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Tag: Typography

Book Covers of Note, August 2022

I’m doing my best to catch up a little bit this month, but there’s no such thing as a quiet month in publishing any more. Just rest assured nobody knows what they’re doing — we’re just here for the chaos and romance…

Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / August 2022)

As It Turns Out by Alice Sedgwick Wohl; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

And kudos to Alex for not putting the author or the title — or any text at all! — on the cover (and getting away with it)…

Brother Alive by Zain Khalid; design by Jo Walker (Grove Press UK / August 2022)

Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / June 2022)

Even the Darkest Night by Javier Cercas; design by Jack Smyth (Knopf / June 2022)

The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking Canada / August 2022)

Kiki Man Ray by Mark Braude; design by Jaya Miceli (W.W. Norton / August 2022)

(Sorry about the image size — if anyone at Norton would like to send me a higher res version, I’ll be happy to update it!)

The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid; design by Ahlawat Gunjan (India Hamish Hamilton / August 2022)

You can listen to Ahlawat Gunjan talk about his life and work in this charming TEDx talk from 2020.

The typographic cover of the UK edition of The Last White Man, also published by Hamish Hamilton this month, was designed by Chris Bentham.

The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti; design by Etta Voorsanger-Brill (Harvill Secker / June 2022)

The cover of the US edition, published by HarperVia, was designed by Alicia Tatone:

Mother Noise by Cindy House design by Catherine Casalino (Scribner / May 2022)

Sharp Edges by Leah Mol; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Doubleday Canada / August 2022)

Till the Wheels Come Off by Brad Zeller; design by Alban Fischer (Coffee House Press / July 2022)

You can read about Alban’s process for this cover at Spine Magazine.

We Move by Gurnaik Johal; design by Jack Smyth (Serpent’s Tail / April 2022)

Pink and orange — and pink and orange combinations — are definitely a thing at the moment.

Whatever Happened to the C86 Kids? by Nige Tassell; design by Steve Leard (Bonnier Books / August 2022)

Yoga by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, June 2022

Today is wretched and plain. And it is not the bottom, as many people may feel it is. It will get worse; we will go lower. As the Court’s dissent insists, correctly, ‘Closing our eyes to the suffering today’s decision will impose will not make that suffering disappear.

And so, with all this laid out, ugly and incontrovertible, the task for those who are stunned by the baldness of the horror, paralyzed by the bleakness of the view, is to figure out how to move forward anyway.

Because while it is incumbent on us to digest the scope and breadth of the badness, it is equally our responsibility not to despair.

These two tasks are not at odds. They are irrevocably twined. As Dahlia Lithwick wondered just a few weeks ago, after the massacre in Uvalde, another clear and awful day: ‘What does it mean, the opposing imperative of honoring the feeling of being shattered, while gathering up whatever is left to work harder?’

It means doing the thing that people have always done on the arduous path to greater justice: Find the way to hope, not as feel-good anesthetic but as tactical necessity.

Rebecca Traister, ‘The Necessity of Hope’, The Cut

Here are this month’s book covers…

After the Lights Go Out by John Vercher; design by Alex Merto (Soho Press / June 2022)

I’m not quite sure this image does justice to just how pink this pink is. (I love this cover)

Asylum by Edafe Okporo; design by Ryan Raphael (Simon & Schuster / June 2022)

A Calm & Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / June 2022)

Chéri and the End of Chéri by Colette; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / May 2022)

Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley; design by June Park (MCD / June 2022)

The Fight to Save the Town by Michelle Wilde Anderson; design by Henry Sene Yee (Avid Reader Press / June 2022)

Horse by Geraldine Brooks; design by Lynn Buckley (Viking / June 2022)

I have stopped keeping track of Lydian covers but if anyone else is still keeping score…

Jerks by Sara Lippmann; design by Ian Anderson (Mason Jar Press / March 2022)

This cover kept catching my eye on social media. Thanks to Sara for confirming the design credit.

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / June 2022)

For my art history friends, I believe the painting is “Agnus Dei” by Spanish Baroque artist Francisco de Zurbarán.

IIRC the cover of Moshfegh’s novel My Year of Rest and Relaxation was designed by Darren Haggar. The painting is by French Neoclassical artist Jacques-Louis David.

A Little Piece of Mind by Giles Paley-Phillips; design by Tree Abraham (Unbound / June 2022)

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / June 2022)

Is pink the new orange?

Paradais by Fernanda Melchor; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2022)

Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown Spark / June 2022)

Walk the Vanished Earth by Erin Swan; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Viking / May 2022)

Ways of Being by James Bridle; design by Pablo Delcan; illustration by Jon Han (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2022)

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Book Covers of Note, May 2022

I compile these posts over the month and then write this bit at the end if I have anything to say. I really don’t have the words at the moment. Posting about the most superficial of subjects feels faintly ridiculous at the end of yet another awful week. But here we are. I am just going to refer you to Wednesday’s Today in Tabs and say that there a lot of really nice covers this month if you are need of distraction…

Appliance by J. O. Morgan; design by the author (Jonathan Cape / May 2022)

City of Orange by David Yoon; design by Eric Fuentecilla (G. P. Putnam’s Sons / May 2022)

Elektra by Jennifer Saint; design by Joanne O’Neill (Flatiron Books / May 2022)

The cover of Ariadne by Jennifer Saint, also designed by Joanne O’Neill, was on my Notable list last year.

The cover of the UK edition of Elektra, published by Headline imprint Wildfire last month, was designed by Micaela Alcaino who recently won Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards.

España by Giles Tremlett; design by Jessie Price; art by Oscar Dominguez (Head of Zeus / April 2022)

The type is apparently Ohno Blazeface if you are curious.

Finding Me by Viola Davis; design Stephen Brayda; photograph by AB+DM (HarperOne / April 2022)

The Illusion of Simple by Charles Forrest Jones; design by Derek Thornton / Notch Design (University of Iowa / May 2022)

Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough; design by Juliana Lee (William Morrow & Company / April 2022)

I like the wobbly type.

The Life of Crime by Martin Edwards; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / May 2022)

I was reminded of Jon Gray‘s cover for Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco from what seems like ages ago (2010)… Of course they look nothing alike. I had completely forgotten the pen was at jaunty angle.

Linea Nigra by Jazmina Barrera; design by Gabriele Wilson (Two Lines Press / May 2022)

Losing Face by George Haddad; design Josh Durham (University of Queensland Press / May 2022)

Mean Baby by Selma Blair; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Peggy Sirota (Knopf / May 2022)

I don’t post a lot of celebrity memoirs here, but I thought these were an interesting pair to compare and contrast. Similar but different…

My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley; design by Jack Smyth (Granta / May 2022)

Vladimir by Julia May Jonas; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / May 2022)

This made me think of Rafqa Touma’s piece for The Guardian earlier this year, ‘Well-dressed and distressed: why sad young women are the latest book cover trend’.

An Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie; design by Jack Smyth (Headline / April 2022)

The Premonitions Bureau by Sam Knight; design Jack Smyth (Faber & Faber / May 2022)

A very Saul Bass / Vertigo vibe to this.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel; design by Abby Weintraub (Knopf / April 2022)

I think this is possibly my favourite of the recent Emily St. John Mandel covers.

Sedating Elaine by Dawn Winter; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2022)

The endless possibilities of a banana and sharpie… (the cover of Come On Up was designed by the multi-talented Roman Muradov)

Son of Elsewhere by Elamin Abdelmahmoud; design by Jennifer Griffiths (McClelland & Stewart / May 2022)

The cover of the US edition was designed by Rachel Ake Kuech using a illustration by Grant Haffner. The difference between how Canada represents Canada and how the US represents Canada is…. interesting.

Big vertical light leaks might also be a thing… (Freedomland designed by Henry Sene Yee for Cornell University Press)

This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / May 2022)

True Biz by Sara Novic; design by Jack Smyth (Little, Brown / April 2022)

Apparently this is Jack Smyth month on the blog…

You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead; design by Kelly Blair; illustration by Toby Leigh (Knopf / May 2022)

The cover of the UK edition, published by Doubleday, was designed by Irene Martinez:

I picked a lot of orange covers this month. I did say it was a thing.

The combination of pink and orange maybe a thing within the thing…?

A speaking of pink and orange…

You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Anna Morrison (Faber and Faber / May 2022)

The cover of the US edition, published by Atria, was designed by Laywan Kwan.

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Book Covers of Note, April 2022

We’ve almost made it to the end of April, so that’s something. Thanks to Daniel Benneworth-Gray for the mention earlier this month. It surely means I’m about to disappoint a large number of people — if I have not, in fact, already done so — but I hope you find something you like here…

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan; design by Jamie Keenan (Scribner / April 2022)

Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes; design by Suzanne Dean (Jonathan Cape / April 2022)

I believe the Elizabeth Finch cover also comes in yellow, but I wasn’t able to find a hi-res image. If anyone wants to send it over, I’ll be happy to add it.

The jacket also comes in yellow, which feels very on trend to me and the blue and yellow look lovely side by side. Thank you to Suzanne for taking the time to send over the image of the yellow version.

Suzanne also sent over an image of the boards for those of you curious to see what is under the jacket, peeking through the die-cuts. The gorgeous photograph is from René Groebli’s photoessay The Eye of Love.

This is the problem with seeing covers/jackets primarily online. You rarely get to appreciate these finer details. This must be a beautiful book to hold and unwrap.

But going back to cut-out circles/semi-circles for a moment. They reminded of Olga Kominek‘s cover design for The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing edited by Hannah Dawson published last year.

And I have been trying to recall what both these covers remind me of. Possibly ‘Composition of Circles and Semicircles‘ by abstract artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp?

End of the World House by Adrienne Celt; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / April 2022)

A House Between Earth and the Moon by Rebecca Scherm; design by Colin Webber; image by Maciej Toporowicz (Viking / April 2022)

Like Animals by Eve Lemieux; design by Michel Vrana; illustration Saul Herrera (Rare Machines / April 2022)

Inspired by Basquiat presumably?

My Face in the Light by Martha Schabas; design by Kate Sinclair (Knopf Canada / April 2022)

Pandora’s Jar by Natalie Haynes; design Milan Bozic; illustration by Laura Anastasio (Harper Perennial / March 2022)

(Special thanks to Caro for identifying the designer and illustrator)

Poguemahone by Patrick McCabe; design by Mark Ecob (Unbound / April 2022)

Post-Traumatic by Chantal V. Johnson; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown and Co. / April 2022)

Feeling the international typographic style influence this month…

The Red Zone by Chloe Caldwell; design Michael Salu (Soft Skull Press / April 2022)

Their Four Hearts by Vladimir Sorokin; design by Alban Fischer (Dalkey Archive Press / April 2022)

The Void Ascendant by Premee Mohamed; design by James Paul Jones (Solaris / April 2022)

This is the third book in the ‘Beneath the Rising’ trilogy.

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart; design by Christopher Moisan; photograph by Kyle Thompson (Grove Press / April 2022)

The cover of the UK edition published by Picador features a photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans. The design is by Stuart Wilson.

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Book Covers of Note, March 2022

A short and sweet post this month.

Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire; design by Kishan Rajani; illustration by Natalie Osborne (Chatto & Windus / March 2022)

The black and white illustration and pink type reminded me of the US cover for Fight Night by Mirian Toews, designed by Patti Ratchford with an illustration by Christina Zimpel, from last year.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler; design by Tal Goretsky (G.P. Putnam’s Sons / March 2022)

If you’d asked me to guess sight-unseen, I would’ve 100% said this was designed by someone else. It just goes to show that designers are talented, versatile people and I know nothing (NOTHING).

Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Kristine Moran (Riverhead / March 2022)

Nice to feature a contemporary Canadian artist here.

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams; design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink / March 2022)

Further evidence that “big faces” are a thing?

The cover of the US edition of The Doloriad was designed by Thom Colligan.

A Guerrilla Guide to Refusal by Andrew Culp; design by Matt Avery / Monograph (University of Minnesota Press / March 2022)

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / March 2022)

Ami Smithson knocking it out of the park with this and the cover for New Animal by Ella Baxter featured in last month’s post.

Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes by Nicky Beer; design by Mary Austin Speaker; art by Dane Shue (Milkweed / March 2022)

The art feels like a perfect match here for the second half of the title.

Reptile Memoirs by Silje Ulstein; design by Carmen Balit (Grove Press UK / March 2022)

The cover of the US edition of Reptile Memoirs, which has more of a film noir feel, was designed by Michel Vrana:

Run and Hide by Pankaj Mishra; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / March 2022)

Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby; design and illustration by Lydia Ortiz (Penguin Books / January 2022)

Unfinished Spirit by Rowena Kennedy-Epstein; design Henry Sene Yee (Cornell University Press / March 2022)

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Len Deighton Penguin Modern Classics

I am very, very late to this, but Penguin are in the process of reissuing Len Deighton’s thrillers as Modern Classics with new covers by Jim Stoddart inspired by Raymond Hawkey’s original paperback designs.

There are a lot more titles available now (Len Deighton wrote a lot of books!), but you can read more about the first wave of reissues in this Creative Review article from last year, and I’ve posted a few of my favourite covers below.

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Notable YA Covers of 2021

These posts are such a last minute scramble I don’t usually offer much in the way of commentary. It is hard to ignore, however, how many of my selections this year are illustrated. This may be a reflection of my personal preferences. Certainly, it isn’t new. As I mentioned in my look back at the year’s adult covers, the trends in 2021 felt very much like a continuation of the previous couple of years. Even so, I was struck by the sophistication and the range of YA illustrations this year. There are some illustrators whose work appears here more than once, but I don’t get the sense that there is a dominant style across category. It seems to depend very much on the specifics of the genre and the age range of the readership. That said, there is, perhaps, a common theme of ornate detail and decoration.

I am also finding it harder to differentiate between covers for more mature YA readers and adult covers of the same genre these days. If the cover blurbs and other identifiers (“A Novel”) didn’t give it away, the combination of the typography, colour palette, and the apparent age of the protagonist depicted used to give me a clue. Now it seems to me that there is a blurring of the lines, and I’ve had to check a couple of times recently to be sure of the intended readership age. I’d be curious to know if this is intentional on the part of publishers.

Anyway, there are some fantastic covers this year. Buzzfeed has a really decent list with design and illustration credits too if you’re looking for a second opinion (not that they need any clicks from me!). You can find my 2020 list here if you are interested.

Happy New Year!

All Of Us Villains by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman; design by Will Staehle (Tor Teen / November 2021)

Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu; design by Kerri Resnick (Roaring Brook Press / October 2021)

Before We Disappear by Shaun David Hutchinson; design by Jessie Gang; illustration by Valentina Remenar (Harperteen / September 2021)

Black Birds in the Sky by Brandy Colbert; art and design Natasha Cunningham (Balzer & Bray / October 2021)

Cazadora by Romina Garber; design by Kerri Resnick; illustation by Daria Hlazatova (Wednesday Books / August 2021)

The cover of Lobizona was on last year’s list:

City of Rust by Gemma Fowler; design by Steve Wells; illustration by Karl James Mountford (Chicken House / March 2021)

The Coming Storm by Regina M. Hansen; cover art by Tran Nguyen (Atheneum Books for Young Readers / June 2021)

Dark Rise by C. S. Pacat; design by Laura Mock; illustration by Magdalena Pagowska (Quill Tree Books / September 2021)

Drawn That Way by Elissa Sussman; design by Sarah Creech; lettering and illustration by art lettering Francesca Protopapa (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / September 2021)

Dustborn by Erin Bowman; design by Mary Claire Cruz; illustration by Matt Griffin (Clarion / April 2021)

Aside from generally being a terrific SFF illustrator, I believe Matt Griffin illustrated the cover of Ace Books’ deluxe hardcover edition of Dune by Frank Herbert a couple of years ago, so he seems like an inspired choice here.

The Falling Girls by Hayley Krischer; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Sarah Maxwell (Razorbill / October 2021)

Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado; design by Chelsea Hunter; illustration Ericka Lugo (Holiday House / February 2021)

Fire with Fire by Destiny Soria; design by Mary Claire Cruz; illustration by Viv Tanner (Clarion / June 2021)

The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley; design by Richard Deas; illustration Moses Lunham (Henry Holt & Company / March 2021)

(Sorry — I couldn’t find a cover image without the roundel. If anyone at Macmillan would like to send me one, I’ll be happy to replace it)

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur; illustration Pedro Tapa (Feiwel & Friends / April 2021)

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna; design Ray Shappell; cover art by Tarajosu (Delacorte Press / February 2021)

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao; design by Talia Abramson; illustration Ashley Mackenzie (Penguin Teen / September 2021)

Lies Like Wildfire by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez; design by Casey Moses; cover art Mishko (Delacorte / September 2021)

Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann; design by Rachel Vale (Macmillan Children’s Books / January 2021)

The cover of the US edition, published by ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) in February, was designed by Aurora Parlagreco with an illustration by Sally Nixon. I like it a lot too. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the UK and US markets.

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride; design and illustration by Richard Deas (Feiwel & Friends / August 2021)

Muse by Brittany Cavallaro; design by David Curtis; illustration by Florian Schommer (Katherine Tegen Books / February 2021)

Namesake by Adrienne Young; design by Kerri Resnick; photograph by Sveltana Belyaeva (Wednesday Books / March 2021)

Fable, the other half of this cover, was published in September 2020 and featured in last year’s YA cover round-up.

Oculta by Maya Motayne; design by Aurora Parlagreco and Jenna Stempel-Lobell; art by Mark Van Leeuwen (Balzer & Bray / April 2021)

The cover of Nocturna, the previous book in the series, was featured in my 2019 YA round-up.

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

Red Wolf by Rachel Vincent; design Alice Wang; illustration Dan Burgess (Harperteen / July 2021)

The River Has Teeth by Erica Waters; design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell; illustration by Chervelle Fryer (Harperteen / July 2021)

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim; design Alison Impey; cover art by Tran Nguyen; lettering by Alix Northrup (Alfred A. Knopf BYR / July 2021)

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen; cover art by Jeff Manning (Random House BYR / November 2021)

Smoke by Darcy Woods; design Ray Shappell; lettering and photography Agustina Gastaldi Ferrario (Crown BYR / June 2021)

Soul Lanterns by Shaw Kuzki; design Carol Ly; illustration Shoko Ishida (Delacorte / March 2021)

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow; design David Curtis (Tordotcom / October 2021)

(I’m not sure that this is actually YA technically speaking, but it fits better on this list than the other one)

Terciel & Elinor by Garth Nix; design David Curtis; illustration Ashley Mackenzie (Katherine Tegen Books / November 2021)

The Theft of Sunlight by Intisar Khanani; cover art Jenny Zemanek (Harperteen / March 2021)

This goes very nicely with the cover of Thorn, the author’s previous book, published in hardcover last year.

This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron; design by Jet Purdie; illustration by Raymond Sébastien (Bloomsbury YA / June 2021)

This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry; design David Curtis (Katherine Tegen Books / January 2021)

Tides of Mutiny by Rebecca Rode; design Leo Nickolls (Jimmy Patterson / September 2021)

The Verdigris Pawn by Alysa Wishingrad; design by Laura Mock ; illustration Júlia Sardà (HarperCollins / July 2021)

Yes, this is middle-grade and not YA, but I really like the lettering and I love Júlia Sardà’s illustrations so I’m allowing it.

When You Look Like Us by Pamela N. Harris; design David Dewitt; illustration Shane Ramos (Quill Tree Books / January 2021)

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood; design Kerri Resnick; illustration Palesa (Wednesday Books / October 2021)

(Another cover image with a roundel. Apologies. At least it is somewhat less obtrusive here.)

Yolk by Mary H. K. Choi; design Lizzy Bromley; cover art by gg (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers / March 2021)

The covers of Emergency Contact and Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi designed by Lizzy Bromley with art by gg have featured in previous year’s lists.

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Notable Book Covers of 2021

Earlier this year, a Canadian magazine asked me what the latest trends in book cover design were. I don’t think I had a very satisfactory answer. 2021 felt very much like a continuation of 2020, which itself felt like a year on hold.

The trends that came to mind were not exactly new. In no particular order: big faces (big sunglasses!); cropped faces; hands; mouths; postmodern typefaces;1 big skies; rainbows; gradients; the colour orange; psychedelia; collage; contemporary painting.

A lot was made of “blob” covers this year. I’m not sure that anything has really changed since Vulture published this article about “blocky” covers in 2019. They seemed like much the same thing.

Design is about the constraints and, as it turns out, the constraints around designing commercial literary fiction covers that have to work just as well online as in bookstores can lead to similar design solutions — large, legible type, and bright, abstract backgrounds. 2 The surprising thing is not that a few covers look the same when you squint; it’s that more of them don’t.  

There were a lot of good covers (that didn’t look alike) in 2021. LitHub posted 101 of them. Still, it didn’t exactly feel like a vintage year.

Do I say that every December? Possibly.

A few years ago I worried that covers were moving in a more conservative direction, particularly at the big publishers. I’m not sure this has come to pass, at least not in the US. There are plenty of covers from the big, prestigious American literary imprints in this year’s list, as there were last year, and every year before that. 

There are fewer covers from the UK in this year’s list than in previous years though, and I feel less confident about the situation there. From a distance, things seem a little sedate. I may be mistaken. It’s quite possible I haven’t see enough covers — or perhaps enough of the right ones — from British publishers to get a good sense of the overall picture.3

It would not be a surprise, however, if publishers were feeling a little risk-averse at the moment. We are two years into a global pandemic, experiencing a major supply chain issues, and living through a seemingly endless series of sociopolitical crises.

Nor would it be a surprise if designers were personally feeling the effects too — I’m not sure we are talking about this enough, and I’m not sure I know how to.

Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog in 2021. It means a lot. Here are this year’s book covers of note…

After the Sun by Jonas Eika; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer; art by Dorian Legret (Riverhead / August 2021)

Amoralman by Derek Delgaudio; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2021)

Also designed by John Gall:

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

Greg Heinimann talked to Creative Review about his work in April.

Are You Enjoying? by Mira Sethi; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2021)

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint; design by Joanne O’Neill (Flatiron Books / May 2021)

Also designed by Joanne O’Neill:

he Art of Wearing a Trench Coat by Sergi Pàmies; design by Arsh Raziuddin and Oliver Munday (Other Press / March 2021)

The Atmospherians by Alex McElroy; design by Laywan Kwan (Atria / May 2021)

Black Village by Lutz Bassmann; design by Anne Jordan (Open Letter / December 2021)

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris; design by Gregg Kulick (Little Brown and Company / September 2021)

Come On Up by Jordi Nopca; design by Roman Muradov (Bellevue Literary Press / February 2021)

Consent by Vanessa Springora; design by Stephen Brayda; art by Rozenn Le Gall (Harpervia / February 2021)

Stephen Brayda talked about his design for Consent with Spine Magazine.

Also designed by Stephen Brayda:

The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen; design by Na Kim (FSG / January 2021)

Na Kim talked to PRINT about her career and the designs for the Ditlevsen series in February. If, like me, you were wondering about typeface on the covers, it’s Prophet from Dinamo apparently.

Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner; design by Na Kim (Knopf / April 2021)

Also designed by Na Kim:

Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson; design by Jaya Miceli; art by Jeremy Miranda (Scribner / August 2021)

Dead Souls by Sam Riviere; design by Jamie Keenan; paper engineering and photography by Gina Rudd (Weidenfeld & Nicholson / May 2021)

Also designed by Mr. Keenan:

The Delivery by Peter Mendelsund; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / February 2021)

Also designed by Alex Merto:

Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters; design by Rachel Ake Keuch (One World / January 2021)

Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller; design by Anna Kochman; illustration by Mike McQuade (One World / January 2021)

Double Trio by Nathaniel Mackey; design by Rodrigo Corral and Boyang Xia (New Directions / April 2021)

Falling by T. J. Newman; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / July 2021)

Also designed by David Litman:

Fight Night by Mirian Toews; design by Patti Ratchford; illustration by Christina Zimpel (Bloomsbury / October 2021)

Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor; design by Luke Bird (Daunt Books / June 2021)

Also designed by Luke Bird:

Foucault in Warsaw by; design Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Open Letter / June 2021)

God of Mercy by Okezie Nwọka; design Sara Wood (Astra House / November 2021)

Sara Wood talked about her design for God of Mercy with Spine Magazine.

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / October 2021)

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

Like Me by Hayley Phelan; design Emma Dolan (Doubleday Canada / July 2021)

Living in Data by Jer Thorp; design by Rodrigo Corral; art by Andrew Kuo (MCD / May 2021)

The Making of Incarnation by Tom McCarthy; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / November 2021)

Matrix by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / September 2021)

Mona by Pola Oloixarac; design by Thomas Colligan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2021)

Mother for Dinner by Shalom Auslander; design by Jack Smyth (Picador / February 2021)

Jack Smyth talked to Totally Dublin about his work earlier this year.

Also designed by Jack Smyth:

Mrs Death Misses Death by Salena Godden; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / January 2021)

Nectarine by Chad Campbell; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / May 2021)

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder; design by Emily Mahon (Doubleday / July 2021)

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / February 2021)

Also designed by Lauren Peters-Collaer:

O by Steven Carroll; design by Gray318 (HarperCollins Australia / February 2021)

Also designed by Gray318:

If you’re wondering about the Super-Seventies Sally Rooney typeface, it is Ronda designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnese (I only know because I asked).

Once More With Feeling by Sophie McCreesh; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2021)

On Time and Water by Andri Snær Magnason; design Zoe Norvell (Open Letter / March 2021)

Outlawed by Anna North; design by Rachel Willey (Bloomsbury / January 2021)

Paradise by Lizzie Johnson; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / August 2021)

La Part des Chiens by Marcus Malte; design by David Pearson (Editions Zulma / April 2021)

Also designed by David Pearson:

The Plague by Albert Camus; design by Sunra Thompson (Knopf / November 2021)

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz; design by Anne Twomey (Celadon Books / May 2021)

Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro; design by Gabriele Wilson (Two Lines Press / February 2021)

Gabriele Wilson talked about her cover design for Rabbit Island with Spine Magazine.

Gabriele Wilson is doing some lovely work for Two Lines Press:

Red Island House by Andrea Lee; design by Tristan Offit (Scribner / March 2021)

The Removed by Brandon Hobson; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Ecco / February 2021)

The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate; design Chelsea McGuckin (Atria / August 2021)

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

Summerwater by Sarah Moss; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2021)

Virtue by Hermione Hoby; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead / July 2021)

This Weightless World by Adam Soto; design by Tyler Comrie (Astra House / November 2021)

Also designed by Tyler Comrie:

Thank you to everyone who has supported the blog in 2021. It means a lot.

  1. I am not convinced that the term “postmodern” quite captures what I mean here (and/or worse, implies something different in the context of typography), but it’s the best I’ve got. I’m not talking about the kind of experimental typography you might associate with the likes of Wim Crouwel or Emigre, or the aesthetic of someone like David Carson. What I am trying to get at is idiosyncratic type that purposely exaggerates or plays with letterforms, and doesn’t conform to function-first modernism. To my mind, this would include some typefaces from the 1960s and 70s, as well as some more contemporary type. In a sense what I am describing is display faces — and I think the eclectic, innovative use of type in Victorian advertising might be an inspiration to designers here — but I don’t think it is just about size.
  2. an alternative solution is what Australian designer John Durham, AKA Design by Committee, memorably referred to as the “lost dog poster school of cover design”.
  3. I don’t want to jinx it, but are Canadian covers getting more adventurous?
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Book Covers of Note, October 2021

This will be the last of the monthly cover round-ups for 2021 because I have to turn my attention to the year as a whole, but there are some really top-notch covers in this month’s post so it feels like a good place leave off…

Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Kom’Boa Ervin; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / October 2021)

Bewilderment by Richard Powers; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Random House Canada / October 2021)

Burntcoat by Sarah Hall; design by Jo Walker (Faber & Faber / October 2021)

Concepcion by Albert Samaha; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / October 2021)

Cultish by Amanda Montell; design by Joanne O’Neill (Harper Wave / June 2021)

Empty Wardrobes by Maria Judite de Carvalho, translated by Margaret Jull Costa; design Gabriele Wilson (Two Lines Press / October 2021)

God of Mercy by Okezie Nwọka; design Sara Wood (Astra House / November 2021)

I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / October 2021)

The cover of the UK edition, publishing next year I believe, was designed by Jack Smyth:

Jacket Weather by Mike DeCapite; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull / October 2021)

I was reminded of the cover of The Empty Chair by Bruce Wagner designed by Gregg Kulick from what seems like an age ago (2013 I think?) . It’s very possible I have been doing this for too long…

Machete by Tomás Q. Morín; design by Braulio Amado (Knopf / October 2021)

The Making of Incarnation by Tom McCarthy; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / November 2021)

This seems like a reasonable excuse to post Peter Mendelsund’s cover designs for the two previous novels by Tom McCarthy…

The cover of the UK edition of The Making of Incarnation, published last month by Jonathan Cape, was designed by Mario de Meyer:

My Best Mistake by Terry O’Reilly; design by David Gee (HarperCollins Canada / October 2021)

North by Brad Kessler; design by David Drummond (Harry N. Abrams / October 2021)

Two Canadian designers doing the big magical sky thing to great effect!

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino; design by Joanne O’Neill; art by Paul Mann (Harper / November 2021)

Joanne O’Neill also designed the cover of the mass market paperback edition released earlier this year.

Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit; design by Gray318 (Viking / October 2021)

The Third Unconsciousness by Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi; design by Erik Carter (Verso / October 2021)

I love that the cover had to include “Bifo” in inverted commas.

Virtue by Hermione Hoby; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead / July 2021)

This Weightless World by Adam Soto; design by Tyler Comrie (Astra House / November 2021)

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Book Covers of Note, September 2021

A big, messy post this month as I catch up on the new releases and some of the covers I missed over the summer. I expect the next couple of month’s might be a bit like this as I work towards my round-up of the year, so feel free to let me know about stuff that you think I’ve overlooked in 2021.

The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2021)

The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate Books / September 2021)

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris; design by Gregg Kulick (Little Brown and Company / September 2021)

The China Room by Sunjeev Sahota; design by Tyler Comrie (Viking / July 2021)

Disorientation by Ian Williams; design by Lisa Jager (Random House Canada / September 2021)

The Hunter and the Old Woman by Pamela Korgemagi; design by Alysia Shewchuk (House of Anansi / August 2021)

King Richard by Michael Dobbs; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / May 2021)

Tyler Comrie also designed the cover of The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs. I like how the covers look related without looking the same.

Last Words on Earth by Javier Serena; design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter / September 2021)

Matrix by Lauren Groff; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / September 2021)

The cover of the UK edition was designed by Henry Petrides. He wrote about his process for SPINE.

Once More With Feeling by Sophie McCreesh; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2021)

Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson; design Jennifer Griffiths (Doubleday Canada / August 2021)

The sweeps of paint brought to mind the snake on Anna Morrison‘s cover for the Pushkin Press edition of My Cat Yugoslavia from a couple of year’s ago…

Red Milk by Sjón; design by Natalie Chen; illustration by Owen Gent (Sceptre / May 2021)

The UK cover of CoDex 1962 by Sjón also features artwork by Owen Gent.

The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate; design Chelsea McGuckin (Atria / August 2021)

Something Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman; design by Emma Pidsley (Fourth Estate / August 2021)

The cover of the US edition was designed by Donna Cheng.

Songs for the Flames by Juan Gabriel Vásquez; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / August 2021)

Stranger to the Moon by Evelio Rosero; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / September 2021)

For some reason, I was reminded of this saucy Jacob Covey cover, which I thought was killed in favour of something more (ahem) traditional, but it still exists on Amazon, so who knows? (Jacob probably knows; I do not).

The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish; design by Linda Huang (Knopf / September 2021)

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More Jacket and Spine

Design by Anna Morrison

Following on from my post about Jack Smyth earlier this month, I didn’t realise that the interview with Totally Dublin was part of a short series of Q & As with Irish book cover designers (I am not the brightest).

Anna Morrison and Sarahmay Wilkinson, both of whose work has featured here, and Fiachra McCarthy and Graham Thew, whose work is new to me, also answered the magazine’s questions about their design process.

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Jack Smyth: Jacket and Spine

Irish designer Jack Smyth, whose work has featured here more than a few times, talked to Totally Dublin about his process for designing book covers:

The best briefs are the ones that give you everything you need but prescribe nothing, and are genuinely trying to achieve something new… When I’m working on fiction, tone is the thing that really interests me. I think trying to capture the tone of the author’s writing can be a really powerful way of communicating with the viewer and, as a result, I often try to avoid leaning too much specific imagery. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but I do always try to keep tone/the author’s voice as the main directive element. I think this is what makes or breaks a book for a reader, not necessarily the location, any element or makeup of characters… I try not to rely on figurative elements too much in the hope that I can draw people in in more subtle ways.

Jack also recently chatted to The Resting Willow blog about book covers, including his design Pure Gold by John Patrick McHugh:

The cover is quite simple – it’s type and colours and textures, but hopefully it captures the tone of John’s voice and the character of the stories. I think these are my favourite types of covers, the ones where there’s almost no figurative elements, but they feel right.

Nice work, Jack. :-)

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