THERE have been many memorable covers in the illustrious 115-year history of Boxing News.
In recent months, the magazine has received plaudits for its designs featuring the world’s biggest names in boxing. This week is no exception, but what readers don’t know is that our ‘Rule Britannia’ cover featuring Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois was somewhat unhelpful.
Boxing News Head of Design Nick Bond knew that he wanted to include a Union Jack on the front of this week’s issue featuring two British fighters with the headline to follow.
“When I think of a Union Jack or a flag, I think of pop art,” Nick said.
“Very graphic elements and symbols and logos and stuff. So, that was in my mind as I was doing the cover. And I started adding sort of painted elements to the cover.
“And then we came to the headline. While I was doing it, I always thought Rule Britannia was an option.”
The headline was a winner but Nick had the idea of doing it by hand in a graffiti style as if someone had walked up and sprayed the words Rule Britannia.
“And it just didn’t seem right because when I was doing it myself, it just looked like my handwriting,” he explained. “And in my mind, that wasn’t the effect that I wanted.”
His nine-year-old son Vincent then stepped in to help out his dad.
“So, I was getting a bit frustrated and my son was there and I just said to him, ‘Look, can you write this for me?’ And he just wrote it across and I thought, well, yeah, perfect.
“That’s exactly what I wanted. So, I laid it onto the design and it sat quite nicely and it went through. It was something a bit different for us
“I wasn’t quite sure how it would be received but everyone seemed pretty happy with it.”
To buy your copy of ‘Rule Britannia’ visit the Boxing News shop here
