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52 Women Book Cover Designers

If you follow the Casual Optimist on Twitter, you will know that a couple of weeks ago design studio Aishima asked people to tweet about inspiring women graphic designers using the hashtag #celebratewomen. As today is International Women’s Day, I thought I would follow up my #celebratewomen tweets with a visual list of 52 inspiring women book cover designers (one for every week of the year!) — from influential veterans whose work I’ve admired for years to junior designers that have just appeared on my radar.

The names of all 52 designers can be found at the end of the post. With a few more hours in a day the list could easily have been many times longer, so apologies to anyone I have overlooked. Please let me know who you would’ve included in the comments or on Twitter.

Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / January 2015)

Justine Anweiler


Jane Eyre Clothbound design Coralie Bickford Smith

Coralie Bickford-Smith


Aftermath design Kelly Blair

Kelly Blair


The Wall design Gabrielle Bordwin photograph John Gay

Gabrielle Bordwin


forever design Lizzy Bromley

Lizzy Bromley


On-the-Noodle-Road

Lynn Buckley


Curious design Nicole Caputo

Nicole Caputo


friendship_gould

Jennifer Carrow


m train design carol devine carson

Carol Devine Carson


Girl-Who-Was-Saturday-Night

Catherine Casalino


Cat and Fiddle design Allison Colpoys

Allison Colpoys


Stoner (hardback)

Julia Connolly


Holloway

Eleanor Crow


100-sideways-miles-9781442444959_hr

Lucy Ruth Cummins


First Novel design Suzanne Dean photograph Stephen Banks

Suzanne Dean


Milk

Barbara deWilde


tender-is-the-night

Sinem Erkas


Madness So Discreet design Erin Fitzsimmons

Erin Fitzsimmons


Dust to Dust design Alison Forner

Alison Forner


Seating Arrangements design Elena Giavaldi

Elena Giavaldi


barefoot queen design Kimberly Glyder

Kimberly Glyder


Lopsided design by Carin Goldberg

Carin Goldberg


luminaries

Jenny Grigg


Voices in the Night by Steven Millhauser; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2015)

Janet Hansen


What the Family Needed

Jennifer Heuer


follow me design Karen Horton

Karen Horton


book-of-heaven

Linda Huang


specter-of-capital

Anne Jordan


This Will Be Difficult to Explain design Chin Yee Lai

Chin-Yee Lai


Silvered Heart TBK.indd

Yeti Lambregts


978-0-385-53807-7

Emily Mahon


first husband

Jaya Miceli


Sixty design by Terri Nimmo

Terri Nimmo


Unabrow by Una Lamarche; design by Zoe Norvell (Plume / March 2015)

Zoe Norvell


Welcome to the Circus design Natalie Olsen

Natalie Olsen


Untitled-1

Lauren Panepinto


A Good Book design Ingrid Paulson

Ingrid Paulson


all-our-names

Isabel Urbina Peña


Redeployment design Rafi Romaya

Rafi Romaya


Canada design by Allison Saltzman

Allison Saltzman


Year I Met You design Heike Schussler

Heike Schüssler


silence

Clare Skeats


A Year of Marvellous Ways design by Amy Smithson

Ami Smithson / Cabin


flamethrowers design Charlotte Strick

Charlotte Strick


Toronto Cooks design Jess Sullivan

Jess Sullivan


Longitude design Jo Walker

Jo Walker


Americanah

Abby Weintraub


Living on Paper design by Amanda Weiss

Amanda Weiss


Barbara the Slut by Lauren Holmes; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / August 2015)

Rachel Willey


middle-c_

Gabriele Wilson


Design Megan Wilson, photograph Saul Leiter

Megan Wilson


All the Birds design by Joan Wong

Joan Wong


Summerlong design Sara Wood

Sara Wood


MythOfSis

Helen Yentus


  1. Justine Anweiler
  2. Coralie Bickford-Smith
  3. Kelly Blair
  4. Gabrielle Bordwin
  5. Lizzy Bromley
  6. Lynn Buckley
  7. Nicole Caputo
  8. Jennifer Carrow
  9. Carol Devine Carson
  10. Catherine Casalino
  11. Allison Colpoys
  12. Eleanor Crow
  13. Lucy Ruth Cummins
  14. Suzanne Dean
  15. Barbara deWilde
  16. Sinem Erkas
  17. Erin Fitzsimmons
  18. Alison Forner
  19. Elena Giavaldi
  20. Kimberly Glyder
  21. Carin Goldberg
  22. Jenny Grigg
  23. Janet Hansen
  24. Jennifer Heuer
  25. Karen Horton
  26. Linda Huang
  27. Anne Jordan
  28. Chin-Yee Lai
  29. Yeti Lambregts
  30. Emily Mahon
  31. Jaya Miceli
  32. Terri Nimmo
  33. Zoe Norvell
  34. Natalie Olsen
  35. Lauren Panepinto
  36. Ingrid Paulson
  37. Isabel Urbina Peña
  38. Rafi Romaya
  39. Allison Saltzman
  40. Heike Schüssler
  41. Clare Skeats
  42. Ami Smithson
  43. Charlotte Strick
  44. Jess Sullivan
  45. Jo Walker
  46. Abby Weintraub
  47. Rachel Willey
  48. Gabriele Wilson
  49. Megan Wilson
  50. Joan Wong
  51. Sara Wood
  52. Helen Yentus

22 Comments

    • Dan

      Great suggestion, Dan K! Thank you ~ Dan W #LeagueofDans

  1. Thanks for this great list Dan. So much inspiring work.

    • Dan

      Thanks Alanna!

  2. So inspiring! Thanks for including me <3

    • Dan

      Thanks Andy — great stuff! :-)

  3. Fantastic list! I’d also love to nominate Laura Palese for a future list. Her handwritten cookbook covers (and interiors) are lovely. (www.laurapalese.com)

  4. Hi Dan! Thanks for all that you do to support and celebrate women of graphic design. Your blog has been a great source for the website Women of Graphic Design (http://womenofgraphicdesign.org/). We’ve found many gems thanks to you. We also wanted to mention that we’ve added this list to our Resources page and will definitely be featuring some of the designers you’ve selected here. We thank you for all you’ve done and all you continue to do to support designers of all stripes, sizes, and persuasions.

    • Dan

      Thanks Kathleen + Tori — I really appreciate it.

    • Dan

      Ha! Perfect! Thanks Anna! :-)

  5. You forgot Louise Fili who I’d glaringly not in the list.

    • Dan

      Hi Leslie. I have to confess — I didn’t forget Louise Fili (I actually mentioned her in a #celebratewomen tweet), I left her out intentionally. Even though I like her work a lot, and she was art director at Pantheon, I felt that she was better known for things other than cover design these days. If the list was longer, she would surely have been on it. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to not include her in the first place.

  6. Incredible list! Congrats to all the amazing and talented women. Thanks Dan.

    • Dan

      Thanks Maureen!

  7. I really love ‘A Madness So Discrete’ the best. it’s eery and beautiful. I just love the darker colors and the model’s pose.

    • Dan

      Thank you Gigi!

  8. As a cover designer for non-fiction books mostly in the homeschooling and Christian corner of the world, my covers are on the other end of the spectrum than these book covers. My clients’ target audiences usually require a nice “safe” cover. I love art, and these covers are art–many of them raw and unsafe art, art that whispers to your soul, striking a dissonant chord, compelling you to pick. up. that. book.

    I love “Middle C”. It’s clever, simple, and I play piano.

    • Dan

      Thanks Melinda!

  9. This is a fabulous list! As a woman designer, it’s highly inspiring. Thank you!

Comments are closed.