If you’re an American book designer you probably know already that the winners of the 2013 Fifty Books / Fifty Covers show were announced yesterday.
Organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & Books, 50/50, which recognizes the best work in contemporary book and book cover design, dates back to 1922, and is the oldest continuously operating graphic design competition in the United States. It is what you might call a ‘big deal.’
Of course, you can always quibble with lists like this — there are a some covers from last year that I loved that aren’t winners. But it’s wonderful to see book designers get some deserved recognition, and there are some great covers on the list that I overlooked.
Here are a few of my favourite 50 Covers winners that weren’t on my own 2013 list (nor in my postscript):
The Aesthetic Brain by Anjan Chatterjee; design by Thomas Ng (Oxford University Press)
No One is Here Except All of Us by Romana Ausubel; design by Gray318 (Riverhead)
Personae by Sergio De La Pava; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press)
Shady Characters by Keith Houston; design by Jason Booher ((W. W. Norton & Company)
This and Other Plays by Melissa Gibson; design by Helen Yentus and Jason Booher (Theatre Communications Group)