Hey, I hope you’re keeping safe and well. I feel like I just finished July’s post and now it’s the end of August. There are a few more covers from earlier in the year in this month’s post. I’m still catching up. But there’s some Canadian content, a few covers from the UK, some indie presses, and a university press, which is always nice. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!
1974 by Francine Prose; design by High Tide (Harper / June 2024)
Thanks to Robin Bilardello and AD Milan Bozic at Harper for their help on the credit for this one! :-)
Anyone’s Ghost by August Thompson; design by Keith Hayes (Penguin Press / July 2024)
This was published last month, but I had it in my August folder. If I had to guess it was because of the author’s name. I am easily confused.
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi; design by Kishan Rajani (Faber / July? 2024)
I think this came out in July too, but it looks like Faber used the ISBN of the existing 2017 edition even though there is a new cover so I don’t know for sure when it was updated (publishers: don’t do this).
Burn by Peter Heller; design Kelly Blair; painting ‘Boat Building in Maine’ (detail) by Paul Dougherty (Knopf / August 2024)
Coexistence by Billy Ray Belcourt; design by Kelly Hill; photography by Steven Beckly (Hamish Hamilton Canada / May 2024)
Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Neue Gestaltung (Vintage / August 2024)
Because I am of certain age (old and mouldering like an ancient vampire hiding from the sun of contemporary pop culture) this reminded me of the cabinet art for the original Space Invaders arcade game. Hilariously, if not surprisingly, there is a Fonts in Use post about the typography of the original promo materials and cabinet art of Space Invaders. If anyone knows of a good article about the artwork itself I would love to read it.
Everything and Nothing At All by Jenny Heijun Wills; design by Terri Nimmo (Knopf Canada / August 2024)
Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya; design by Henry Petrides (Faber / August 2025)
Speaking of all things retro, Henry has posted some photos of his Letraset experiments for this cover on Instagram.
Hair for Men by Michelle Williams; design by Greg Tabor (House of Anansi / August 2025)
There is something ‘early 2000s Canlit’ about this cover. If you’d told me this was designed for Anansi by Bill Douglas in like 2004 I would’ve believed you, and I mean that in the best way. (I appreciate that only the grizzled Canadian publishing folks like me will get this reference but hey…)
Layman’s Report by Eugene Marten; design by Kate Sinclair (McClelland & Stewart / August 2024)
Mammoth by Eva Baltasar; design by Anna Morrison (And Other Stories / August 2025)
Anna also designed the covers for two previous novels by Eva Baltasar published by AOS, including a pink special edition of Permafrost (which is possibly my favourite).
Mina’s Matchbox by Yoko Ogawa; design by Suzanne Dean; illustration by Gérard DuBois (Harvill Secker / August 2024)
The cover of the US edition published Pantheon this month by was designed by Tyler Comrie.
The Murmuration by Carlos Labbé; design by Anna Jordan (Open Letter / July 2024)
Mystery Lights by Lena Valencia; design by Beth Steidle (Tin House / August 2024)
Nicked by M. T. Anderson; design by Zak Tebbal (Pantheon / July 2024)
It might be time to update the now very old (10 years!) skulls post.
Nine Minds by Daniel Tammet; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / July 2024)
I was trying to think what this reminded me of and I think it’s either Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book or possibly the current cover of Design as Art by Bruno Munari, which (IIRC) uses drawings of faces from inside the book (but no thumbprints!).
And, also designed by Louis…
On the Roof by Tom Allan; design by Louis Gabaldoni (Profile Books / August 2024)
This is really lovely…
Plastic by Scott Guild; design by Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / February 2024)
Oof. I’m very late to this one.
Plaything by Bea Setton; design by Beci Kelly (Transworld / June 2024)
I don’t know how you would describe this particular shade — salmon pink? Financial Times pink? (Are those variations of the same thing, actually?) — but it feels like a pink covers are still a bit of thing. (Did I mention pink covers already a couple of months ago? I think I did…? Sigh. I am repeating myself. It might be time to give this up)
Some White Folks by Jennifer Chudy; design by Elisha Zepeda / Faceout Studio (University of Chicago Press / July 2024)
I like this cover a lot, but is the disembodied hug also becoming a thing? I think I mentioned this a while back too! (Pictured: the cover The Nursery by by Szilvia Molnar designed by Hayley Warnham from May last year, and a poster by Vasilis Marmatakis for the 2015 movie The Lobster)
A Termination by Honor Moore; design by Janet Hansen (Public Space / August 2024)
Obviously the details of the designs and the approaches are quite different, but the cover of A Termination reminded me of the cover of Anxiety by Samir Chopra designed by Karl Spurzem for Princeton University Press from March this year. I think it’s an interesting compare and contrast?
The Wisdom of Sheep by Rosamund Young; design by Darren Haggar (Penguin Press / August 2024)
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