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Tag: alison forner

Book Covers of Note, February 2022

Here are your February book covers of note…

Anonymous Sex edited by Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan; design Holly MacDonald; illustration Malika Favre (The Borough Press / February 2022)

Malika Favre also designed and illustrated the cover of Playing with Matches by Michael Faudet, published by Andrews McMeel at the end of last year, and featured in this month’s ‘Book Covers We Love‘ post at Spine Magazine.

Catch the Sparrow by Rachel Rear; design by Mia Kwon (Bloomsbury / February 2022)

I like Mia Kwon’s cover for Breath Better Spent by Damaris B. Hill, published by Bloomsbury last month, too…

The Colony by Audrey Magee; design by Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / February 2022)

The cover of the US edition, available from FSG in May, was design by Jaya Miceli:

The Delivery by Peter Mendelsund; design by Chloe Scheffe (Picador USA / February 2022)

Alex Merto‘s design for the hardcover was one of my notable book covers of the year in 2021:

The Go-Between by Osman Yousefzada; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / January 2022)

Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century by Kim Fu; design by Jaya Miceli (Tin House / February 2022)

New Animal by Ella Baxter; design by Ami Smithson; photograph by Alfonso Vidal-Quadras (Picador / February 2022)

The fruity cover of the Australian edition published by Allen and Unwin last year was designed by Akiko Chan, while the hot pink US edition was designed in-house by Eric Obenauf at Two Dollar Radio I believe.

Path of Totality by Niina Pollari; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull / February 2022)

The Perfect Sound by Garrett Hongo; design by John Gall (Pantheon / February 2022)

Pure Colour by Sheila Heti; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2022)

The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka; design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf / February 2022)

Very Cold People by Sarah Manguso; design by Leanne Shapton (Hogarth / February 2022)

Watergate by Garrett M. Graff; design by Alison Forner (Avid Reader Press / February 2022)

For obvious reasons, this brought to mind Paul Sahre‘s cover for the novel Watergate by Thomas Mallon from a few (10?? OMG) years back.

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Book Covers of Note, June 2021

A little bit rushed again this month for various reasons (will I ever catch up? No. No I won’t…), but here are my cover picks for June…

Animal by Lisa Taddeo; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2021)

The cover of the US edition of Animal, published by Simon & Schuster, was designed by Alison Forner and Zak Tebbal:

Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard; design Richard Ljoenes (Liveright / June 2021)

Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur; design by Helen Crawford-White (Erewhon Books / April 2021)

The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee; design by Nathan Burton (Granta / June 2021)

The cover of the US edition, published by Knopf, was designed by none other than John Gall:

(The Knopf cover actually reminds me of this Lauren Peters-Collaer silhouette cover from a couple of years ago for Verso)

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown and Company / June 2021)

Island by Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / June 2021)

July by Kathleen Ossip; design by Alban Fischer (Sarabande Books / June 2021)

The Ones We’re Meant To Find by Joan He; design Aurora Parlagreco; illustration Aykut Aydogdu (Roaring Brook Press / May 2021)

Pure Flame by Michelle Orange; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2021)

In the ongoing game of books I think look alike but actually don’t when you put them side by side, the cover of Pure Flame brought to mind Peter Mendelsund‘s design for Civil Wars by David Armitage from a few years ago. Of course they don’t really look anything alike, but that’s how this game works…

A Shock by Keith Ridgway; design by Nathan Burton (Picador / June 2021)

A read an ARC of A Shock earlier this month and thought it was extraordinary. A recent review in the Observer described it a collection voyeuristic vignettes, which I suppose is accurate. The book is made up of interconnected and intimate stories, often about loneliness and confinement of one kind or another (particularly resonant during the pandemic). They are prying and unsettling… stories about seeing and been seen (or not). But in a wider sense, A Shock is about the telling and retelling stories (myths even!), and the way that is revealed in the novel itself is what elevates it above and beyond the usual fare. Anyway… I liked it. It won’t be for everyone.


The cover of the US edition, available from New Directions next month, was designed by the one and only Mr. Keenan:

Tokyo Redux by David Peace; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / June 2021)

The War Against the BBC by Patrick Barwise and Peter York; design by Richard Green (Penguin / March 2021)

Who doesn’t love a really long subtitle and an all text cover?

With Teeth by Kristen Arnett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2021)

A Year Without a Name by Cyrus Dunham; design by Alex Merto (Back Bay Books / June 2021)

The hardcover of A Year Without a Name, released in 2019, was designed by Lucy Kim.

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Book Covers of Note August 2016

Back from vacation and back to the grind… August is traditionally a slow month in publishing, but that isn’t to say there aren’t plenty of great covers around at this time of year…

9780544464056_hres
Ashes of Fiery Weather by Kathleen Donohoe; design Brian Moore (HMH / August 2016)

Behold the Dreamers design Jaya Micelij
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue; design by Jaya Miceli (Random House / August 2016)

9781770899421
The Best Kind of People by Zoe Whittall; design by Alysia Shewchuck (House of Anansi / August 2016)

Book design David High
The Book by Keith Houston; design by David High (W.W. Norton / August 2016)

A Burglars Guide to the City design by Nayon Cho
A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh; design by Nayon Cho (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / April 2016)

compartmentno6 design Kimberly Glyder
Compartment N0. 6 by Rosa Liksom; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf Press / August 2016)

Comet Seekers design Chloe Giordano
The Comet Seekers by Helen Sedgwick; design by Chloe Giordano (Harvill Secker / August 2016)

Cuckoo design Jack Smyth
Cuckoo by Keren David; design by Jack Smyth (Atom / August 2016)

Enter Title Here design Maria Elias
Enter Title Here by Rahul Kanakia; design by Maria Elias (Hyperion / August 2016)

Fire This Time design Na Kim
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward; design by Na Kim (Scribner / August 2016)

THE_HATE_RACE
The Hate Race by Maxime Beneba Clarke; design by Allison Colpoys (Hachette Australia / August 2016)

Inexperience design Alissa Dinallo
Inexperience and Other Stories by Anthony Macris; design by Alissa Dinallo (UWAP / August 2016)

Making Literature Now design Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein
Making Literature Now by Amy Hungerford; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / August 2016)

Impossible Modernism design Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein
Impossible Modernism by Robert S. Lehman; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / August 2016)

These two look rather nice side by side…

Marx 2020 design Daniel Gray
Marx 2020 by Ronaldo Munck; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Zed / August 2016)

Nordic Theory design by Milan Bozic
The Nordic Theory of Everything by Anu Partanen; design by Milan Bozic (Harper / June 2016)

playing dead design Alison Forner
Playing Dead by Elizabeth Greenwood; design by Alison Forner (Simon & Schuster / August 2016)

pond design by Alex Merto
Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / July 2016)

The jacket art for Pond is apparently a detail from ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’ by artist Margriet Smulders.

Radiance design Nathan Burton
Radiance by Catherynne M. Valente; design & illustration by Nathan Burton (Corsair / August 2016)

Nathan’s design is a nice compliment to Will Staehle‘s cover for the US edition published by Tor Books last year:

Riverine design Kimberly Glyder
Riverine by Angela Palm; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2016)

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The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / August 2016)

Tadunos Song design Chris Gale
Taduno’s Song by Odafe Atogun; design by Chris Gale (Canongate / August 2016)

Underground Airlines design Oliver Munday
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters; design by Oliver Munday (Mulholland Books / July 2016)

Underground Railroad design Oliver Munday
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday / August 2016)

YouDontHavetoLiveLikeThis Design by Jarrod Taylor
You Don’t Have to Live Like This by Benjamin Markovits; design by Jarrod Taylor (Harper / July 2016)

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Book Covers of Note May 2016

It’s the first week of May (whaaaat?), so it must be time for some new book covers…

barren cove design Chelsea McGuckin
Barren Cove by Ariel S. Winter; design by Chelsea McGuckin (Atria / May 2016)

congratulations on everything design Gary Taxali
Congratulations on Everything by Nathan Whitlock; cover art by Gary Taxali (ECW / May 2016)

Even-the-Dead design David Shoemaker
Even the Dead by Benjamin Black; design by David Shoemaker (Henry Holt / January 2016)

9781594206863
The Ecliptic by Benjamin Wood; design Jamie Keenan (Penguin Press / May 2016)

Girls on Fire US design Robin Bilardello
Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper / May 2016)

Girls on Fire UK design Jack Smyth
Girls on Fire by Robin Wasserman; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / May 2016)


The Haters by Jesse Andrews; design by Chad W. Beckerman and Will Staehle (Abrams / April 2016)

How Propaganda Works design Chris Ferrante
How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / May 2016)

Industries of the Future design Jason Heuer
Industries of the Future by Alec Ross; design by Jason Heuer (Simon & Schuster / February 2016)

Imagine Me Gone design Keith Hayes
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2016)

Killing Bobbi Lomax design Alex Kirby
The Killing of Bobbi Lomax by Cal Moriarty; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / May 2016)

Leviathan Gaspereau
Leviathan by Carmine Starnino; design Andrew Steeves (Gaspereau / April 2016)

OBrien_TheLittleRedChairs_HC.indd
Little Red Chairs by Edna O’Brien; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / April 2016)

Macroeconomics design David Drummond
Macroeconomics by Ben Fine and Ourania Dimakou; design by David Drummond (Pluto Press / May 2016)

Microeconomics design David Drummond
Microeconomics by Ben Fine; design by David Drummond (Pluto Press / May 2016)

Madonna in a Fur Coat design Coralie Bickford Smith
Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / May 2016)

Mother Robin Bilardello
The Mother by Yvvette Edwards; design by Robin Bilardello (Amistad / May 2016)

My Mad Fat Diary design Olga Grlic
My Mad Fat Diary by Rae Earl; design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Griffin / April 2016)

Once and For All design Erik Carter
Once and for All by Delmore Schwartz; design Erik Carter (New Directions / May 2016)

The Outside Lands design Ami Smithson
The Outside Lands by Hannah Kohler; design by Ami Smithson / Cabin London (Picador / May 2016)

Saltzman_PerfectLife
A Perfect Life by Eileen Pollack; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / May 2016)

Prodigals design Rodrigo Corral
Prodigals by Greg Jackson; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2016)

Sleeping Giants design Chas Brock

sleeping giants design chas brock
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel; design by Charles Brock / Faceout Studio (Del Ray / April 2016)

where-the-bird-sings-best-design-Richard-Ljoenes
Where the Bird Sings Best by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / April 2016)

why they run the way they do design Alison Forner
Why They Run the Way They Do by Susan Perabo; design Alison Forner (Simon & Schuster / February 2016)

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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

Birds

birds

Book designers, bless them, really do like to put a bird on it. Following on from wild beasts and reptiles and amphibians, here is my latest post looking at animals on book covers, ‘Birds’:

9780374104115
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer; design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / September 2014)

because-i-love-you
Because I Love you by Barbara Toner; design by Sandy Cull / gogoGingko (Allen & Unwin / November 2012)

978-0-385-66048-8
The Bedside Book of Birds by Graeme Gibson; design by Scott Richardson (Random House / October 2005)

Bird_Catcher
The Bird Catcher by Laura Jacobs; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / September 2010)

birds-without-wings
Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / April 2014)

black-swan
Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; design by David Mann (Allen Lane / May 2007)

box-of-birds
A Box of Birds by Charles Fernyhough; design by Dan Mogford (Unbound / May 2013)

cartwheel_8_2_lc_long_quote
Cartwheel by Jennifer duBois; design by Lynn Buckley (Random House / September 2013)

ECW-Civil-Hi_res
Civil and Civic by Jonathan Bennett; design by David Gee (ECW / April 2011)

come-late-mohr
Come Late to the Love of Birds by Sandra Kasturi; design by Erik Mohr (Tightrope Books)

9780297866121
The Coincidence Authority by J. W. Ironmonger; design by Nathan Burton (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / September 2013)

crows-vow
The Crow’s Vow by Susan Briscoe; design by David Drummond (Vehicule Press / April 2011)

9780226157719
Darwin’s Finches edited by Kathleen Donohue; design by Matt Avery (University of Chicago Press / June 2011)

DonÔÇÖt Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something
Don’t Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something by Paul Vermeersch; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (ECW Press /  October 2014)

dulwich
The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics / October 2008)

early-bird
Early Bird by Rodney Rothman; design by Paul Sahre (Simon & Schuster / April 2005)

grimm
Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Philip Pullman; design by Alison Forner (Penguin / November 2012)

978-0-7710-8429-41
Floating Like the Dead by Yasuko Thanh; design by Terri Nimmo (McClelland & Stewart / April 2012 )

F+G
Florence & Giles by John Harding; design by Jo Walker (Blue Door / March 2010)

9780374158460
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen; design by Charlotte Strick (FSG / December 2010)

Nicholls_revision_rgb
The Galapagos by Henry Nicholls; design by Nicole Caputo (Basic Books / August 2014)

goldfinch
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / October 2013)

GRAPESOFWRATH_FINAL7
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; illustration by Kathryn McNaughton (Penguin / October 2011)


H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald; cover art by Christopher Wormell (Jonathan Cape / July 2014)

Grunt of the Minotaur emmanuel polanco
Grunt of the Minotaur by Robin Richardson; design by Emmanuel Polanco (Insomniac Press / October 2011)

Amanda Lindhout
A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett; design by Jennifer Heuer (Scribner / September 2013)

hunger-david-high
Hunger by Lan Samantha Chang; design by David High (W. W. Norton / September 2009)

Jenny & the Jaws of Life_JWillett
Jenny and the Jaws of Life by Jincy Willett; design by Henry Sene Yee (Picador / June 2008)

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Kansas City Lightning by Stanley Crouch; design by Milan Bozic (HarperCollins / March 2014)

wilbur1
Klauw van de valk by Wilbur Smith; design by Mark Ecob (Xander Uitgervers / unused)

love-hunger
Love & Hunger by Charlotte Wood; design by Sandy Cull /gogoGingko (Allen & Unwin / May 2012)

marabou-stork
The Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / January 2009)

Marrowbone-Marble-Allison-Saltzman
The Marrowbone Marble Company by Glenn Taylor; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / May 2010)

MORALITY
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith; design by Mark Ecob (Abacus / December 2003)

meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Yucel (Modern Library / August 2003)

midwich-cuckoos
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham; illustration by Brian Cronin (Penguin / August 2008)

mind-of-a-thief
The Mind of a Thief by Patti Miller; design by Sandy Cull / gogoGingko; illustration by Cherie Strong (University of Queensland Press / October 2013)

mink-river
Mink River by Brian Doyle; design by David Drummond (Oregon State University Press / October 2010)

montress-forner
Monstress by Lysley Tenorio; design by Alison Forner (Ecco / January 2012)

naming-nature
Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon; design by Chin-Yee Lai (W. W. Norton / August 2009)

never-ending birds
Never-Ending Birds by David Baker; design by Lynn Buckley; jacket illustration: Swallows by Audubon, The Granger Collection (W. W. Norton / October 2009)

5473870901_e92b70c095_b
News from the World by Paula Fox; design by Roberto De Vicq de Cumptich (W. W. Norton / May 2011)

originofspecies
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Eleanor Grosch (Modern Library / August 1998)

9780887848230_HR
Pigeon by Karen Solie; design by Bill Douglas (House of Anansi / June 2009)

Pigeon_English_shortlist_rgb
Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman; design by Holly MacDonald (Bloomsbury / July 2011)

romeo-spikes-sergio
Romeo Spikes by Joanne Reay; design by Chris Sergio ( Gallery Books / August 2012)

9781419707261
Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger; design by Sara Corbett; illustration Audrey Niffenegger (Harry N. Abrams / May 2013)

silent-land-mahon
Silent Land by Graham Joyce; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday / March 2011)

solo
Solo by Rana Dasgupta; design by Heads of State (Houghton Mifflin / February 2011)

Sweet-Bird
Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams; design by John Gall (New Directions / June 2010)

elegies-kosovo
3 Elegies for Kosovo by Ismail Kadare; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage / May 2011)

to-see-every-bird
To See Every Bird on Earth by Dan Koeppel; illustration by Mike Langman (Michael Joseph / August 2005) 1

summer-bird-jason-holley
Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull; illustration by Jason Holley (Dutton / October 2012)


The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / February 2014)


Treachery by S. J. Parris; design by Alexandra Allden, illustration by Daren Newman (Harper / August 2014)

9781555976378-glyder
The Virtues of Poetry by James Longenbach; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / March 2013)

vulture
The Vulture by Gil Scott-Heron; design by Stuart Bache (Canongate / July 2010)

why-is-my-mother
Why is my Mother Getting a Tattoo? by Jancee Dunn; design by Catherine Casalino (Villard Books / June 2009)

whiskey-tango-charles-brock-faceout
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer; design by Charles Brock / Faceout Studios (Mulholland Books / August 2014)

ngugi_wizard_mendelsund
Wizard of the Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / August 2006)

16 Comments

Beasts!

beasts
Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! I’m kicking off a new series today on animal book covers. The first post is on ‘beasts’ — mostly ‘wild’ beasts, but one or two more domesticated (and dead) animals may have nosed their way in. Other posts series will look at birds, bugs, reptiles and amphibians, and quite possibly sea creatures and farm animals (unless someone pays me a large amount of money to stop before that). Thanks to all the designers, ADs, publicists and others who have been helping me with images and credits. If you notice that some information about a cover is missing, please let me know.

KENNEDY_American-gabrielle-bordwin
American Spirit by Dan Kennedy; design by Gabrielle Bordwin (New Harvest / May 2013)

animals-of-my-own-kind-drummond
Animals of My Own Kind by Harry Thurston; design by David Drummond (Vehicule Press / April 2010)

Untitled
Annabel by Kathleen Winter; design by Bill Douglas (Anansi / June 2010)

beasts-jacob-covey
Beasts! by Jacob Covey; design by Jacob Covey / Unflown (Fantagraphics / February 2007)

bedside-book-of-beasts-richardson
The Bedside Book of Beasts by Graeme Gibson; design by Scott Richardson (Doubleday Canada / October 2009)

brothers-beasts
Brothers & Beasts edited Kate Bernheimer; design by Isaac Tobin; illustration by Lauren Nassef (Wayne State University Press / January 2008)

9780374119027
Caribou by Charles Wright; design by Jeff Clark / Quemadura (FSG / March 2014)


Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn; design by Sharon King-Chai (Electric Monkey / June 2013)

chronic city
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem; design by Miriam Rosenbloom (Faber & Faber / December 2009)

Company-of-Liars
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland; design by gray318 (Penguin / January 2008)

9781770893009_HR
Doppler by Erlend Loe; design by Nicolas Cheetham (Anansi / October 2012)

eeeee-kelly-blair
Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin; design by Kelly Blair (Melville House / April 2007)

ExtinctionClub
The Extinction Club by Jeffrey Moore; design by Michel Vrana (Hamish Hamilton Canada / April 2010)

feral
Feral by George Monbiot; design by Jim Stoddart (Penguin / May 2013)


The Good Suicides by Antonio Hill; design by Christopher Brand (Crown / June 2014)


Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia by Mariusz Szczygiel; design by Christopher King (Melville House / May 2014)

Penguin-Goya-Hi_res
Goya’s Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky; design by David Gee (Penguin Canada / August 2007)

Hope A Tragedy
Hope A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall (Riverhead Books / January 2012)

baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by SHOUT (Modern Library / October 2002)

9780141034324
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith; illustration by Despotica (Penguin / March 2008)

JOYLAND-Haunt-Hi_res
How I Came to Haunt My Parents by Natalee Caple; design by David Gee (ECW / May 2011)

hunger
Hunger by Lincoln Townley; design by Matt Johnson (Simon & Schuster / May 2014)

jaguars-eels
Jaguars and Electric Eels by Alexander Von Humboldt; design by David Pearson; illustration by Victoria Sawdon (Penguin / February 2007)

Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis
Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis by Robin Richardson; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (ECW / September 2013)

jamrachs-menagerie
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch; design by gray318 (Canongate / March 2011)

jungle-book
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling; design by Alice Stevenson (Penguin India / 2014)

leopard
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa; illustration by Hans Tillman (Vintage / September 2007)

TEARSoftheGIRAFFE_B2
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith; design by Mark Ecob (Abacus / August 2003)

me-and-the-devil
Me and the Devil by Nick Tosches; design by Keith Hayes (Little Brown & Co / December 2012)

9781594488078B
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi design by Helen Yentus with Jason Booher (Riverhead / September 2011)

978-0-7710-0833-7
Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood; design by Kelly Hill (McClelland & Stewart / September 2009)

natural-acts-fulbrook
Natural Acts by David Quammen; design by John Fulbrook III (W. W. Norton / May 2009)

9780865477735
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane; design by Charlotte Strick; illustration by Ariana Nehmad Ross (Faber & Faber / October 2013)

Layout 1
Off Course by Michelle Huneven; design by Rodrigo Corral; photograph by Gregori Maiofis (FSG / March 2014)

orphan-master
The Orphan Masters Son by Adam Johnson; design by Lynn Buckley (Random House / January 2012)

panther
Panther by David Owen; design by gray318 (Constable and Robinson / May 2015)

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Pastoralia by George Saunders; design by Rodrigo Corral (Riverhead / June 2001)


The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson; design by Matt Dorfman (Riverhead / December 2011)

sharp-teeth-dean
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow; design by Susan Dean; illustration Natasha Michaels (William Heinemann / August 2007)

short-history-bill-douglas
A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright; design by Bill Douglas (Anansi / October 2004)

9781447268963
Station Eleven by Emily  St. John Mandel; design by Nathan Burton (Picador / September 2014)

stories-ii
Stories II by T. C. Boyle; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / October 2013)

tattooed-soldier
The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar; design by Jim Tierney (Picador / October 2014)

tell-the-wolves
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt; Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich (Dial Press / June 2012)

this-book
This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes; design by Paul Buckley (Penguin / April 2007)

Tiger-in-Eden
Tigers in Eden by Chris Flynn; design by W.H. Chong (Text Publishing Co. / October 2013)

The Tiger's Wife-Tea Obreht
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht; design by James Paul Jones; illustration Wuon Gean Ho (Phoenix / March 2011)

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Tooth and Claw by T. C. Boyle; design by Paul Buckley (Penguin / September 2005)


The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland; design by Keith Hayes (Algonquin Books / May 2014)

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The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma; design by Alison Forner (Penguin / March 2014)

Wolves-tpb
Wolves by Simon Ings; design and Illustration by Jeffrey Alan Love (Gollancz / January 2014)

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Favourite Covers of 2012

For the past couple of years now (since Joseph Sullivan put the Book Design Review on ice in fact), I’ve been posting a short list of my favourite covers for books for the year. Now that thing for the New York Times is out of the way, I’m free to post my list for 2012.

To make a couple of very general observations about book design this year, the cover that probably made the greatest impact was Fifty Shades of Gray. It was a design that made it OK to read erotica in public, something which surely contributed to the book’s breakout success — a point not lost on other publishers who rushed to re-package their own erotica titles in a similar fashion. The results inevitably lacked the finesse of the original, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say…

But while the cover of Fifty Shades of Gray smartly defied the conventions of its genre, it wasn’t an exciting cover and some publishers seemed to be more conservative in their design choices, playing it safe or relying on formulas. The jacket for The Casual Vacancy could hardly have been more forgettable, and it was not alone. A bland sameness crept in. Perhaps that could be said every year. I suspect, however, that smaller budgets, tighter deadlines, and readers browsing thumbnails rather than shelves had an effect.

Nevertheless, some publishers were willing to trust their art directors and designers, and publish interesting and challenging covers. If I was to identify a common theme to my choices this year, it would be hand-drawn lettering and illustrated designs. With the ubiquity of stock photos and uninspired type-choices, that seems to be where the interesting things are happening, at least to my mind. Perhaps photographs will make a come back next year?

After Freud Left edited by John Burnham; designed by Isaac Tobin
University of Chicago Press

All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel; design by Jason Booher
Riverhead

El asenino hipocondríaco by Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel; design by Ferran López, illustration Santiago Caruso
Plaza & Janés


Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss by Philip Nel; design by Chris Ware
University Press of Mississippi

Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain; design by FUEL
Portobello Books

The Dubliners by James Joyce; design by Apfel Zet / Richard Bravery
Penguin Essentials, Penguin (UK)

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund
Knopf

A Free Man by Aman Sethi; design by Ben Wiseman
W.W. Norton

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood; illustration by Vania Zouravliov

Vintage Isherwood, Vintage (UK)

The Heart Broke In by James Meek; design by Jennifer Carrow; illustration by Michele Banks
Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Hope: A Tragedy: A Novel by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall
Riverhead

How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees; design by Christopher Brian King
Melville House

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson; design by Jonny Pelham
Hesperus Press

Husk: A Novel by Corey Redekop; design by David A. Gee

In Praise of Nonsense by Ted Hiebert; design by David Drummond
McGill-Queens University Press

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; design by Cardon Webb

Vintage (US)

Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson; design by Matt Dorfman
Riverhead

May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes; designed by Alison Forner
Viking

Men in Space by Tom McCarthy; design by John Gall
Vintage (US)

NW by Zadie Smith; designed by Gray318
Hamish Hamilton

Office Girl by Joe Meno; design by Cody Hudson, photograph by Todd Baxter
Akashic

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; design by Jessica Hische / Paul Buckley

Penguin Drop Cap, Penguin (US)

Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton; design Leanne Shapton / Matthew Young
Particular Books

Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon; design by Paul Sahre

Why We Build by Rowan Moore; illustration by Diane Berg
Picador (UK)

Honourable Mentions:

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You can find my lists for 2010 and 2011 here and here, and if you haven’t seen my 50 covers post from earlier this year, you can find that here. Happy Holidays!

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Favourite Covers of 2011

After posting my long overdue picks for 2010 last week, here are my selections for my favourite book covers of 2011.

I’m currently reading Where The Stress Falls a collection of writing by Susan Sontag published in 2001. In an essay about art she quotes Paul Valéry on the painter Corot. “One must always apologize for talking about painting” he says. I know just what he means. I feel the same way about book design. Perhaps even more than a painting, what you see is what you get with a book jacket. If you have to explain why it works, it probably doesn’t. Or you’re talking to the wrong crowd. But there’s something else too. I also feel like I need to apologize for not knowing more; for producing reductive lists like this one; for being, well, so presumptuous…

The 2011 list has changed a few times in the last few days and would likely be different again if you asked me tomorrow — not for lack of quality you understand, but simply because narrowing the list down to a manageable number and deciding which should be in the final ‘top 10’ was just plain hard. This isn’t a definitive survey of book covers in 2011 by any means (sorry!) it’s simply a list of the book jackets that caught my eye this year — designs I thought that were beautiful, a bit different, audacious, a bit out of the ordinary, a bit worthwhile…  I’m grateful to all the designers who created these covers, who gave me suggestions and helped me source the images. Once again, I’ve been struck by their generosity. Nevertheless I have surely I’ve missed some great covers. Tell me what they are in the comments.

10 Comments