We are proud to announce that Oscar Wilson’s illustration for Canongate Books Gil Scott Heron Memoir: ‘The Last Holiday’ won the Best Jacket Design category at last night’s British Book Awards.

The judges commented on the work: “This arresting design evokes 60s counter-culture art in a contemporary and well-realised concept, with front/rear covers and spine working together to create a powerful and effective image.”

Oscar worked closely with Art Director Rafi Romaya to deliver this winning piece of work. As a massive fan of soul / funk / jazz music; Oscar was delighted to be involved with the project, and very proud that his first ever typographic portrait was of such a great as Gil Scott Heron.

Rafi explains the project and why she commissioned Oscar: “The plan was to create a bespoke and personalised jacket befitting for Gil’s memoir, The Last Holiday. Taking inspiration from Gil's landmark collection 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised', we wanted to create an image as iconic as photographer Chuck Stewart's album cover shot whilst also representing Gil's poetic lyricism and artful use of language throughout his music, poetry and books.

Having seen Oscar Wilson's 'street-art style' visual work, which we felt might complement Gil's poetry, we approached him to attempt a typographic portrait using a mixture of Gil's album titles, song titles and most iconic phrases.

It was a gift of a book to work on and I hope we have a created a jacket Gil himself would have liked, had he seen it, and that winning Best Jacket Design Award at the British Book Awards 2012 would have made him smile!”

We definitely think Gil is smiling at the news, as are we. Well done to Oscar, Rafi and all at Canongate Books.

Limited edition screen prints of the cover art are available to buy from Canongate's website