Inspired by the recent Blur album cover designed by Tony Hung (read more about it here) amongst other things, here are a selection of (relatively) recent books cover designs using lettering inspired by neon signs (pictured above: Bright Shiny Morning by James Frey, designed by the one and only Gray318 in 2008):
Now that all the amateur ‘best of 2014’ lists are out of the way, it’s time for the professionals submit their covers to the actual design competitions. Last week 50 Books / 50 Covers opened for entries. Meanwhile the closing dates for this year’s Australian Book Design Awards and ABCD15 in the UK are fast approaching…
50 Books / 50 Covers
Design Observer announced the opening of the 50 Books/50 Covers competition for books published in 2014. The competition will accept online entries from January 7, 2015 to March 18, 2015. See the guidelines for more details.
If you live in the United Kingdom, the Academy of British Cover Design (ABCD) has announced the opening of its second annual cover design competition. Books published between January 1 and December 31 2014 by any designer based in the UK are eligible. All entries must be received by the 31st January 2015.
The Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) has also announced the 63rd Australian Book Design Awards. The awards are open to any book designed and published for the first time in Australia between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2014. Entries close on Friday 23 January 2015.
In the past, I’ve often included a few series designs in with my favourite covers of the year. This year, I saw so many great covers that were part of a series, I thought a they deserved a post of their own…
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)
The Gambler by Fydor Dostoevsky; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)
Notes from the Underground by Fydor Dostoevsky; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)
Alma Classics; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)
A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)
As You Like It by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)
Henry V by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)
Broadview Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)
Nova Express by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)
The Son Machine by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)
The Ticket That Exploded by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)
The Cut-Up Trilogy by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)
Snapshots–Nouvelles voix du Caine Prize; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)
Le Complex d’Eden Bellweather by Benjamin Wood; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)
L’Exception by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir ; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)
Éditions Zulma; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)
Come, Sweet Death by Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)
Resurrection by Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)
Book designers, you do amazing work. Thank you. I am especially grateful to all the designers and art directors (not to mention publicists and other publishing folk) who have shared their wisdom, provided me with images, and helped me with design credits this year — these posts would not be possible without you. I also want thank my fellow book design bloggers, notably Book Covrs, Booketing, and Caustic Cover Critic, for their sterling work, and my local bookstores, Type, Book City on the Danforth, Ben McNally Books, and Indigo Bay & Bloor, for letting me browse their shelves.
Here are my covers of 2014:
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / November 2014)
One of the fun things about doing this blog is that you never quite know when one post might lead to another. After posting photographs of Alex Kirby’s jacket and cover design for Amnesia by Peter Carey yesterday, I realised Alex had also sent me photographs of his work on Matchbox Theatre by Michael Frayn, published by Faber & Faber last month. As you can see, it is rather splendid:
The cover for the new Faber & Faber edition of Amnesia by Peter Carey was featured in this month’s ‘book covers of note‘ post, and designer Alex Kirby kindly sent me some lovely photographs of the book with and without it’s acetate dust jacket so you can get a better look at it:
This is the last of the monthly cover round-ups for 2014, and I have a lot to cram in before I start on my big end of year list, so it’s a bit of corker (if I do say so myself) with lots of gold foil and other fancy finishes:
Amnesia by Peter Carey; design by Alex Kirby (Faber & Faber / October 2014)
Naming Nature by Carol Kaesuk Yoon; design by Chin-Yee Lai (W. W. Norton / August 2009)
Never-Ending Birds by David Baker; design by Lynn Buckley; jacket illustration: Swallows by Audubon, The Granger Collection (W. W. Norton / October 2009)
News from the World by Paula Fox; design by Roberto De Vicq de Cumptich (W. W. Norton / May 2011)
“I started out doing posters for the theater. It’s almost the same thing as a book cover: the promise of an experience. It has to show you what you’re in for, without spelling it out.”
I have a ridiculous one-of-a-kind book collection, which has a lot of fantastic reference material: books on how to make balsa wood airplanes, to encyclopedias of infectious rashes from the Vietnam War era. You never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes while you’re reading a book you just start looking at things. If you’re stumped, that’s one way to do it. I used to need to “make it happen” more. I’d go to the library and pull books off the shelves randomly without looking, and then I’d just look. It could be a book on the geography of the great lakes and there’s something in there visually that makes you go, “Oh yeah! I can use this.” So much design research now is Google image searches. I never go there for material because that’s where everyone else is going.
It’s October and the fall book season is in full swing. It’s kind of bonkers in the trade from now until Christmas, so this is the second to last (if not the actual last) cover round-up for 2014. I think I can probably squeeze in one more next month, but then we will be well into ‘covers of the year’ territory so we’ll have to see. I also have more posts in the Beasts! series (and goodness know what else) to fit in somehow! While I figure that out, however, here is this month’s collection of notable book covers…
10:04 by Ben Lerner; design by Scott Richardson (McClelland & Stewart / September 2014)
Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! I’m kicking off a new series today on animal book covers. The first post is on ‘beasts’ — mostly ‘wild’ beasts, but one or two more domesticated (and dead) animals may have nosed their way in. Other posts series will look at birds, bugs, reptiles and amphibians, and quite possibly sea creatures and farm animals (unless someone pays me a large amount of money to stop before that). Thanks to all the designers, ADs, publicists and others who have been helping me with images and credits. If you notice that some information about a cover is missing, please let me know.
