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Tag: Typography

Published November 14, 2017

Book Covers of Note, November 2017

It’s my last monthly cover round-up of the year! Watch out for my review of 2017 next month… 


After Me Comes the Flood by Sarah Perry; design by Pete Dyer (Serpents Tail / November 2017)


Basket of Deplorables by Tom Rachman; design by Josh Durham, Design by Committee (Text / September 2017)


Bonfire by Krysten Ritter; design by Will Staehle (Crown Archetype / November 2017)


Don’t Save Anything by Jame Salter; design by Zoe Norvell (Counterpoint / November 2017)


Dunbar by Edward St Aubyn; design by Julia Connolly; illustration Peter Strain (Hogarth / October 2017)


The Giving Light by Gavin Corbett; design by Niall McCormack (Cló Hi Tone / November 2017)

Niall also designs the excellent covers for Gorse journal. The latest issue, Gorse #9, is out this month:


Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck; design by Rodrigo Corral (New Directions / September 2017)


Gravel Heart by Abdulrazak Gurnah; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / May 2017)

How Will I Know You? by Jessic Treadway; design by Catherine Casalino; illustration by Henrietta Harris (Grand Central Publishing / August 2017)

The cover of How Will I Know You? reminded me of Lynn Buckley’s 2016 cover design for Sex Object by Jessica Valenti…  

And I’m starting to think that faceless women might be a thing… 


Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks; design Meg Reid; illustration by Jody Edwards (Hub City Press / September 2017)


The Parcel by Anosh Irani; design by Allison Colpoys (Scribe / September 2017)



The Poems of Dylan Thomas; design by Jamie Keenan (New Directions / November 2017)


Release by Patrick Ness; design by Erin Fitzsimmons; photograph by Andrew Yuzko (Harper Teen / September 2017)


Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward; design by David Mann (Bloomsbury / November 2017)


They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib; design Two Dollar Radio (Two Dollar Radio / November 2017)


Time of Gratitude by Gennady Aygi; design by Eileen Baumgartner (New Directions / December 2017)


Toi Aussi Mon Fils by Jonathan Pedneault; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / November 2017)


The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein; design by W. H. Chong (Text / October 2017)


Ultraluminous by Katherine Faw; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering June Park (FSG / December 2017)


Where the Past Begins by Amy Tan; design by Allison Saltzman (Ecco / October 2017)


The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai; design by Paul Sahre (New Directions / November 2017)

Speaking of Paul Sahre, his “graphic memoir” Two Dimensional Man was publishing by Abrams in September:

AND… speaking of László Krasznahorkai (as I know you all were), the cover of the UK edition of The World Goes On was designed by Harry Haysom:

It’s part of a series of abstract covers by Haysom for the Profile Books editions of Krasznahorkai:

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Published October 20, 2017

Book Covers of Note, October 2017

I have steadily fallen further and further behind with my cover posts this year. There is some cracking work in this month’s round-up. But I can’t help feeling that there are some covers missing. Somehow it almost November, and I have run out of time. If I don’t post this now, I will never catch up! 


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


Bloodprint by Ausma Zehanat Khan; design by Micaela Alcaino (Harpercollins / October 2017)


Crossings by Jon Kerstetter; design by Matt Dorfman (Random House / September 2017)


The Dead Husband Project by Sarah Meehan Sirk; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Anchor Canada / August 2017)


George & Lizzie by Nancy Pearl; design by Gray318 (Simon & Schuster / September 2017)

(Someone on Twitter recently asked about current book cover design trends. If I had to pick one out for 2017, it would be crossed-out words)


He Doesn’t Hurt People Anymore by Dane Swan; design by 13Jupiters (Dumagrad Books / October 2017)


Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / October 2017)


I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez; design by Connie Gabbert (Knopf / October 2017)


Ma’am Darling by Craig Brown; design by Anna Morrison (Fourth Estate / September 2017)


My Ariel by Sina Queyras; design by Ingrid Paulson (Coach House Books / September 2017)


The Naturalist by Andrew Mayne; design by M.S. Corley (Thomas & Mercer / October 2017)


The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed; design by Alex Robbins (Simon Pulse / October 2017)


Russia: A Short History by Abraham Ascher; design by Kishan Rajani (Oneworld / October 2017)


A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams; design by Janet Hansen; art by Nathan Manire (Flat Iron Books / October 2017)

Such great image selection from Janet on both these covers… and I love the restraint of the type. Beautiful stuff. 

All We Saw by Anne Michaels; design by Janet Hansen; photograph by Jouke Bos (Knopf / October 2017)
A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams; design by Janet Hansen; art by Nathan Manire (Flat Iron Books / October 2017)


Spectatorship edited by Roxanne Samer and William Whittington; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Texas Press / October 2017)


Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash; design by Micaela Alcaino (Borough Press / September 2017)

The cover of the US edition of Stephen Florida, designed by Karl Engebretson with an illustration by George Boorujy, was included in my June round-up.


This Accident of Being Lost by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; by design Alysia Shewchuk; photograph of ‘Mixed Blessing’ by Rebecca Belmore by Toni Hafkenshied (House of Anansi /  April 2017)


The Whole Beautiful World by Melissa Kuipers; design by Tree Abraham (Brindle & Glass / October 2017)

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Published September 19, 2017

Book Covers of Note, September 2017

Here are September’s cover selections with a few extra covers from earlier in the year, just for good measure…


The Aeneid by Virgil, translated by David Ferry; design by Matt Avery (University of Chicago Press / September 2017)


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


And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy by Adrian Shirk; design by Jarrod Taylor (Counterpoint / September 2017)


The Beast by Alexander Starritt; design by Gray318 (Head of Zeus / September 2017)


A Book of Untruths by Miranda Doyle; design by Donna Payne (Faber & Faber / June 2017)

I really must do a post on crossings out on covers….


Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down by Allan Jones; design by Greg Heinimann (Bloomsbury / August 2017)


The Change Room by Karen Connelly; design by Jennifer Griffiths (Random House Canada / April 2017)


Curry by Naben Ruthnum; illustration by Chloe Cushman; series design Ingrid Paulson (Coach House Books / August 2017)


Dark at the Crossing by Elliot Ackeman; design by Kelly Blair (Knopf / January 2017)


Democracy and Its Crisis by A.C. Grayling design James Paul Jones (Oneworld / September 2017)


Do Not Bring Him Water by Caitlin Scarano; design by Zoe Norvell (Write Bloody / September 2017)


The Dying Detective by Leif GW Persson; design by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / May 2017)


English Uprising by Paul Stocker; design by Jamie Keenan (Melville House / September 2017)


Every Third Thought by Robert McCrum; design by Stuart Wilson; illustration Andrew Davidson (Picador / August 2017)


The Experiment by Eric Lee; design by David A. Gee (Zed Books / September 2017)


I Am Not A Brain by Markus Gabriel; design by David A. Gee (Polity Press / September 2017)


The Last London by Iain Sinclair; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / September 2017)


Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta; design by Jaya Miceli (Scribner / August 2017)


My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; design by Jo Walker (Fourth Estate / August 2017)

The cover of the US edition, published by Riverhead, was designed by Jaya Miceli:

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / August 2017)
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent; design Jo Walker


New People by Danzy Senna; design by Rachel Willey (Riverhead / August 2017)


The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore by Jared Yates Sexton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / August 2017)


Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher; design by Jack Smyth (Simon & Schuster / September 2017)


Ruth and Martin’s Album Club by Martin Fitzgerald; design by Dan Mogford (Unbound / September 2017)


Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez; design Oliver McPartlin; photograph Matthew Henry (Arsenal Pulp Press / May 2017)


The Talented Ribkins by Ladee Hubbard; design Marina Drukman (Melville House / August 2017)


To Die in Spring by Ralf Rothmann; design by Oliver Munday (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / August 2017)


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


You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann; design by Peter Mendelsund (Pantheon / June 2017)

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Published August 3, 2017

David Pearson on Books and Typography

At the Monotype blog, Theo Inglis talks to designer David Pearson about his career and his type-centric approach to book covers:

We are increasingly being urged to create objects of desire and the cover obviously plays a key role here, especially when a book is aiming for pride of place in a bookshop. Designers visit them regularly, to note the common visual language of related or competing titles. It can be a source of frustration then, when presenting a contrasting or conflicting design aimed at standing out, only to be asked to produce a copycat cover intended to hitch on the success of the latest best-seller. Booksellers often create themed displays dedicated to the latest hot trend, see Hygge for example. Publishers are all-too aware of this and often the pursuit of a like-for-like cover is their priority… Being allowed to use ‘just type’ will always be dependent on what books are blazing a commercial trail… Jon Gray’s cover for Swing Time and John Gall’s for Norwegian Wood, to take two current examples, prove to publishers that the mass market can handle bold, type-driven design and so this approach will be validated for a time. 

You read my 2009(!) Q & A with David here. 

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Published July 20, 2017

50 Books / 50 Covers Winners 2016

The Bed Moved by Rebecca Schiff; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2016)

AIGA and Design Observer announced the results of the 2016 50 Books | 50 Covers competition while I was on vacation. You can find all the book selections here, and the cover selections here.

I always look forward 50 Books | 50 Covers announcement. It feels like the industry standard. It’s the cover design list that really seems to matter to book designers in North America, and it’s the one I always compare my own list to.

There are always great covers among the winners that are new to me, and this year is no exception. But here are a few random observations about this year’s the cover selections: there a lot of typographic/type-only covers; academic publishers are well represented; there are some surprising omissions (although the jury can only judge what is submitted); a couple of the selections are… well, a little problematic; it is a very male list.

I’m interested to hear what other people thought of this year’s winners.  

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Published July 18, 2017

Book Covers of Note July 2017

Something… something… vacation… something… jetlag…. something… inbox… something… Oh look! It’s July’s book covers!1


Album for the Young (and Old) by Vera Pavlova; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / April 2017)


Amanda Wakes Up by Alisyn Camerota; design by Kimberly Glyder (Viking / July 2017)


City of Saints and Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson; design by Steven Leard (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Conference of Birds by Attar, translated by Sholeh Wolpé; design by Jaya Miceli (W. W. Norton / April 2017)


Equipment for Living on Poetry and Pop Music by Michael Robbins; design by Thomas Colligan (Simon & Schuster / July 2017)


Flesh and Bone and Water by Luiza Sauma; design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Scribner / June 2017)


Fly Me by Daniel Riley; design by Lucy Kim (Little, Brown & Co. / June 2017)


Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed; design by Yeti Lambregts (Tinder Press / July 2017)


Goodnight Boy by Nikki Sheehan; design by Edward Bettison (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Graybar Hotel by Curtis Dawkins; design by Pete Adlington (Canongate / July 2017)

The cover of the US edition, designed by the aforementioned Thomas Colligan for Scribner, is an interesting compare and contrast:


Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave; design by Jennifer Heuer (Simon & Schuster / July 2017)


Hollow by Owen Egerton; design by Matt Dorfman (Counterpoint / July 2017)


I Must Belong Somewhere by Jonathan Dean; design by Dan Mogford (Weidenfeld & Nicolson / May 2017)

(This would be a nice addition to this old list of maps on book covers)


Investigations of a Dog by Franz Kafka, translated by Michael Hofmann; design by John Gall (New Directions / May 2017)


Kompromat by Stanley Johnson; design by James Paul Jones (Oneworld / July 2017)


The Lawn Job by Chuck Caruso; design by La Boca (Cloud Lodge Books / July 2017)


A Life of Adventure and Delight by Akhil Sharma; design Peter Mendelsund (W.W. Norton / July 2017)


The Little Buddhist Monk & The Proof by César Aira; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering by June Park (New Directions / June 2017)

And as this is two stories in one, you get a fancy back cover too…. 

The covers of the UK editions of César Aira’s books The Little Buddhist Monk, The Proof, and The Seamstress and the Wind, published separately by And Other Stories, were designed by Edward Bettison:


Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz; design by Will Staehle (Harper / June 2017)


Shark Drunk by Morten Strøksnes; design by Oliver Munday (Knopf / June 2017)

(Much as I love Oliver’s cover — particularly his choice of type — it immediately reminded me Tom Lenartowicz’s minimalist Jaws design)


Smoke by Dan Vyleta; design Mark Abrams; illustration by Alejandro García Restrepo (Anchor / June 2017)

Mark Swan‘s design for the UK hardcover, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, was one of my favourite covers of last year (I liked the book a lot too!)… 


Storming Heaven by Steve Wright; design by David A. Gee (Pluto Press / July 2017)


The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman; design Helen Crawford-White (Ebury Press / June 2017)


Things To Do When You’re a Goth in the Country by Chavisa Woods; design by Adam Lewis Greene (Seven Stories Press / May 2017)


Under the Skin by Michel Faber; design by Rafi Romaya; illustration Yehrin Tong (Canongate / July 2017)


What It Means When A Man Falls from the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah; design by Jaya Miceli (Riverhead / April 2017)


Writing Not Writing by Tom Fisher; design by  Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (University of Iowa Press / July 2017)

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Published June 29, 2017

Typographic Terminology A to Z

A nice animated guide to typographic terminology:

(via Quipsologies)

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Published May 10, 2017

Book Covers of Note May 2017

Everything is awful. Except for book covers…


Black Skins, White Masks by Frantz Fanon; design by David Pearson (Pluto Press / May 2017)


The Children of Jocasta by Natalie Haynes; design by Ami Smithson; illustration Petra Börner (Mantle / May 2017)


The Circus by Olivia Levez; design by Nathan Burton (Oneworld / May 2017)

Nathan’s cover for The Island by Olivia Levez was on my list of Notable YA Book Covers last year:

And also by the talented Mr. Burton…


The Doorposts of Your House and on Your Gate by Jacob Bacharach; design by Nathan Burton (Liveright / April 2017)


Feel Happier in Nine Seconds by Linda Besner; design by Scott Albrecht (Coach House Books / May 2017)


Fen by Daisy Johnson; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / May 2017)

The cover of the UK edition of Fen designed by Suzanne Dean was a book cover of note in June last year: 

Fen by Daisy Johnson; design Suzanne Dean (Vintage / June 2016)


Granta 139: Best of Young American Novelists 3; design by Daniela Silva; neon sign by Steve Earl / Kemp London (Granta / May 2017)


Hadriana In All My Dreams by René Depestre; design by Christian Fuenfhausen (Akashic Books / May 2017)


I’d Die for You and Other Lost Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald; design by Jack Smyth (Scribner UK / April 2017)


Ill Will by Dan Chaon; design by Christopher Lin (Ballantine Books / March 2017)


The Leavers by Lisa Ko; design by Elena Giavaldi (Algonquin / May 2017)


Lobbying for Change by Alberto Alemanno; design by Dan Mogford (Icon / May 2017)

Multi-coloured letters are a thing this month. See below… 


My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci; design by Oliver Munday (Pantheon / April 2017)


The Nothing by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / May 2017)


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

The cover of the UK edition, designed by Richard Green, takes quite a different direction…

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


Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy; design by Aurora Parlagreco; illustration by Daniel Stolle (Balzer + Bray / May 2017)

The same designer-illustrator team were on my 2015 YA list for their cover for Julie Murphy’s previous book Dumplin’.


Rock n’ Radio by Ian Howarth; design by David Drummond (Vehicule Press / May 2017)

See! Multicoloured lettering is where it is at… 

The Nothing by Hanif Kureishi; design by Jamie Keenan (Faber & Faber / May 2017)


This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe; design by Martha Kennedy; photography by GUZMAN (HMH / May 2017)


Toussaint Louverture by Charles Forsdick & Christian Høgsbjerg; design by Gray318 (Pluto Press / May 2017)


We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / May 2017)


The Violence of Austerity edited by David Whyte and Vickie Cooper; design by James Paul Jones (Pluto Press / May 2017)


When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon; design by Regina Flath (Simon Pulse / May 2017)

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Published April 12, 2017

Book Covers of Note April 2017

This edition of ‘book covers of note’ is brought to you entirely by Gray318 who designed the covers of all the books published this month. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but Jon did design FOUR of the covers on my list — all different, all brilliant. How no one has published a monograph of his work yet is beyond me. Anyway… This month’s post also includes covers by David Pearson, Erik Carter, Scott Richardson, Kimberly Glyder, Katie Tooke, Rachel Vale and more… 


Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou; design by Gray318 (Serpent’s Tail / April 2017)


England Your England by George Orwell; design by David Pearson (Penguin Modern Classics / March 2017)


The Fortunate Brother by Donna Morrissey; design by Pete Adlington (Canongate / April 2017)


Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2017)

And, just FYI, after 6 years at Faber & Faber, Luke has decided to set up his own studio should you wish to hire him (and on the basis of this cover alone, why wouldn’t you?).

The Good People by Hannah Kent; design by Rachel Vale (Picador / February 2017)


The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; art direction by Christopher Moisan; illustration by Patrik Svensson (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2017)

This is just the latest in a number of striking covers for The Handmaid’s Tale — rare bookseller and author Rebecca Romney recently compiled a list. 


The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas; design by Jenna Stempel; illustration Debra Cartwright (Balzer + Bray / February 2017)

The cover of the UK edition of The Hate U Give, published by Walker this month, was designed by Maria Soler.

It’s interesting that both designs have acrostic titles. I wonder if this was in the brief?  


Home and Away by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Fredrik Ekelund; design by Alex Merto (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / January 2017)

The cover of the British edition, published by Harvill Secker in November 2016, was designed by Matt Broughton. 


Let Go My Hand by Edward Docx; design by Katie Tooke (Picador / April 2017)

Literature Class by Julio Cortázar; design by Rodrigo Corral and Zak Tebbal (New Directions / March 2017)

Locus Solus by Raymond Roussel; design by Erik Carter (New Directions /March 2017)


The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge; design by Will Staehle (Penguin / March 2017)


Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell; design by C. S. Richardson (Penguin Canada / March 2017)

In the US, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have also published a new edition of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The cover — which owes a wee debt to Peter Mendelsund’s eye motif covers for the Schocken editions of Kafka (in my very humble opinion) — was designed by Mark Robinson.

You can see a few other recent covers for Nineteen Eighty Four here. 


Out of Line by Barbara Lynch; design by Delcan & Company; photography by George Baier IV (Atria / April 2017)

The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies; design by Zoe Norvell (Biblioasis / April 2017)


Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski; design by Mark Swan (Orenda / March 2017)

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell; design by Sunra Thompson (McSweeney’s / March 2017)

The jacket has a really nice metallic finish in real life. The bright green cover under the jacket is also really nice. 

Sound System by Dave Randall; design by Jamie Keenan (Pluto Press / April 2017)


Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar; design by Allison Warner (Little Brown & Co. / March 2017)


Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic; design by Gray318 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / April 2017)

To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell; design by Gray318; robot/photograph by Marco Fernandes (Granta / April 2017)

The Teeth of the Comb & Other Stories by Osama Alomar; design by Erik Carter (New Directions / April 2017)

Us&Them by Bahiyyih Nakhjavani; design by Anne Jordan and Mitch Goldstein (Stanford University Press / April 2017)


Voices from the Jungle: Stories from the Calais Refugee Camp; design by Gray318 (Pluto Press / April 2017)


Wait Till You See Me Dance by Deb Olin Unferth; design by Kimberly Glyder (Graywolf / March 2017)


White Tears by Hari Kunzru; design by Peter Mendelsund (Knopf / March 2017)

The cover of the UK edition, published this month by Hamish Hamilton, was designed by Richard Bravery.

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Published February 28, 2017

Back to Futura

Vox takes a lighthearted look at the history of Futura, “the font that escaped the Nazis and landed on the moon”: 

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Published February 9, 2017

Goudy & Syracuse: The Tale of a Typeface Found

The tale of rediscovering Sherman, a typeface designed by American type designer Frederic Goudy in 1910 and revived by Chester Jenkins for Pentagram in 2016 for Syracuse University:

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Published January 19, 2017

So Meta

Adrian Shaughnessy talks to Erik Spiekermann about his typeface FF Meta, the corporate font of Herman Miller, for the company magazine WHY:

FF Meta was not designed with Herman Miller in mind, however. It was designed for the German Post Office (Deutsche Bundespost), which hired Spiekermann to rethink the entire graphic design system for the organization—everything from order forms to the once ubiquitous telephone directories. Deutsche Bundespost’s previous font? Like Herman Miller, it was Helvetica. With typical forthrightness, the then 38-year-old Spiekermann urged them to drop it, announcing that it was “unfit for purpose” and “overused.”

Spiekermann recognized that it was the Bundespost’s phone books that offered the greatest potential to benefit from a new typeface: “With just a change of typeface you could save a million trees and be a hero,” he recalls. And so he set about designing FF Meta (then called PT55), a process that involved meticulous research into the proportions of classic letterforms and analysis of developments in printing technology. “We have a great German word, ‘Kopfgeburt’—it means something that springs from your brain. The design of Meta wasn’t like that at all. The process was very theoretical. It wasn’t emotional. This was because at that time I had no experience and couldn’t rely on talent or practice. Everything had to be deducted.”

So thorough was Spiekermann’s process that he arranged to have his new letterforms tested for legibility by perception scientists at Braunschweig University of Technology. “There was a guy there who looked at it, and in his view, there was a little too much ‘noise,’ which you can see in my early drawings. So, I toned down the contrast. There were a couple of numerals that he said were a little too in love with themselves—mannered, in other words.”

 

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