cup.

I think I actually saw this one backwards. When I looked at the cover for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, I saw Hogwarts, and then that the sunrise is Fawks. I think you’re supposed to see the bird and then realize the wings lines are Hogwarts.

With Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, I saw the book first, and then Dumbledore as the spine, and then realized the book’s “pages” were the spell. Of the seven, this cover is my favorite.

And finally, Harry Potter and the Deathly Halllows. I think I would have expected the Hallows to feature, but no. The image is harry, the look again image is Voldemort above the glasses, on the forehead as the final horcrux scar. Despite what Moss said about not wanting to put spoilers on the cover, this is a total tease.

Next: College of Wizardry Now Accepting Applications

(Cover art via Olly Moss & Pottermore)