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Tag: book covers 2018

ABCD Award Winners 2019

The winners of the 2019 Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) Awards were announced earlier this month and, as in previous years, the winners are an eclectic mix of styles. It is always interesting to see the covers that the designers themselves vote for. Only a couple of the winning designs have been featured here before. 

Young Adult


Run, Riot by Nikesh Shukla; design by Michelle Brackenborough (Hodder Children’s Books / June 2018)

Sci-fi/Fantasy


Folk by Zoe Gilbert; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury / July 2018)

Non-fiction


Money by Laura Whateley; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / October 2018)

Series Design

Miriam Toews; design Jonathan Pelham (Faber & Faber / September 2018)

Classics/Reissue


Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier; design by Hannah Wood; embroidery by Hand & Lock (Virago / February 2018)

Children’s 0-5


Helping Hen by Claudia Ripol and Yeonju Yang; design and illustration by Claudia Ripol and Yeonju Yang (Owl and Dog  Books / November 2018)

Children’s 6-12


The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf; design by Thy Bui; illustration by Pippa Curnick  (Orion Children’s Books / July 2018)

Literary Fiction


Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)

Crime/Thriller


That Old Black Magic by Cathi Unsworth; design by Leo Nickolls (Serpents Tail / March 2018)

Mass Market


When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri; design by Sinem Erkas (Piaktus Books / June 2018)

You can find my previous posts on the ABCD Award winners here: 2018; 201720162015 and 2014.

And while we’re on the subject of awards, the Australian Book Design Association have announced the shortlist for this year’s awards.

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The Rest of the Best 2018

Happy New Year!

Before we move on to new books for 2019, here are some of the better end-of-year lists that looked back at book cover design in 2018…   

Paste were out of the gate early with a list of the 18 best book covers of 2018. 

The folks at Spine left it until right before Christmas to post their 2018 Book Covers We Loved, but they did do a nice video with designer Holly Dunn, highlighting a few of their favourites from the list:

In the most eagerly awaited list, Matt Dorfman chose his 12 covers of the year for the New York Times (although whoever wrote the “We think you can judge a year by its book covers” subhed owes Matt an apology).  

The Literary Hub asked 27 designers to share their favorite book covers of the year and came up with a list of 75 “covers of note” (where have I heard that before?), including a couple of covers I didn’t see anywhere else, which is always a pleasant surprise. 

Vulture posted a list of their 10 favourite covers with commentary from the designers. 

And, drawing on the lists from LitHub and Paste (and some other guy), Jason Kottke posted a short but sweet list of book covers for the year that included a couple of my favourites, Cherry designed by Janet Hansen and Circe designed by Will Staehle

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Notable YA Covers of 2018

I have to apologize even more than usual for this year’s YA post. I’ve been rushing to get it done before the holidays and I have finally run out of time. But even though this list is far from definitive, there are still lots of great young adult (and one or two middle-grade) covers for you to peruse. Enjoy! 


Always Forever Maybe by Anica Mrose Rissi; design Erin Fitzsimmons (HarperTeen / June 2018)


And She Was by Jessica Verdi; design by Sara Wood (Scholastic / July 2018)


The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Will Staehle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2018)


The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Jack Noel (Simon and Schuster / October 2018)


Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi; design Richard Deas (Henry Holt / March 2018)


City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson; design by Dana Li (Speak / May 2018)


Clara Voyant by Rachelle Delaney; design by Jennifer Griffiths; illustration Christy Lundy (Puffin Canada / May 2018)


The Colors of the Rain by R. L. Toalson; cover art by C. S. Neal (Yellow Jacket / September 2018)


Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram; design by Samira Iravani; art by Adams Carvalho (Dial Books / September 2018)


Dread Nation by Justina Ireland; design by David Curtis; photography by Gustavo Marx (Balzer + Bray / July 2018)


Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi; design by Lizzy Bromley; illustration gg (Simon & Schuster / March 2018)


The Fates Divide by Veronica Roth; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Jeff Huang (Katherine Tegen Books / April 2018)


Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobia Laconis; cover art Lisa Perrin (Simon & Schuster / December 2018)


500 Words or Less by Juleah Del Rosario; design by Sarah Creech; illustration by Cannaday Chapman (Simon Pulse / October 2018)


The Forest Queen by Betsy Cornwell; cover art by Sarah J. Coleman (Clarion / August 2018)


A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena; design by Elizabeth H. Clark (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2018)

The Girl You Thought I Was by Rebecca Phillips; design Michelle Taormina and Alison Klapthor; Photograph by Marta Bevaqua (Harpercollins / July 2018)


Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay; design by David Curtis; illustration by Dadu Shin (HarperCollins / April 2018)


The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert; design by Jim Tierney (Flatiron Books / January 2018)


Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry; design by David Curtis (Katherine Tegen Books / August 2018)


I Am Thunder by Muhammad Khan; design by Rachel Vale (Pan Macmillan / January 2018)


Legendary by Stephanie Garber; design by Erin Fitzsimmons and Ray Shappell (Flatiron Books / May 2018) 


The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James; design David Curtis; illustration Amir Belhoula (HarperTeen / July 2018)


Meet Cute by Jennifer L. Armentrout et al; design Mallory Grigg; illustration by Nina Cosford (HMH / January 2018)


Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / May 2018)


Nice Try, Jane Sinner by Lianne Oelke; art and lettering by Colin Mercer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / January 2018)


Not the Girls You’re Looking For by Aminah Mae Safi; design by Liz Dresner; Photography by Michael Frost (Feiwel & Friends / June 2018)


People Like Us by Dana Mele; design by Maggie Edkins (Putnam / February 2018)


The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; illustration by Gabriel Moreno (Harper Teen / March 2018)


Pride by Ibi Zoboi; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell (Balzer & Bray / September 2018)


Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith; Design by Lucy Ruth Cummins; art by Mike Perry (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)


Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand; design by Aurora Parlagreco; illustration by Ruben Ireland (Katherine Tegen Books / October 2018)

  
Sadie by Courtney Summers; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Agata Wierzbicka (St. Martin’s Press / September 2018)


Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young; design by Kerri Resnick; illustration by Larry Rostant (Wednesday Books / April 2018)


Smoke and Mirrors by K. D. Halbrook; design Chloe Foglia; cover art by Karl James Mountford (Paula Wiseman Books / September 2018)


Le Projet Starpoint: Le Réveil des Adjinns by Marie-Lorna Vaconsin; design by Yeaaah Studio (La Belle Colère / October 2018)

The cover of the first book in the series, published last year, is also very nice:

      
A Stitch in Time by Daphne Kalmar; cover art by Karl James Mountford (St Martin’s Press / June 2018)


Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman; cover art by Simon Prades (Random House / February 2018)


Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles; design Marcie Lawrence; illustration by Charlotte Day (Little, Brown & Co / March 2018)


Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson; design by Corina Lupp; photography by  Michael Frost (Razorbill / May 2018)


A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi; design by Rodrigo Corral (HarperCollins / October 2018)


The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo; design by Elizabeth H. Clark (Farrar. Straus & Giroux / may 2018)


The Wrinkle in Time Quartet by Madeleine L’Engle; design by Kimberly Glyder (Library of America / September 2018)

Kimberly also designed the cover of The Polly O’Keefe Quartet, volume 2 of the Kairos novels, for Library of America:

The two volumes are available as a boxed set

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Book Covers of Note 2018

This has been an exhausting year for oh so, so many reasons, but book covers remained a bright spot for me in 2018. 

As always, my end-of-year list collects together the covers that I found interesting or noteworthy in some way or another in the past 12 months. It is organized alphabetically by title and grouped by designer (because that makes sense to me when I’m compiling the list). 

In terms of trends, there were a lot of hot orange book covers this year. Stark black, white and red covers were popular for non-fiction. Stars and stripes featured heavily too (I refuse to do a post about this!). Snakes seemed to be a thing!

Typographically, big white sans serifs are still a go-to. And hand-lettering and handwriting are still going strong. But retro typefaces, particularly big serifs with swishy swashes, are making a comeback. 

Thanks as always to everyone who has supported the blog this year, especially the folks who have taken the time to help with cover images and design credits. I’m sorry for the many, many the emails I have not replied to this year, and for all the covers, designers, and publishers I have overlooked. 


Aetherial Worlds by Tatyana Tolstaya; design by Stephanie Ross (Knopf / March 2018)

Stephanie Ross’s cover for Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Jane Sherron De Hart, published by Knopf in October, also caught my eye this year. 



Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)



America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo; design by Gray318 (Atlantic Books / May 2018)

Also designed by Gray318:

(I got to visit Jon in his studio this summer, which was nice.)



Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; design David Pearson (Penguin / June 2018)

Also designed by David Pearson:



The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration by Florian Schommer (Canongate / January 2018)



Born To Be Posthumous by Mark Dery; design by Jim Tierney; photograph by Richard Corman (Little Brown & Co. / November 2018)

Congratulations to Jim and Sara on the birth of their baby last month! 



Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)



Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

Also designed by Janet Hansen:



Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)

Also designed by Will Staehle:



Codex 1962 by Sjón; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / September 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Codex 1962 published by Sceptre, which features art by Owen Gent, is also beautiful.

Also designed by Rodrigo Corral Studio: 



The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)

Also designed by Rachel Willey:



The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2018)



Educated by Tara Westover; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Random House / March 2018)

Probably the most ubiquitous nonfiction book of the year (if not, in the end, the bestselling). Canada and the UK went with photographic covers. This was more memorable I thought. 



Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

Also designed by Na Kim:



he Fed and Lehman Brothers by Laurence M. Ball; design by Catherine Casalino (University of Cambridge Press / June 2018)

Also designed by Catherine Casalino:



The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)

I also really liked Ben Denzer’s typographic cover for A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson (Penguin Press / August 2018).



Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)



The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)



Fox 8 by George Saunders; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / November 2018)



Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)



Gun Love by Jennifer Clement; design by Michael Morris (Hogarth / March 2018)

Also designed by Michael Morris:



Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:



The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)

Also designed by John Gall:

(Don’t forget about the new book collecting 10 years of John Gall’s collages!)



The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / February 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover on Literary Hub



The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Alex Merto:



In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)

I read the US edition of In the Distance (Coffee House Press / 2017) earlier this year. It is quite extraordinary and not what I expected — a western, but not really. I was really pleased that Daunt decided to publish it in the UK. 

Also designed by Luke Bird:



The Island That Disappeared by Tom Feiling; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / March 2018)



The Italian Teacher by Tom Rachman; design by Jaya Miceli (Viking / March 2018)

Also designed by Jaya Miceli:



A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)



Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)

Also designed by Nicole Caputo:

The Gunners — a novel about a group of misfit friends reuniting at a funeral — was a favourite in my office this year. 



The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; design by Peter Mendelsund; photograph by Nan Goldin (Scribner / May 2018)

Also designed by Peter Mendelsund:



My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / April 2018)

I thought this was a nice contrast to the cover of the US edition designed by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2017). It’s interesting that only the cat’s ear makes an appearance, and the snake (a boa constrictor in the story I think?) is more prominent.  

Also designed by Anna Morrison:



No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)



Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)

Also designed by Jamie Keenan:



On Gravity by A. Zee; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / May 2018)



Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel; design by Tom Starr (Yale University Press / March 2018)



The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani; design by Julianna Lee (Penguin / January 2018)



The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)



She Wants It by Jill Soloway; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / October 2018)



The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)

Richard Ljoenes recently talked about designing covers for Alejandro Jodorowsky — the cover of Where the Bird Sings Best was on my 2016 notable list — with Spine Magazine



The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)

Also designed by Jack Smyth:



A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)



Swan Song by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott; design by Lauren Wakefield (Hutchinson / June 2018)



Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering; design Donna Cheng (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)

Crossing out is a thing.



Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier; design Dan Mogford (The Bodley Head / June 2018)

Also designed by Dan Mogford:



There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

You can read about the design of this cover at Spine Magazine.

Also designed by Suzanne Dean:



This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)

Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:


Tin Man by Sarah Winman; design by Grace Han ( G.P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2018)

Everyone should read Tin Man btw. It is sad and lovely.

Also designed by Grace Han:



Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver; design by Ami Smithson (Faber & Faber / October 2018)

This has rather fancy edges (and endpapers I believe):



The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn; design by Elsie Lyons (William Morrow / January 2018)

I also really liked Elisie Lyons’ glamorously noir cover for Sunburn by Laura Lippman (William Morrow / February 2018).

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Book Covers of Note November 2018

This is my last monthly round-up for 2018. Next month I’ll post my round-up for the year. I have to confess that I have not given the blog 100% of my attention of late, so if you think that there are covers I might’ve overlooked this year please feel to send them my way for consideration. 


Bitwise: A Life in Code by David Auerbach; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2018)


The Book of Beautiful Questions by Warren Berger; design by Tree Abraham (Bloomsbury / October 2018)


‘Broadsword Calling Danny Boy’ by Geoff Dyer; design Jim Stoddart (Penguin / October 2018)

The blackletter is similar, I believe, to the type used for the movie title / credits, and the chevrons are a nice reference to a design that appears in the movie. The Guardian reviewed the book last month if you are curious. (And someone in the UK needs to buy it for me as a Christmas present!)


The Deserters by Pamela Mulloy; design by David Drummond (Véhicule Press / September 2018)


Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

Na Kim designed the cover for Welcome Home by Lucia Berlin, also released this month, too:

The cover of the UK edition of Evening in Paradise was designed by Justine Anweiler I believe. Justine designed the wonderful cover for hardback of A Manual For Cleaning Women:


Feminasty by Erin Gibson; design by Anne Twomey; photograph by Ricky Middlesworth (Grand Central / September 2018)

Usually I’m a bit reluctant to post the covers of celebrity books, but this is pretty great.

Celebrity book covers are often look beautiful — the recent memoirs by Sally Fields and Michelle Obama come to mind — but often that’s because of a glamourous photograph. The designer’s job is just to get out of the way. That makes sense from a marketing point of view, it’s just not terribly interesting from a design perspective. This feels like it has a bit more to it somehow. Or maybe it’s just more fun…

That all said, I have started to see this kind of swashy retro type pop-up more frequently of late. A couple of recent examples that come to mind are the covers of All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church, designed by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate), and The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash designed by Allison Saltzman (Ecco):

I was also reminded of Kelly Winton‘s covers designs for the reissues of Black Swans and Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz from Counterpoint.

I would guess the fonts are Bodoni or variants thereof, but no doubt someone with a better eye for type will be able to tell us for sure.

UPDATE: Anna Morrison tells me the font she used for All the Beautiful Girls is Cabernet, which just goes to show what I know. According to the ever-useful Fonts in Use, Cabernet is “an uncredited revival of Benguiat Caslon, a 1970s Photo-Lettering typeface by Ed Benguiat.” I’m pretty sure Benguiat Caslon was used for the iconic Philip Roth covers in the 1970s so I probably should’ve recognized it…


The Feral Detective by Jonathan Lethem; design Allison Saltzman; photograph Kate Bellm (Ecco Press / November 2018)


Heavy by Kiese Laymon; design by Na Kim (Scribner / October 2018)


Hippie by Paulo Coelho; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / September 2018)

Is this the year of the orange cover…?


The Hole by José Revueltas; design by John Gall (New Directions / November 2018)

John Gall has a new book collecting 10 years of his collages out this month too.

You can read my 2011(!) Q & A with John about his collages here.  


Homeland by Walter Kempowski; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)

Dan also designed the cover for All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski a couple of years ago:


I Do Not Trust You by Laura J.Burns & Melinda Metz; design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Press / September 2018)

I had it in my mind that snaky red covers with big white type were very “in” for thrillers right now, but the only other example I could think of was the US cover for Our Kind of Cruelty by Araminta Hall designed by Alex Merto, which is really not that similar…

Perhaps I am imagining it.


The Library Book by Susan Orlean; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Simon & Schuster / October 2018)


Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design by Jamie Keenan (Granta / September 2018)

The US cover, which I featured in a previous post, was designed by Peter Mendelsund:


Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel; design by Anna Morrison (Puhskin Press / November 2018)


Portraits Without Frames by Lev Ozerov; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / November 2018)


The Son of Black Thursday by Alejandro Jodorowsky; design by Richard Ljoenes (Restless Books / November 2018)

Richard also designed the cover of Jodorowsky’s previous novel Where the Bird Sings Best:

And take a moment to check out Richard’s online portfolio, which is new I believe.


Wasteland by W. Scott Poole; design by Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / November 2018)


The Winters by Lisa Gabriele; design by Nayon Cho (Viking / October 2018)

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Book Covers of Note October 2018

Here are the book covers that caught my eye this month… 


Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage; design by Lisa Jager (Knopf Canada / August 2018)


The Boatbuilder by Daniel Gumbiner; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / May 2018)

This goes rather nicely with Sunra’s cover for the hardcover of All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews…


The Boneless Mercies by April Genevieve Tucholke; design by Elizabeth H. Clark; illustration by Will Staehle (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / October 2018)


The Death Scene Artist by Andrew Wilmot; design by Michel Vrana (Wolsak & Wynn / October 2018)

I guess skulls aren’t going out of fashion any time soon! 


‘Exterminate the Brutes’ by Sven Lindqvist; design by Luke Bird (Granta / October 2018)

One for the maps list


The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis; design by Pete Garceau (W. W. Norton / October 2018)

I feel like I should at least try to collect some of the best political covers from the past year or so together into a post at some point. On the other hand, I really don’t want to…  


Gin: Distilled by Gin Foundry; design by James Paul Jones (Ebury Press / October 2018)


The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran; design by Alex Merto (Atria Books / September 2018)


Nervous States by William Davies; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / September 2018)


No Country Woman by Zoya Patel; design by Astred Hicks (Hachette Australia / August 2018)


Océans by James Hyndman; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / September 2018)


Rabbit & Robot by Andrew Smith; Design by Lucy Ruth Cummins; art by Mike Perry (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)


Red Birds by Mohammed Hanif; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / October 2018)


Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand; design by Aurora Parlagreco; illustration by Ruben Ireland (Katherine Tegen Books / October 2018)


Something Great and Beautiful by Enrico Pellegrini; design by Gray318 (Other Press / September 2018)

I’m not entirely sure why, but cover of Something Great and Beautiful brought to mind the 2014 cover of the UK edition of The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, designed by Tom Darracott for Granta. They’re really not that similar, and yet… 


Son of Amity by Peter Nathaniel Malae; design by David Drummond (Oregon State University Press / October 2018)


Statistics Without Tears by Derek Rowntree; design by Matthew Young (Penguin / June 2018)


There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald; design by Grace Han (Riverhead Books / October 2018)

Are black and white stripes / op art having a moment in New York?  

Both these covers reminded me of Riverhead art director Helen Yentus’s black and white cover for The Stranger by Albert Camus: 


Wasted Calories and Ruined Nights by Jay Rayner; design by Dan Mogford (Faber & Faber / October 2018)

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Book Covers of Note September 2018

Lots of type-only covers, some YA, a couple of university presses, and a little bit of everything else in this month’s round-up.


2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke; design by La Boca (Sphere / August 2018)

It’s interesting to compare/contrast this with the Rodrigo Corral cover design for Space Odyssey by Michael Benson also published last month. 


Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber; design by Laywan Kwan (Galley / March 2018)


Back to Black by Kehinde Andrews; design by David Gee (ZED Books / September 2018)

This reminds me of another type-only gem from David:


Codex 1962 by Sjón; design by Rodrigo Corral (MCD / September 2018)

The cover of the UK edition of Codex 1962 published earlier this year by Sceptre takes a very different direction with stunning art by Owen Gent:


Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram; design by Samira Iravani; art by Adams Carvalho (Dial Books / September 2018)


The Doctor Stories by William Carlos Williams; design by Joan Wong (New Directions / September 2018)


The Fed and Lehman Brothers by Laurence M. Ball; design by Catherine Casalino (University of Cambridge Press / June 2018)


Fear by Bob Woodward; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)

White text on a red background is not new, and I suspect it has never gone out of fashion for mass-market thrillers, but it’s interesting to see it reemerge as a “serious book” cover trend. The Real Lolita cover was designed by Sara Wood


From Cold War to Hot Peace by Michael McFaul; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / May 2018)


Gone to Drift by Diana McCaulay; design by David Curtis; illustration by Dadu Shin (HarperCollins / April 2018)


Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey; design by Rachel Willey (Random House / August 2018)

Apparently we can’t get enough of the 1980s. This is essentially ‘The Night Begins to Shine’ rendered into a book cover (and if you don’t get that reference, I’m guessing you don’t have kids. And yes, I’m going to make you Google it)

Rachel also designed the retro cover for The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin for Henry Holt earlier this year:

 


Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)


Night Moves by Jessica Hopper; design by Amanda Weiss (University of Texas Press / September 2018)

This reminds me of Kyle G. Hunter’s cover for A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley which I featured earlier this year. Apparently I like blurry urban nightscapes!


Not Quite Not White by Sharmila Sen; design by Oliver Munday (Penguin / August 2018)


On the Other Side of Freedom by Deray McKesson; design by Matt Dorfman (Viking / September 2018)


Other People’s Love Affairs by D. Wystan Owen; design by David High / HighDzn (Algonguin / August 2018)


Ponti by Sharlene Teo; design by Tyler Comrie (Simon & Schuster / September 2018)


Pride by Ibi Zoboi; design Jenna Stempel-Lobell (Balzer & Bray / September 2018)


Sadie by Courtney Summers; design by Kerri Resnick; art by Agata Wierzbicka (St. Martin’s Press / September 2018)


Shutters by Ahmed Bouanani; design Oliver Munday (New Directions / July 2018)


Staying Power by Peter Fryer; design by David Pearson; illustration by Adam Busby (Pluto Press / September 2018)


Vox by Christina Dalcher; design by HQ Art Department Kate Oakley (HarperCollins / August 2018)

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Book Covers of Note August 2018

Good grief! We’re halfway through August! I suppose I’d better post some book covers… 


Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore by Emma Southon; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / August 2018)


All these Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth; design by Alicia Tatone (William Morrow / July 2018)


Certain American States by Catherine Lacey; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2018)


Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

One for the skulls on book covers list. (I haven’t updated this list in a while, but there are a few more here.)


Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford; design by Steve Leard (Oneworld / August 2018)


Four by Andy Jones; design by Patrik Svensson (Hodder & Stoughton / July 2018)


Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry; design by David Curtis (Katherine Tegen Books / August 2018)


Immigrant, Montana by Amitava Kumar; design Janet Hansen (Knopf / July 2018)


Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone; design by Derek Thornton/Faceout Studio (Lake Union / August 2018)

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Amazon’s Lake Union imprint is doing a scarily good job with their genre covers. 


A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / August 2018)


The Line That Held Us by David Joy; design by Michael Morris (G.P. Putnam’s Sons / August 2018)


This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga; design Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / August 2018)


Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus; design Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / August 2018)


Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin; design by Alex Merto (Scribner / May 2018)

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Hayley Warnham. And apparently rubber glove covers are a thing now, you freakin’ weirdos… 

The cover of The Trauma Cleaner was designed by W.H. Chong

The Reservoir Tapes by Jon McGregor; design by Strick&Williams (Catapult / August 2018)

This goes very nicely with the cover of the US edition of Reservoir 13 also designed by Strick&Williams:


Rust and Stardust by T. Greenwood; design by Olga Grlic (St. Martin’s Press / August 2018)


A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson; design by Ben Denzer (Penguin Press / August 2018)


The Stars Now Unclaimed by Drew Williams; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / August 2018)


A Superior Spectre by Angela Meyer; design by Design by Committee (Ventura / August 2018)

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Book Covers of Note, July 2018

Here are my book cover selections for July… 


Brooklyn Mom & Pop by Herb Lester Associates; design Amy Hood (Herb Lester Associates / July 2018)

Another very nice looking guide from the folks at Herb Lester. The question is, where are the guides to Canadian cities? 


Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftin; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / June 2018)


Charlotte Walsh Likes To Win by Jo Piazza; design by Zak Tebbal (Simon & Schuster / July 2018)  

In other news, hand-lettered covers aren’t going anywhere (and apparently underlining is a “thing”)…


Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Portobello Books / July 2018)


Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner /. July 2018)

The cover of the UK edition, published earlier this year by Picador, was designed by Katie Tooke. You can read about the design process for the UK cover here.


Florida by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / June 2018)

The cover of Groff’s 2015 novel Fates and Furies (also published by Riverhead) was designed by Rodrigo Corral and Adalis Martinez:


The Girl You Thought I Was by Rebecca Phillips; design Michelle Taormina and Alison Klapthor; Photograph by Marta Bevaqua (Harpercollins / July 2018)

Besides using a beautiful photograph, I get the sense this cover is very much on trend, and not just for YA — I’ve seen the cover of a thriller coming out this fall that also uses a close-cropped image of a woman’s face, a similar sans-serif type, and a warm sepia colour palette. 


Good Trouble by Joseph O’Neill; design by Janet Hansen (Pantheon / June 2018)


Gorse No.10 edited by Christodoulos Makris; design by Niall McCormack (July 2018)

All of Niall’s covers for Gorse are great. No.9 was featured in my November 2017 post:

Also, yellow-orange covers are clearly “in” right now…


A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings by Helen Jukes; design Helen Crawford-White (Scribner / July 2018)


In the Distance by Hernan Diaz; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2018)

One for the sideways covers list (I have kind of stop collecting these, but there are more here).

The cover of the US edition of In the Distance, published by Coffee House Press, features artwork by Jason Fulford.


I Will Be Complete by Glen David Gold; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2018)


The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon; design Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / July 2018)


Smile by Roddy Doyle; design and lettering by Nick Misani (Viking / October 2017)

OK, so I am very late to this one. I saw it last year and didn’t know who the designer was — I only found out this week when art director Jason Ramirez revealed that it was one of the TDC Communication Design Competition winners this year!


Sonic Youth Slept On My Floor by Dave Haslam; design Bekki Guyatt (Constable / May 2018)


Sweet Thames by Matthew Kneale; design by Alice Marwick (Atlantic Books / July 2018)


There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

The cover of the US edition, published by Knopf, is another Tyler Comrie design: 

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Book Covers of Note June 2018

Thanks to a combination of disk storage issues, the AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show, breaking my wrist, general anxiety, and utter despair at the latest round of horror, corruption and lies to the south, this month’s covers post is…well, late. Fuck it. Donate to a good cause. 1  


Aroused by Randi Hutter Epstein; design Zoe Norvell (W.W. Norton / June 2018)

One for the neon signs list.


Beyond Vision by Allan Jones; design David Drummond (McGill-Queen’s University Press / June 2018)


Calypso by David Sedaris; design by Peter Mendelsund (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2018)


Crudo by Olivia Laing; design Justine Anweiler; photograph Wolfgang Tillmans (Picador / June 2108)

There have been a number of covers making use of work by famous photographers in recent months. I think the risk of this approach is that the image overwhelms the text. If the photograph is so important, perhaps it is better to just to get out of the way and let it speak for itself? (If, ahem, the ‘interested parties’ will let you, of course!)  


He Is Mine and I Have No Other by Rebecca O’Connor; design Rafi Romaya; lettering by Oriol Miró Genovart (Canongate / June 2018)

Watch a video of Oriol Miró Genovart gilding one of the letters:


Here Kitty Kitty by Jardine Libaire; design Catherine Casalino (Hogarth / June 2018)


The Hospital by Ahmed Bouanani; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / June 2018)


Long Players by Peter Coviello; design Catherine Casalino (Penguin / June 2018)

A nice addition to this list.


My German Brother by Chico Buarque; design by Michael Morris (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2018)


The Outsider by Stephen King; design by Will Staehle (Scribner / May 2018)

This has such a great B-movie feel. 


A Stitch in Time by Daphne Kalmar; cover art by Karl James Mountford (St Martin’s Press / June 2018)


Ten Arguments For Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier; design Dan Mogford (The Bodley Head / June 2018)

The cover for the US edition, published by Henry Holt, was designed by Nicolette Seeback. For me, it’s made by the cat wrapping around the spine onto the back cover. Listing the ten arguments on the back is also a really nice touch.


We Begin Our Ascent by Joe Mungo Reed; design by Zak Tebbal (Simon & Schuster / June 2018)

(This really reminds me of something else, but I cannot think of what. It’s bugging me, so let me know if you have any suggestions)


Whistle in the Dark by Emma Healy; design Helen Crawford-White (Viking / May 2018)

The Canadian edition, published by Knopf Canada and designed by Leah Springate, takes a photographic approach. I think it’s a good example of how the Canadian market can be quite different from the UK (and the US)…

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Book Covers of Note May 2018


America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo; design by Gray318 (Atlantic Books / May 2018)

A great new entry in the books on book covers genre! 


Awayland by Ramona Ausubel; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / March 2018)


Be More Pirate by Sam Conniff Allende; design by Chris Bentham (Penguin Books / May 2018)

Related: I have a board of skull covers on Pinterest if that is your thing.


The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)


Exactly by Simon Winchester; design by Julian Humphries (William Collins / May 2018)

For some reason this reminded me of a Peter Mendelsund’s 2009(!) cover design for Vintage’s Foucault list. In reality, they don’t actually look that a like at all:


The Gloaming by Kirsty Logan; design Julia Connolly (Harvill Secker / April 2018)


The Honey Farm by Harriet Alida Lye; design by Zoe Norvell (Liveright / May 2018)

This fits both the ‘centred big white type‘ trend and the ‘type and flora‘ trend, but I still like it. 


Invasion by Peadar O’Guilin; cover art by Jeffrey Alan Love (David Fickling Books / March 2018)

Jeffrey also did a cover for The Call, the first book in this series,


It Needs To Look Like We Tried by Todd Robert Petersen; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)


The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / May 2018) 


A Lucky Man by Jamel Brinkley; design by Kyle G. Hunter (Graywolf / May 2018)

I have to confess that I’m including this partly because I recently had a conversation with a publisher about a street scene on a book cover. The publisher said the author insisted on using a specific photo, which always makes things difficult, but all the same, I felt the photo could be used more effectively. The cover for A Lucky Man isn’t fancy, but it does the job really well — while there is a sense of place and atmosphere (it may even be recognizable if you know the street?), there is also ambiguity that leaves it open to interpretation. The blue of the authors name echoes the blue of a sign in the photo, but it doesn’t over do it — it’s nicely understated. 


The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner; design by Peter Mendelsund; photograph by Nan Goldin (Scribner / May 2018)

Using a Nan Goldin photo feels like a bold choice — especially for one of the most anticipated books of the year. I don’t know… perhaps Goldin’s photos aren’t as controversial as they once were? It seems appropriate to me, but then I Goldin’s photography. I guess the cover of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihana used a photo by Peter Hujar…?

In any case, it’s quite different look from The Flamethrowers cover (designed by Charlotte Strick), and yet the compositions seem to echo each other (the horizontal bands of title — rectangular photo — author) when you place them side by side:

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D Jackson; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (Katherine Tegen Books / May 2018)


The National Debt by Martin Slater; design by Steve Leard (Hurst / May 2018)


On Gravity by A. Zee; design by Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / May 2018)


The Pisces by Melissa Broder; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / May 2018)


See What Can be Done by Lorrie Moore; design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / May 2019)

You can read about the process behind this cover on the Faber blog.


Sharp by Michelle Dean; design by Bekki Guyatt  (Little, Brown & Co. / April 2018)

The cover of the US edition published by Grove was designed by Gretchen Mergenthaler and Daniel Rembert, and features an illustration by Kathryn Rathke:


Tomb of the Unknown Racist by Blanche McCrary Boyd; design by Nicole Caputo (Counterpoint / May 2019)

Nicole’s recent covers for Counterpoint all work quite well together. It’s interesting that snaking curves — a worm, a road, an actual snake! — appears in the background of these three:


Why We Fight by Mike Martin; design by Steve Leard (Hurst / May 2018)

Clearly I have a thing for black, white and red covers this month! 

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Book Covers of Note April 2018

Here are April’s cover selections. Lots of very big type this month! 


Black Swans by Eve Babitz; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / April 2017)

This goes rather nicely with last year’s cover for Babitz’s novel Sex and Rage also designed by Kelly:


Brass by Xhenet Aliu; design by design Keith Hayes; photography by Nadine Rovner (Random House / January 2018)

Photographic covers have fallen out of favour for literary fiction of late, but I think this works beautifully.

I also like how it echoes Nathan Putens‘ earlier cover design for Aliu’s short stories Domesticated Wild Things, which makes use of a photograph by Helen Levitt.

The other interesting thing about the photograph selection is how much it reminds me of Keith Hayes own photography. You can follow him on Instagram.


Circe by Madeline Miller; design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co / April 2018)

The cover of Miller’s previous book The Song of Achilles was designed by Allison Saltzman:

The very pretty cover of the UK edition of Circe was designed by David Mann at Bloomsbury:


Death in Spring by Mercè Rodoreda; design by Chris Bentham (Viking / April 2018)


Dictator Literature by Daniel Kalder; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / April 2018)


The Earth Does Not Get Fat by Julia Prendergast; design by Alissa Dinallo (UWA Publishing / April 2018)


The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverheard Books / April 2018)

I like how the design for The Female Persuasion has bands of colour similar to those on Lynn Buckley’s cover design for The Interestings, but uses them in a completely different way

 


Hello It Doesn’t Matter by Derrick C. Brown; design by Zoe Norvell (Write Bloody / April 2018)


My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Anna Morrison (Pushkin Press / April 2018)

Oliver Munday‘s cover for My Cat Yugoslavia (published by Pantheon) featured in my May 2017 post:


Patient X by David Peace; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2018)

And on the subject of David Peace, Steve Panton has designed new covers for the Red Riding Quartet (1974, 1977, 1980 and 1983) published by Serpent’s Tail this month:


A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa; design by Rachel Adam Rogers (AmazonCrossing / January 2018)


Sit How You Want by Robin Richardson; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / April 2018)


Space Odyssey by Michael Benson; design by Rodrigo Corral (Simon & Schuster / April 2018)

Funnily enough, I was just discussing the prevalence of big and centred white sans serif type on contemporary book covers on Twitter. While it’s common (see the covers of The Female Persuasion and Hello, It Doesn’t Matter above!), it’s also effective when it’s done well. That said I did think that David Pearson — a designer well known for his typographic covers — made a good general point about big type:

In any case, if you are interested in seeing more examples of the ‘big white type’ phenomenon, I started a pinboard a while back. 


Waiting for Tomorrow by Nathacha Appanah; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / April 2018)


West by Carys Davies; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / April 2018)


The Wolf by Leo Carew; design by Patrick Insole (Wildfire / April 2018)

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