The idea of travelling to the edge of the universe and ending up where you started has inspired Tom Saxton’s redesign of the cover of Bill Bryson’s non-fiction classic, A Short History of Nearly Everything, for the Penguin Student Design Awards.

Saxton works mostly digitally which allows him to freely experiment “without the cruel consequences that come with physical artwork”. His brightly coloured, spaghetti-limbed characters and goofy sense of humour, are influenced by the television shows of his childhood, like Spongebob and Adventure time. For Saxton, his characters are “the most fun way to communicate a weird concept or feeling to the audience” where the humour derives from the surreal elements of his artwork.

Saxton is an illustrator and animator based in Sheffield. When he’s not using his human name he goes by Eraserflakes