Catalogue | Ed Sheeran: Made in Suffolk

In February, I was told I was going to be designing something very special under the curious codename “Project Castle”. Several weeks later, I discovered it was the catalogue to an exhibition at Ipswich Museums’ Christchurch Mansion called Ed Sheeran: Made in Suffolk, curated by Ed’s father, John. The exhibition would feature portrait paintings by Colin Davidson and photography by Mark Surridge. 

I have been a professional graphic designer for more than 30 years, designing a variety of creative projects both for the council and as a freelancer, but I had never produced a fine-arts book. The brief was for it to be made entirely in Suffolk. 

So I appointed Healeys Printers, a high-quality art-book printer located in Ipswich, which has a carbon-offset scheme – planting trees equivalent to the number used in the printing. In March, I was provided with a digital image of a square portrait of Ed Sheeran by Colin for the cover image, and started to develop the Ed Sheeran: Made in Suffolk brand. To minimise cropping of the main cover image, I chose a square format for the book layout, which also created double-page spreads ideal for the wide-format photographs of Ed performing.

The font I chose is light and unobtrusive, so as not to detract from the artwork, and for the main branding, I also added an outline drawing of Framlingham Castle to wrap around the type to form a logo, as well as to depict where Ed comes from – the town of Framlingham. 

Over the next few months, I worked closely with John, sometimes at his home in Suffolk, helping to select images for his introduction to the book. As an art curator, he had previously produced exhibition catalogues, and wanted a professional job for such a personal publication. We are both meticulous with a high attention to detail, which led to 

a lot of in-depth discussions.

The publication is 148 pages long, but originally it was planned to be only about 48 pages of images by Colin and Mark, with a short introduction by John. About halfway through the design process, it was agreed to increase the scope of the exhibition, which meant John had more objects to source, photograph and write about. 

What was originally John’s intro text of a few pages ended up as a long, personal account of Ed’s story from toddler to global megastar, told through art and artefacts.

Throughout designing this book, I was keen to allow the beautiful art and photography to shine, using close-ups of the detail in the drawings and paintings as full spreads.

The day before we went to print, there was a last-minute addition when Ed went straight to the top of the UK singles and album charts and John wanted to document this to bring the story right up to date. We also produced 2,500 numbered, hardback editions priced at £39.95 each. I chose to use the image of the music score, by Ed’s brother Matthew, for the orchestrated version of the song Perfect on the end-papers, which finishes this limited-edition print run of the book off perfectly.

John asked me if I was proud of my first fine arts book; the answer, of course, is yes. It had its challenges and a tight deadline, but I am delighted with how it has turned out.