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BACKGROUND Despite being increasingly recognised as an art form in its relatively short 100-year history (Marantz 2006), little is known about book cover design ideation. The practice represents a disciplinary intersection between graphic design and narrative, that necessitates a unique, visual interpretation to be made for each, newly commissioned publication. This characterises this design profession as one that is in perpetually high level of design inquiry. Over the course of my practice I have developed a materially-led design strategy to enable continual re-generation. CONTRIBUTION Materially-led ideation is well-understood as a generative device in design disciplines such as architecture and industrial design but is less understood and less implemented in graphic design. Because these methods characterise my practice, explication of them expands our understanding of how graphic design can be practiced. My contribution was to make public the material origins of the cover design for Peter Carey's novel 'Illywhacker'. In addition to exhibiting the published design, I elected to exhibit the artefacts that engendered the design: a wood type block and wood type print. This drew attention to the validity of materially-focused design inquiries, despite our increasingly digital environment, to push contemporary perspectives within the field SIGNIFICANCE and esteem factor Invited to exhibit work curated by a significant institution, my contribution generated discourse about the role of materiality in graphic design, specifically book cover design practice. (NB: The works in the exhibition were recipients of design awards at the time of their publication, 2002.)