Tag: book covers 2014

Published August 14, 2014

Book Cover Design is a Fine Art

It used to be enough for a book to idly stand out in a bookstore. Nowadays, however, new books must jostle for attention with everything. Thousands of distractions are just a click away. Is it any wonder that book-cover design is more important than ever?

In today’s Globe and Mail, I talks about recent trends in book cover design and pick a few of my favourite covers from the year so far. If you live in Canada you can find a lovely-looking print version of the article in the Arts pages.

Comments closed

Published August 5, 2014

Book Covers of Note August 2014

Here is this month’s selection of recently noted covers:

2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino; design by Christopher Brand (Crown August 2014)

The Bend of the World by Jacob Bacharach; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton May 2014)

Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall by Will Chancellor; design by Richard Ljoenes (Harper July 2014)

Butterflies in November by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir; design by Nathan Burton (Pushkin Press June 2014)

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker August 2014)

(See the U.S. Cover here)

The Girls from Corona del Mar by Rufi Thorpe; design by Abby Weintraub (Knopf July 2014)

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

Happy are the Happy by Yesmina Reza; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker July 2014)

The Liar’s Wife by Mary Gordon; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon August 2014)

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury August 2014)

Preparing the Ghost by Gavin Frank; design by Ben Wiseman (W. W. Norton August 2014)

The Reef by Iain McCalman; design by Oliver Munday (Scientific American May 2014)

The Removers by Andrew Meredith; design by Evan Gaffney (Scribner July 2014)

Spin by Clive Veroni; design by WAX (House of Anansi August 2014)

Unspeakable Things by Laurie Penny; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury July 2014)

We Are Called To Rise by Laura McBride; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster June 2014)

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund; design by Peter Mendelsund (Vintage August 2014)

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Riverhead August 2014)

5 Comments

Published July 9, 2014

Book Covers of Note July 2014

As well posting great cover designs for books released in July, I’ve taken this month’s round-up as an opportunity to catch up on a few I missed earlier this year. Enjoy!

adam
Adam by Ariel Schrag; design by Christopher Moisan (Mariner June 2014)

american-blonde
American Blonde by Jennifer Niven; design by Sara Wood (Plume July 2014)

9780307594792
The Arsonist by Sue Miller; design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf June 2014)

California by Edan Lepucki; design Julianna Lee (Little Brown & Co. July 2014)

Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubois; design Eileen Carey / photograph by Kniel Synnatzschke (Random House May 2014)

cubed
Cubed by Nikil Saval; design by Oliver Munday (Doubleday April 2014)

fourth-july-creek
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson; design by Allison Saltzman, cover art Bryan Nash Gill (Ecco June 2014)

9780374158613
Friendship by Emily Gould; design by Jennifer Carrow (FSG July 2014)

gottland-300dpi
Gottland: Mostly True Stories from Half of Czechoslovakia by Mariusz Szczygiel; design by Christopher King (Melville House May 2014)

how-to-be-danish
How To Be Danish by Patrick Kingsley; design by Andrew Smith (Atria February 2014)

9780670786107
A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain by Adrianne Harun; design by Kristen Haff (Penguin February 2014)

the-martian
The Martian by Andy Weir; design by Eric White (Crown February 2014)

8128E2fJSjL
Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey; design by Charlotte Strick; illustration by Patrick Leger (FSG Originals, July 2014)

no-country
No Country by Kalyan Ray; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster June 2014)

My Fellow Skin

Shutterspeed by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Marcel by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

My Fellow Skin / Shutterspeed / Marcel by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press July 2014)

Night Film by Marisha Pessl; design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant (Random House July 2014)

out-of-time
Out of Time by Lynne Segal; design by David A. Gee (Verso July 2014)

panic
Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya; design by Helen Yentus / Photograph by Emine Ziyatdinova (Riverhead July 2014)

string

The String Diaries by Stephen Lloyd Jones; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books July 2014)

dueling-neurosurgeons
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean; design by Will Staehle (Little, Brown & Co. May 2014)

Comments closed

Published June 2, 2014

Book Covers of Note June 2014

Well, this seems to have become a regular thing doesn’t it? I have to confess that I still haven’t quite figured out exactly what covers to include in these monthly posts, only that they’re recent and I like them. It’s even harder to decide what to leave out. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this month’s selection. Leave your thoughts in the comments…
9780374100360
Abroad by Katie Crouch; design by Rodrigo Corral (FSG June 2014)

Archetype by M. D. Waters; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume June 2014)

empathy-exams
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison; design by Tom Darracott (Granta June 2014)

Foxes-on-the-trampoline
Foxes on the Trampoline by Charlotte Boulay; design Steve Attardo (HarperCollins April 2014)

falling-out-of-time-kelly-blair Falling Out of Time by David Grossman; design by Kelly Blair (Jonathan Cape February 2014)

9780670016785B
Half Bad by Sally Green; design by Tim Green / Faceout Studio (Viking March 2014)

Iceland-sahre The Iceland by Sakutaro Hagiwara; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions June 2014)

lullaby
The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk; design by Alex Merto, photograph Eleanor Hardwick (Spiegel & Grau February 2014)

mount-london Mount London by Tom Chivers & Martin Kratz; design by Ben Anslow (Penned in the Margins May 2014)

Outlaws Outlaws by Javier Cercas; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury June 2014)

Nightwork
Night Work by Jáchym Topol; design by Bobby Evans / Telegramme Studio (Portobello Books May 2014)

secret-world-of-oil The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso May 2014)

The Sick Rose or; Disease and the Art of Medical Illustration by Richard Barnett; design by Daniel Streat / Barnbrook Studios (Thames & Hudson June 2014)

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

thirty-girls Thirty Girls by Susan Minot; design by Kate Gaughran (4th Estate February 2014)

the-vacationers The Vacationers by Emma Straub; design by Janet Hansen (Riverhead May 2014)

7 Comments

Published May 13, 2014

Book Covers of Note May 2014

Another month, another selection of beautiful book covers…

The Axeman’s Jazz by Ray Celestin; design by Jo Thomson (Mantle May 2014)

The Bees by Laline Paull; design by Steve Attardo (Ecco May 2014)

DorothyMustDie
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige; design by Ray Shapell (HarperCollins April 2014)

Enlightenment 2.0 by Joseph Heath; design by David A. Gee (HarperCollins April 2014)

Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves; design by Matthew Young (Penguin May 2014)

Karate-Chop
Karate Chop by Dorthe Nors; design by Carol Hayes (Graywolf February 2014)

Lunch at the Shop: The Art and Practice of the Midday Meal by Peter Miller; design by John Gall (Abrams April 2014)

one-and-only
The One and Only by Emily Giffin; design by Jennifer Heuer (Ballantine May 2014)

The Other Language by Francesca Marciano; design by Ben Wiseman (Pantheon April 2014)

Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) by Jane McAlevey; design by Gray318 (Verso Books May 2014)

Vanishing by Gerard Woodward; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador UK March 2014)

Young Skins: Stories by Colin Barrett; design by James Paul Jones (Jonathan Cape March 2014)

2 Comments

Published April 7, 2014

Recent Book Covers of Note April 2014

accidental-universe
The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman; design by Pablo Delcán (Pantheon January 2014)

9781447254225
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi; design by Jo Thomson (Picador March 2014)

9781594631399B
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi; design by Helen Yentus (Riverhead March 2014)

9781594205798

Chop Chop by Simon Wroe; design by Ben Wiseman (Penguin April 2014)

danish-dynamite-steve-leard
Danish Dynamite: The Story of Football’s Greatest Cult Team by Rob Smyth, Lars Eriksen & Mike Gibbons; design by Steve Leard (Bloomsbury April 2014)

dept-of-speculation-gray-318
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill; design by Gray318 (Granta March 2014)

9781555976712
The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf April 2014)

exception

L’Exception by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma April 2014)

David’s cover design for Rosa Candida by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (Éditions Zulma March 2011) is also stunning.

mistakes-i-made-at-work
Mistakes I Made at Work edited by Jessica Bacal; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume April 2014)

quand-pépin
Quand j’étais l’Amérique by Elsa Pépin; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ April 2014)

Resurrection by Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House January 2014)

The cover for next book in the series, Come, Sweet Death! (Melville House July 2014), is great too.

there-goes-gravity-alex-merto
There Goes Gravity: A Life in Rock and Roll by Lisa Robinson; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead April 2014)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Comments closed

Published March 13, 2014

Recent Covers of Note March 2014

9781408857229
The Arsonist by Sue Miller; design by Greg Heinimann

barcelona-shadows
Barcelona Shadows by Marc Pastor; design by Clare Skeats

beauty
Beauty by Frederick Dillen; design by Christopher Lin

Mabey Dreams
Dreams of the Good Life by Richard Mabey; illustration by Millie Marotta; design Samantha Johnson / Coralie Bickford-Smith

fantomes_fument_c1
Les fantômes fument en cachette by Miléna Babin; design by David Drummond

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue; design by Katie Tooke; illustration Emma Farrarons

give-me-everything-you-have
Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun; design by Julia Connolly

9780374175344
The Improbability Principle by David J. Hand; design by Oliver Munday

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan

13068415704_287b75914a_b
The New New Thing by Michael Lewis; design by Darren Haggar

on-the-reproduction-of-capitalism
On the Reproduction of Capitalism by Louis Althusser; design by Neil Donnelly

9780374209148-gabriele-wilson
The Orchard of Lost Souls by Nadifa Mohamed; design by Gabriele Wilson

swan-gondola-9781780744902
The Swan Gondola by Timothy Schaffert; design by Alex Merto

9781250039569
The Trip to Echo Spring by Oliva Laing; design by Henry Sene Yee

why-we-took-the-car-design-allison-colpoys
Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf; design by Allison Colpoys

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

3 Comments

Published February 27, 2014

Recent Covers of Note February 2014 Edition

It’s almost March and I’ve just realised that I haven’t posted very many book covers this year. To make up for this lapse, here are ten of my favourite covers from the last few months:

all-our-names
All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña