Tag: jason booher

Published June 29, 2020

Book Covers of Note, June 2020

After Australia edited by Michael Mohammed Ahmad; design by Design by Committee (Affirm Press / May 2020)

A Burning by Megha Majumdar; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / June 2020)

The cover of the UK edition, which will not be published until 2021(!), was designed by Craig Fraser. It has a very vintage Faber feel… maybe it’s just the type?

The Dragons, the Giant, and the Women by Wayétu Moore; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / June 2020)

Inner Coast by Donovan Hohn; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W.W. Norton / June 2020)

The Margot Affair by Sanaë Lemoine; design by Elena Giavaldi (Hogarth / June 2020)

The Myth of the American Dream by D. L. Mayfield; design by David Fassett (IVP / May 2020)

News Parade by Jospeh Clark; design by Matt Avery (University of Minnesota Press / May 2020)

Night, Sleep, Death, the Stars by Joyce Carol Oates; design by Jamie Keenan (Fourth Estate / June 2020)

The cover of the US edition, published by Ecco, was designed by Sara Wood:

Nothing is Wrong and Here is Why by Alexandra Petri; design by Jim Tierney (W.W. Norton / June 2020)

(I really don’t know how I feel about this cover)

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels; design by Luke Bird (Hub City Press / May 2020)

Luke wrote about the design process behind the cover at Literary Hub.

Real Queer America by Samantha Allen; design by Lucy Kim (Back Bay Books / June 2020)

The Second Home by Christina Clancy; design Olga Grlic; art by Elizabeth Lennie (St. Martin’s Press / June 2020)

Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis & Jon Wiener; design by Matt Dorfman (Verso / April 2020)

Soot by Dan Vyleta; design by Mark Swan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / February 2020)

Soot is the sequel to Dan’s novel Smoke (which I liked a lot). The cover of the UK edition was also designed by Mark:

Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen; design by Jason Booher (Riverhead Books / June 2020)

This reminded me of the cover of the similarly themed American Manifesto by Bob Garfield, designed by Richard Ljoenes and published earlier this year by Counterpoint….

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead / June 2020)

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Published August 16, 2019

Book Covers of Note, August 2019

Here are your August book covers of note. Another good month, I think?

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath; design by Gray318 (Faber & Faber / July2019)

This is apparently available now (according to Faber’s Instagram at least!), but I haven’t been able to find it online. If anyone cares to share the ISBN, I will try to add a link.

The new design is inspired by the 1966 cover designed by Shirley Tucker.

Berta Isla by Javier Marías; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / August 2019)

This is an interesting change in direction from the cover of The Infatuations by Javier Marías designed by Isabel Urbina Peña and published by Knopf in 2013.

(The UK covers for Javier Marías’ novels published by Hamish Hamilton are photographic. If anyone can supply me with the design/photo credits, I’d be happy to add them in here for reference!).

The Case Against Reality by Donald Hoffman; design by Sarahmay Wilkinson (W. W. Norton / August 2019)

The Catholic School by Edoardo Albinati; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2019)

Thank you to the good folks on Twitter who helped me identify the designer and then the typeface. It turns out the type is “Lydia” from Colophon Foundry — a revival of the Bold Condensed styles of (you guessed it!) Lydian.

Chances Are… by Richard Russo; dsign by Kelly Blair (Knopf / July 2019)

Doxology by Nell Zink; design Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / August 2019)

And you can read a recent interview with Jack about his work at It’s Nice That.

Ether by Evgenia Citkowitz design by Henry Sene Yee (Picador / July 2019)

You can listen to Henry discussing his work with Holly Dunn on the latest Spine podcast.

Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford; design and illustration Beci Kelly (Transworld / August 2019)

The cover of the US edition, which will be published by Scribner in January 2020(!) was designed by Jaya Miceli featuring a collage by Toon Joosen.

Lithium by Walter A. Brown; design by Keith Hayes (W. W. Norton / August 2019)

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / August 2019)

More Noble Than War by Nicholas Blincoe; design by Steve Leard (Constable / August 2019)

This reminded me of Henry’s cover for A Wall in Palestine by René Backman published by Picador in 2010…

The Need by Helen Phillips; design Rachel Willey (Simon & Schuster / July 2019)

I stopped keeping track of ‘flora-intertwined-with-type’ covers a while ago, but this would be a nice addition to that list.

One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman; design by Richard Ljoenes (Simon & Schuster / June 2019)

Our Women on the Ground edited by Zahra Hankir; design by Rosie Palmer; hand lettering by Lily Jones (Harvill Secker / August 2019)

The cover of the US edition published by Penguin was designed by Na Kim.

The Perfect Plan by Bryan Reardon; design by Jason Booher (Dutton / June 2019)

I like this cover a lot, but it is surprisingly un-bonkers for Jason. I would not have guessed he was the designer!

The Remainder by Alia Trabucco Zerán; design by Tree Abraham (Coffee House Press / August 2019)

Tree also designed the cover of the UK edition published by And Other Stories last year. She wrote about the process of designing both covers for Spine not so long ago (they really are doing a better a job of this than me, aren’t they?).

The Revolutionaries by Joshua Furst; design by Tyler Comrie (Knopf / April 2019)

I think it’s kind of interesting to see these two designs side by side….

Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon; design Jaya Miceli (Counterpoint / July 2019)

Sadly this image doesn’t quite do justice to just how brilliantly orange this cover is in IRL. And apparently flowery collages are the new thing…

The Western Alienation Merit Badge by Nancy Jo Cullen; design by Michel Vrana (Buckrider Books / May 2019)

Michel has also dusted off his comics publishing endeavour Black Eye Books if you’d like to support him. There is a new book by Jay Stephens planned for next month.

White Flights by Jess Row; design by Oliver Munday (Graywolf / August 2019)

This is one of my favourite covers of the year so far, I think.

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Published February 16, 2018

Book Covers of Note February 2018

I had such good intentions to post more often this year. Ah well… Here are this month’s cover selections at least…

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones; design by Jaya Miceli (Algonquin Books / February 2018)

Building and Dwelling by Richard Sennett; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / February 2018)

Eat the Apple by Matt Young; design by Edel Rodriguez (Bloomsbury USA / February 2018)

Feel Free by Zadie Smith; design by Gray318 (Hamish Hamilton / February 2018)

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / February 2018)

The cover of the US edition, published by Penguin last month, was designed by Jason Ramirez:

Frankenstein in Baghdad_US_design Jason Ramirez

Frankenstein in Baghdad_Oneworld_Design James Jones

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert; design by Jim Tierney (Flatiron / January 2018)

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara; design by Sara Wood (Ecco / February 2018)

Sara wrote a great piece about designing this cover for Literary Hub.

The Kings of Big Spring by Bryan Mealer; design by Keith Hayes (Flatiron / February 2018)

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco Cantú; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / February 2018)

She Regrets Nothing by Andrea Dunlop; design by Rachel Willey (Washington Square Books / February 2018)

Sunburn by Laura Lippman; design by Elsie Lyons (William Morrow / February 2018)

I included the cover of Sunburn and Elsie Lyons’s cover for The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn (featured last month) in a recent presentation about the differences between US and UK cover design. UK editions of both books have a much more conventional genre covers. They signal very clearly to readers that they are thrillers.

The US covers on the other hand have a much more literary, sophisticated look. They both have a distinctive, individual appearance (although I suspect we may see covers copying the approach of The Woman in the Window very soon!) that suggest that these are not your average thrillers.

It is not that one approach is necessarily better than the other from a marketing perspective (although I can guess which designers might prefer!), but it is an interesting contrast.

Up Up, Down Down by Cheston Knapp; design Anna Laytham (Scribner / February 2018)

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki; design by Michael Morris; illustration by Oliver Wilson (Crown / February 2018)

I will admit it was the photo-realistic painting that first drew my eye to this cover, but I also like that the blocky typography echoes the cover of the author’s previous novel California.

Woman No. 17 by Edan Lepucki; design by Michael Morris; illustration by Oliver Wilson (Crown / February 2018)

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Published November 11, 2016

The Angelus Trilogy Design by Jason Booher

These Jason Booher covers for the paperback editions of Jon Steele’s The Angelus Trilogy, published by Blue Rider Press in August, bring a whole new meaning to ‘side eye’1 I love that they use Albrecht Dürer etchings as part of the design…

watchers-design-jason-booher-side

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Published September 12, 2016

Book Covers of Note September 2016

It’s September. It’s busy.

All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan; design by James Paul Jones (Transworld / September 2016)

Art of Memoir by Mary Karr; design by Robin Bilardello (Harper Perennial / September 2016)

Before by Carmen Boullosa; design by Anna Zylicz (Deep Vellum / August 2016)

The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll; design by Jamie Keenan (Oneworld / September 2016)

Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair; design by Nathan Putens; artwork by Wangechi Mutu (University of Nebraska Press / September 2016)

Cannibals in Love by Mike Roberts; design by Na Kim (FSG Original / September 2016)

Carousel Court by Joe McGinniss Jr.; design by Ben Wiseman (Simon & Schuster / August 2016)

Drinks: A Users Guide by Adam McDowell; design by Danielle Deschenes (TarcherPerigee / September 2016)

Dr. Knox by Peter Spiegelman; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / July 2016)

Gold from the Stone by Lemn Sissay; design by Pete Adlington (Canongate / August 2016)

The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shukla; design by James Paul Jones (Unbound / September 2016)

Little Nothing by Marisa Silver; design by Rachel Willey (Blue Rider Press / September 2016)

Looking for the Stranger by Alice Kaplan; design by Isaac Tobin (University of Chicago Press / September 2016)

The Nix by Nathan Hill; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / August 2016)

Notes from the Shadowed City by Jeffery Alan Love; cover art by Jeffrey Alan Love (Flesk / September 2016)

Phantom Limbs by Paula Garner; design by Matt Roeser (Candlewick / September 2016)

Raindrop covers could be a new thing…

All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan; design by James Paul Jones (Transworld / September 2016)

design Matt Roeser

design Janet Hansen

pour-me-a-life-design-jason-booher
Pour Me Life by A. A. Gill; design by Jason Booher (Blue Rider Press / September 2016)

Reputations by Juan Gabriel Vásquez; design by Alex Merto (Riverhead / September 2016)

Sex and Death edited by Sarah Hall and Peter Hobbs; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / September 2016)

The Strange Case of Rachel K design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / September 2016)

This paperback cover is a nice contrast to last year’s hardcover, also designed by Mr. Sahre:

strange-case-of-rachel-k-design-paul-sahre

The Strange Case of Rachel K design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / September 2016)

Stranger Father Beloved by Taylor Larsen; design by Anna Dorfman (Gallery Books / July 2016)

Substitute by Nicholson Baker; design by Spencer Kimble (Blue Rider Press / September 2016)

33 Artists in 3 Acts by Sarah Thornton; design by David Drummond (W.W. Norton / September 2016)

Timekeepers by Simon Garfield; design by Pete Adlington (Canongate / September 2016)

Concentric circles… still a thing (see here for more examples).

Time Travel by James Gleick; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / September 2016)

War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans; design by Oliver Munday (Pantheon /August 2016)

Welcome to the Universe by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / September 2016)

Loving these minimal black and white covers for books about the universe…

Welcome to the Universe by Neil Degrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott; design by Chris Ferrante (Princeton University Press / September 2016)

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

the-big-picture_oneworld_design-by-jamie-keenan

Wolf Boys by Dan Slater; design by Grace Han (Simon & Schuster / September 2016)

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

The Wonder by Emma Donoghue design by Jo Thompson (Picador / September 2016)

The UK and US covers actually make a lovely pair…

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Published April 30, 2016

Jason Booher Interviewed at The Perch

Last Magazine design Jason Booher

Forgetting to be Afraid design Jason Booher

Jason Booher, designer and art director of Blue Rider Press and Plume, talks to Penguin Random House blog The Perch about the book cover design process:

A design can be thought of as a set of constraints or parameters. In book design, these consist of things like the conceptual literary content of the book, what makes the book unique in the context of other similar books or all books, how the author is (or is not) known, the expectations of the book from the point of view of the author/editor/sales force/readers, the context of book jacket in the contemporary moment, the context of book jackets in the last 10 (or even 20) years, visual pop culture. Or something that is obvious and not obvious is working with type is very difficult. And it perhaps the most specialized thing that graphic designers bring to that general problem solving into form.

Jason also describes how he approaches a book cover:

There’s a combination of reading the manuscript, and listening to the editor talk about the book. As an art director, I have to dip into almost all the of the books to see what they are like before deciding to whom to give each title. As a designer (if I’m working on that title’s jacket) it’s always different with every book. But as a general process I will read the book, and think and sketch, and sketch, and reread, work though a number of ideas, throw most of them out, stay with others, reread, take a walk (much harder when you are also the art director), try to come up with something new. Those are the first steps.

And how he works with other designers:

When I work with a freelancer (as well as with my in-house designers), I like to see what they come up with without any input from me. Not only are you more likely to get something special and surprising, something you couldn’t have thought of yourself (which is why art directors work with a variety of freelancers in addition to their in-house staff), but you are sending a signal of trust. If a designer knows what “kind” of design they are expected to deliver, they might not push very far or hard. But if they take ownership of being the first arbiters of what the package of the book might be, there is more of a chance for something brilliant. I’m just trying to maximize the talent I have working with me.

With my in house staff, it is similar but there might also be a concept that is floating that we will work with. Or occasionally I’ll work with one designer or my whole team to come up with ideas together. That’s an exception though, and cover design is generally a sole enterprise in the initial stages. Then it becomes a collaboration when I see comps, and goes from there.

Read the whole interview here.

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Published March 7, 2015

Jason Booher: “being a book cover designer is possibly the best job in the world.”

Booher_LotF

At the AIGA’s Eye on Design blog, Margaret Rhodes talks to Jason Booher, art director of Penguin imprint Blue Rider Press, about book cover design:

The key to creating stellar covers, according to Booher, is to first throw out the tired adage about not judging books by them. “Graphic design is really about selling things,” he says. Lest that sound soulless, the good news here is that Booher is selling other people’s creative ideas. And while every book is unique, Booher says he starts by reading the six or so manuscripts he gets per season, and then mentally digests them all. “You read it, you try and find the soul of the book, something that makes it special, and make it come alive,” he says.

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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 September 3, 2014

Book Covers of Note September 2014

It’s hard to believe it is already September, but here we are… time for another round of book covers!

If you’re new to this feature, each month I collect together new and recent covers that have caught my eye in the previous few weeks. Although the focus is on books released in the current month, the posts also include covers I’ve missed earlier in the year. You can find the previous month’s posts here.

Thanks (as always) to my local bookstores — Type Books on Queen West, Book City on the Danforth, and Indigo Bay & Bloor — for fighting the good fight (and their wonderful displays!).

9781568987262_cfl
Abbott Miller: Design and Content; design by Pentagram (Princeton Architectural Press / September 2014)

Arvida by Samuel Archibald; design by Catherine D’Amours / Pointbarre (Le Quartanier / August 2014)

(this is an obvious miss from last month’s post about maps. Sorry Catherine!)

assassination-of-margaret-thatcher
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel; design by Rodrigo Corral Design; photograph Demurez/Glasshouse (Henry Holt / September 2014)

9780374169046
The City Under the Skin by Geoff Nicholson; design by Oliver Munday; photograph by George Baier IV (FSG / June 2014)

(Another one that should have been in the maps post. And yes, that really is someone’s back apparently)

The Establishment by Owen Jones; design by Richard Green (Allen Lane / September 2014)

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

God Telling a Joke by David Margoshes; design by David Drummond (Oolichan Books / May 2014)

Hack Attack by Nick Davies; design by David Drummond (Faber & Faber / August 2014)

The Histories by Herodotus; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics / September 2014)

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison; design by JP King (Penguin / August 2014)

lippy-booher
Lippy by Bush Moukarzel; design by Jason Booher (Oberon Books / August 2014)

The Most Dangerous Animal of All by Gary L. Stewart with Susan Mustafa; design by Jarrod Taylor (HarperCollins / June 2014)

(I’m not endorsing the content of this book at all, but the red acetate cover does need to be seen in person to be fully appreciated)

smoke-gets-in
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty; design by David High / High Design (W. W. Norton / September 2014)

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

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle; design by Timothy Goodman (FSG / September 2014)

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

You by Zoran Drvenkar; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / August 2014)

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Published July 18, 2014

A Book on a Book on a Book

The brilliant Jason Booher, whose cover for A History of Histories featured in my previous post, kindly just sent me his original design for the book. I think this could be the meta-cover to end all meta-covers. Sadly, the editor decided it might be a little too much of a good thing.

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Published May 18, 2013

More Recent Book Covers of Note

Seeing as it’s a long weekend in Canada, and The Independent, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and countless other fly-by-night operations are jumping on the book design blog train (and doing it far better than me, damn it), here’s another round of recent covers that have caught my eye (just so you know who’s boss):

419 by Will Ferguson; Design by Dan Mogford

The Antidote by Oliver Burkeman; Design by Scriberia

Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami; Design by David Pearson

The Enchanted Wanderer by Nikolai Leskov; Design by Peter Mendelsund

Gun Guys: A Road Trip by Dan Baum; Design by Jason Booher

The Private Life: Why We Remain in the Dark by Josh Cohen; Design by FUEL

Watergate by Thomas Mallon; Design by Evan Gaffney

What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam; Design by Jen Heuer

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Published March 16, 2011

The Art of Immersion | Jason Booher

The nice folks at W.W. Norton were kind enough to give me a heads up about this beautiful new cover design by Jason Booher for The Art of Immersion by Frank Rose. Stunning stuff.

Be sure to check out W. W. Norton’s Book Design Archive on Flickr if you haven’t already.

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Tag: jason booher

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