Book Depository Brand Guidelines: A 2004 Gloucester Bookseller, Amazon in 2011, Closed in 2023

An online bookseller built around range.

Book Depository was a British online bookseller that traded from 2004 until 26 April 2023. It was founded by Andrew Crawford and Stuart Felton, according to The Guardian in April 2023 and BBC News in the same month; both describe Crawford as a former Amazon employee. English Wikipedia adds that he had been part of the start-up team at Bookpages, an earlier online bookshop that Amazon bought, and the Irish Times reported in July 2011 that Book Depository was set up after that sale. The Guardian described Crawford in 2011 as an Irish entrepreneur who had been involved in the launch of Amazon’s UK business; English Wikipedia calls him the company’s founder and former chief executive.

For most of its life the company traded as The Book Depository. English Wikipedia shows the older logo with the definite article as the mark used until 2016, after which the business appeared simply as Book Depository. The Irish Times gave its early address as TheBookDepository.co.uk, opened in 2004, and said it concentrated on niche, non-mainstream and out-of-print books rather than blockbusters, quoting academic titles on trade-union organising and aeroelasticity as examples of the range.

The Guardian called it “the Gloucester firm” in 2011 and “the Gloucester-based bookseller” in 2023. In its 2011 report the paper said the company aimed to stock around six million titles, from flower arranging to aircraft piston engines, setting it apart from retailers that concentrated on top-selling titles. English Wikipedia lists London as its headquarters; BBC News reported in April 2023 that the business had offices in London, Gloucester, Madrid, Cape Town and Chennai, with fulfilment centres in the UK and Australia.

Range, reach and free delivery.

The service was built on sending single books a long way. The Next Web reported in October 2011 that the company offered free shipping to more than 100 countries and that three quarters of its sales came from outside the UK; The Guardian said that year that only a quarter of its sales were in Britain. English Wikipedia says delivery was included in the price for more than 160 countries.

The catalogue was the product. The Next Web described a stock of about six million titles, many of which had not been easy to find elsewhere, and noted that the company sold many of them through Amazon Marketplace as well as on its own site.

Book Depository was online only, with no shop fronts, and English Wikipedia records the change from “The Book Depository” to “Book Depository” in its logo in 2016. The name has a well-known namesake: the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas is a separate historic building with no link to the company.

For readers outside the UK, the business also stood for a kind of access. BBC News reported in April 2023 that the closure announcement was met with sadness by customers around the world.

Bookshop chains and online booksellers.

Bookshop chains and online booksellers present themselves in different places. A chain’s identity is seen first on the street: the name over the shop front, the table displays inside, and the bookmarks, bags and seasonal catalogues handed over at the counter. An online bookseller has no shop front, so its name, its website and the catalogue pages it publishes carry the same work, along with the parcels that arrive at the door.

Store and imprint names are usually plain. Many chains carry a founder’s surname, as Dymocks does with William Dymock, who opened his first Sydney shop in 1879, according to English Wikipedia. Others are coined for the web, such as Booktopia, founded in Sydney in 2004. Older names often survive inside newer businesses: Angus & Robertson became an online brand within Booktopia after a 2015 purchase, SmartCompany reported, and the last Dymocks shop in New Zealand passed to Paper Plus franchisees in 2012, according to Stuff.

Ownership shapes the presentation. Some chains are franchise networks, in which local operators run shops under one name; others are family companies, listed companies or units of larger retail groups. The corporate pages that booksellers publish, and the trade and business press that covers them, set out founders, owners, acquisitions and, where they happened, administrations and changes of owner.

This guide describes each bookseller from dated sources: who founded it, who owns it, and what happened when the business changed hands. Where a chain closed or passed through administration, it says so with the date. The palettes and typefaces shown are our own unofficial interpretations, not the companies’ marks.

A takeover in 2011, a closure in 2023.

Amazon agreed to buy The Book Depository on 4 July 2011, The Guardian reported the next day; the price was not disclosed. Amazon said the deal was subject to regulatory approval, and the company said on Twitter that it would continue to operate independently. The deal worried parts of the trade. The Guardian quoted the editor of the trade magazine The Bookseller saying that publishers would be concerned about the concentration of power in Amazon’s hands, and reported that some customers speculated on Twitter about higher prices and the end of free shipping. The Irish Times reported that the Office of Fair Trading had confirmed it would investigate whether the deal would substantially lessen competition, and The Next Web reported that the Booksellers Association formally opposed the merger. The Office of Fair Trading cleared the deal on 26 October 2011, almost four months after it was announced, The Next Web reported. The OFT found that the smaller company’s share of UK online sales of printed books was small and that competition between the two before the merger had been limited.

Book Depository then ran as an Amazon subsidiary for more than a decade. In early April 2023 vendors and publishing partners were told it would close. The Guardian reported on 4 April 2023 that the last day for orders would be 26 April and that the business would be wound down, including its listings as a marketplace seller and its website. BBC News quoted the company’s notice on 5 April 2023: Book Depository would be closing on 26 April 2023, with orders accepted until midday UK time that day, and an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the decision. Both reports placed the closure within wider cuts across Amazon’s Devices and Books businesses. As of November 2026 the bookdepository.com address forwards to Amazon’s books pages; Book Depository no longer trades.

For a design guide, Book Depository shows how an online bookseller can carry its identity through range, reach and a plain descriptive name, with no shop fronts at all. Compare Amazon, its owner from 2011, and AbeBooks, another Amazon-owned bookseller that trades online. For this guide we use a deep atlas blue, ink blue, cream and a muted gold with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Book Depository’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.