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Published January 24, 2020

The Decade in Book Covers

There is a bit of story to this post. The short version is that I started it in 2018 to celebrate 10 years of the blog. When that deadline went whooshing past, I thought I would rework it for the end of 2019 as a look back at the decade. Now in 2020, with the risk of another deadline coming and going before I get it exactly right, I am just going to post this as it is — a collection of covers from the past 10 years1 that I quite like!

The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean, design by Will Staehle (Little Brown & Co. / July 2010)

Ethics of Interrogation by Michael Skerker, designed by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / May 2010)

Filthy English by Peter Silverton, design by Dan Mogford (Portobello / October 2010)

The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman, designed by Roberto de Vicq (Random House / 2010)

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, design by David Pearson (Picador / December 2010)

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, designed by Rodrigo Corral Design (Random House / September 2010)

A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; design by Barbara deWilde (Knopf / June 2010)

Amerika by Franz Kafka, design by Peter Mendelsund (Schocken / August 2011)

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

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

The First Husband by Laura Dave, designed by Jaya Miceli (Penguin / May 2011)

The Information by James Gleick, designed by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon March 2011)

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

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson, design by Matt Dorfman (Riverhead Books / May 2011)

After Freud Left edited by John Burnham; designed by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / May 2012)

The Dubliners by James Joyce; design by Apfel Zet (Penguin / May 2012)

Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck by Eric G. Wilson; design by  Rodrigo Corrall, hand-lettering by Jennifer Carrow, photograph by Simon Lee (FSG March 2012)

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / January 2012)

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

May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes; designed by Alison Forner (Viking / September 2012)

NW by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / September 2012)

First Novel by Nicholas Royle; design by Suzanne Dean; photography Stephen Banks (Cape / February 2013)

The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner; design by Charlotte Strick (Scribner / April 2013)

The Hamlet Doctrine by Simon Critchley & Jamieson Webster; design by David A. Gee (Verso September 2013)

Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis; design by Jamie Keenan (Vintage / May 2013)

Middle C by William Gass; Design by Gabriele Wilson (Knopf / March 2013)

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin / January 2013)

The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot; design by Jamie Keenan (Liveright Classics / September 2013)

What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam; design by Jennifer Heuer (Riverhead / March 2013)

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

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

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

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

Love Me Back by Merritt Tierce; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Rizon Parein(Doubleday / September 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)

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

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

The Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / August 2015)

Hotels of North America by Rick Moody; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / November 2015)

A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin; design by Justine Anweiler; photography Jonathan Simpson (Picador UK / September 2015)

Motorcycles I’ve Loved by Lily Brooks-Dalton; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / April 2015)

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

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

Weathering by Lucy Wood; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / January 2015)

The Woman Who Read Too Much by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani; design by Anne Jordan & Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / April 2015)

Addlands by Tom Bullough; design by Jenny Grigg (Granta / June 2016)

The Children’s Home by Charles Lambert; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / January 2016)

Dialogue by Robert McKee; design by Catherine Casalino (Twelve Books / July 2016)

How Propaganda Works by Jason Stanley; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / May 2016)

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett; design by Keith Hayes (Little, Brown & Co. / May 2016)

Moonglow by Michael Chabon; design by Adalis Martinez (Harper / November 2016)

The Start of Something by Stuart Dybek; design Suzanne Dean; cover art by Marion de Man (Jonathan Cape / November 2016) 

The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / August 2016)

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue design by Kimberly Glyder (Little, Brown & Co. / September 2016)

The Age of Perpetual Light by Josh Weil; design by Nick Misani (Grove Press / September 2017)

All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)

Heating & Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly; design by Alex Merto; photograph by Gregory Reid (W.W. Norton / December 2017)

Jerzy by Jerome Charyn; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / March 2017)

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / May 2017)

A Separation by Katie Kitamura; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / February 2017)

Virgin and Other Stories by April Ayers Lawson; design by James Paul Jones (Granta / January 2017)

We All Love the Beautiful Girls by Joanne Proulx; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking / August 2017)

Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber; design by David Litman (Simon & Schuster / May 2018)

Cherry by Nico Walker; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / August 2018)

The Comedown by Rebekah Frumkin; design by Rachel Willey (Henry Holt / April 2018)

Evening in Paradise by Lucia Berlin; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / November 2018)

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer; design by Ben Denzer (Riverhead Books / April 2018)

Liveblog by Megan Boyle; design by Nicole Caputo (Tyrant Books / September 2018)

There There by Tommy Orange; design by Suzanne Dean; art by Bryn Perrott (Harvill Secker / July 2018)

Aug 9 —  Fog by Kathryn Scanlan; design by Na Kim (Farrar Straus & Giroux MCD / June 2019)

The Dutch House by Ann Patchet; design by Robin Bilardello; painting by Noah Saterstrom (HarperCollins / September 2019)

Lanny by Max Porter; design by Jonny Pelham (Faber & Faber / March 2019)

Malina by Ingeborg Bachman; design by Peter Mendelsund (New Directions / June 2019)

Muscle by Alan Trotter; design by Gray318 (Faber & Faber / February 2019)

Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy; design by Oliver Munday (New Directions / August 2019)

The Unwanted by Michael Dobbs; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / April 2019)

2 Comments
Published March 22, 2018

2018 AU Presses Book, Jacket, & Journal Show

And the Sparrow Fell by Robert J. Mrazek (Cornell University Press); Design by Kimberly Gyder

Insomniac Dreams by Vladimir Nabokov (Princeton); Design by Chris Ferrante
Patient Zero by Richard A McKay (University of Chicago Press) Design by Isaac Tobin
The Aeneid by Virgil (University of Chicago Press) Design by Matt Avery

The Association of University Presses recently announced the selections for their 2018 Book, Jacket, & Journal Show.

The show is the oldest continuous book design competition in the US, and I was lucky enough to join McSweeney’s designer Sunra Thompson in deciding this year’s cover selections. The book selections were made by designer Linda Secondari and writer Robert Bringhurst.  You can see all the selected entries — books and covers — in this AUPresses slideshow:

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Published July 12, 2016

Book Covers of Note July 2016

I swear that these posts are taking me longer and longer to compile, but rest assured there are some wonderful covers this month:

All the Time in the World design Lucy Kim
All the Time in the World by Caroline Angell; design by Lucy Kim (Henry Holt / July 2016)

American Girls design Philip Pascuzzo
American Girls by Alison Umminger; design by Philip Pascuzzo (Flat Iron / June 2016)

Beast design Mark Ecob
Beast by Paul Kingsnorth; design Mark Ecob; illustration Alan Rogerson (Faber & Faber / July 2016)

Boy Erased design Rachel Willey
Boy Erased by Garrard Conley; design Rachel Willey (Riverhead / May 2016)

cops eyes design Peter Mendelsund
A Cop’s Eyes by Gaku Yakumaru; design by Peter Mendelsund (Vertical / May 2016)

ContestedTastes design Jason Alejandro
Contested by Michaela Desoucey; design Jason Alejandro (Princeton University Press / July 2016)

Corbyn
Corbyn by Richard Seymour; design by Dan Mogford (Verso / July 2016)

Creativity design Amanda Weiss
Creativity Class by Lily Chumley; design by Amanda Weiss (Princeton University Press / July 2016)

Dialogue design Catherine Casalino
Dialogue by Robert McKee; design by Catherine Casalino (Twelve Books / July 2016)

Fates and Furies design Melissa Four
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; design by Melissa Four (Windmill Books / July 2016)

It’s interesting to compare/contrast this new cover for the UK paperback with the covers of the UK hardcover, designed by Suzanne Dean, and the US hardcover, designed by Rodrigo Corral and Adalis Martinez:

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; design by Suzanne Dean (William Heinemann / September 2015)
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff; design by Rodrigo Corral and Adalis Martinez (Riverhead / September 2015 )

Food and Wine of France design Samantha Russo photograph Oddur Thorisson
The Food & Wine of France by Edward Behr; design by Samantha Russo; photograph Oddur Thorisson (Penguin / July 2016)

grace design elena giavaldi
Grace by Natashia Deón; design by Elena Giavaldi (Counterpoint / June 2016)

the-hatching-9781501125041_hr
The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone; design by Chelsea McGuckin; art by David Wu (Atria Books / July 2016)

Hot Little Hands design Ben Wiseman
Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman; art direction by Greg Mollica; design by Ben Wiseman; photograph by RJ Shaughnessy (Spiegel & Grau / May 2016)

It’s also interesting to see US hardcover next to the purely typographic cover from Australia designed by Laura Thomas, and the racier, retro Penguin UK cover designed by Richard Bravery:

Design by Laura Thomas (Scribe / 2016)
Hot Little Hands by Abigail Ulman; design by Richard Bravery (Penguin UK / June 2016)

How to Start a Fire design Kelly Blair
How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball; design by Kelly Blair (Pantheon / July 2016)

This struck me as something as quite a bold change of direction for the covers of Jesse Ball’s novels, which have often been quite minimal and typographic. It feel quite different to the recent paperback edition of A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball, designed by Helen Yentus and Jason Booher (Vintage / June 2016), for example:

9781101872130

In the Flow design Verso
In the Flow by Boris Groys; design by Everything Studio (Verso / March 2016)

InvincibleSummer design Lauren Harms
Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; design by Lauren Harms (Little, Brown & Co. / June 2016)

The UK cover of Invincible Summer, designed by Justine Anweiler, was included in last month’s post.

Invincible Summer by Alice Adams; design by Lauren Harms (Little, Brown & Co. / June 2016)

Listen to Me design Catherine Casalino
Listen to Me by Hannah Pittard; design by Catherine Casalino (HMH / July 2016)

Multiple Choice design by Nayon Cho
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra; design by Nayon Cho (Penguin / July 2016)


Smoke by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / July 2016)

storm of steel design Neil Gower
Storm and Steel by Ernst Jünger; design by Neil Gower (Penguin / May 2016)

street furniture design Daniel Gray
Street Furniture Design by Eleanor Herring; design by Daniel Benneworth-Gray (Bloomsbury / July 2016)

SuninYourEyes design mumtaz mustafa
The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro; design by Mumtaz Mustafa (HarperCollins / July 2016)

This Savage Song design Jenna Stempel
This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab; design Jenna Stempel (GreenWillow / July 2016)

Undying design Rafi Romaya Yehrin Tong
Undying by Michel Faber; design by Rafi Romaya; art by Yehrin Tong (Canongate / July 2016)

The paperback of Michel Faber’s Some Rain Must Fall is out this month too. The cover is another Rafi Romaya / Yehrin Tong collaboration: 

some rain design by Rafi Romaya Yehrin Tong

Some Rain Must Fall and Other Stories by Michel Faber; design by Rafi Romaya; art by Yehrin Tong (Canongate / July 2016)
Undying by Michel Faber; design by Rafi Romaya; art by Yehrin Tong (Canongate / July 2016)

vinegar girl design by Kris Potter
Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler; design by Kris Potter (Hogarth / June 2016)

As I noted on Twitter earlier this week, this combination of type and overlapping floral image — lovely as it is — is becoming a bit of a thing…

Boy Erased by Garrard Conley; design Rachel Willey (Riverhead / May 2016)

If anyone has a good name (and/or pithy description) for this trend let me know. In the meantime, designer Dan Blackman pointed me to his beautiful poster designs for DelVal College from 2011, which are early examples of this idea…

What Language Do I Dream In design Gray318
What Language Do I Dream In by Elena Lappin; design by Gray318 (Virago / June 2016)

Who Will Catch Us design James Paul Jones
Who Will Catch Us As We Fall by Iman Verjee; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / July 2016)

Windows into the Soul design Isaac Tobin
Windows into the Soul by Gary T. Marx; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / July 2016)

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Published April 9, 2016

Book Covers of Note April 2016

All Things Cease design Mario Hugo
All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage; design by Mario Hugo (Knopf / March 2016)

Assault design Oliver Munday
The Assault by Harry Mulisch; design by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2016)

Association-Small-Bombs design Matt Vee
The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan; design by Matt Vee (Viking / March 2016)

Beloved Poison Jordan Metcalf
Beloved Poison by E. S. Thomson; cover art Jordan Metcalf (Little, Brown & Co / March 2016)

black hole blues design Janet Hansen
Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / March 2016)

Dada design Anne Jordan
Dada Presentism by Maria Stavrinaki; design by Anne Jordan & Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / April 2016)

Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain design James Paul Jones
Five Rivers Met on a Wooded Plain by Barney Norris; design James Paul Jones (Doubleday / April 2016)

In the Name of Editorial Freedom design Isaac Tobin
In the Name of Editorial Freedom edited by Stephanie Steinberg; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Michigan Press / September 2015)

I’m so embarrassed that I missed this great type-only cover by the brilliant Isaac Tobin last year that I’m including it here.

Speaking of which, I also missed this rather fine David Drummond cover from late last 2015 too…

Life and Other Near-Death Experiences design David Drummond Nov 2015
Life and Other Near-Death Experiences by Camille Pagán; design by David Drummond (Lake Union Publishing / November 2015)

Man Lies Dreaming design Marina Drukman
A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar; design by Marina Drukman (Melville House / March 2016)

Ben Summers’ cover design for the UK edition of A Man Lies Dreaming published by Hodder and Stoughton was a book cover of note waaaaay back in October 2014!

The Miles Between Me design Alban Fischer
The Miles Between Me by Toni Neale; design by Alban Fischer (Curbside Splendor / April 2016)

Model Disciple design David Drummond
Model Disciple by Michael Prior; design by David Drummond (Vehicule Press / April 2016)

Olio design Jeff Clark
Olio by Tyehimba Jess; design by Jeff Clark / Quemadura (Wave / April 2016)

one in a million design CS Neal
The One-In-Million Boy by Monica Wood; design by C. S. Neal (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2016)

Pillow Book design Alysia Shewchuk
A Pillow Book by Suzanne Buffam; design by Alysia Shewchuk (House of Anansi / April 2016)

She Weeps design Joan Wong
She Weeps Each Time You’re Born by Quan Barry; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / February 2016)

Study in Charlotte jacket art Dan Funderburgh design Katie Fitch
A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro; jacket art Dan Funderburgh; design Katie Fitch (Katherine Tegen Books / March 2016)

Sudden Death
Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue; design by Stephen Parker; photograph Mark Vessey (Harvill Secker / April 2016)

The cover of the US edition published by Riverhead and designed by Rachel Willey was in last month’s post.

Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / March 2016)

Susuzluk (Thirst)_Steven Mithen
Susuzluk (Thirst) by Steven Mithen; design by James Paul Jones (Koc University Press / April 2016)

Tempest design David Pearson
The Tempest by William Shakespeare; design by David Pearson (Penguin / April 2016)

tuesday-nights-in-1980 design Rodrigo Corral
Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss; design by Rodrigo Corral (Gallery/Scout Press / April 2016)

to the left of time design Jackie Shepherd
To the Left of Time by Thomas Lux; design by Jackie Shepherd (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2016)

Well Always Have Paris design Justine Anweiler
We’ll Always Have Paris by Emma Beddington; design by Justine Anweiler; lettering by Cocorrina (Macmillan / April 2016)

What Belongs To You design Justine Anweiler
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / April 2016)

This is a variant on the cover of the US edition from FSG designed by Jennifer Carrow, which is also very nice (especially the zig-zag of the type), but I especially like the Andreas Gursky-like edge-to-edge grid and hyper-real colour of the UK edition.

What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell; design by Justine Anweiler (Picador / April 2016)

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Published February 10, 2015

All Heart

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I thought I would share a few book covers that use hearts as part of their design…

The Gift by Lewis Hyde; design by Angus Hyland (Canongate / 2007)
Perforated Heart by Eric Bogosian; design by Jason Heuer (Simon & Schuster / May 2009)
The Virgin of the Seven Daggers by Vernon Lee; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin / October 2008)

all-about-love
All About Love by Lisa Appignanesi; design by Jamie Keenan (W. W. Norton / July 2011)

Alternatives to Sex
Alternatives to Sex by Stephen McCauley; design by David Ter-Avanesyan (Simon & Schuster / March 2006)

9780143122371
American Supernatural Tales edited by S. T. Joshi ; design by Paul Buckley (Penguin / October 2013)

Amy-and-Matthew
Amy and Matthew by Cammie McGovern; design by Sharon King-Chai (Macmillan Children’s Books / March 2014)

9780143120209B
The Campus Trilogy by David Lodge; design by Heads of State (Penguin / October 2011)

9781406325416
Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Jill Wolfson; design by Jack Noel (Walker Books / November 2011 )

coming-clean
Coming Clean by Kimberly Rae Miller; design by Lynn Buckley (New Harvest / July 2013)

committed

Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert; design by Helen Crawford-White; illustration by Illustration Yulia Brodskaya (Bloomsbury / January 2011)

don't-you-forget-about-me
Don’t You Forget About Me by Jancee Dunn; design by Catherine Casalino (Villard Books / July 2008)

eat-my-heart-out
Eat My Heart Out by Zoe Pilger; design by Rose Stallard (Serpents Tail / January 2014)

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

Untitled-10
Fraught Intimacies by Nathan Rambukkana; design by David Drummond (UBC Press / May 2015)

9780143119692_GirlsGuide_CV.indd
The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank; cover art by Lina Stigsson (Penguin / July 2011)

978144722397901
Gloss by Marilyn Kaye; design by Rachel Vale (Macmillan Children’s Books / June 2013 )

happy-are-the-happy-suzanne-dean
Happy are the Happy by Yesmina Reza; design by Suzanne Dean (Harvill Secker / July 2014)

The recently released US edition of Happy are the Happy published by Other Press, and designed by Kathleen DiGrado, also features a heart on the cover (if you know who the designer is, please let me know):

Happy-Are-The-Happy-US

Heart of the City_Sabar_HSYee
Heart of the City by Ariel Sabar; design by Henry Sene Yee (Da Capo / January 2011)

heart-of-darkness
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad; design by Paul Buckley; art by Mike Mignola (Penguin / August 2012)

volkswagen
How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive by Christopher Boucher; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / September 2011)

how-to-love
How to Love by Katie Cotugno; design by Alison Klapthor; cover art by Alison Carmichael (Balzer + Bray / October 2013)

hundred-hearts
The Hundred Hearts by William Kowalski; design by Michel Vrana (Thomas Allen / May 2013)

9781940450261
In Case of Emergency by Courtney Moreno; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / September 2014)

in-case-we-die
In Case We Die by Danny Bland; design by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics / September 2013)

9781250052896
Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story by Mac McClelland; design by Keith Hayes (Flatiron Books / February 2014)

9780226018928
Learning to Love Form 1040 by Lawrence Zelenak; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / April 2013 )

lolita-bierut
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov; design by Michael Bierut (Lolita Book Cover Project / 2013)

love-poems
Love Poems by Bertolt Brecht; translated by David Constantine and Tom Kuhn; design by Jennifer Heuer (W. W. Norton / December 2014)

lovers-dictionary
The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan; design by Jennifer Carrow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2011)

loves-winning-plays
Love’s Winning Plays by Inman Majors; design by Eric White (W. W. Norton / July 2013)

man-who-touched-his-own-heart
The Man Who Touched His Own Heart by Rob Dunn; design by Ploy Siripant (Little, Brown & Co. / February 2015)

marriage-plot
The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / April 2012)

zusak
The Messenger by Markus Zusak; design by Sandy Cull / gogoGingko (Pan Macmillan / November 2013)

On-the-Noodle-Road
On the Noodle Road by Jen Lin-Liu; design by Lynn Buckley (Riverhead / July 2013)

ps-i-love-you
P. S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern; design by Heike Schüssler (HarperCollins / January 2014)

teeth
Teeth by Hannah Moskowitz; design by Angela Goddard (Simon & Schuster / January 2013)

things-we-know
Things We Know by Heart by Jessi Kirby; design by Erin Fitzsimmons (HarperCollins / May 2015)

Doern art
The Wet Engine by Brian Doyle; design by David Drummond (Oregon State University / May 2012)

with-or-without-you
With or Without You by Domencia Ruta; design by Greg Mollica; lettering by Rebecca Siegel  (Spiegel & Grau / February 2013)

4 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)

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Published August 19, 2014

Lost in the Plot: Maps on Book Covers

maps

Who doesn’t like a good map? From sophisticated charts to intricate, idiosyncratic drawings to directions drawn on the back of napkin, maps explain the world two-dimensionally. They are flights of imagination anchored in our knowledge of the world — much like books themselves.

The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace; design by Jamie Keenan (Penguin / May 2004)
The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen; design by Lynn Buckley (Picador / August 2007)
Guerra by Jason Webster; design by Bill Bragg (Black Swan / July 2007)
Maps of the Imagination by Peter Turchi; design by Pentagram (Trinity University Press / August 2007)
New York Trilogin by Paul Auster; design by Sara R. Acedo (Norstedts klassikerserie / March 2011)
Samedi the Deafness by Jesse Ball; design by Helen Yentus (Vintage / September 2007)
Words Without Borders; design by Helen Yentus (Anchor / March 2007)
You Are Here by Katherine Harmon; design by Jane Jeszeck / Jigsaw (Princeton Architectural Press / November 2003)

This post is a collection of book covers which use maps as parts of their design. I started this working on it months ago (my earlier post collecting arrows on books covers was originally an offshoot of this one), but it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to find enough interesting covers. I think I’ve finally got there — even if I had to cheat a little to include a couple of floor plans! I hope you agree…

abolitionist-geographies
Abolitionist Geographies by Martha Schoolman; design by David Drummond (University of Minnesota Press / October 2014)

MapA
AOTM
All Over the Map by Michael Sorkin; design by Dan Mogford (Verso / July 2011)

american-smoke-hc
sinclair-americansmoke-map
American Smoke Iain Sinclair; design by Nathan Burton (Hamish Hamilton / November 2013)

Astray
Astray by Emma Donoghue; design by Keith Hayes (Little Brown & Co. / October 2012)

bleeding-london
Bleeding London by Geoff Nicholson; design by Jamie Keenan (Harbour Books / September 2014)

boy-bear-boat
A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton; design by Dave Shelton (David Fickling Books / January 2012)

akerman-cartographies
Cartographies of Travel and Navigation edited by James R. Akerman design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / October 2006)

coat-route
The Coat Route by Meg Lukens Noonan; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / January 2014)

A Darker Shade final for Irene
A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab; design by Will Staehle (Tor / February 2015)

(This unused comp is even mappier!)

delmore-schwartz
Delmore Schwartz: A Critical Reassessment by Alex Runchman; design by Palgrave Design Team (Palgrave Macmillan / May 2014)

dogfish-memory
Dogfish Memory by Joseph A. Dane; design by Jason Ramirez (Countryman Press / June 2011)

eat-the-city
Eat the City by Robin Shulman; cover art by Christopher Silas Neal (Crown / July 2012)

fatal-strain-isaac-tobin
The Fatal Strain by Alan Sipress; design by Isaac Tobin (Penguin / September 2011)

from-here-to-there
From Here to There by Kris Harzinski; design by Deb Wood (Princeton Architectural Press / September 2010)

1493
1493 by Charles C. Mann; design by Darren Wall (Granta / September 2011)

ghost-map
The Ghost Map by Steve Johnson; design by Ben Gibson (Riverhead / November 2007)

Gun-Machine
Gun Machine by Warren Ellis; design by Oliver Munday (Little Brown & Co / January 2013)

Hackney-front Hackney-full
Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair; design by Nathan Burton; map by David Atkinson (Hamish Hamilton / February 2009)

9781847084576
Harlem is Nowhere by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitt; design Friederike Huber (Granta / August 2011)

Attachment-1
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien; design Adam Busby / Buzz Studios (unused / February 2013) 1

the-imperial-map
The Imperial Map edited by James R. Akerman; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / March 2009)

Infidelities
infidelities_Final
Infidelities by Kirsty Gunn; design by Darren Wall (Faber & Faber / November 2014)


La Isla del Tesoro (Treasure Island) by Robert Louis Stevenson; design by Raúl Arias (Bolchiro February 2013)

KCP_B paperback
Kimberly’s Capital Punishment by Richard Milward; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / August 2013)

Kimberly’s Capital Punishment by Richard Milward; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / July 2012)
Kimberly’s Capital Punishment by Richard Milward (slipcase); design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / July 2012)

9781846144172
London Underground by Design by Mark Ovenden; design by Matthew Young (Particular Books / June 2013)

Project1:Layout 5
Project1:Layout 5
Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / April 2009)

map-thief
Map Thief by Michael Blanding; design by Stephen Brayda (Gotham Books / July 2014)

9781616890339_cfl
Maps by Paula Scher; design by Pentagram; cover art Paula Scher (Princeton Architectural Press / October 2011)

(these Paula Scher Maps mini-journals are also rather nice)

Utvandrarna by Vilhelm Moberg; design by Karin Holmberg (Bonnier Pocket / January 2013)
Invandrarna by Vilhelm Moberg; design by Karin Holmberg (Bonnier Pocket / January 2013)

dig-fly-go-isaac-tobin
No Dig, No Fly, No Go by Mark Monmonier; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / May 2010)

norfolk-mystery
The Norfolk Mystery by Ian Samson; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / June 2014)

n-w
N-W by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / September 2012)

on-the-map
On the Map by Simon Garfield; design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich (Gotham Books / December 2012)

on-the-map
On the Map by Simon Garfield; design by Nathan Burton (Profile Books / October 2012)

9780374533298
Portrait of the Mother as a Young Woman by Friedrich Christian Delius; design by Charlotte Strick (FSG / January 2012)

rats
Rats by Robert Sullivan; design by Whitney Cookman; cover art by Peter Sis (Bloomsbury / April 2004)

rivers-of-london
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch; design by Patrick Knowles; cover illustration Stephen Walter (Gollancz / January 2011)

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch; design by Patrick Knowles / cover illustration by Stephen Walter (Gollancz / April 2011)
Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch; design by Patrick Knowles / cover illustration by Stephen Walter (Gollancz / June 2012)
Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch; design by Patrick Knowles / cover illustration by Stephen Walter (Gollancz / July 2013)
Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch; design by Patrick Knowles / cover illustration by Stephen Walter (Gollancz / September 2014)

ring-of-steel
Ring of Steel by Alexander Watson; design by Antonio Colaco (Allen Lane / August 2014)

second-world-war
The Second World War by Antony Beevor; design by Steve Marking (Little Brown & Co / June 2012)

seen-reading
Seen Reading by Julie Wilson; design by Natalie Olsen / Kisscut Design (Freehand Books / April 2012)

9781846270642
The Snow Tourist by Charlie English; cover art by Mike Topping / Despotica (Portobello Books / November 2008)

untitled
Thick as Thieves by Peter Spiegelman; design by Nathan Burton (Quercus/September 2011)

Transnationalism
Transnationalism edited by Michael D. Behiels and Reginald C. Stuart; design by Michel Vrana (McGill-Queens University Press / October 2010)

treasure-island
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith, cover illustration by Mick Brownfield (Penguin / May 2008)

villages-britain
Villages of Britain by Clive Aslet; design by Sarah Greeno (Bloomsbury / October 2010)

wilderness-of-error
A Wilderness of Error by Errol Morris; design by Pentagram (Penguin / September 2012)

zone-marvellous
Zone of the Marvellous by Martin Edmond; design by Keely O’Shannessy (Auckland University Press / September 2009)

Apostle Islands by Tommy Zurhellen; design by Jamie Keenan (Atticus Books / September 2012)
Nazareth, North Dakota by Tommy Zurhellen; design by Jamie Keenan (Atticus Books / April 2011)

And I don’t think we can end this post without mentioning the amazing Book Map print by Manchester-based studio Dorothy:

dorothy-book-map
The map — loosely based on a turn of the century map of London — is made up from the titles of over 600 books from the history of English Literature. Buy it here.

12 Comments
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 January 17, 2013

Midweek Miscellany

A great post on designer Josef Müller-Brockmann at I Love Typography:

A student from the back of the room shouted out a wish to see JMB’s business card. As JMB casually pulled the business card out of his coat pocket, there was a frenzy like fish at a pond when the morsels are tossed in. He was taken aback as we scurried around to take a peak at the card revealed; novice typographers eager to see his miniature piece of art. I still remember the card clearly. It was on light gray paper stock printed with a solitary color of cool gray ink. All content was in a singular sans serif face, all lowercase, and no punctuation to speak of other than the umlaut and hyphen in his distinguished name. No commas, no periods, no colons. All the elements on the card were restricted to the purest of necessary elements. In that small space he proved the mastery of minimalism; communication clearly achieved without the use of a period or a comma.

Thumbnails — An interview with book cover designer Isaac Tobin at the University of Chicago Magazine:

His approach to cover designs… hasn’t changed even as Kindles have sparked an ink and paper bonfire. Book covers always have had to work at reduced size, to be appealing from afar on a bookshelf or to make attractive catalog displays. “Things like color and shape,” Tobin says, “can do a lot to work from a distance or in a thumbnail.”

My 2009 interview with Isaac is here.

Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn are going to publish a limited edition book of their photographs.

And finally…

Holy Offset Press, Batman! — My favourite thing on the internet this week so far…  Marvel and DC superheroes printing comics (with art by Joe Kubert):

 

(thx Jacob!)

Comments closed
Published December 19, 2012

Favourite Covers of 2012

For the past couple of years now (since Joseph Sullivan put the Book Design Review on ice in fact), I’ve been posting a short list of my favourite covers for books for the year. Now that thing for the New York Times is out of the way, I’m free to post my list for 2012.

To make a couple of very general observations about book design this year, the cover that probably made the greatest impact was Fifty Shades of Gray. It was a design that made it OK to read erotica in public, something which surely contributed to the book’s breakout success — a point not lost on other publishers who rushed to re-package their own erotica titles in a similar fashion. The results inevitably lacked the finesse of the original, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say…

But while the cover of Fifty Shades of Gray smartly defied the conventions of its genre, it wasn’t an exciting cover and some publishers seemed to be more conservative in their design choices, playing it safe or relying on formulas. The jacket for The Casual Vacancy could hardly have been more forgettable, and it was not alone. A bland sameness crept in. Perhaps that could be said every year. I suspect, however, that smaller budgets, tighter deadlines, and readers browsing thumbnails rather than shelves had an effect.

Nevertheless, some publishers were willing to trust their art directors and designers, and publish interesting and challenging covers. If I was to identify a common theme to my choices this year, it would be hand-drawn lettering and illustrated designs. With the ubiquity of stock photos and uninspired type-choices, that seems to be where the interesting things are happening, at least to my mind. Perhaps photographs will make a come back next year?

After Freud Left edited by John Burnham; designed by Isaac Tobin
University of Chicago Press

All Men Are Liars by Alberto Manguel; design by Jason Booher
Riverhead

El asenino hipocondríaco by Juan Jacinto Muñoz Rengel; design by Ferran López, illustration Santiago Caruso
Plaza & Janés


Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss by Philip Nel; design by Chris Ware
University Press of Mississippi

Cruel Britannia by Ian Cobain; design by FUEL
Portobello Books

The Dubliners by James Joyce; design by Apfel Zet / Richard Bravery
Penguin Essentials, Penguin (UK)

The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus; design by Peter Mendelsund
Knopf

A Free Man by Aman Sethi; design by Ben Wiseman
W.W. Norton

Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood; illustration by Vania Zouravliov

a-single-man
berlin-novels

[Show as slideshow]

Vintage Isherwood, Vintage (UK)

The Heart Broke In by James Meek; design by Jennifer Carrow; illustration by Michele Banks
Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Hope: A Tragedy: A Novel by Shalom Auslander; design by John Gall
Riverhead

How to Sharpen Pencils by David Rees; design by Christopher Brian King
Melville House

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson; design by Jonny Pelham
Hesperus Press

Husk: A Novel by Corey Redekop; design by David A. Gee

In Praise of Nonsense by Ted Hiebert; design by David Drummond
McGill-Queens University Press

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; design by Cardon Webb

going-to-the-territory
juneteenth

[Show as slideshow]

Vintage (US)

Lost at Sea by Jon Ronson; design by Matt Dorfman
Riverhead

May We Be Forgiven by A. M. Homes; designed by Alison Forner
Viking

Men in Space by Tom McCarthy; design by John Gall
Vintage (US)

NW by Zadie Smith; designed by Gray318
Hamish Hamilton

Office Girl by Joe Meno; design by Cody Hudson, photograph by Todd Baxter
Akashic

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; design by Jessica Hische / Paul Buckley

9780143123149
9780143123156

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Penguin Drop Cap, Penguin (US)

Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton; design Leanne Shapton / Matthew Young
Particular Books

Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon; design by Paul Sahre

Why We Build by Rowan Moore; illustration by Diane Berg
Picador (UK)

Honourable Mentions:

bad-haircuts
Building Stories
The Collective
Dare Me
diary-of-a-nobody
Heart of Darkness
In Cold Blood
Lucky Jim
The Marlowe Papers
The Map and the Territory
swallows-and-amazons
Tell The Wolves I\'m Home
Threats
Vertigo
The Yellow World

[Show as slideshow]

;

You can find my lists for 2010 and 2011 here and here, and if you haven’t seen my 50 covers post from earlier this year, you can find that here. Happy Holidays!

16 Comments
Published August 3, 2012

Something for the Weekend

Somehow I missed that the second volume of Baltimore came out in June. It will soon be on the ‘to read’ pile along with the new Darwyn Cooke ‘Parker’ book The Score.

And just so you have ample advance warning: The Golden Age of DC Comics: 1935-1956 by Paul Levitz will be published by Taschen early next year:

See also: Sean T. Collins list of the 15 Essential Batman Graphic Novels at Rolling Stone.

Changing tack completely…

How it Felt to be There — Neal Ascherson reviews Ryszard Kapuściński: A Life by Artur Domosławski  (translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), for the LRB:

Domosławski has written a book which is three sorts of cautionary tale: about journalism engaged or disengaged, about the political maze through which intelligent Poles made their way in the later 20th century, about the endless capacity of human beings to believe their own fictions and keep secrets from themselves. He ends up still confident about Kapuściński’s stature as a writer, still attracted to the memory of him as a friend, but amazed at what he has found out. As one of Kapuściński’s former lovers said, ‘he was a complex man living in tangled times, in several eras, in various worlds.’

The brilliant Isaac Tobin, senior designer at University of Chicago Press, interviewed at From the Desk of…

Almost all book covers I design are secretly collaborations with Lauren [Nassef], especially the successful ones. She’s often both the source of the initial idea, and an invaluable editor and critic — she always sees the dozens of variations I go through before settling on a final design, and tells me what’s working and what isn’t.

My 2009 interview with Isaac is here.

The folks behind Designers and Books have announced Designers & Books Fair 2012 to be held  Saturday October 27, and Sunday October 28 at the F.I.T Conference Center in New York.

See also: nominations for the new 50 Books / 50 Covers, co-sponsored by Designers and Books, Design Observer and AIGA. There are some astonishingly good entries. My list for 2011 looks meagre by comparison.

Have a great weekend.

Comments closed
Published June 8, 2012

Something for the Weekend

A stunning jacket design by the great Isaac Tobin for After Freud Left, published by University of Chicago Press.

You can read my interview with Isaac from 2009 here.

Bauhütte to Bauhaus — A fascinating overview of the Bauhaus by Frank Whitford, author of the Thames & Hudson ‘World of Art’ book Bauhaus,  for the TLS:

The structure of the Bauhaus… followed, as Gropius thought, medieval principles. He coined the school’s name so as to echo the word Bauhütte, in the Middle Ages the German for a guild of masons, builders and decorators. And the teaching was based on specialist workshops where you learned your trade by carrying out actual projects, graduating from apprentice to journeyman and master. The teachers were at first called Masters and not Professors, a revolution in a country where academic snobbery was the norm.

Calligraphica — A new tumblr devoted to calligraphy and hand drawn type (pictured above: ‘One Hope One Quest’, by Greg Papagrigoriou).

Persuasion — Michael Bierut talks to Designers & Books about his collection 79 Short Essays on Design:

Even the best designers have to persuade people all the time. They have to persuade people to hire them; then they have to persuade people to go with the recommended solution; then they have to persuade people to realize that solution in the best possible way. Simply showing someone a nice design is almost never enough. This constant effort—and all the rejection that inevitably ensues—obviously requires healthy confidence and nerves of steel, if not a strong ego.

And finally…

Critic James Lasdun reviews The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus for The Guardian:

Language, the debasement, banality and ultimate toxicity thereof, is his subject. It’s a staple topic of avant garde literature, from the Prenzlauer Berg writers of the former East Germany to the Language poets of the American academy. All proceed, more or less, on the basis that verbal communication has been fatally corrupted by political or literary abuse and can be rescued only by a total dismantling and reassembly. Results vary (I’ve yet to read a Language poem that didn’t make me want to dissolve it in acid), but Marcus’s own, especially in The Age of Wire and String, have been haunting and inventive.

Comments closed