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Tag: gray318

Published May 25, 2015

Gray318 TYPO Talk Berlin

everything is illuminated gray318

“I’m not a designer, not an illustrator, and certainly not a type designer – I’m a misfit…Publishing – that’s where people who don’t quite fit in end up.”

The TYPO Talks blog recaps Jon Gray‘s recent talk at TYPO Berlin:

Gray looked around for inspiration and got interested in old hand written signs often posted at churches. Written by sign writing dilettantes who need to communicate something to their fellow churchgoers, to Gray these signs tell a story, they speak of dedication, personality, of love. The signs reference a specific time and place, an idiosyncratic personality and character. Gray took the loose and spontaneous quality of the handwriting on these signs and used it for the cover of “Everything is Illuminated”.

What he got gave him one of these rare moments where “You make something and you know it works, it’s something new – I made it and it was completely me. I liked it, Penguin loved it, the author was all over it.” Published in 2002, the rough all-over hand-lettering on the cover contrasted strongly with the clean lines and vector graphics that had been dominating graphic design for a while then. It was the avant-garde of what Steven Heller called “The Decade of Dirty” when handmade aesthetics became fashionable again. And it marked the very beginning of the still ongoing revival of hand-lettered typography.

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Published April 16, 2015

Today in Micro-Trends: Neon Signs

bright-shiny-morning

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):

9780375424991-brothers
Brothers by Yu Hua; design by Jonathan Sainsbury (Random House / January 2009)

ham on rye design by Steve Attardo


Bukowski series; design by Steve Attardo (Ecco / July 2014)

event-design-cb-king
Event by Slavoj Žižek; design by Christopher King (Melville House / August 2014)

extreme-centre-tariq-ali-design-dan-mogford
The Extreme Centre by Tariq Ali; design by Dan Mogford (Verso / March 2015)

the-girl-who-was-saturday-night-design-leo-nickolls
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O’Neill; design by Leo Nickolls (Quercus / March 2015)

9780385352604
Glow by Ned Beauman; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / January 2015)

hotel life design by simon pates
The Hotel Life by Javier Montes; design by Simon Pates (Hispabooks / October 2013)

inherent-vice-design-haggar-goretsky
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon; design by Darren Haggar and Tal Goretsky; illustration by Darshan Zenith / Cruiser Art (Penguin / August 2009)

9780143573258
Kissing in America by Margo Rabb; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; art by Thomas Burden (HarperCollins / May 2015 )

last-days-of-shanghai-design-jason-snyder
Last Days in Shanghai by Casey Walker; design by Jason Snyder (Counterpoint / December 2014)

978-0-385-53807-7
Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Rizon Parein (Doubleday / September 2014)

make-something-up-design-james-paul-jones
Make Something Up by Chuck Palahniuk; design by James Paul Jones (Jonathan Cape / May 2015)

mammons-kingdom
Mammon’s Kingdom by David Marquand; cover art by Mr Whaite (Allen Lane / May 2014)

milk-bar-life-tosi
Milk Bar Life by Christina Tosi; design by Walter Green (Clarkson Potter / April 2015)

musical-brain
The Musical Brain by César Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / March 2015)

no-regrets-design-jennifer-heuer
No Regrets Coyote; design by John Dufresne; design by Jennifer Heuer (W. W. Norton / July 2014)

pluto-design-jonathan-pelham
Pluto by Glyn Maxwell; design by Jonathan Pelham (Picador / April 2013)

yes-please-design-tbd
Yes Please by Amy Poehler; design by Mary Schuck (Dey Street Books / October 2014)

3 Comments
Published March 5, 2015

Vintage Feminism

9780099595731

Earlier this month Vintage UK published new editions of The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecroft.

As CMYK, the Vintage design blog, revealed, these new editions were designed in-house by the talented Mr. Matthew Broughton, and feature black and white photography by Anton Stankowski on The Beauty Myth and A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and Joy Gregory on my personal favourite, The Second Sex.

Interestingly, Vintage have also published  smaller format ‘short editions’ of the same three books — The Second Sex, The Beauty Myth, and  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman — featuring key extracts from the main texts.

In contrast to the sharp photographic covers above, the short editions feature illustrated covers designed by Gray318 with something of retro, E. McKnight Kauffer or Alvin Lustig, feel:

9781784870393

 

3 Comments
Published March 3, 2015

Book Covers of Note March 2015

Here is March’s selection of new and noteworthy covers. It’s a little bit of the Merto and Mendelsund show I’ll admit, but I assure you there really are some brilliant covers by other designers this month too!

a-z-of-you-and-me
The A-Z of You and Me by James Hannah; design by Leo Nickolls (Doubleday / March 2015)

bookseller
The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson; design by Kimberly Glyder (Harper / March 2013  killed)

discontent-and-its-civilizations
Discontent and its Civilizations by Mohsin Hamid; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / February 2015)

field-notes-from-a-catastrophe
Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert; design by Patti Ratchford; illustration by Eric Nyquist (Bloomsbury / February 2015)

I also loved Eric’s ‘H is for Hawk’ illustration in the February 22nd edition of The New York Times Book Review.

9780701186982
The Four Books by Yan Lianke; design by Matt Broughton (Chatto & Windus / March 2015)

get-in-trouble
Get in Trouble by Kelly Link; design by Alex Merto (Random House / February 2015)

highway-of-despair
The Highway of Despair by Robyn Marasco; design by Jennifer Heuer (Columbia University Press / March 2015)

9780374172077
Holy Cow by David Duchovny; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration and lettering by Natalya Balnova (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2015)

i-am-sorry
I Am Sorry to Think I Raised a Timid Son by Kent Russell; design by Peter Mendelsund; hand lettering by Janet Hansen; photography by George Baier IV (Knopf / March 2015)

knife
The Knife by Ross Ritchell; design by Alex Merto (Blue Rider Press / February 2015)

(Camouflage book covers are the New Thing!)

last-word
The Last Word by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / March 2015)

letter-to-a-future-lover
A Letter to a Future Lover by Ander Monson; design by Marian Bantjes (Graywolf / February 2015)

Layout 1
The Librarian by Mikhail Elizarov; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / March 2015)

9781627790932
Making Nice by Matt Sumell; design by Gray318 (Henry Holt & Co. / February 2015)

9780691165073
One Day in the Life of the English Language by Frank L. Cioffi; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / March 2015)

poser
The Poser by Jacob Rubin; design by Will Staehle (Viking / March 2015)

satin_island
Satin Island by Tom McCarthy; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / February 2015)

so-youve-been-publicly-shamed
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson; design by Matt Dorfman (Riverhead / March 2015)

The-Swan-Book
The Swan Book by Alexis Wright; design by Ceara Elliot (Corsair / March 2015)

unloved
The Unloved by Deborah Levy; design by Katya Mezhibovskaya; photograph by Robert and Shana ParkeHarrison (Bloomsbury / March 2015)

walls-around-us
The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma; design by Connie Gabbert (Algonquin Books / March 2015)

we-all-looked-up
We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach; Lucy Ruth Cummins; photographer Meredith Jenks (Simon & Schuster / March 2015)

The version of this cover which caught my eye was actually wordless — and I believe that was the designer’s original intention — so I’m a wee bit disappointed that the publisher didn’t quite have the courage to follow through on that.

worst-person-ever
Worst Person Ever by Douglas Coupland; design by Alex Merto (Plume / March 2015)

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Published February 2, 2015

Book Covers of Note February 2015

Here is this month’s selection of new book covers that have caught my eye…

angry-youth-comix
Angry Youth Comix by Johnny Ryan; design by Keeli McCarthy (Fantagraphics / February 2015)

Dom Casmurro hi-res
Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis; design by Nathan Burton (Daunt Books / February 2015)

etta-otto-russell-james
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper; design by Gray318 (Penguin / January 2015)

fishermen-gray318
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma; design by Gray318 (Pushkin Press / February 2015)

Girl In The Dark
Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / February 2015)

i-am-radar
I Am Radar by Reif Larsen; design by Will Staehle (Penguin Press / February 2015)

ismael-and-his-sisters
Ismael and His Sisters by Louise Stern; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / February 2015)

italians
The Italians by John Hooper; design by Nicholas Misani (Viking / January 2015)

karate-chop-pearson
Karate Chop by Dorthe Nors; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / February 2015)

munich-airport
Munich Airport by Greg Baxter; design by Anne Twomey (Twelve Books / January 2015)

room
The Room by Jonas Karlsson; design by Christopher Brand; photograph by George Baier IV (Hogarth / February 2015)

shooting-stars-burton
Shooting Stars by Stefan Zweig; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / February 2015)


Pudd’nhead Wilson and The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Vintage / February 2015)

utopia-of-rules
The Utopia of Rules by David Graeber; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / February 2015)

2 Comments
Published December 8, 2014

50 Covers for 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
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / November 2014)


All Our Names by Dinaw Mengestu; design by Isabel Urbina Peña (Knopf / March 2014)

bark
Bark by Lorrie Moore; design by Carol Devine Carson; photography by Josef Sudek (Knopf / February 2014)


The Book of Heaven by Patricia Storace; design by Linda Huang (Pantheon / February 2014)

book-of-strange-new-things

The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; art direction and design Rafi Romaya;  illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / October 2014)

9781476747231
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt; design by Christopher Lin (Simon & Schuster / March 2014)


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


Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / September 2014)

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

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

clothes-music-boys
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / May 2014)


The Corpse Exhibition by Hassan Blasim; design by Jason Ramirez (Penguin / February 2014)

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

Dog-Ear
Dog Ear by Jim Johnstone; design by David Drummond (Signal Editions / May 2014)


The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison; design by Tom Darracott (Granta / June 2014)

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


Forensic Songs by Mike McCormack; design by Jason Booher (SOHO / July 2014)

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


Friendship by Emily Gould; design by Jennifer Carrow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / July 2014)

fullblood-arabian
Fullblood Arabian by Osama Alomar; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / March 2014)

A-Girl-is-a-Half-formed-Thing
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride; design by Donna Payne (Faber & Faber / April 2014)


Happy are the Happy by Yesmina Reza; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / July 2014)
herodotus
The Histories by Herodotus, translated by Tom Holland; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics / September 2014)

intervals-in-cinema
The Intervals of Cinema by Jacques Rancière; design by Jessica Svendsen (Verso / October 2014)


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

leaving-the-sea
Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / January 2014)

And here it is side by side with 2012’s The Flame Alphabet:


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

978-0-385-53807-7
Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Rizon Parein (Doubleday / September 2014)

9781447259374
The Man Who Couldn’t Stop; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / April 2014)


Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton / February 2014)


My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead; design by Elena Giavaldi (Crown / January 2014)

napoleon

Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts; design by Isabelle De Cat (Penguin / October 2014)

on-such-a-full-sea
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee; design by Helen Yentus; lettering Jason Booher (Riverhead / January 2014)

our-poison-horse
Our Poison Horse by Derrick Brown; design by Jennifer Heuer (Write Bloody / October 2014)


Radio Benjamin edited by Lecia Rosenthal; design by Isaac Tobin (Verso / October 2014)

russians
Russians by Gregory Feifer; design by Catherine Casalino (Twelve Books / February 2014)

scarborough
The Scarborough by Michael Lista; design by David Drummond (Véhicule Press / September 2014)


The Secret World of Oil by Ken Silverstein; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso / May 2014)

9780307908483
Silence Once Begun by Jesse Ball; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / January 2014)

silent-history
The Silent History by Eli Horowitz, Kevin Moffett, Matthew Derby; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / June 2014)

song-for-approaching
Song for an Approaching Storm by Peter Fröberg Idling; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / March 2014)


Specter of Capital by Joseph Vogl; design by Anne Jordan (Stamford University Press / October 2014)

9780374270650
Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux; design by Nayon Cho; illustration by Mark Stutzman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2014)


Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter; design by Charlotte Strick; photograph by Natalie Dirks (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / November 2014)

9781447229759
Vanishing by Gerard Woodward; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador UK / March 2014)


Wittgenstein Jr by Lars Iyers; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / September 2014)


Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle; design by Timothy Goodman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / September 2014)

Area-X
9780374261177
Area X by Jeff VanderMeer; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / November 2014)

young-skins
young-skins-full
Young Skins: Stories by Colin Barrett; design by James Paul Jones (Jonathan Cape / March 2014)


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

Thanks all.

20 Comments
Published October 17, 2014

Bugs

 

bugs2

This, the latest post in my Beasts! series, was unexpectedly difficult to compile. While it seems there isn’t a book cover in existence that couldn’t be improved by putting on a bird on it, bugs are, at least by comparison, somewhat rare. While I assumed that bees, beetles, butterflies, centipedes, flies, spiders, termites et al would naturally lend themselves to evocative book designs, we are apparently still quite squeamish about creatures with six legs or more. That said, today’s post includes far more rejected (and short-lived covers) than previous instalments in the series, which that it isn’t necessarily the designers who are afraid of creepy crawlies, but rather other decision-makers in the process are worried about their negative influence on sales. Hopefully some of these covers will change their minds about that…

The Beetle by Richard Marsh; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / October 2008)
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / May 2010 )
The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal by Sean Dixon; art by Emily Mahon; butterfly image by Hannelore Muller; hand-lettering by Chris Sergio (Other Press / April 2009 )
Ten Plagues by Mary Nealy; design by David Carlson

acid-house
The Acid House by Irvine Welsh; design by Matt Broughton (Vintage Books)

9780374104092
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer; design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / February 2014)

Arcadia RD 1 cleanb
Arcadia by Lauren Groff; design by Will Staehle (Voice / March 2012)

babayaga
Babayaga by Toby Barlow; design by Gray318 (Corvus / February 2014)


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

bees
The Bees by Laline Paull; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / May 2014)

beautiful-you
Beautiful You by Chuck Palahniuk; design by Rodrigo Corral Design (Doubleday / October 2014)

BoneGap_Jkt_des4
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby; design by Michelle Taormina (Balzer + Bray / March 2015)

Lorenzo_Petrantoni
Boxer Beetle by Ned Beauman; illustration by Lorenzo Petrantoni (Sceptre / August 2010)

Brodeck-s_Report_Anna-Heath
Brodeck’s Report by Phillipe Claudel; design by Anna Heath (Quercus)

9781250045058
Bug Music by David Rothenberg; design by Ervin Serrano (St. Martin’s Press / May 2013)

Carnival-brian-morgan
Carnival by Rawi Hage; design by Brian Morgan, illustration by Lorenzo Petrantoni (House of Anansi Press / August 2012)


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

cockroach-albert-tang
Cockroach by Rawi Hage; design by Albert Tang (W. W. Norton / October 2009)

cockroach-bill-douglas-unused
Cockroach by Rawi Hage; design by Bill Douglas (House of Anansi / unused)

constant-gardener
Constant Gardener by John Le Carre; design by Stuart Bache (Sceptre)

crowd c
Crowd of Sounds by Adam Sol; design by Bill Douglas (House of Anansi / April 2003)

electricity
Electricity by Victoria Glendinning; design by David Mann (Pocket Books / April 2006)

escaping-into-the-open-bookdesigners
Escaping into the Open by Elizabeth Berg; design by The Book Designers (Harper / August 2012)

Fever
Fever by Sonia Shah; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / June 2011)

The First Principles of Dreaming
The First Principles of Dreaming by Beth Goobie; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (Second Story Press / September 2014)


Generation A by Douglas Coupland; design by Jennifer Heuer (Simon & Schuster / June 2010)

9783608501100
Generation A by Douglas Coupland; design by Books We Made (Tropen / August 2010)

DR_GHost_Moth_Hand
Ghost Moth by Michèle Forbes; design by Kathleen Lynch / Black Kat Design (Penguin Canada / October 2013)

A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson; design by James Paul Jones; illustration Louise Bird (Jonathan Cape / June 2013)
A Buzz In The Meadow by Dave Goulson; James Paul Jones; illustration Louise Bird (Jonathan Cape / September 2014 )

Sting
A Sting in the Tale by Dave Goulson; design by LeeAnn Falciani (Picador / April 2014)

Hurt_Healer_CG3
Hurt Healer by Tony Nolan; design by Connie Gabbert (Baker / unused?)

simon4
In Translation edited by Sherry Simon; design by David Drummond (McGill-Queen’s University Press / unused?)

marriage-game-bookdesigners-unused
The Marriage Game by Alison Weir; design by The Book Designers (Ballantine / unused)

Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton / February 2014)

missing-link
Missing Link by Jeffrey Donaldson; design by David Drummond (forthcoming)

9781846689895
The Moth introduced by Neil Gaiman; design by Dan Stiles (Serpent’s Tail / August 2014)

my-first-kafka
My First Kafka by Matthue Roth & Rohan Daniel Eason; design by Richard Rodriguez; cover illustration Rohan Daniel Eason (One Peace Books / June 2013)

never-mind
Never Mind by Edward St. Aubyn; design by Stuart Wilson (Picador / April 2012)

original-sins
Original Sins by Peg Kingman; design by Darren Haggar (W. W. Norton / September 2010)

Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; illustration by Despotica; series design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / December 2012)

perdido-crush-creative
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville; design by Crush Creative (Pan Books / May 2011)

possession
Possession by A. S. Byatt; design Vintage Design (Vintage / December 2009)

isbn9781444776751
The Reason I Jump by Naoki Higashida; design by Kai & Sunny (Sceptre / July 2013)


Royauté by Alexie Morin design by Catherine D’Amours / Pointbarre (Le Quartanier / October 2013)

shining-girls-keith-hayes
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / June 2013)

Swallow
Swallow by Theanna Bischoff; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (NeWest Press / February 2013)

Poe GOTHIC SERIES Holly MacDonald
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe; Holly MacDonald (Bloomsbury / October 2009)

9781429988834
Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life by James Hawes; Design and lettering by Steve Snider; Illustration by Douglas Smith (St. Martin’s Press / July 2008)

5 Comments
Published October 2, 2014

Book Covers of Note October 2014

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…

Lerner 1004
10:04 by Ben Lerner; design by Scott Richardson (McClelland & Stewart / September 2014)

puny-sorrows
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews; design by Helen Crawford-White / Studio Helen (Faber & Faber / June 2014)

Book of Strange New Things
The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber; art direction and design Rafi Romaya;  illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / October 2014)

9781472116666
The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell; design by Leo Nickolls (Constable / October 2014 )

broken-monsters-keith-hayes
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes; design by Keith Hayes (Mulholland Books / September 2014)

charming-billy
Charming Billy by Alice McDermott; design by Henry Sene Yee; illustration by Bill Mudron  (Picador / October 2014)

flings-oliver-munday
Flings by Justin Taylor; design by Oliver Munday (Harper / August 2014)

I-Am-China
I Am China by Xiaolu Guo; design Emily Mahon; photograph Masha Sardari (Nan A. Talese / September 2014)

fields-of-blood
Fields of Blood by Karen Armstrong; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / October 2014)

intervals-in-cinema
The Intervals of Cinema by Jacques Rancière; design by Jessica Svendsen (Verso / October 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Yang Kim and Tyler Comrie (FSG / October 2014)

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)
Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

a-man-lies-summer
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar; design by Ben Summers (Hodder / October 2014)

mr-gwyn
Mr. Gwyn by Alessandro Baricco; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / July 2014)

9781846140273-isabelle-de-cat
Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts; design by Isabelle De Cat (Penguin / October 2014)

annotated-lovecraft
The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft edited by Leslie S. Klinger; design by gray318 (W. W. Norton / October 2014)

notre-duplex
Notre Duplex by Éléonore Létourneau; design by David Drummond (Éditions XYZ / August 2014)

not-that
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham; design by CHIPS (Random House / September 2014)


Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail; design by Matt Roeser (Candlewick / October 2014)

radio-benjamin
Radio Benjamin edited by Lecia Rosenthal; design by Isaac Tobin (Verso / October 2014)

specter-of-capital
Specter of Capital by Joseph Vogl; design by Anne Jordan (Stamford University Press / October 2014)

white-van
The White Van by Patrick Hoffman; design by Walter Green (Grove Atlantic / September 2014)

8 Comments
Published September 23, 2014

Beasts!

beasts
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.

KENNEDY_American-gabrielle-bordwin
American Spirit by Dan Kennedy; design by Gabrielle Bordwin (New Harvest / May 2013)

animals-of-my-own-kind-drummond
Animals of My Own Kind by Harry Thurston; design by David Drummond (Vehicule Press / April 2010)

Untitled
Annabel by Kathleen Winter; design by Bill Douglas (Anansi / June 2010)

beasts-jacob-covey
Beasts! by Jacob Covey; design by Jacob Covey / Unflown (Fantagraphics / February 2007)

bedside-book-of-beasts-richardson
The Bedside Book of Beasts by Graeme Gibson; design by Scott Richardson (Doubleday Canada / October 2009)

Bobcat by Rebecca Lee; design by Nathan Burton (Penguin Canada / August 2012)
Bobcat by Rebecca Lee; design by Nathan Burton (Penguin Canada / August 2012)

brothers-beasts
Brothers & Beasts edited Kate Bernheimer; design by Isaac Tobin; illustration by Lauren Nassef (Wayne State University Press / January 2008)

9780374119027
Caribou by Charles Wright; design by Jeff Clark / Quemadura (FSG / March 2014)


Charm and Strange by Stephanie Kuehn; design by Sharon King-Chai (Electric Monkey / June 2013)

chronic city
Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem; design by Miriam Rosenbloom (Faber & Faber / December 2009)

Company-of-Liars
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland; design by gray318 (Penguin / January 2008)

9781770893009_HR
Doppler by Erlend Loe; design by Nicolas Cheetham (Anansi / October 2012)

eeeee-kelly-blair
Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin; design by Kelly Blair (Melville House / April 2007)

ExtinctionClub
The Extinction Club by Jeffrey Moore; design by Michel Vrana (Hamish Hamilton Canada / April 2010)

feral
Feral by George Monbiot; design by Jim Stoddart (Penguin / May 2013)


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


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

Penguin-Goya-Hi_res
Goya’s Dog by Damian Tarnopolsky; design by David Gee (Penguin Canada / August 2007)

Death in the Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway; illustration by Paul Rogers (Vintage / September 2007)
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway; illustration by Paul Rogers (Vintage / September 2012)
Green Hills of Africa by Ernest Hemingway; illustration by Paul Rogers (Vintage / September 2012)

Hope A Tragedy
Hope A Tragedy by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall (Riverhead Books / January 2012)

baskervilles
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by SHOUT (Modern Library / October 2002)

9780141034324
Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith; illustration by Despotica (Penguin / March 2008)

JOYLAND-Haunt-Hi_res
How I Came to Haunt My Parents by Natalee Caple; design by David Gee (ECW / May 2011)

hunger
Hunger by Lincoln Townley; design by Matt Johnson (Simon & Schuster / May 2014)

jaguars-eels
Jaguars and Electric Eels by Alexander Von Humboldt; design by David Pearson; illustration by Victoria Sawdon (Penguin / February 2007)

Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis
Knife Throwing Through Self-Hypnosis by Robin Richardson; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (ECW / September 2013)

jamrachs-menagerie
Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch; design by gray318 (Canongate / March 2011)

jungle-book
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling; design by Alice Stevenson (Penguin India / 2014)

leopard
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa; illustration by Hans Tillman (Vintage / September 2007)

TEARSoftheGIRAFFE_B2
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith; design by Mark Ecob (Abacus / August 2003)

design & illustration by Mark Ecob
design & illustration by Mark Ecob
design & illustration by Mark Ecob

me-and-the-devil
Me and the Devil by Nick Tosches; design by Keith Hayes (Little Brown & Co / December 2012)

9781594488078B
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi design by Helen Yentus with Jason Booher (Riverhead / September 2011)

978-0-7710-0833-7
Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood; design by Kelly Hill (McClelland & Stewart / September 2009)

natural-acts-fulbrook
Natural Acts by David Quammen; design by John Fulbrook III (W. W. Norton / May 2009)

Dreams in Time of War by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / March 2010)
In the House of the Interpreter by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / November 2012)

9780865477735
The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane; design by Charlotte Strick; illustration by Ariana Nehmad Ross (Faber & Faber / October 2013)

Layout 1
Off Course by Michelle Huneven; design by Rodrigo Corral; photograph by Gregori Maiofis (FSG / March 2014)

orphan-master
The Orphan Masters Son by Adam Johnson; design by Lynn Buckley (Random House / January 2012)

panther
Panther by David Owen; design by gray318 (Constable and Robinson / May 2015)

pastoralia-rodrigo-corral
Pastoralia by George Saunders; design by Rodrigo Corral (Riverhead / June 2001)


The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson; design by Matt Dorfman (Riverhead / December 2011)

sharp-teeth-dean
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow; design by Susan Dean; illustration Natasha Michaels (William Heinemann / August 2007)

short-history-bill-douglas
A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright; design by Bill Douglas (Anansi / October 2004)

9781447268963
Station Eleven by Emily  St. John Mandel; design by Nathan Burton (Picador / September 2014)

stories-ii
Stories II by T. C. Boyle; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / October 2013)

tattooed-soldier
The Tattooed Soldier by Hector Tobar; design by Jim Tierney (Picador / October 2014)

tell-the-wolves
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt; Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich (Dial Press / June 2012)

this-book
This Book Will Save Your Life by A. M. Homes; design by Paul Buckley (Penguin / April 2007)

Tiger-in-Eden
Tigers in Eden by Chris Flynn; design by W.H. Chong (Text Publishing Co. / October 2013)

The Tiger's Wife-Tea Obreht
The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht; design by James Paul Jones; illustration Wuon Gean Ho (Phoenix / March 2011)

3796386738_ef71a142a3_o
Tooth and Claw by T. C. Boyle; design by Paul Buckley (Penguin / September 2005)


The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland; design by Keith Hayes (Algonquin Books / May 2014)

9780143125020
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma; design by Alison Forner (Penguin / March 2014)

Wolves-tpb
Wolves by Simon Ings; design and Illustration by Jeffrey Alan Love (Gollancz / January 2014)

7 Comments
Published September 19, 2014

50 Books / 50 Covers 2013 Winners

5050-2013

If you’re an American book designer you probably know already that the winners of the 2013 Fifty Books / Fifty Covers show were announced yesterday.

Organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA and Designers & Books,  50/50, which recognizes the best work in contemporary book and book cover design, dates back to 1922, and is the oldest continuously operating graphic design competition in the United States. It is what you might call a ‘big deal.’

Of course, you can always quibble with lists like this — there are a some covers from last year that I loved that aren’t winners. But it’s wonderful to see book designers get some deserved recognition, and there are some great covers on the list that I overlooked.

Here are a few of my favourite 50 Covers winners that weren’t on my own 2013 list (nor in my postscript):

The United States of Paranoia by Jesse Walker; design by Jarrod Taylor (HarperCollins)
Unknown Pleasures by Peter Hook; design by Richard Ljoenes (HarperCollins)

9780199811809-Thomas Ng
The Aesthetic Brain by Anjan Chatterjee; design by Thomas Ng (Oxford University Press)

no_one_is_here_gray_318
No One is Here Except All of Us by Romana Ausubel; design by Gray318 (Riverhead)

9780226078991-tobin
Personae by Sergio De La Pava; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press)

shady-jason-booher
Shady Characters by Keith Houston; design by Jason Booher ((W. W. Norton & Company)

this-yentus-booher
This and Other Plays by Melissa Gibson; design by Helen Yentus and Jason Booher (Theatre Communications Group)

Comments closed
Published May 22, 2014

Getting to the Point: Arrows in Book Cover Design

arrows
As I was collecting images for my recent posts on triangles and book covers, I started thinking about the use of triangle’s directional cousin, the arrow. Inspired by a vintage cover design by Elaine Lustig and Jay Maisel, I thought I’d gather a selection of recent book covers that use arrows as part of their design.

I’ve spent far too long on this already, but I am sure I have forgotten some corkers. Please let me know what I’ve missed in the comments. I also have to say thanks to all the designers who helped me with this, especially Catherine Casalino, Richard Green, and (the very patient) Jason Ramirez who all dug deep into their archives for me.


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

Act-of-Love
The Act of Love by Howard Jacobson; design by Catherine Casalino (Simon & Schuster March 2009)

orgasmatron
Adventures in the Orgasmatron by Christopher Turner; design by Marina Drukman (Farrar, Straus & Giroux June 2011)

anti-fragile
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; design by Jamie Keenan (Random House November 2012)

arc-of-war
The Arc of War by Jack S. Levy & William R. Thompson; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press October 2011)

arrow-of-god
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe;  art by Edel Rodriguez (Penguin January 2010)

9781250002495
The Bug by Ellen Ullman; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador February 2012)

Buried-on-Avenue
Buried on Avenue B by Peter de Jonge; design by Ian Koviak / The Book Designers (HarperCollins October 2012)

Busted
Busted by Edmund L. Andrews; design by Gray318 (W. W. Norton July 2009)

caribou-island
Caribou Island by David Vann; design by Nathan Burton (Viking February 2011)

dealmaking
Dealmaking by Guhan Subramanian; design by Ben Wiseman (W. W. Norton October 2011)

debt-delusion
The Debt Delusion by Mehdi Hasan; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage Digital July 2011)

enchanted-wanderer
The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf March 2013)


Six Easy Pieces by Richard P. Feynman (Penguin July 2011)

The Meaning of it All by Richard P. Feynman (Penguin September 2007)

Design by Jim Stoddart; model design & construction by Andy Bridge


Give Me Everything You Have by James Lasdun; design by Julia Connolly (Vintage February 2014)

how-we-got-to-now
How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson; design by David A. Gee (Riverhead September 2014)

Hush Hush cover art 1
Hush Hush by Steven Barthelme; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House October 2012)

one-on-one
One on One by Craig Brown; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate September 2011)

9780374146689
Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down by Rosecrans Baldwin; design by Rodrigo Corral Design (Farrar, Straus & Giroux April 2012)

9781780742458
The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll;  design by Shepherd Studio (Oneworld May 2013)1

borges
The Perpetual Race of Achilles and the Tortoise by Jorge Luis Borges; design by We Made This (Penguin August 2010)

rebound_final
Rebound by Stephen J. Rose; design by Jason Ramirez (St. Martin’s Press May 2010)

rise-and-fall
The Rise & Fall of the Great Powers by Tom Rachman; design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich (Dial June 2014)

survivor
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk; design by Rodrigo Corral Design (W. W. Norton April 2010)


Dwight Yoakam by Don McLeese (Texas Tech University Press April 2012)

If I Was a Highway by Michael Ventura and Butch Hancock (Texas Tech University Press Feb 2011)

Design by Lindsay Starr

warlord
Warlord by Carlo d’Este; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane April 2009)

4 Comments
Published May 13, 2014

Book Covers of Note May 2014

Another month, another selection of beautiful book covers…

9781447258896


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

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

goodbye-to-all-that

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

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)

other-language

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

raising-hell

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

9781447229759

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

young-skins

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

2 Comments