TIME has replaced the logo on its cover for the first time. The artwork is by Shepard Fairey.
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Published October 30, 2020
“VOTE” Shepard Fairey Cover for TIME
The Casual Optimist Posts
Published October 28, 2020
Book Covers of Note, October 2020
As it is almost the end of October this is going to be my last monthly round-up for 2020. I will endeavour to put together a post on the book covers of year soon, but I am sure a lot of great work skimmed under my radar, so designers please drop me a line if I have missed a cover (or two!) you really loved working on (the book has to have been published this year), especially if it was for an independent or university press. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this month’s selections.
The Acrobats of Agra by Robin Scott-Elliot; design by Holly Ovenden (Everything with Words / October 2020)
The Age of Skin by Dubravka Ugresic; design by Jack Smyth (Open Letter / November 2020)
Always Brave Sometimes Kind by Katie Bickell; design by Tree Abraham (Touchwood Editions / September 2020)
Anger by Barbara H. Rosenwein; design by Alex Kirby (Yale University Press / July 2020)
Be My Guest by Priya Basil; design by Janet Hansen (Knopf / November 2020)
Cesare by Jerome Charyn; design by Elsa Mathern (No Exit Press / November 2020)
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata; design by Luke Bird (Granta / September 2020)
Hitler and Stalin by Laurence Rees; design by David Pearson (Viking / October 2020)
The Hole by Hiroko Oyamada; design by Janet Hansen (New Directions / October 2020)
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher; design by Chelsea McGuckin (Saga Press / October 2020)
Infrastructures of the Apocalypse by Jessica Hurley; design by Matt Avery / Monograph Studio (University of Minnesota Press / October 2020)
The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E. Schwab; design by Will Staehle (Tor / October 2020)
Kreminology of Kisses by Barbara Bleiman; design Alex Kirby (Blue Door Press / November 2020)
They’re really not all that alike (it’s funny how memory constantly plays this trick on me), but the colour palette and the typographic approach of Alex’s cover reminded me Luke Bird’s 2017 cover for Vivek Shanbhag’s Ghachar Ghochar:
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag; design by Luke Bird (Faber & Faber / April 2017)
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam; design by Sara Wood; art ‘Night Swimming’ by Jessica Brilli (Ecco / October 2020)
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow; design by Lisa Marie Pomilio (Redhook / October 2020)
Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark; design by Henry Sene Yee (Tor / October 2020)
Selected Poems of John Berryman edited by Philip Coleman and Calista McRae; design Jaya Miceli (Belknap Press / October 2020)
The Sun Collective by Charles Baxter; design Tyler Comrie (Pantheon / November 2020)
Talking Animals by Joni Murphy; design by Na Kim; photograph by KOEKKOEK (FSG / August 2020)
Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify by Carolyn Holbrook; design by Kimberly Glyder (University of Minnesota Press / July 2020)
Watch Over Me by Nina Lacour; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Pippa Young (Dutton / September 2020)
Interestingly, two previous covers designed by Samira for Nina Lacour titles have featured illustrations by Adams Carvalho.
We Are Okay by Nina Lacour; design by Samira Iravani; illustration by Adams Carvalho (Dutton / February 2017) 
Worked Over by Jamie K. McCallum; design by Chin-Yee Lai (Basic Books / September 2020)
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Published October 9, 2020
Penguin Great Ideas Volume VI
You can tell that I am not at all on top of things because it has taken me almost a month to post about the return of the Penguin Great Ideas series. Apparently it’s been 10 years since the last set was released, and the 20 new titles include works by Audre Lorde, Sojourner Truth, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Martin Luther King among others.
Jim Stoddart continues to art direct the series, and David Pearson has once again designed many of the typographic covers with the help of Catherine Dixon, Phil Baines, and Alistair Hall. There are, needless to say, some absolute belters.
Published October 1, 2020
The Lord of the Rings covers by Johan Egerkrans
I don’t post a lot of fantasy covers here (less than I should, no doubt), but I rather like the look of these reissues of The Lord of the Rings trilogy available in the US from HMH this month. The covers were designed by Christopher Moisan with illustrations by Swedish illustrator Johan Egerkrans. There’s something about the cover of The Return of the King in particular that reminds me of classic pen and ink fairy tale illustrations by likes of Arthur Rackham and John Bauer.
The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King are available October 6, 2020.
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Published September 25, 2020
Book Covers of Note, September 2020
Another rather rushed update this month I’m afraid, which is especially disappointing given how many new books there out at this time of year. I’m sure I’ve missed more than a few great covers here, but hopefully I will catch them before the end of the year…
Carry by Toni Jensen; design by Emily Mahon; illustration by Carmi Grau (Ballantine / September 2020)
The Clerk by Guillermo Saccomanno; design by Alban Fischer (Open Letter Books / September 2020)
The wobbly text here reminded me of Janet Hansen’s cover for Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch from earlier this year.
Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins; design by Mark Melnick (Theatre Communications Group / August 2020)
Howdunit edited by Martin Edwards; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / September 2020)
You can see the rubber stamp Steve used for this design on Instagram.
The Hype Machine by Sinan Aral; design by Steve Leard (HarperCollins / September 2020)
Lobizona by Romina Garber; design by Kerri Resnick; illustation by Daria Hlazatova (Wednesday Books / August 2020)
Ordinary Matter by Laura Elvery; design by Design by Committee (University of Queensland Press / September 2020)
The gradient and colour palette reminded me of the cover for Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson, designed by David Litman, featured in July.
Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley; design by David Fassett (IVP Academic / September 2020)
Red Pill by Hari Kunzru; design by John Gall (Knopf / September 2020)
This cover is bonkers. The cover of the UK edition of Red Pill published by Scribner (also bonkers but in a different, laser eyes, way), was designed by Craig Fraser.
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan; design by Owen Gent (Doubleday / August 2020)
This is very pretty. Obviously.
These Vengeful Hearts by Katherin Laurin; design Elita Sidiropoulou (Inkyard Press / September 2020)
The Topeka School by Ben Lerner; design by Gray318 (Granta / September 2020)
When My Body Was a Clinched Fist by Enzo Silon Surin; design Zoe Norvell; painting by Carlos Rancaño (Black Lawrence Press / July 2020)
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Published September 25, 2020
Bob Staake’s “Icons”
Bob Staake’s new cover for The New Yorker commemorates Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died aged 87 last week.
It brought to mind Stephanie Ross’s cover for the 2018 biography of Ginsberg by Jane Sherron De Hart published by Knopf, which also focused on her lace collar.
Published August 28, 2020
Amy Sherald on Making Breonna Taylor’s Portrait
“She sees you seeing her. The hand on the hip is not passive, her gaze is not passive. She looks strong!…I wanted this image to stand as a piece of inspiration to keep fighting for justice for her. When I look at the dress, it…reminds me of Lady Justice.”
Artist Amy Sherald, who painted Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery in 2018, talks about her portrait of Breonna Taylor for Vanity Fair‘s September issue, ‘The Great Fire’, guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
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Published August 28, 2020
Book Covers of Note, August 2020
A quick update for August…
All Men Want to Know by Nina Bouraoui; design by Holly Ovenden (Viking / August 2020)
Analogia by George Dyson; design by Tom Etherington; illustration by Andy Bridge (Allen Lane / August 2020)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi; design by Grace Han (Riverhead / August 2020)
Must I Go by Yiyun Li; design by Gray318 and Richard Bravery (Hamish Hamilton / August 2020)
The Last Great Road Bum by Héctor Tobar; design by Rodrigo Corral; illustration by Matt Buck (MCD / August 2020)
Life of a Klansman; design by Rodrigo Corral (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
I believe this illustration is also by Matt Buck.
Luster by Raven Leilani; design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / August 2020)
Moss by Klaus Modick; design by Alban Fischer (Bellevue Literary Press / August 2020)
The New American by Micheline Aharonian Marcom; design Dave Litman (Simon & Schuster / August 2020)
Scabby Queen by Kirstin Innes; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)
Sisters by Daisy Johnson; design by Suzanne Dean; photograph Simon Kerola (Jonathan Cape / August 2020)
The cover of the US edition of Sisters, published by Riverhead this month, was designed by Jaya Miceli. The painting is by Jeremy Olson. (Thank you to the folks on Twitter who helped me with this!)
You Will Never Be Forgotten by Mary South; design by Jamie Keenan (Picador / August
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Published August 13, 2020
Attempts to Create a Robotic Novelist
Tom Gauld has drawn a new cartoon for the New York Times Books section.
This is probably my favourite panel…
Published August 5, 2020
David Pearson’s Penguin Camus
David Pearson has designed three new covers for the Penguin editions of Albert Camus’ novels The Plague, The Outsider, and The Fall. The typeface is apparently Portrait, designed by Berton Hasebe for Commercial Type, and the covers are printed on Colorplan Dapple embossed paper from G. F. Smith. The new editions were published July 30, 2020.
Published July 23, 2020
Book Covers of Note, July 2020
And here we are… This month’s collection of book covers and occasional notes…
Antkind by Charlie Kaufman; design by Jack Smyth (Fourth Estate / July 2020)
The cover of the US edition of Antkind, published by Random House this month, was designed by Tyler Comrie.
In the Beggarly Style of Imitation by Jean Marc Ah-Sen; design by Charlotte Gray; photograph by Ally Schmaling (Nightwood Editions / April 2020)
(Because I am of a certain age, this cover immediately made me think of Lady Miss Kier and her shoes in the video for ‘Groove is in the Heart’)
Beyond the Sea by Paul Lynch; design by Janet Hansen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / March 2020)
The End of Everything by Katie Mack; design by Tom Etherington (Allen Lane / July 2020)
The Englishman by David Gilman; design by Ben Prior (Head of Zeus / July 2020)
Fraternity by Benjamin Nugent; design by Rodrigo Corral; lettering by Michael Schmelling (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)
Lampedusa by Steven Price; design by Ami Smithson (Picador / February 2020)
Last One Out Shut Off the Lights by Stephanie Soileau; design by Lucy Kim; photograph by Marc St. Gil (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
Maybe someone has done this before and I didn’t notice (or, more likely forgotten), but it’s great to see a photograph from the EPA’s remarkable DOCUMERICA Project — available through the US National Archives on Flickr — on a book cover.
Natural History by Carlos Fonseca; design by Pablo Delcan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / July 2020)
I love this cover. It reminded me Peter Mendelsund’s bonkers cover for C by Tom McCarthy:
On Nostalgia by David Berry; design by Raymond Biesinger (Coach House Books / July 2020)
The Party Upstairs by Lee Conell; design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press / July 2020)
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue; design by Sara Wood (Little Brown & Co / July 2020)
The cover of the UK edition, published this month by Picador, was designed by Ami Smithson:
Putin’s People by Catherine Belton; design by Chris Allen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux / June 2020)1
Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld; design by Jo Thomson (Doubleday / July 2020)
It’s interesting that the US cover of Rodham is essentially the same as the UK one. I would’ve thought for sure that they would take different approaches.
Sensation Machines by Adam Wilson; design by David Litman (Soho Press / July 2020)
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Published July 10, 2020
Why Cooper Black is Everywhere
For Vox, Estelle Caswell talks to Steven Heller and Bethany Heck about the history of Cooper Black and why it’s been pop culture’s favorite font for so long.
(via Kottke)
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