Over 16 years, Angus Hyland was Creative Director for Laurence King Publishing, the independent London-based marketing leading design-led publisher with a best-selling list of books, gifts and games.
Laurence King Publishing began as a publisher for students and graduates of the visual arts. This informed its design-led ethos, leading to high-quality, detail-oriented publications. It found its biggest success in adult colouring books, including Johanna Basford’s Secret Garden and The Enchanted Forest which sold many million copies worldwide. The extraordinary popularity of this series cemented Laurence King Publishing’s mainstream appeal and marked the beginning of its move into the gift-related product market.
Angus Hyland’s longstanding relationship with Laurence King Publishing began in 1996 when he designed 20th-Century Type (Remix), a decade-by-decade analysis of the issues that shaped the history of typographic and, latterly, graphic design. In 2001 he authored his debut book for LKP, Pen and Mouse: Commercial Art and Digital Illustration, the first-ever survey of computer-generated contemporary illustration from around the world, followed by a sequel Hand to Eye two years later.
As Creative Director, Angus designed select LKP books and has authored a number of its graphic design and art titles. These include: The Purple Book, which won the 2013 Book of the Year Award from the British Book Design and Production Awards; Symbol; C/ID: Visual Identity Branding for the Arts and The Maze: A Labyrinthine Compendium. Angus also created the popular ‘The Book of…’ series, which featured art-led titles on dogs, cats, birds, trees, flowers and horses, as well as games including Dangerous Experiments, Dazzleships Battleships and Rock, Paper, Scissors Bomb.
“In an age dominated by screens, the physical book must assert its value as an object of desire,” Angus explains. “To truly compete with digital alternatives, books must embrace and amplify their inherent physicality—they need to be unapologetically ‘bookie.’ This means leaning into their tactile and sensory qualities, the weight of the paper, the texture of the cover, and the way they feel in the hand. A book must transcend its role as a mere vessel for content and become a designed experience in itself. Every detail, from typography to binding, should celebrate what the digital cannot replicate: the joy of touch, the permanence of presence, and the intimacy of turning a page.”
