30 custom covers from our graphic designer and illustrator friends

Thousands of you stepped in to play art director on our 2010 and 2011 Handmade issues. And a very good job you made of it too, using specially tailored online software to create unique covers to be printed and posted (magazine included) to your door.

This year, for Handmade 2012, the hard work was done for you. We asked our graphic designer and illustrator friends – dozens of them, in fact – to design a series of covers for the August issue. But we didn’t just want to include our own choices. Calling out to the Twittersphere, we invited your creative direction too, asking you to name your preferred cover star and tweet them a brief.

The result is a grand edit of 30 works of art, created with you in mind by the likes of Alan Kitching, Quentin Jones, Anthony Burrill, Tom Hingston, Rob Ryan and James Joyce. Using our online application over the past few weeks, many of you selected and personalised the cover of your choice.

These unique covers will arrive through the post when the August issue is due. For people who missed out, we’ve included all the covers here, for your viewing pleasure. And for an even closer view, all 30 will be displayed at London’s KK Outlet from 5 to 25 July.

Subscribers who missed the chance to choose an artwork will receive a limited edition hand-picked by us. 

The making of Anthony Burrill's cover

The making of Alan Kitching's cover

The making of Sam Winston's cover

The making of Quentin Jones' cover

The making of David Carson's cover

The making of Supermundane's cover

The making of Bibliotheque's cover

The making of Studio Frith's cover

The making of Hort's cover

The making of Paul Davis' cover

The making of mcgarrybowen's cover

The making of Merion Pritchard's cover