Books, Design and Culture
These illustrations by Gino Bud Hoiting for the cover story of the June 5 edition of Volkskrant Magazine about (if I’ve understood correctly!) an attempt to steal a writer’s manuscript are fabulous. The stripes bring Paul Rand to mind (via Cover Junkie).
2 CommentsHere’s this month’s look at the book covers that have caught my attention recently. Lots of fiery orange for some reason. Perhaps it is a thing?
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser; design by Mark Abrams (Vintage / May 2021)
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint; design by Joanne O’Neill (Flatiron Books / May 2021)
The don’t look that similar side by side, by I was reminded of Will Staehle‘s 2018 cover for Circe by Madeline Miller, and the UK cover of the more recent Sistersong by Lucy Holland, designed by Melissa Four (I’m fairly sure I’ve seen an orange/red version of the Sistersong cover. Perhaps it was an ARC?).
The 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)
Dead Souls by Sam Riviere; design by Jamie Keenan; paper engineering and photography by Gina Rudd (Weidenfeld & Nicholson / May 2021)
I thought David Drummond had maybe done a cover similar to this, but I couldn’t find one. David does like neutral backgrounds and cutting type though!
Double Trio by Nathaniel Mackey; design by Rodrigo Corral and Boyang Xia (New Directions / April 2021)
This is a 3 volume box set and all of the covers are spectacular…
Fault Lines by Emily Itami; design by Holly Ovenden (Orion Books / May 2021)
The cover of the US edition of Fault Lines, available this fall, was designed by Mumtaz Mustafa using a photograph by Tsuguaki Abe.
Featherweight by Mick Kitson; design by Helen Crawford-White (Canongate / May 2021)
Living in Data by Jer Thorp; design by Rodrigo Corral; art by Andrew Kuo (MCD / May 2021)
When I first saw this cover I immediately thought there was some kind of link to Josef Albers ‘Homage a Square’ series, but nobody else seems to have mentioned it, so perhaps it is coincidental? Is that possible? I should probably pick up the book!
The Mission House by Carys Davies; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / February 2021)
Mona by Pola Oloixarac; design by Thomas Colligan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2021)
Monsters by Alison Croggon; design by Daniel New (Scribe / March 2021)
Nectarine by Chad Campbell; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / May 2021)
The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz; design by Anne Twomey (Celadon Books / May 2021)
A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes; design by Gill Heeley (Canongate / February 2021)
Gill Heeley also designed the cover of the UK hardback edition of the book published last year…
Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen; design by Chip Kidd (Knopf / May 2021)
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Chip Kidd cover on the blog. This guy has promise!
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Canadian designer Steve St. Pierre has returned with a new set of “fictional book covers for unwritten memoirs”.
You can see some of Steve’s covers from the original 2016 ‘Jacket Everyday’ project, sadly no longer online, here.
Comments closedA bit of a bumper post this month with a ton great covers, lots of old friends, a couple of designers that are new to me, and maybe an early contender (or two) for the ‘best of the year’ list.
As You Were by David Tromblay; design by Matthew Revert (Akashic / February 2021)
Benjamin’s Crossing by Jay Parini; design by Perry De La Vega (Anchor / February 2021)
Britain Alone by Philip Stevens; design by Johnny Pelham (Faber & Faber / January 2021)
Cigarette Nation by Daniel J. Robinson; design by David Drummond (McGill Queens University Press / February 2021)
I haven’t posted enough of David’s covers lately. They are always fun. I was struggling to think what this one reminded me of. I’m wondering if it’s maybe Raymond Hawkey’s black and white cover designs for Len Deighton? Or something from Pelican / Penguin in the 1970s?
Come On Up by Jordi Nopca; design by Roman Muradov (Bellevue Literary Press / February 2021)
Comic Timing by Holly Pester; design by David Pearson (Granta / February 2021)
The Delivery by Peter Mendelsund; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / February 2021)
Gerta by Kateřina Tučková; design by Kimberly Glyder (Amazon Crossing / February 2021)
A History of What Comes Next by Sylvain Neuvel; design by Henry Sene Yee (Tordotcom / February 2021)
The cover of the UK edition publishing early next month was designed by Jess Hart.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones; design by Lucy Kim (Little Brown and Co. / February 2021)
Mother for Dinner by Shalom Auslander; design by Jack Smyth (Picador / February 2021)
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood; design Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead Books / February 2021)
The cover of the UK edition, published this month by Bloomsbury, was designed by Greg Heinimann.
Rachel Willey’s design for Patricia Lockwood’s memoir Priestdaddy is still one of my favourite covers of recent years (hard to believe it is from 2017!).
O by Steven Carroll; design by Gray318 (HarperCollins Australia / February 2021)
100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell; design by Na Kim (MCD / February 2021)
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson; design by Gray318; photographs by Campbell Addy and Regan Cameron (Viking / February 2021)
Rabbit Island by Elvira Navarro; design by Gabriele Wilson (Two Lines Press / February 2021)
The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott; design by Na Kim; art by Kate MccGwire (FSG Originals / February 2021)
The Removed by Brandon Hobson; design by Elizabeth Yaffe (Ecco / February 2021)
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniz Iczkovits; design by Janet Hansen; illustration by The High Road (Schocken Books / February 2021)
What would you call this background colour? Light brown? Dark beige? Anyway, it seems to be a thing. We could probably include As You Were cover here too, although it doesn’t have the red-orange accent colour.
The Witch’s Heart by Genevieve Gornichec; design by Adam Auerbach (Ace Books / February 2021)
Your Story, My Story by Connie Palmen; design by Kimberly Glyder (Amazon Crossing / January 2021)
Comments closedI didn’t blog much this year. It felt strange to be posting about something as trivial as book covers during a deadly pandemic. 2020 has been a tough year. I feel lucky that my family are safe and well, and I have kept my job and my health. I know others have not been so fortunate.
It has been hard.
I haven’t read much and I’ve struggled to keep track of new work. Toronto has been in lockdown for most of 2020. Browsing bookstores hasn’t been possible, and I didn’t spend as much time as usual trawling for covers online. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of covers in this year’s post are featured here for the first time.
Looking back at last year’s post, I was apparently feeling gloomy about the state of things in 2019 too.1 If I remember correctly, I was — in the midst of everything — trying to get through sales conference, wrap up a big project before the holidays, and feeling more than a little stressed. Somehow I still managed to write a little bit about the trends I was seeing. A few things — painterly covers for example — seem to have continued into 2020. Lydian certainly hasn’t gone away. It felt so common, in fact, I stopped keeping track of individual examples. On the other hand, I did see less Avant Garde for which I am quietly grateful (although I’m not sure that’s a popular sentiment).
At The Literary Hub, Emily Temple declared 2020 to be “the year of enormous pink lady faces on book covers.” While at Spine Magazine, Viki Hendy collected together examples of covers with type around the edges. I don’t know that I have a lot to add that. There were a few new meta, books on book covers this year, which is always a delight. And I think perhaps collage might be having a moment too, which is fun. Although we may be overdoing the half-face compositions.
There is, of course, a lag. Trends always bleed over from one year to the next. One of this year’s “big books”, Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, which featured a bright and bold cover designed by Vi-An Nguyen, was published in the US on December 31, 2019. A lot of 2020 books have been delayed until 2021. But I wonder how the changes in the way we work and consume brought on by the pandemic — designing in isolation for an audience that is now browsing predominantly online — will change things in the next couple of years. Will we see more experimentation or less? Will there be demand for beautiful tactile objects, or will we more fully embrace digital reading experiences? There’s a lot to ponder…
Anyway, thanks to all the folks who have supported the Casual Op this year and encouraged me to keep it going. I’m sorry that I have not responded to all the emails I have received. I’m going to try to be a bit better with that in future. Hopefully there have been some silver linings for you in 2020, and you can still find some joy in a few good book covers…
Afterland by Lauren Beukes; design by Lauren Wakefield (Penguin / July 2020)
Also designed by Lauren Wakefield:
The Age of Skin by Dubravka Ugresic; design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter / November 2020)
Also designed by Jack Smyth:
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui; design by Holly Ovenden (Viking / August 2020)
Also designed by Holly Ovenden:
Analogia by George Dyson; design by Tom Etherington; illustration by Andy Bridge (Allen Lane / August 2020)
Also designed by Tom Etherington:
Anger by Barbara H. Rosenwein; design by Alex Kirby (Yale University Press / July 2020)
Also designed by Alex Kirby:
The Art of War by Sun Tzu; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton / January 2020)
Also designed by Jaya Miceli:
Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham; design Nicole Caputo (Catapult / February 2020)
Also designed by Nicole Caputo:
Nicole talks about book covers and her design process in this video for Belletrist from earlier this year.
The Book of Eels by Patrick Svensson; design by Allison Saltzman; illustration by Grady McFerrin (Ecco / May 2020)
Also designed by Allison Saltzman:
Carry by Toni Jensen; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Carmi Grau (Ballantine / September 2020)
Also designed by Emily Mahon:
Cesare by Jerome Charyn; design by Elsa Mathern (No Exit Press / November 2020)
Companions by Katie M. Flynn; design by Laywan Kwan (Scout Press / March 2020)
The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro by Fernando Pessoa; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / July 2020)
You can find a recent interview with Peter at InsideHook, and he has a big new book out called The Look of the Book with David J. Alworth.
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2020)
Also designed by Grace Han:
Los Falcón by Melissa Rivero; design by Adalis Martinez (Vintage Espanol / April 2020)
Sadly, Adalis unexpectedly passed away in July 2020. I only knew Adalis through her work, but she is such a huge a loss to our community. There is a GoFundMe page if you wish to donate to her family.
Also designed by Adalis Martinez:
Figure It Out by Wayne Koestenbaum; design by Michael Salu (Soft Skull Press / May 2020)
Also designed by Michael Salu:
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / October 2020)
Also designed by Janet Hansen:
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor; design Jamie Keenan (New Directions / March 2020)
Also designed by Jamie Keenan:
Hysteria by Jessica Gross; design by Jaya Nicely (Unnamed Press / August 2020)
Also designed by Jaya Nicely:
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / October 2020)
The Hype Machine by Sinan Aral; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / September 2020)
Indelicacy by Amina Cain; design by June Park (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2020)
Also designed by June Park:
Insomnia by John Kinsella; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / November 2020)
Also designed by Sarahmay Wilkinson:
Lakewood by Megan Giddings; design by Stephen Brayda; art by Yulia Bas (Amistad / March 2020)
Also designed by Stephen Brayda:
Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford; design by Lucy Kim; photograph by Pari Dukovic (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
Also designed by Lucy Kim:
Ledger by Jane Hirshfield; design by John Gall (Knopf / March 2020)
Also designed by John Gall:
You can find a short interview with John in which he discusses his cover for Red Pill at Bear Books, and you can read about his design process for Weather by Jenny Offill at Spine Magazine.
The Light Ages by Seb Falk; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2020)
Is it just me, or were star charts on book covers a bit of thing this year?
Life of a Klansman; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Matt Buck (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
Also designed by Rodrigo Corral:
Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin; design by Na Kim (Riverhead / May 2020)
Also designed by Na Kim:
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / May 2020)
Moss by Klaus Modick; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2020)
Alban recently talked to the folks at Faceout Books about his design for Moss, and you can read about his design process for Four By Four by Sara Mesa at Spine Magazine.
Also designed by Alban Fischer:
Natural History by Carlos Fonseca; design by Pablo Delcan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)
Notes from an Apocalypse by Mark O’Connell; design by Matthew Young; art by Joe Webb (Granta / April 2020)
Of Color by Jaswinder Bolina; design by Jude Landry (McSweeney’s / June 2020)
Oligarchy by Scarlett Thomas; design by Kelly Winton (Counterpoint / January 2020)
On the Road by Jack Kerouac; design by Moker Ontwerp (De Bezige Bij / July 2020)
The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / July 2020)
You can read about Stephanie’s design process for The Party Upstairs at Spine Magazine.
Pew by Catherine Lacey; design by Luke Bird (Granta / May 2020)
Also designed by Luke Bird:
Prosper’s Demon by K. J. Parker; design by Christine Foltzer; art by Sam Weber (Tor / January 2020)
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue; design by Sara Wood (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
Also designed by Sara Wood:
Rendang by Will Harris; design by David Pearson (Granta / February 2020)
Also designed by David Pearson:
Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson; design by David Litman (Soho Press / July 2020)
Also designed by David Litman:
Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran; design Henry Sene Yee (Flatiron Books / April 2020)
Also designed by Henry Sene Yee
Soot by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / February 2020)
The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter; design Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / November 2020)
Also designed by Tyler Comrie:
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner; design by Gray318 (Granta / September 2020)
Also designed by Gray318:
Too Much by Rachel Vorona Cote; design by Jennifer Carrow (Grand Central / February 2020)
Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey; design Sinem Erkas (Serpent’s Tail / February 2020)
You can read about Sinem’s design process for Topic of Conversation at Spine Magazine.
Untold Night and Day by Bae Suah, translated by Deborah Smith; design by Suzanne Dean; photograph Marta Bevacqua (Jonathan Cape / January 2020)
Also designed by Suzanne Dean:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2020)
Verge by Lidia Yuknavitch; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / February 2020)
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings; design by Kimberly Glyder (Scribner / January 2020)
Also designed by Kimberly Glyder:
A quick update for August…
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui; design by Holly Ovenden (Viking / August 2020)
Analogia by George Dyson; design by Tom Etherington; illustration by Andy Bridge (Allen Lane / August 2020)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2020)
Must I Go by Yiyun Li; design by Gray318 and Richard Bravery (Hamish Hamilton / August 2020)
The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor Tobar; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Matt Buck (MCD / August 2020)
Life of a Klansman; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
I believe this illustration is also by Matt Buck.
Luster by Raven Leilani; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
Moss by Klaus Modick; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2020)
The New American by Micheline Aharonian Marcom; design Dave Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2020)
Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)
Sisters by Daisy Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean; photograph Simon Kerola (Jonathan Cape / August 2020)
The cover of the US edition of Sisters, published by Riverhead this month, was designed by Jaya Miceli. The painting is by Jeremy Olson. (Thank you to the folks on Twitter who helped me with this!)
You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador / August
Comments closedDavid Pearson has designed three new covers for the Penguin editions of Albert Camus’ novels The Plague, The Outsider, and The Fall. The typeface is apparently Portrait, designed by Berton Hasebe for Commercial Type, and the covers are printed on Colorplan Dapple embossed paper from G. F. Smith. The new editions were published July 30, 2020.
And here we are… This month’s collection of book covers and occasional notes…
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)
The cover of the US edition of Antkind, published by Random House this month, was designed by Tyler Comrie.
In the Beggarly Style of Imitation by Jean Marc Ah-Sen; design by Charlotte Gray; photograph by Ally Schmaling (Nightwood Editions / April 2020)
(Because I am of a certain age, this cover immediately made me think of Lady Miss Kier and her shoes in the video for ‘Groove is in the Heart’)
Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch; design by Janet Hansen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2020)
The End of Everything by Katie Mack; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / July 2020)
The Englishman by David Gilman; design by Ben Prior (Head of Zeus / July 2020)
Fraternity by Benjamin Nugent; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering by Michael Schmelling (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)
Lampedusa by Steven Price; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / February 2020)
Last One Out Shut Off the Lights by Stephanie Soileau; design by Lucy Kim; photograph by Marc St. Gil (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
Maybe someone has done this before and I didn’t notice (or, more likely forgotten), but it’s great to see a photograph from the EPA’s remarkable DOCUMERICA Project — available through the US National Archives on Flickr — on a book cover.
Natural History by Carlos Fonseca; design by Pablo Delcan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)
I love this cover. It reminded me Peter Mendelsund’s bonkers cover for C by Tom McCarthy:
On Nostalgia by David Berry; design by Raymond Biesinger (Coach House Books / July 2020)
The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / July 2020)
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue; design by Sara Wood (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
The cover of the UK edition, published this month by Picador, was designed by Ami Smithson:
Putin’s People by Catherine Belton; design by Chris Allen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2020)1
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / July 2020)
It’s interesting that the US cover of Rodham is essentially the same as the UK one. I would’ve thought for sure that they would take different approaches.
Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson; design by David Litman (Soho Press / July 2020)
1 CommentArtist Stanley Donwood talks about his artwork for Radiohead, his collaboration with author Robert MacFarlane on Ness, and his own book Bad Island, published earlier this year by Hamish Hamilton (and slated to be published in the US by W.W. Norton this fall).
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After Australia edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad; design by Design by Committee (Affirm Press / May 2020)
A Burning by Megha Majumdar; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2020)
The cover of the UK edition, which will not be published until 2021(!), was designed by Craig Fraser. It has a very vintage Faber feel… maybe it’s just the type?
The Dragons, the Giant, and the Women by Wayétu Moore; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / June 2020)
Inner Coast by Donovan Hohn; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W.W. Norton / June 2020)
The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine; design by Elena Giavaldi (Hogarth / June 2020)
The Myth of the American Dream by D. L. Mayfield; design by David Fassett (IVP / May 2020)
News Parade by Jospeh Clark; design by Matt Avery (University of Minnesota Press / May 2020)
Night, Sleep, Death, the Stars by Joyce Carol Oates; design by Jamie Keenan (Fourth Estate / June 2020)
The cover of the US edition, published by Ecco, was designed by Sara Wood:
Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why by Alexandra Petri; design by Jim Tierney (W.W. Norton / June 2020)
(I really don’t know how I feel about this cover)
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels; design by Luke Bird (Hub City Press / May 2020)
Luke wrote about the design process behind the cover at Literary Hub.
Real Queer America by Samantha Allen; design by Lucy Kim (Back Bay Books / June 2020)
The Second Home by Christina Clancy; design Olga Grlic; art by Elizabeth Lennie (St. Martin’s Press / June 2020)
Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis & Jon Wiener; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso / April 2020)
Soot by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / February 2020)
Soot is the sequel to Dan’s novel Smoke (which I liked a lot). The cover of the UK edition was also designed by Mark:
Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen; design by Jason Booher (Riverhead Books / June 2020)
This reminded me of the cover of the similarly themed American Manifesto by Bob Garfield, designed by Richard Ljoenes and published earlier this year by Counterpoint….
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2020)
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