This edition discusses new type, mergers and items set free, and visits with both some photo contest winners and winning poster designs. (And if you haven’t seen my annual Favorite Book Covers post, keep scrolling.) But first….
Former President Carter
Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, 2013. Photograph by Ed Ritger. (CC 2.0.)
One of the strongest voices of reason left us on December 29th, 2024: former President Jimmy Carter. He’s the first president I actually remember, and one of the things I’ve appreciated about recent years is the growth of his stature from undeserved fill-in-label-here to treasured humanitarian.
I’d like to share a couple of items that are meaningful to me. First is his commitment to Habitat for Humanity — and not only as a speaker and fundraiser, but someone who contributed by actually swinging a hammer:
Former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Photo via Habitat for Humanity.
Into their 90s and still working. Take it from David Letterman:
While we’re on the subject of David Letterman, this September, 1993 appearance shows both humanity and humor:
Another quick item is this 60 Minutes tour of his office — something that always speaks volumes about a person:
SLTF Bergamot Grotesk, an Art Deco-style, all caps headline face is a striking new option from Silverstag. This is trendy, of course — Art Deco is in — but timeless at the same time, and something I hope I have an opportunity to use.
Another is a new version that’s instantly a beautiful classic, Milla, hand-developed and a joy to look at:
Hoping for the perfect book project for this one.
Mergers … and Freedom
If you’ve not heard, Getty and Shutterstock have proposed a merger. This is, put simply, both understandable and … not good.
The rise of artificial intelligence has likely played a role in the merger; the combined assets of Shutterstock and Getty are a treasure trove of training data for AI companies. However, while AI licensing deals are an opportunity, it could also be an issue for stock photo companies as customers may decide to use AI image generators like Midjourney or DALL-E rather than pay for individual pictures.
— Matt Growcoot, PetaPixel
For the record, I completely agree with PetaPixel‘s Jason Schneider when he opines that it’s “yet another step in a race to the bottom.” The deal could possibly attract antitrust notice from the U.S. government; here’s hoping.
But it’s also hopeful — and slightly wonderful — that it’s new year, which means a new crop of items are now freed from the constraints of copyright. Kottke lists some of his favorites, and points us to a fantastic post from Duke University’s Center for the Public Domain, which has lists and links aplenty. (My favorite: Tintin.)
Special Bonus #1:This is Colossal, in 2016, also pointed us to another collection of freely-available items, this time from the New York Public Library. Great stuff.
Special Bonus #2: In a three-fer for This is Colossal, they also highlight a new campaign from the U.S. National Archives asking those who can read cursive — no longer a requirement in school, a completely daft decision we’ll leave for another time — to contribute some time translating historical items. (And that’s not all you can do.) Become a Citizen Archivist today.
Florida Atlantic University.University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The new year is off to a good start, too:
UCLA.UPenn.
UPenn’s fall ’24 poster is in the same vein and also rocks. Check out all the winners — and watch this space for more.
Winning Photography
I’m threatening to get a Raspberry Pi — the ol’ fashioned ad-blocker route is less and less effective, and a more robust alternative may be added — and was interested in this PetaPixel story about the desktop photos the system uses as standard: “[w]alking through a train station in New Zealand, Greg Annandale looks up to see his photo on an information screen. The Raspberry Pi computer powering the board has gone back to the desktop wallpaper which Annandale shot of a road in Iceland.”
That would be this one:
Road, Sólheimasandur, Iceland. Photo by Greg Annandale.
Couple of others:
Pia Fjord, Patagonia. Photo by Greg Annandale.Cordillera Darwin, Patagonia. Photo by Greg Annandale.
Next, I promised NASA would put in another appearance. How’s this:
Photo by Don Petit/NASA.
In what Ars Technica senior space editor calls “the best picture ever taken from the International Space Station,” we have something special indeed. “In this image, one can see the core of the Milky Way galaxy, zodiacal light (sunlight diffused by interplanetary dust), streaks of SpaceX Starlink satellites, individual stars, an edge-on view of the atmosphere that appears in burnt umber due to hydroxide emissions, a near-sunrise just over the horizon, and nighttime cities appearing as streaks.”
Wow.
To round things out for January, we have a couple of photo contests whose winners caught my eye. We’ll start with The Society of Photographers and their photographer of the year 2024. My faves:
Architectural Photographer of the Year award. Photograph by Andre Boto.Events Photographer of the Year award. Photograph by Mark Lynham.
While I wish their selections were more extensively labeled and/or titled, it’s still awesome to see the raw talent highlighted with well-deserved accolades. See the PetaPixel story or the contests’ website for more.
Lastly, some life in the wild, courtesy of the UK’s Natural History Museum People’s Choice Award:
Annoying Neighbour, Kiskunság National Park, Hungary. Photograph by Bence Máté.
“Eyeing one another” fails to do this one justice. And then there’s the Villarrica volcano:
Earth and Sky, Pucón, Chile. Photograph by Francisco Negroni.
But it’s the patience of this shot that wins it for me:
Edge of Night, near Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photograph by Jess Findley.
“Jess quietly watched the owl for several nights to understand its habits.
“He set up an invisible beam that would trigger a flash when the owl flew out of the barn. Simultaneously, a slow shutter speed gathered ambient light cast on the clouds and barn.
“On the tenth night, all the moving parts came together as the owl left to begin its hunt.”
2024 was interesting in the way of the apocryphal Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Taking the time out to peruse the best of the new releases — for both book cover design and books in general — is tremendously enjoyable. Needed, even, now more than ever.
When it came time to do the years’ tally, summary, and post, the number of candidates in the favorites folder was well over three hundred: a third more than last year, more than double 2022’s.
It’s been argued that the increasing number of published titles is a reflection of publishers’ woes, including fighting back against publishing slop. (See my Beautifully Briefed series for more.) However, the increasing number of published titles means more work for the book designers among us — some of whom show, or continue to show, exceptional skill.
Consequently, this year’s list of favorite book design items has grown: up to one hundred and sixteen. Wow.
Fix a beverage and get comfy.
Please remember that the usual disclaimer applies: these are my favorites — others might say “best,” but I’ve been in this business long enough to know that there’s always another title you haven’t seen or read about. I don’t want to disrespect any of the talented book designers not on this list. I’ve tried to include design credit where I could — special thanks to the folks who answered emails with that information — and wish to stress that any mistakes in the list below are mine.
Note: If you’re on Foreword’s main page, please click on the post title, above, to view this list. You’ll get larger covers for your viewing pleasure.
• • •
My Four Faves for ’24
Cover design by Pablo Delcan.
It’s no surprise that we’re leading with an example of minimalism-as-superlative. This UK title is described thusly: “The centre of Chimera engages with a three-year field research project on the goat-herding practices of the Vlachs, a nomadic people of Northern Greece and the Southern Balkans, who speak their own language. In these poems, day-to-day activities such as shearing and shepherding mix with snippets of conversations, oral tradition and song―locating a larger story in this ancient marriage between humans and animals.”
Aside from being visually arresting, I can’t think of a better visual summary — yet still in keeping with the style of Cicada, the previous title. Awesome.
Cover design by Kelly Winton.
“[F]our generations of Eastern European Jewish women bound by blood, half-hidden secrets, and the fantastical visitation of a shapeshifting stranger over the course of 100 years,” all on a book cover, in a style that’s fresh and colorful with great lettering.
Cover design by Faber. Photograph by Juno Calypso.
Occasionally, a photograph just makes a cover — and this one vaults it to the top. (Sometimes, great book design is as “simple” as selecting great elements.) Part of a series called “the Honeymoon,” it’s absolutely the style of photographer Juno Calypso.
Cover design by Alison Forner. Typography by Andrew Footit.
Never mind the “time travel romance, spy thriller, workplace comedy, and ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all” — it’s the oh-so-dimensional title that transcends. (All that other stuff is just a bonus.)
The paper is perfect, the title interleaved with the water superlative, and the blood, which can absolutely be done into the realm of cliché, drips rather than gushes.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
The first of five appearances for Jack Smyth — tops this year — this cover speaks to solitude (and cats!) with fantastic expression.
This photographic subject is so strong, yet clearly speaks to the cloudy tenderness within. (Also, title placement.)
Cover design by Helen Yentus.
Another examples of typography-on-the-edge — but, really, the hero on this cover.
Cover design by Johnathan Pelham.
Fantastic title placement (with the perfect hint of wear), complimented by the unusual treatment of the author’s name and pull quote, this cover only hints at the story within yet holds it up.
Cover design by Janet Hansen.
I’ll admit: it’s not immediately clear how this title and cover work together. Yet they do, and it’s not just because of the (male) hand and (female) face — or striking colors — it’s more the representation of reflection, something required in maturity.
Cover design by Chris Bentham.
The rearrange-the-pieces treatment for faces has become a thing, but few do it so well. Special bonus for the selection of photograph for this UK version of the title — and great color choices.
Cover design by Charlotte Stroomer. Photograph by Kelsey Mcclellan.
Another example of the photograph making the cover — but with simply awesome typography, too. (Huge fan of the overall color scheme, too.)
Cover design by Luke Bird.
This UK title shoots to kill, perfect for a story of shooting one’s self in the back. (The Irony Dept. reports that the publisher is Dead Ink, by the way.)
Cover design by Emma Pidsley.
Sticks it to ’em in the most compelling way. (Also: “There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.”)
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
Another UK title, this one counters the too-much-blood thing with fabulous typography and an over-the-top — well, off-the-side, really — crop. (I especially love that the top of the rook’s head just peeks above the yellow.)
Cover design by Olivia Mcgiff.
“Hair-raising,” indeed. (Check out the veins.) The opposite of queer, brown, and fat — and yet, somehow, just right.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
Few others can express so much with just a line. It sounds like a joke, something that treats the subject with something less than it deserves, but quite literally the lines on this gray background make all the difference.
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Illusustion by Neue Gestaltung.
Greeks myths, contemporary dystopian narratives — never mind that, it’s the illustration on this cover that gets the “terrifyingly talented” label.
Cover design by Terri Nimmo.
Subversive, surreal, yet “refuses to pander or be pinned down and possessed.” (Also, “Essays.”)
Cover design by Sara Wood. Art by Isabel Emrich.
Real estate agent Lexi senses a drowning, leading to … well, a novel — but it’s the artwork, by painter Isabel Emrich, that carries this cover to the next level.
Cover design by Steve Coventry-Panton.
Minimalism exemplified. While some could argue cliché, I’d argue that it’s the perfect choice: for the weary, for the curious, for this cover.
Cover design by Isabel Urbina-Peña.
The eyes just grab you — “crackle like a bonfire,” to quote one of the reviews. (They were speaking of the text, not the cover, but better words….)
Cover design by Michael Salu.
Simple and geometric, yet story-telling in the finest.
Also, the whole jacket wins. (The bar code space is below “a novel,” by the way.)
Cover design by Ssarahmay Wilkinson. Art by Day Brierre.
Containing short stories set in Lagos, Nigeria, this cover speaks to African roots yet does so in a way that causes both admiration and upset in equal measure. “Brilliant” is overused, but….
Cover design by Gregg Kulick.
“Glorious Exploits,” indeed.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
It’s, oddly, the UK version of this cover that does it for me: the US version relies on art, while Smyth’s version relies on talent. (Perhaps a metaphor for the bestseller within…?)
Cover design by Alex Merto.
Shades of M*A*S*H, certainly, yet brilliant on its own: lunatics is war.
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
“Playful demotic,” writ large.
Cover design by Olivia McGiff.
“A novel” is King. (Sorry.) Most haunting in exactly the right way.
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
The paper, the lines, all perfect — but it’s the crop that, well, sends it over the top.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello.
Labeled “perfect.”
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
This girl represents the appropriate reaction to an image-based culture, a cut-apart look in the mirror that shouldn’t necessarily be limited to the fashion industry. (That the collage is vaguely heart-shaped probably ins’t a coincidence.) Bonus points for the title repeating around the edge.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
“In a near-future world addled by climate change and inhabited by intelligent robots called ‘hums,’ May loses her job to artificial intelligence,” the description reads. Yes.
Cover design by Edward Bettison.
The illustration and type work so very well together. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Erik Carter.
Movie poster! (Also, color.)
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
With a title like that, it’s tempting to let it carry the day. Uh … no.
Cover design by Alex Merto.
The pink isn’t in halftone. (Also, the drops of drool.)
Cover design by Adriana Tonell.
A red, red rat is awesome. But it’s the way the green works — in the feet, yes, but especially the type — defines “win.”
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Not an easy title, handled with absolute skill.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
“This book is written out of both love and hate for the world.” Nuthin’ but love for the cover from me.
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
Sometimes, the literal approach works. (Pardon the expression.) But it’s the added burn mark that makes it.
Cover design by Dominique Jones.
The red and gold, the title treatment, the complimentary blue ink, and the woman in the “o” are all fantastic. The snake, though, from scales to bite, is superlative.
“British and Black, with Jazz and Character” is a tough brief, handled here in a way that makes the title incredibly appealing.
Cover by Linda Huang.
Unusual color choice, eye-catching type, the explanation point! But, of course, it’s the illustration — and the accompanying speech bubbles — that take it to the next level. Bonus points for both the hooves balanced on the “K” and the treatment for the pull quote.
Cover design by Zoe Norvell.
That yellow, the blackletter title and unusually-spaced author play perfect — and curiosity-peaking — supporting roles to that painting. Purity, indeed.
Cover design by Jonathan Pelham.
What’s he pulling on, now? (Also, the title/author treatment.)
Cover design by Daniel Beneworth-Gray based on a concept by Daniel Fresán.
Cropped to perfection.
Cover by Suzanne Dean.
The first of three UK versions in a row: this title lights it up.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
The US version of this title was in last year’s list, but this UK version is equally strong — in an entirely different way.
Cover design by Kate Sinclair.
Another UK version, another winner. Love the typography. Bonus points for the homemade emoji.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
All kinds of goodness nested into this one, from the title treatment to the slight fading in the tears (which continue on the back cover).
Cover design by Jon Gray.
From the green to the typography to — especially — the illustration, this cover weaves a tale from 1434 straight into our brains.
Cover design by Adriana Tonello.
The disembodied bits. ’Nuff said.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
I feel for the rabbit.
Cover by David Drummond.
Speaking of empathy for the animal: this slim volume of poetry is perhaps an all-too-real sign of the times. (The cover, too.)
Cover by Luisa Dias.
Pink Rabbit, slightly dirty: there’s a quality to this that grabs on and won’t let go. (Thankfully, it’s the first in a series….)
Cover by William Ruoto.
The opposite of the above, yet still bloody good at capturing attention.
Cover by Jack Smyth.
1968 called, with the perfect cover original of the moment.
Cover by Zak Tebbal.
“Do a cover on sacrilegious theft,” someone said. Saint Nick brought us a gift.
Cover by Holly Battle.
Hard as one might try, topping this might never be possible.
Cover by Pete Adlington.
This UK title’s cover does so much more than it has any right to. Brilliant. (Bonus points for the grain.)
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Art by Anton Logov.
Another gem from the less-is-more department. (Also, the paper texture and slight aging on the lettering.)
Cover design by Lynn Buckley. Art by Damilola Opedun.
There’s something about this that just works. Take a moment to read this LitHub intro instead of listening to me.
Cover design by Lucie Kohler.
Overstays … in your brain. Very nearly put this at the top of the pile.
Cover design by Suzanne Dean.
The energy in this cover is fantastic. But it’s what’s under the cover:
Paper art by Nathan Ward. Photos courtesy of LitHub.
The printed cover, too. Awesome.
Cover design by Jenni Oughton. Art by Noah Verrier.
Leaving aside the notion that Americans can recognize a Big Mac on sight, even when idealized/stylized — beautifully — like this, it’s the perfect compliment to this title.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.
Farcical dystopia, embodied.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Unsee the face! (Bonus points for superlative typography.) Battled with Chimera and Rough Trade for one of the top spots.
Cover design and illustration by Vivian Lopez Rowe.
Reflections, indeed. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Sukruti Anah Staneley.
“Prod the bitch that is Life and become her.” These thirteen linked stories demand a cover that leaps off the shelf and grabs you.
Every year, there’s at least one title that so incredibly well illustrates how that notion works here in the US versus in the UK, and this year, it’s this one. I really like the above — the color’s awesome, and those teeth! — and believe it’s exactly right for the US market.
Cover design by Luke Bird. Photography by Graciela Iturbide.
But for the UK market … that photograph. (Bonus points for the title treatment.)
Cover design by Na Kim.
Watercolor perfection. Competed with Chimera and Point Line Plane for the one of the top spots. (I felt only one illustration-against-plain-background cover should be at the top. Might have been wrong.)
Cover design by Jamie Keenan.
The title treatment, the ink author’s name, and the photograph alone would be compelling. But … wow.
Cover design by Amanda Hudson.
From the illustration-makes-it dept. (Bonus points for the not-quite-halves.)
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Paper and color, oh my.
Cover design by Luke Bird.
Yeah, it’s a cookbook. Who knew? Also:
Quadrille unfortunately didn’t return a request for the photographer’s name.
Bonus points for the fantastic photography within.
Cover design by Sarahmay Wilkins.
This would work perfectly well on the vertical. But it’s so much more this way.
Cover design by Perry De Le Vega.
Definitely amongst the 1%.
Cover design by Jamie Keenan.
Someone chose not to butcher. Except…. (Extra points for the apron strings.)
Cover design by Kelly Winton.
I’m a huge fan of a photorealistic collage, but this, interleaved with the title, defines superlative.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello.
In a world of algorithms, proof that creativity and talent are so very human. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Jaya Miceli.
That awesome green, the color-burned title treatment, the hand lettering, the texture — all add up to top-flight attention-getting. (Bonus points for the entomology illustration/hint.)
Cover design by David Pearson.
The swan’s pose of contemplation, indeed. (Also, color — perfect.)
Cover design by Holly Battle.
We all know a George.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
So much more than just a pet rabbit. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Illustration by Jialun Deng. Painting by Takaya Katsuragawa.
Never mind that this shade of yellow seems to be having a moment, let’s talk about that photograph: the goal of any cover is to peak your curiosity. And we have … win.
Cover design by Diego Becas.
A collection, indeed. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
Ink gets blotted out. (Also, paper.)
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
Never mind the brilliance in the middle — the four pull quotes are, quite literally, the end of the rainbow.
Cover design by Derek Thornton.
Cultural and emotional shifts through technology, as expressed in (cover) art.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
At the risk of repeating myself, no one does more with less than Oliver Munday: this level of white space deserves an award.
Cover design by Luisa Dias.
The eyes are eclipsed only by the rising magic dust. (Also, screening.)
Cover design by Jonathan Pelham.
Another where the US and UK express things differently; the UK’s, above, is brilliantly simple and simple in its brilliance.
Cover design by Sarah Schulte.
While the US version is more while still “less” in the big scheme of things. A two-fer.
Cover design by Kelli McAdams.
Text blocks do. (Also, awesome art.)
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Get lost in it. (Also, the article peeking out on the left.)
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
Reflections, torn asunder yet so lovingly smoothed out and preserved for posterity.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Two-color, geometric brilliance, given center stage.
Cover design by Ben Prior.
“Self-seeding wind / is a wind of ever-replenishing breath,” the title poem reads, but it’s the cover that drops the ultimate clipping. (Also, placement of “poems,” appropriately.)
Cover design by Jaya Miceli.
“Heavily textured” has never read so well.
Cover design by Alica Tatone.
I’m not sure what the illustration on this cover stands for — desert, sea, paths taken or not, or something I don’t or even can’t understand — and perhaps that’s why this design works on so many levels: an enigma that requires further exploration.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
Cuddly in just the right way.
Cover design by Kimberly Glider. Illustration by Cory Feder.
“An affair with an arborist could result in a cutting,” I chose not to say. Wait. (Also, the accompanying cover.)
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
Geometry, color, content: this cover’s been promoted to the actual story.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie. Photograph by Matt Eich.
Photograph, texture, photograph, title treatment, photograph. (Also, the subtle shadowing in the author’s name and previous title.) Another very nearly at the top.
Cover design by Kaitlin Kall.
From color to art choice, this is a masterpiece. But those bite marks … aaaah!
Cover design by Holly Ovenden.
Tripping on a quest for a Bomb: yes.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.
Tripping on a quest for Utopia: yes.
Cover design by Alex Merto.
The eyes, the fur … and the horns. Transcendent.
Cover design by David Mann.
Something not to talk about … yet, so remarkably expressive.
Cover design by Angela Maasalu.
Never mind anything else: it’s the fingernails.
Cover design by Nicole Caputo.
Just when you think these eyes have seen it all…. (Also, the typography.)
Cover design by Alicia Tatone. Art by Shannon Cartier Lucy.
“Dryly witty” describes more than just the text within. (Also, the title treatment … and “Mormon mommy bloggers.”)
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker.
Surround yourself, feel, and bring great typography.
• • •
A moment of self-criticism, if I may: comparing this year’s list to the 2023 favorites, I can’t help but notice there’s a bit too much of the same. For myself, for my clients, and for my readers, I need to work on being too much inside a comfort zone. (Apparently hypocritically, in the 2023 summary, I commented on “sameism” being a thing.)
Meanwhile, again like last year, I’d like to highlight Dan Wagstaff’s comments over at The Casual Optimist:
A recent article on Spine argued that there is a battle between minimalism and maximalism going on. I think that could be true. Different approaches work for different audiences. But I also think it’s messier than that. I get the sense that publishers are less sure of what they want and what sells (certain genres notwithstanding).
It has been a rough year for a lot of publishers, so there is undoubtedly a lot of uncertainty, and no small amount of anxiety. I could go on about why that it is (and the publishing’s self-inflicted wounds) but, in short, what I think we’re also seeing with book covers is more meddling and less direction.
— Dan Wagstaff, The Casual Optimist
I’d read that Spine article, too, and generally agree with their argument that, “This is not just because designers have different ideas about the best way to cut through the noise, but because they are ultimately trying to appeal to two different types of readers. […] It is the designer’s job to know how to grab the attention of the specific readership that the author is trying to reach.”1I have point out: one of their minimalist examples, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, is a 2025 title already in the favorites folder. Stay tuned.
The buyers that minimalist and the maximalist covers appeal to don’t always overlap. But they do appear next to one another on shelves, actual or virtual. For one just perusing, it’s possible for the volume, whether minimalist or maximalist, to dissolve into noise. Dan’s right to caution.
Thankfully, the designers on this list have battled the committees bent on mediocrity and overcome with great talent, great design, and great perseverance.
My best wishes to them — indeed, all of us — in 2025. It has all the hallmarks of another interesting year.
Let’s continue a couple of discussions before closing out 2024, and send you into 2025 with some photographic and typographic goodness.
More AI Book Design
This was mentioned in another context in July, but is heading our way more aggressively as time goes by, with Microsoft and TikTok, among others, getting into the publishing arena.
Cover design: unknown. (Human or machine: unknown.)
While Microsoft’s new imprint, 8080 Books, plans “to test and experiment with the latest tech to accelerate and democratize book publishing.” They’re not entirely up-front about what that is — and might not know themselves yet, given the rapidly evolving tech and marketplace. That said, with the corporate giant’s name attached, we can be assured of some level of quality.
Yes, I just wrote a sentence suggesting that Microsoft is a guardian of quality. (“Books matter. In a deluge of data. In a bloat of blogs, a sea of social, and a maelstrom of email. Books will always matter,” they write.)
With others, the for-profit nature — TikTok’s engagement-before-all-else approach speaks volumes (or writes volumes, as the case might be) — assures that quality might come behind, say, slop. Publisher’s Weeklyreports that 320 publishing startups have emerged just in the last two years, most in the AI space, adding to the 1,300 noted as of 2022. (PW also notes, “It is widely believed that each of the Big Five publishers has internal AI projects discreetly hidden from view.”)
And then there’s this: introducing SpamsSpines, your AI book design and book completion service: “[f]rom manuscript to book in your readers’ hands – a single platform to help any author proofread, cover design, format, print, and distribute over global channels — zero tech know-how required.” Prices start at $1500 and promise a finished product in less than 30 days.
Their goal is to release 8,000 books per year. AI is heavily involved:
There’s a Sherlocked joke here somewhere….
Because, yes, you want a machine to suggest that Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle needed assistance regarding a turn of phrase. (Never mind his expensive editor.)
The first and third are really “only” bad. However, Dr. Seuss would like a word with Spines’ AI training dataset, please, and the cover for “Stay Humble” defies words.
But it’s the book design that got my attention: these are apparently the good ones, the cited examples to which someone says, “Yes! Take my money!”
The sad thing is that people will say that. Have already said that. And there’s much, much on the publishing industry’s horizon. Our horizon.
Last month, we left off Jaguar’s continuing road trip with a teaser. Let’s get right to it. The car’s called the Type 00:
Some details:
The interior:
The internet, predictably, has lost its collective … um, mind. However, amongst the melee, there are a few items worth mentioning.
Creative Boom: “If the new logo seemed divisive in isolation, seeing it brought to life with Type 00’s design has brought much clarity. The flush surfaces, panoramic roof, and glassless tailgate – all adorned with the new Jaguar device mark and reimagined leaper – create a cohesive vision of modern luxury. Rawdon Glover, managing director of Jaguar, emphasised the importance of this shift: ‘We have forged a fearlessly creative new character for Jaguar that is true to the DNA of the brand but future-facing, relevant and one that really stands out.'”
The quote there is something to pay attention to. Read those words again, and think about the actual choice of language; it’s this, exactly, that has struck some. Armin at Brand New, for instance: “[W]hat I dislike the most about the new Jaguar brand: its tone of voice is INSUFFERABLE. Everything from the platitudes in the campaign to the script of McGovern’s presentation to the press releases is obnoxiously over-confident and self-congratulatory.” (Brand New, while excellent, is subscription-only — alas without a sample article. Here’s a link anyway.)
But it’s The Autotopian that stands out. They have not one but two excellent articles by Adrian Clarke, an ex-JLR1That’s Jaguar Land Rover, before it was, um, initialized by owner Tata. designer, who has several important points to contribute:
A couple of weeks ago, the cancelled X351 Jaguar XJ leaked onto the internet. During my time at Land Rover, I saw this car back in 2018 and can confirm this is indeed, or rather was the EV XJ. Back when Mr. Tata was still alive every six months or so there would be a big board level presentation for him on upcoming products. […] I was privy to all the future production Jaguars and concepts. There was a J-Pace SUV to sit above the F-Pace (no problem in revealing this as it’s common knowledge) and everything else was as you’d expect. These cars were then cancelled as part of the revamp and one absolutely incredibly beautiful and exceptional proposal aside, nothing of value was lost.
It’s the first time I’d seen the cancelled-just-before-release XJ EV, and despite the incomplete body panels and obviously-on-the-sly phone shot, it’s incredibly disappointing. They made the right call.
Compare it next to a Rolls Royce Spectre, a car the production Type 00 will be a competitor for, and see how successfully it hides its bulk in profile. [I]n the side view, particularly in the bottom half, I’m seeing some Range Rover. The crisp shoulder line, the kick-up of the tail behind the rear wheel, and the feature line along the bottom of the bodyside all scream Range Rover. This is exacerbated by the verticality of the front and rear of the car – the new full-size Range Rover and Sport have sharply docked tails. I heard that the initial sketch of this car was done by Massimo Frascella before he departed for Audi. Frascella was McGovern’s right-hand man at Land Rover for decades before Ian Callum retired and McGovern used the opportunity to bring both the Jaguar and Land Rover studios together. So maybe that’s where this Range Rover influence comes from.
The Jaguar Type 00, top, and Rolls-Royce Spectre, bottom, courtesy of The Autopian.
We must remember this is only a concept. The actual production car will be a four-door GT. This is only a preview of the visual style of future Jaguar models. It’s certainly striking, but you’d struggle to call it beautiful. It’s also monolithic and slabby.
Let’s hope this brutal revamp is […] successful, because there are a lot of jobs depending on it.
Meanwhile, I’ll actually be rooting for JLR to pull this one off. I’m not in the target audience — at all — but Jaguar needed to do something radical and, by God, they did just that. The concept is interesting. Some of the details are fantastic. Here’s hoping, indeed.
Update, 15 Jan 2025: Turns out the Jaguar’s designers were a little worried about the outcome — or the outsourcing, in this case — and its effect on the brand. The Drive has the details.
To close out 2024, let’s take a break, pour a beverage, and enjoy some of what you read Foreword for: great photography, typography, and design.
Northern Lights
I didn’t know — or didn’t remember — that amongst the glut of photography contests is one dedicated to the phenomenon known as the Northern Lights.
Cosmic Explosion, Isteria, Croatia. Photograph by Uroš Fink.
PetaPixel reminds us that Capture the Atlas’ Northern Lights Photographer of the Year competition features some exceptional opportunities to make spectacular captures this year due to the solar maximum — the peak of its eleven-year cycle.
Celestial Reflection, Dartmoor National Park, UK. Photograph by Max Trafford.
The 2024 competition awards feature 25 winners, each with a narrative and each a striking example of the larger system we’re part of. Check it out. (Also via This is Colossal.)
Nature
PetaPixel is among several that point us to the Nature Photographer of the Year contest, with images both poignant and funny. Since it’s New Year, let’s go with the latter:
Besties, Washington State, US. Photograph by Marcia Walters.
Of course, there’s just “spectacular,” too:
Cross to Bear, Talek River, Kenya. Photograph by Paul Goldstein.
The contest’s winners page features many more, separated into categories; be sure to click on the individual photographs to get larger sizes and the story with each. Fantastic stuff.
Frozen Prairie Landscapes
Saskatchewan gets cold in the winter, but there’s a beauty to those temperatures, photographer Angela Boehm tells PetaPixel.
Image from Minus Thirty. Photograph by Angela Boehm.
“The frozen prairie landscapes, while a subject in their own right, serve as a powerful metaphor for the deeper themes the book explores: loss, memory, and resilience,” she says. […] “The loss is embodied in the emptiness and biting cold. The memory, or its gradual fading, is represented by the snow obscuring the horizon, softening and blurring the scenes. And the resilience is in the solitary tree — a steadfast survivor of countless storms in this unforgiving landscape.”
Special Bonus #2: Another book on an interesting subject — Japan’s brutalist architecture, which somehow manages to bring an inherent quality to the cement:
Mixed-use complex, 1994, by Kuniyoshi Design. Photograph by Paul Tulett.
This PRINT piece is excellent: “A cultural gap persists in how history is organized and interpreted. I left the library without my requested images but with a lingering realization that how we organize history, even within the hallowed walls of an institution like the New York Public Library, can reflect the biases and oversights of a collective cultural perspective,” writes El. Stern.
Home Soon, Dear. Image by Maria Kinovych, 2022.
“Today, Ukrainian graphic design is rooted in national identification, in search of future needs, and in understanding the cultural influence of a painful past on a, once again, painful present.”
Ukraine’s search for a future — and present, and past — in design. Great read.
“A must-have manual for hot metal enthusiasts and linotype lovers”
Type Archived, a new book whose fundraising campaign I didn’t see in time: a “stunning visual tour of traditional typefounding and offers a definitive account of London’s legendary Type Archive,” writes Wallpaper*.
Custom metal for the book project.
The book “traces the origins of typography through the physical tools, objects and machinery that made the printed word possible. Full of rich photography, [it’s] a visual journey through the punches, matrices, presses, type and paper which tell the story of the UK’s preeminent typefounding industry.”
“The Arresting Typography of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps”
Jason Kottke writes, “Several years ago, Brandon Silverman become obsessed with the lettering and typography on the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
Special Bonus #3: Nick Heer, at the always-excellent Pixel Envy, has an essay on the essentials: “[E]fficiency and clarity are necessary elements, but are not the goal. There needs to be space for how things feel.” Delicious Wabi-Sabi is worth a few moments.
Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year!
1
That’s Jaguar Land Rover, before it was, um, initialized by owner Tata.
As we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US, a reminder that there’s a ton of things to be thankful for. One of the things about which I’m grateful is that folks actually read these posts — not a ton of people, to be sure, but enough.
So, before we get to the sort of items I usually post in this series, a request: don’t forget to click through on the links. Indeed, most of what’s here are links, and the originals are interesting — great book design, typography, or photography worth the extra moment of your time. (And remember to click on the post titles if you’d prefer larger photos/illustrations.)
Thank you.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Photography
International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2024
As usual, the entries here are inspiration for professionals and aspiring photographers — folks have submitted some excellent work:
“Let Down,” Highlands of Iceland. Photograph by Jabi Sanz.“Spiritual Grip,” Italian Dolomites. Photograph by Yuriy Garnaev.“Poisoned Beauty,” Apuseni Mountains in Romania. Photograph by Gheorghe Popa.“Striking,” Utah. Photograph by David Swindler.
Standard Chartered Weather Photographer of the Year 2024
Meanwhile, over in the UK, the Royal Meteorological Society has attracted some talent, as well
“Freezing Mist,” Barnweil Monument, UK. Photograph by Mark McColl.“Fire and Ice,” Austin, Texas. Photograph by Lincoln Wheelwright.
Of course, given the nature of the contest (ahem), each photograph includes an explanation of the weather phenomenon. See the contest website for a few more. (Another hat tip to PetaPixel.)
Iceland Forces of Nature
This is Colossalhighlights a series by Gary Wagner, whose “striking photos pare dramatic landscapes down to their essential shapes, lines, and tones.”
“Dream Falls.” Photograph by Gary Wagner.“Skogafoss.” Photograph by Gary Wagner.
His work is all in black and white and similarly moody — dramatic, even — and absolutely worth the perusal. (Be sure to check his archives, too.)
Palace of Ceremonies, Tbilisi, Georgia. (No photographer listed.)
More a (very) brief history than a stack of photographs, this Wallpaper* article nonetheless highlights some strangely wonderful buildings.
Typography and Design
Graphic Design for Television
Design by Leah Spencer.
As a Graphic Designer for Film & TV, I work in the art department and create anything that is seen on screen with text and or imagery, such as storefront signs, food packaging, patterned wallpaper, stacks of bills, newspapers, lost cat flyers, or even children’s drawings.
While the piece is from last year, I’d not seen it — or the Alphabettes website — and appreciated its in-depth explanations, especially with respect to typography. Great for fans of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, of course, but demonstrates the level of detail required for getting any show design right. (Another gem from Jason Kottke, and be sure to check Leah’s web site, too — it’s excellent.)
Special Bonus #3: Emigre Type Specimens, 1986–2024
We are happy to partner with San Francisco-based Letterform Archive on a reissue of our first volume of type specimens, an ample tome first published in 2016. But this time, we nearly doubled its already impressive extent to more than 1,200 pages containing 40 type specimens and spanning 38 years. We also added new texts by Letterform Archive associate curator Stephen Coles and longtime Emigre collaborator Jeffery Keedy. In addition to specimens not included in the first volume, we also revisited our type design process files to create a special behind-the-scenes section, offering readers a look at photos, sketches, and hand-written correspondence.
This perhaps-ironically-sized book — letterhalf, natch — is awesome. Order while you can.
Cornucopia of Book Design
A huge variety of interesting book design items this month, starting with ShoutoutLA:
Finally, we have Debutful discussing Make Your Way Home‘s cover design:
Another great cover by Beth Steidle, but it’s the art from Uzo Njoko, a piece titled “Higher Calling,” that impresses. Read more.
Special Bonus #4:It’s Nice That brings us a piece on Malou Messien, her obsession with display type, secondhand book covers and Estonian design. “This Paris-based graphic designer uses archival finds to inspire her alternative approach to typography and composition.”
Special Bonus #5:Hyperallergic highlights how the Women’s Studio Workshop, in the Hudson Valley, “Shakes up the art of bookmaking: what started as a small feminist arts collective has grown to host hundreds of residents and publish countless books under its own imprint.”
Special Bonus #6: “Read Between the Lines: Forget drop-shipping — America’s new favorite side hustle is … republishing classic literature?” Get this sad — bizarre? — item over at Slate.
Jaguar Relaunch
“A Jaguar should be a copy of nothing,” said company founder, Sir William Lyons. The 2024 version, “copy nothing,” includes marketing lines like “delete ordinary” and “live vivid” … well, just look at this header image:
The branding — which is all we have until December 2nd or 3rd, depending on the source — is designed to provoke, and it certainly accomplishes that goal, albeit with the typically-unfortunate-for-2024 levels of internet reaction vitriol.
Some of the details are nice:
Leaping cat.You can sort of see what they’re going for here….
Here’s another look at the logo, against a metal background — note the matching “J” and “R”:
As for the new cars themselves … well, here’s their preview image of what is presumably the new sedan, designed to compete with the likes of Bentley or Maybach (as opposed to BMW, for instance):
Meant to invoke “space, grace, and pace” … ?
A couple of teasers have been posted. One of the (lack of) a rear window:
And one that’s just details:
Jaguar’s new lineup, all EVs, could be really interesting. Jaguar Land Rover’s design department does not slouch.
The annual Association of University Presses (AUPresses) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has announced its winners published during 2023. The show, now in its 59th year, “honors the university publishing community’s design and production professionals; recognizes achievement in design, production, and manufacture of print publications; and serves as a spark to conversations and source of ideas about intelligent, creative, and resourceful publishing.”
It is a joy to be amid the rush of creativity and exuberance that is exemplified by the Book, Jacket, and Journal Show submissions. Our jurors were spoiled with the wide variety of visual and intellectual expressions that make our community so rich and diverse. The committee members really came through as a team, making this year’s efforts virtually seamless. Here’s to another great Show!
— David Zielonka, Stanford University Press, Book, Jacket, and Journal Show Committee chair
Entries are extensive, drawn from 507 worldwide, and the winners are separated into several categories, which I’ve drawn from below.
Scholarly Typographic
Academia’s titles are so often subjects that you only get from university presses. A great example:
University of North Carolina Press. Book design by Lindsay Starr.
When important titles are accompanied by compelling design, everyone benefits. Honorary mention to Horror and Harm, whose design invokes neither. See all the winning entries.
Scholarly Illustrated
Because these winning entries are from all over the globe, they run the risk of being difficult for us ’Muricans to understand. But design is a universal language:
Aarhus University Press. Book design by Jørgen Sparre.
The cover’s good, but one of the great things about this show is that you get more:
Aarhus University Press. Book design by Jørgen Sparre.
I’m a sucker for an interesting content spread, as demonstrated here.
Aarhus University Press. Book design by Jørgen Sparre.
I love the dingbats next to the page numbers, too; a great way to instantly illustrate which section you’re in.
Duke University Press. Book design by A. Mattson Gallagher.
Strong cover here, with the two shades of overlay really working in concert with the orange. Oh, and another — you guessed it — great content section, like this spread:
Duke University Press. Book design by A. Mattson Gallagher.
Some incredibly talented photographers on display here, but one leapt ahead:
Getty Publications. Book design by Jennifer Schuetz-Domer.Getty Publications. Book design by Jennifer Schuetz-Domer.Getty Publications. Book design by Jennifer Schuetz-Domer.
More about the photography than design, admittedly, but still great stuff. Honorable mention to Looking at Venezuela, 1928-1978, which combines more-than-interesting photography with another eye-catching contents spread.
This section is far and away the largest, and features some outstanding examples of book design — from any publisher — in subject areas that don’t always lend themselves to dynamic design. Some of my favorites, in alphabetical order:
McGill-Queen’s University Press. Book design by David Drummond.
Simple concept, well executed.
University of North Carolina Press. Book design by Lindsay Starr.
Strong image on this cover works extremely well with the green background and orange fire (and spine). Excellent.
University Press of Kentucky. Book design by Kathleen Lynch.
Love the illustration choices on the cover, with exactly the right background and interesting hand-lettering-style title.
Duke University Press. Book design by Matthew Tauch.
Double-exposure, something hard to execute well and done perfectly here, is exactly the right choice on this strong cover.
Yale University Press. Book design by Jenny Volvovski.
Simply put, excellent: a two-color jacket with fantastic lettering and great texture.
University Press of Kentucky. Book design by Zoe Norvell.
The hint of a face and the illustration within the outline combine to make this a winner on several levels.
University of North Carolina Press. Book design by Lindsay Starr.
Oh, that O! (The rest of the type is awesome, too.) Aged to perfection.
Yale University Press. Book design by Nathan Burton.
Illustration and type combine to achieve a fantastic jacket.
University Press of Kentucky. Book design by Jaya Miceli.
This cover made an appearance on my 2023 Favorite Book Covers list, and I’m delighted to see UPresses recognize it, too.
Princeton University Press. Book design by Katie Osborne.
Another example of simple-done-well. Love the orange.
Louisiana State University Press. Book design by Michelle A. Neustrom.
Color blocking perfection: a lesson in how-to using limited color choices.
University of Minnesota Press. Book design by Kimberly Glyder.
Great illustration, strong type, fabulous colors. (Interestingly….)
Princeton University Press. Book design by Hunter Finch.
Another that avoids stereotypes with a great background. The hint of megaphones is smartly done.
McGill-Queen’s University Press. Book design by David Drummond.
Brilliant: I love everything about this cover.
Honorable mentions go to the type on Divine Days and the open book on Some Unfinished Chaos. See the whole category of winners here.
Looking forward to next year! (Let’s hope I can post about it in a timely manner.)
A trio of miscellany, a trio of space photography, more than a trio of great black and white photography, and a single, very serious photography question for you this time — let’s get right into it.
Summer of Fun Miscellany
Intermezzo, Explained
The UK cover for Intermezzo. Book design by Kishan Rajani. (The US cover doesn’t compare.)
GQ UK has an interview with Kishan Rajani, a senior designer at Faber, and Pete Adlington, the publisher’s art director, “about how the Intermezzo design came together, the role of social media in modern book design, and how to make books ‘as pickupable as possible.'”
The endpapers for Intermezzo (UK). I really like that they’ve sweated the little details.
We can discuss “pickupable” as a word another time — your time is better spent, for now, reading the interview.
WeTransfer Sold
“Some of Bending Spoons’ most successful products are tools that serve creativity, therefore we are confident that this milestone will complement both businesses, supercharge our growth, and help us create even more value for creative industries at large,” says WeTransfer CEO Alexander Vassilev of the acquisition.
I like and appreciate WeTransfer — unlike the corporatespeak above (but hey, we’re inventing words today … right?) — and hope that despite being corporatized, nothing substantive will change.
PetaPixel: “The companies did not say whether or not all staff or leadership at WeTransfer would be maintained after the conclusion of the acquisition. That may come into question since Bending Spoons does have a track record of buying completed products, training its internal staff on their upkeep, and then releasing the original development team.”
Crap.
Update, 9 September, 2024: “Bending Spoons acquired file-sharing platform WeTransfer in July and has now laid off 75% of WeTransfer’s staff,” PetaPixel reports. “The Italian app company Bending Spoons has confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, which comprise at least 260 people based on WeTransfer’s employee headcount of around 350 people.”
Adobe, Again
The Adobe “World Headquarters” buildings in San Jose, California. Image via PetaPixel.
Adobe couldn’t explain why it let its once excellent relationship with photographers and media lapse, only that it is sorry that happened. I do believe [their explanation], at least when I hear it from the people responsible for making the software. There is a big divide between the folks who code Photoshop and the C-level executives who are so out of touch with the end users. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what those people down in the trenches of development say or even how good Adobe’s software happens to be, some photographers just don’t like the feeling of giving money to the company because of the people at the helm.
Jaron Schneider, PetaPixel
The thing is: it’s less photography, really, than design. If you’re a photographer, how you get to the point of printing or publishing the photographs offers options in software — whether iPhoto, Affinity, Photoshop, or the Pixel 9 Magic Editor — Instagram doesn’t care, Zenfolio takes multiple file formats, and so on.
But in design — that is, desktop publishing or especially book design — Adobe has a monopoly over the software used by the industry, full stop. I used to love working with their software. Today, not so much. (And for the record, it’s more than their fees, it’s the quality of the software.) It’s extremely frustrating and, at the moment, there is no alternative even on the horizon.
Crap. (Again.)
Extraordinary Astrophotography
So, how many can place Kyrgyzstan on a map? It’s a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia, and, clearly, a great place to do some astrophotography.
Star Trails Above Tash Rabat by Soumyadeep Mukherjee.
PetaPixel highlights the work of Soumyadeep Mukherjee, who traveled there specifically for the purpose — and succeeded wildly. It’s awesome to see a country I’m not familiar with served so well. (My favorite, of course, is the short depth-of-field portrait — if you can call it that — of Yuri Gargarin, seen in the header image above.)
“Josh Dury, aka ‘Starman,’ is an award-winning landscape astrophotographer, presenter, speaker and writer from The Mendip Hills ‘Super National Nature Reserve’ in Somerset, United Kingdom,” his web site trumpets.
The thing is … despite looking like he’s about 25, he’s earned it. Great stuff.
Meanwhile, back at PetaPixel, “Photographer Aaron Watson, who goes by Skies Alive Photography, has seen many incredible things in the night sky. His latest sighting is a rare double ‘moonbow,’ a rainbow created by bright moonlight in precise conditions.”
Double Moonbow by Aaron Watson.
All three of these folks need special thanks for their patience. I have trouble standing still long enough to set up a tripod, let alone do long exposures under rarely-encountered combinations of time, weather, equipment and location — plus lots of good luck — in the middle of the night. Well done, all.
“Majesty of Monochrome”
The winners of the third annual Black and White Photo Awards have been unveiled, showcasing the best in monochrome photography across multiple categories.
Monochrome Majesty: Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, by Robert Fulop. Bronze Mention from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
Naturally, I gravitate towards architecture — and the winners (of the nearly 5000 entrants) demonstrate serious talent.
Bench, by Colin Page. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.The Double Helix, by Md Tanveer Rohan. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.Windows by Manfred Gruber. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
See the winners — and especially, take in the finalists, many of which I’d personally judge to be winners in their own right — at the contest’s web site.
Special Bonus #1: It’s time once again for the annual iPhone Awards, “a powerful testament to the art of storytelling through photography.” I especially liked this one:
Bicycle Forest by James Kittendorf. 3rd place in the Cityscape category, 2024 IPPAwards.
The Verge: “Anyone who buys a Pixel 9 — the latest model of Google’s flagship phone, available starting this week — will have access to the easiest, breeziest user interface for top-tier lies, built right into their mobile device.”
A montage from The Verge, thankfully clearly labeled.
Life-changing moments have long been captured using photography, from Moonrise to George Floyd. But, generally, fakes were the exception, not the rule. We’re, unfortunately, arming the folks who cry foul.
Another montage from The Verge. Note the woods filled in behind the helicopter less convincingly than the accident, above — but how many are going to notice?
It does this article disrespect to summarize. Just go read: “No one’s ready for this.”
Special Bonus #2: Nick Heer, at Pixel Envy, articulates what needs to be said: “anyone can now radically and realistically alter an entire scene within minutes of taking a photo. [O]ur expectations need to change.”
This time, another automaker logo, some automotive and architecture photography, and the special bonuses that have all become a regular part of the Beautifully Briefed standard. But we’re going to start with some generated content.
AI Book “Design”
From the “We knew this was going to happen” category, we have the first — that I’ve seen, anyway — “let AI do the work” research paper suggesting that book design is something that can be automated.
We have presented a novel approach to computationally design books. The presented system implements a generative design process which takes advantage of the scripting capabilities of Adobe InDesign to procedurally typeset books from content provided by the user. We have shown the ability of the system to (i) create book designs that consistently comply with a series of typographic rules, styles and principles identified in the literature; (ii) produce visually diversified books from the same input content; and (iii) produce visually coherent books with different contents.
Design by “AI.”
Let’s please remember that “AI” as the term is currently used is actually “applied machine learning;” in this case, specific rules within specific containers in a specific application. It’s a first step towards something, as most “AI” is in 2024.
But it’s absolutely not the only step. It’s inevitable that the necessary subsequent steps will be taken, probably sooner than later.
As usual where someone is seriously discussing replacing a human worker with a computer, there’s a pitch for the upside:
The work presented in the paper may challenge the typical roles of both the tool and the designer. First, by automatically creating and suggesting design alternatives, the tool ends up playing a more active role in the design process. Then, by modifying and developing custom tools, the designer is no longer a mere tool user and becomes the author of tools tailored to specific needs. We believe this shift can be fruitful since it enables the exploration and discovery of new technical and creative possibilities.
In other words, the designer is now responsible for creatively writing the rules then policing the output — like so many things in the machine-learning, or “AI” space — rather than the actual drudgery of directly designing the output. “Design great rules, get great design.”
And there is room for this. Amazon, especially, is going to jump on book design generated this way; never mind those folks in China or India earning (a paltry few) dollars a day, the computer can do it better for less . . . . Poof! With no human interaction whatsoever, your book is ready to publish. Indeed, for some, the bar to publish has just been lowered made easier. Perhaps even Adobe, who trumpets “AI” at every turn these days, they may choose to take this up. (Probably for a surcharge to the already-high subscription pricing.)
Let’s not even speculate about the major publishing houses for now.
But like AI-generated anything, getting actual art requires hand-tuning the input by an artist. For what amounts to “slop” — see this fantastic PixelEnvy discussion — the generated approach to book design might even be appropriate. But for book design that’s artistic, cared-for, or even “just” thoughtful, you’re going to need a human for a long time yet to come.
The excellent Odd Apples, which I’m sure I’ve highlighted before — but in a very human way, can’t find.
Special Bonus #1: I had the occasion to recently flip through Pentagram’s book design section. Some seriously interesting, seriously artistic work. (See the Odd Apples listing specifically.)
It could probably be argued that computers took book design jobs away, but….
Untitled (Fiddleheads), 1928. Photo by Karl Blossfeldt.
Special Bonus #3: The ever-great Kottke.org. points us at Public Work, “an image search engine that boasts 100,000 “copyright-free” images from institutions like the NYPL, the Met, etc. It’s fast with a relatively simple interface and uses AI to auto-categorize and suggest possibly related images (both visually and content-wise).” As Jason Kottke points out, not great in the attribution department, but good stuff nonetheless.
Mazda’s New Logo
Mazda’s logo as of 2023, seen on one of its cars.
From the automotive logo thread (previously), we have to note Mazda’s new look, reduced from the current 3D-style grayscale to flat and black and white. This one gets some criticism from me: it lacks grace, pace, or space. (Hmph. That might be someone else.)
Angry Bird, anyone? (Pardon the artifacts — this image is enlarged from a Japanese trademark post.)
Then again, Mazda has not always been successful with logos. Anyone remember the 1991–1997 version?
Mazda’s complete logo history.
The 1931–1934 version lays the name over Mitsubishi’s logo, which was responsible for sales. The 1975–1991 version is the one I remember best, but that’s likely a youth/rose-colored glasses sort of thing. See Wiki for more information.
Meanwhile, Mazda is trying to move upmarket right now, and the new “look” isn’t really in keeping with that. Curious to see where this goes. (Via The Autopian.)
Special Bonus #3:BrandNew points us at the 2024 Logo Trends report, the annual fun item from Logo Lounge that looks at what’s hot in this year’s crop of — you guessed it!
Freely (Smiley category) and Droplet (Elliptic category), left, and Olá and Backcountry Wanderer, right, from the Sticker category. (Olá could be in the Smiley category, too.)
Some of my favorites are above, but the whole report is worth a look. (Spoiler: more than flattening is on trend.)
Auto, Auto+Arch, Arch
Auto Photo Manual
Via Wallpaper*, we have Auto Photo Manual, a new monograph from Benedict Redgrove that “explores the art and science of photographing the world’s most striking cars:”
A very orange Lambo. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.
Always a sucker for a Saab, especially this concept:
The 2006 Saab Aero-X concept. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.
Also via Wallpaper*, we have a “celebration of the European Car of the Year and changing perceptions of modern design, pairing the best buildings of the age with their automotive contemporaries:”
London’s Camberwell Subamarine and the Mercedes W116. Photo by Daniel Hopkinson.
“Through the lens of time, both [cars and buildings] have become highly symbolic of their eras and hindsight will allow us to trace the roots of each design to determine how it is viewed from a 21st century perspective,” says Holroyd, noting that over this period architecture underwent a stylistic retreat, just as car design became emboldened and more avant-garde.
Via The Guardian, we have The World Architecture Festival’s 2024 shortlist, revealing projects from around the world spanning categories such as childcare, energy, transport and science. A couple of faves:
The Chodge by DCA Architects of Transformation — interesting name(s), surely — in Whakamaru, New Zealand. Photograph by Simon Devitt.
The live awards event will take place in Singapore from November 6-8. This year’s finalists represent 71 countries.
Woven Passage to Cloudy Peaks by line+ studio in Shaoxing, China. Photograph by line+studio.
Special Bonus #4: This is Colossalbrings us the drone photography of Eric Waider, shot in Iceland:
As glaciers expand and recede, they have the capacity to grind rock so fine that geologists refer to the pulverized material as glacial flour. It slips down rivers and into lakes, carrying the otherworldly turquoise hue through a unique and resilient ecosystem. In Iceland, the blue-green color is complemented by rivers that flow yellow, thanks to sulfur from nearby volcanoes, or red from dissolved ferrous iron—also known as bog iron. Coursing over rock and black sand, the streams take on dazzling, rhythmic patterns.
Photograph by Erik Waider.
Brilliant. See his website (“Abstract Landscapes of the distant North”) and enjoy that series and more — including faves such as Ocean Blues and Glacial Macro.
In this installment of Beautifully Briefed, let’s take a look at some great posters, great print items, and great photography. Plus, an update from Adobe’s continued campaign to lose friends and attract government attention. Fun stuff!
ELAC lecture poster design by Tashfiah Ahmed.Lecture poster from the University of British Columbia; designer not listed.
Great examples of design in a often difficult category. See the rest.
Architecture Photographs by Hélène Binet
While we’re discussing architecture, let’s talk about a Dezeen post that caught my eye: photographer Hélène Binet has a new book out, adding to her long career capturing the old-school way — using film.
“A Sentimental Topography by Dimitris Pikionis, landscaping of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece.”
This series captures shadows and light with exceptional talent, including the above, where she’s praised for “captur[ing] in a single image the tactile and textured presence of tectonic form, both in built and natural environments.”
“Staircases in Sperlonga, Latina, Italy.”
I love the softer shades of gray than shown in the previous image, and both this and the image below demonstrate a deep understanding of architectural expression.
“Kolumba Museum, Cologne, Germany, by Peter Zumthor.”
This is Colossal posted about this a day before my Audubon magazine showed up with these prominently featured, and they’re all winners.
Wild Turkey, Female Bird Prize Winner, by Travis Potter.
Bird photography is a difficult skill requiring patience, perseverance, and specialized gear; those who excel at it deserve recognition. Plus, there’s this:
Audubon’s climate science report Survival by Degrees reveals that two-thirds of North American birds are threatened by extinction from climate change, including species featured in this year’s Audubon Photography Awards like the Blackburnian Warbler, California Quail, and Sedge Wren.
Forster’s Tern, Professional Honorable Mention, by Kevin Lohman.
The annual PRINT awards are out, featuring — natch — great items in print, including items like the Smithsonian’s annual report and a Naked Trails brochure. Here are a couple of items from the book design category:
Jacket design by Robin Bilardello.
Author sketch and lettering by the author. Also, let’s get the . . . :
Cover design by Milan Bozic, with illustration and typography by Lauren Tamaki.
Fantastic.
Special Bonus #2: Hoefler & Co. brings us Typographic Doubletakes: “While good typefaces have prodigious families of carefully related styles, some of the best typography builds unexpected relationships between unrelated fonts.”
Their blog refreshes as you scroll in more ways than one — enjoy.
Left: Mercury Text + Ideal Sans SSm. Right: Whitney + Operator and Operator Mono.
Special Bonus #3:Kottke points us to a LitHub post arguing for adding full credit pages to books acknowledging everyone who worked on them. “How lovely it is to be seen and appreciated.”
Adobe “Too Easy to Hate,” Say Users, Employees
Adobe continues to score big with the public — in the best Boeing style, a formerly-great company has put profits before users and employees. While successful from the shareholders’ point of view (record profits, again), some are . . . upset. PetaPixel:
Even “exasperated employees implored leadership to not let it be the “evil” company customers think it is;” while that might be a stretch — “ignorant greed” is a better description — either is not a winning look.
The latest was a terms-of-service update that many saw as a rights grab, allowing the company to use users’ work to train its AI services. While those have been amended, the seemingly clear language — “We’ve never trained generative AI on customer content, taken ownership of a customer’s work, or allowed access to customer content beyond legal requirements” — comes from a company that has lost the trust of users, making those words just that — words. Time will tell if they are truth.
“For years, Adobe has harmed consumers by enrolling them in its default, most lucrative subscription plan without clearly disclosing important plan terms,” the lawsuit alleges. “Adobe fails to adequately disclose to consumers that by signing up for the ‘Annual, Paid Monthly’ subscription plan, they are agreeing to a yearlong commitment and a hefty early termination fee that can amount to hundreds of dollars. Adobe clearly discloses the early termination fee only when subscribers attempt to cancel, turning the stealth early termination fee into a powerful retention too that [redacted] by trapping consumers in subscriptions they no longer want.”
I’m actually glad for this, as I wasn’t aware that my $60+ monthly fee is a payment on an annual plan. (Ug.) Not too big an issue — I actually feel like there’s decent value in the plan and will continue to subscribe for the foreseeable future.
But I’d also be lying if I said I’m completely satisfied with our business arrangement: alternatives are few and far between. While Adobe does not have a monopoly legally or technically, in the publishing industry at least, they are, for all intents and purposes, the only game in town. It would be nice if they would at least demonstrate a modicum of respect for their users.
Update, 25 July 2024: “Adobe Exec Says Early Termination Fees Are ‘Like Heroin’ for the Company,” according to PetaPixel. Hmph.
This April has been busy — meaning that I’ve not marked as many items for this column as usual. (I generally keep a browser tab group going throughout the month with items that could potentially be added, then weed them out/down as posting time gets near; usually, I aim for four or five diverse items.) This month, a great young Egyptian photographer and some details on what goes on, er, under the covers of book design.
Karim Emr, Photographer
Infinity, Karim Emr, 2021. The print is 64×64 inches(!).
Just look at that — awesome. The moment it appeared on Kottke, it got marked for posting. It’s fantastic to see a familiar locale taken with a fresh perspective, proving once again that no matter how many cameras exist in the world, it’s what you do with it that matters.
This is great, too:
“Water, Water, Water,” Karin Amr, 2021. (Forgive the color banding; that’s my fault, not the photographer’s.)
Professional book designer Berne debuts with her first self-authored (and designed) title that seemingly anticipates every question people curious about book production might ask, as well as many they probably hadn’t thought about. . . . This title illuminates all that goes into producing and designing a book.
— Library Journal
Interior highlights from The Design of Books.
From crop marks to the editorial workings, a worthy read for those in need of better understanding the process, those in the process (you’d be surprised: it’s more than authors and editors), and, as the author — and the LJ — say, “other curious readers.” Recommended.
Special Bonus #2: HarperCollins, one of the biggest publishers in the world, has something to tout: saving trees through “eco design.”
It’s painfully clear which is easier to read: a change for the better . . . ?
Fast Companyreports on this, although to be honest I’m not sure it’s an improvement — while it’s impressive that, “so far, these subtle, imperceptible tweaks have saved 245.6 million pages, equivalent to 5,618 trees,” perhaps the startling statistic there is that a single tree can produce nearly forty-fourthousand book pages. (Along with some bark mulch, presumably.)
In any case, the VP of creative operations and production at HarperCollins — apparently an actual title — is proud of their “learnings.”
Doctor? No, Book Designer
The AIGA Eye on Design‘s book design category, always full of gems, highlights the career path of another book design professional, Jason Ramirez:
One of the first in his family to attend college, he studied biological sciences and later religious studies at the University of Rochester, and after graduation he began taking night classes in typography, color theory, graphics, and web design. At nearly 30-years-old, he applied and was accepted into Parsons School of Design, where a course with cover designer Gabriele Wilson opened up a world of possibility.
The end of March here in Middle Georgia means flowers aplenty, and usually with that, some photography — but I’ve not yet had a chance. (Stay tuned.) I have, however, been saving up links o’ interest: fonts, books, photography, and new(ish) car logos. Let’s go!
Kottke Meets 2024
Starting with one of the very few places that is still around from Foreword’s old days, the always-interesting Jason Kottke:
2024 marks Kottke.org’s 26th year on the ’net.
Great new looks for great content, with better Quick Links — the previews are ace — and incredibly-appreciated gift links to places like The New York Times and The Atlantic. If you haven’t been in a while, click and enjoy.
Fab Spring Type
With “a plethora of captivating new typefaces,” CreativeBoom celebrates spring with 11 new faces to tempt, inspire, and bring joy:
Arillatype.Studio brings us a thousand glyphs of greatness.
Zanco, with its bell-bottom style; Seabirds, inspired by 1930s book covers; Module, a “fluke side hustle;” and Graffeur, improvised from gaffer tape and glimpsed in this post’s header image, are all great. My far-and-away favorite, though, is At Briega, “inspired by the concept of hybridisation” and shown above.
“Unique perspective” never does justice to someone whose name defines the term. See some never-before-seen images alongside old favorites in a new Escher book highlighted at Hyperallergic.
Multidimensional Libri
“Experimental books are flourishing, [a]nd the evidence is seen” in this Daily Heller from PRINT: a traveling exhibition on three-dimensional books, all published titles.
“Don’t get held back from the simple pleasures of reading,” argues Natalie Fear at CreativeBloq, “not everything needs to be minimalist.” Justification for commercialism or a common-sense explanation for the bookshelves’ current look? You decide.
Photography Three-Fer
Winners of Monochromatic Minimalism
“Black Pearl” by Sascha Kohne. An honorable mention for the magazine, but a winner for me.
“Traveling through Costa da Morte, Galicia. 600m above sea level where the mountains separate the Cantabria sea from the Atlantic Ocean,” explains third-place winner Alexandre Caetano.
Aging Facades of France
“Shuttered blinds, peeling paint, and aging doors don’t usually indicate an invitation, but for French photographer Thibaut Derien, the fading facades of long-closed shops are well worth a stop,” This is Colossal says.
Sony Photography Awards: Architecture
The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia, Spain: “Hemispheric,” by Eng Tong Tan, Malaysia.
ArchDaily‘s coverage of the annual Sony awards shortlist announcement was an insta-click.
New Bull: Now Flat. (And a BMW.)
Lamborghini practically defines flamboyant. So it’s worth a link when their logo gets less interesting:
Old logo, left, new, right.
Late at following the industry trend of flat-is-better, because, well, Volkswagen. (Okay, I undersell. Perhaps.) Read the lack of news at Motor11Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend. or The Drive, where they manage to convey the brand’s use of the phrase “digital touchpoints.”
I don’t know whether this will make any more sense in a few or even many months — which is relevant because of BMW. Four years ago, one of the industry’s design leaders expressed strong this new style, and I didn’t get it. But it’s worn better than most, and superlatively on occasion — check out the logo’s use on the Vision Neue Klasse X:
Rather than a standalone, plastic part sitting on the paint, it’s etched into the finish. Man, I hope that makes it into production.
Neue Klasse: do like. Bull? No so much.
Update, 2 April:BrandNew, itself sporting a new look, has weighed in on the new Lambo style, calling it “not good.” (FYI, BrandNew is a subscription, quite possibly the best $20/year someone interested in design can spend.)
1
Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend.
This time, book design times two, book cutouts, album covers, and a reflection on my 2023 photographs. It’s one of those Februaries, so let’s leap into it.
Jodi Hunt’s Great British Design
Screen print by Kate Gibb, lettering by Jodi Hunt, and photograph by Adaeze Okaro.
You might recognize the above book cover from my 2023 Favorite Book Covers post, a fantastic series of choices that speak to all colors while definitively saying, “Black.” It’s Nice That has a short post talking about Jodi Hunt, who designer that cover — and more.
Design by Jodi Hunt.
The screen printing is prominent here, too, and the interaction between that and title are, to borrow a Britishism, “ace.” And the below, with its slightly haunting image treatment (and that great text, lower left), also earns kudos:
Design by Jodi Hunt.
Great design, deservedly highlighted. See the other examples here.
The original Book Design
Ernest Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace: Their Manufacture and History from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Day (1888), with binding created by May Morris
Before there was book design, or even graphic design — that is, when books and pages were thought of as art instead of design — folks were still coming up with great book covers. The Grolier Club, “America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts,” has a wonderful exhibit of cover design . . . made up exclusively of antiques.
Lynd Ward, Gods’ Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, 1929, and Madman’s Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts, 1930.
One of the most memorable artworks […] is a sumptuous but comparatively delicate volume, a 1643 book of psalms created in London. Atmospheric exposure usually turns white silk-bound editions tan and brown, but this cover is a shiny cream color. The polychrome silk and gold metallic threads, which wind around one another to form a colorful floral pattern, maintain an eye-catching vibrancy. The only sign of the book’s age is the oxidized silver “stumpwork,” a type of raised embroidery that in this case resembles beading.
— Elaine Velie, Hyperallergic
The quote above refers to the book in this month’s cover image, second from left, and is but one where what you see isn’t necessarily what you think it is — it’s more complex, more interesting, made with what the artist had available in the day. Great reminders, all, that book design has a much longer history than what we think of when we hear the term.
“Meticulous incisions and methodical folding allow scenes to arise from aged books and color swatches in Thomas Allen’s paper cutouts,” This is Colossal notes — but a picture is worth a thousand words:
Timber by Thomas Allen.
The vintage paperback work happened by complete accident. I was cutting into a pulp novel one afternoon with the intent of removing the illustration completely when I noticed that if I left some areas attached, folded the parts carefully, and looked at them from a single vantage point so that everything aligned, they created the illusion of 3D pop-ups. Everything snowballed from there.
— Thomas Allen, via This is Colossal
The three-hour cutout: Shipwreck, by Thomas Allen.
Here’s his desk — whoa:
Test cutouts in Allen’s studio, via This is Colossal.
The Article’s Great — but the Headline is the Point.
“Virality over Creativity.” Few things summarize the last few years more — it’s always about getting eyeballs, not about truth or quality. It’s satisfying the algorithm. Because, of course, these days, media is social.
Real or AI?
POV, a new series of articles from It’s Nice That examines, in this case, creativity and AI in design for the music industry. “If an artist isn’t putting a piece of themselves and their experience into the work,” it asks, “why should anyone care?”
All valid questions, yes. But it’s the headline that provides another potential word of the year: virality.
The times we live in . . . .
Some of my Favorite 2023 Photographs
I’ve updated my photography page with my favorites of 2023, including these two:
Blue Against Blue Against Blue, 943 Ellis St.
The above, taken in Augusta, is architecture that doesn’t make me feel blue, while the below, taken on the main street in Sparta, does:
Bulb Moment, 12745 Broad St.
A couple of reflections: I didn’t get out as much as I did in 2022, and regret it, and have somehow pretty much eschewed both black-and-white and effects (film grain, light leaks, etc.), and kind of regret that, too. Both things to do differently in 2024.
That said, six years after investing in a different style of photography, I’m settling in — and looking forward to the future. I hope you are, too.
“Our selections ended up evoking an array of responses,” said [Jayme] Yen, [Juror]. “As book designers, some books made us professionally jealous—we wish we had designed those! As designers-who-collect-books, we took notes about the books we wanted to purchase later. As readers, there were books that we lingered over for longer than absolutely necessary, the text and typography luring us in and making us forget all else.”
— Jayme Yen, AUPresses Design Show Juror
This show is a favorite because more than just the covers are brought to the fore — interior design on books is, in my opinion, the unsung hero of print and publishing. Of course, there are more than a few covers to discuss, too.
AUPresses lists designers in with their winning designs, which I’ve included in the captions below. Any errors are mine.
They also separate the awards into categories. Let’s start with a couple from Scholarly Typographic:
Duke University Press. Cover design by A. Mattson Gallagher.Duke University Press. Interior design by A. Mattson Gallagher.
Great effect on the cover image — not an easy subject for that part of the world, handled with grace — and bonus points for a beautifully interesting contents page, an area often neglected.
Also:
Louisiana State University Press. Cover design by Andrew Shurtz.
I haven’t seen this one in person, so not sure whether the texture is in the paper or the illustration (or both), but either way, this cover design delights.
University of British Columbia Press. Jacket design by Michel Vrana.University of British Columbia Press. Title page design by Michel Vrana.University of British Columbia Press. Interior design by Michel Vrana.University of British Columbia Press. Interior design by Michel Vrana.
Another winning contents page — this time paired with an interesting cover, great title page, and interior design up to the standards set by these pioneering women. Only question: they couldn’t get a woman to design the title?
University of Texas Press. Jacket design by David Shields.University of Texas Press. Interior design by David Shields.
From Poetry and Literature, we have an all-time favorite, redone with remarkable aplomb:
Princeton University Press. Cover design by Chris Ferrante, illustrated by Alenka Sottler.Princeton University Press. Title page design by Chris Ferrante, illustrated by Alenka Sottler.Princeton University Press. Interior design by Chris Ferrante, illustrated by Alenka Sottler.Princeton University Press. Illustrated by Alenka Sottler.
I can’t speak highly enough of the talent and style on display in these illustrations, complimented with great book design. Fantastic.
American Historical Association. Cover design by Paul Carlos.American Historical Association. Interior design by Paul Carlos.
That cover photograph — wow — combined with a full-color interior that’s really well done. Great stuff.
From the Reference category, we have three, starting with a local favorite:
University of Georgia Press. Interior design by Mindy Basinger Hill.University of Georgia Press. Interior design by Mindy Basinger Hill.University of Georgia Press. Interior design by Mindy Basinger Hill.
The more data, the more charts, the more fuss, the harder it is to do well. Another title handled in a way that invites the reader to enjoy — nice.
University of New Mexico Press. Cover design by Mindy Basinger Hill.
The interior of this book is good, but the cover, with its natural-paper-as-sky really works for me. (I do wish the author’s name were a little more prominent.)
University of New Mexico Press. Title page design by Mindy Basinger Hill.University of New Mexico Press. Interior design by Mindy Basinger Hill.
Killer title page with aged, map-based listings. Nice.
Duke University Press. Cover design by Matthew Tauch.
Great photograph complimented by fantastic use of color and geometry.
Gallaudet University. Cover design by Eric Wilder.
Next-level simple, with good typography and color.
McGill and Queen’s University Press. Cover design by David Drummond.
Next-next-level simple, with the best drop shadows I’ve seen recently. Great stuff.
McGill and Queen’s University Press. Cover design by David Drummond.
Same designer as the previous title, and perhaps similar in style, but handled well while still being distinctive.
Princeton University Press. Cover design by Kari Spurzem.
Life is short. Go though the door while you can.
University of Alabama Press. Cover design by Lori Lynch.
This could have been handled any one of a trillion ways — ’bout the number of breakfasts served — but this one is interesting and respectful. Bonus points for the phrase, “Southern Imaginary.”
University of Chicago Press. Jacket design by Rae Ganci Hammers.
Love this, from background to foreground, with bonus points for a back flap not filled to the brim. As I recall, this one was a runner-up for last year’s favorite covers list.
University of Iowa Press. Jacket design by Derek Thornton.
While we’re on the subject, this one not only made the cut for my 2022 Favorite Book Covers, but was in my top three. Great, great stuff, shown here both front and back.
University of Minnesota Press. Cover design by Catherine Casalino.
Jumping right off the top of the cover — perfect. (Great use of color, too.)
University of Pittsburgh Press. Cover design by Joel W. Coggins.
Interesting, compelling choice with the illustration. Bonus points for monospace, typewriter-style title, complimented with the callout. Nice.
University of Texas Press. Cover design by Lonny Hurley and Derek George.
A cover that’s neither cranky nor stupid. (Crafty, though….)
Yale University Press. Cover design by Jennifer Volvovski.
Face-off!
“The printed book should be both a functional and a beautiful object,” said Mindy Basinger Hill, “and every year this community finds new and innovative ways to bring that vision to our books.” I couldn’t agree more, and despite my tardiness in sharing, I’m happy to have seen these titles — and hope you are, too. Looking forward to next year!
A selection of diverse items for this entry in the series: a new publication from The Guardian, open source fonts for your 2023 goodness (along with more for ’24), and the Natural Landscape Photography Award winners. Also: DAK. Let’s get into it.
The Long Read
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of The Guardian, including its unusual-for-journalism payment model (that, frankly, some outlets in the US would be wise to copy). Now, they’re on newsstands with a “bookazine” called The Long Read.
The back cover. (See the front cover at the left in the header image.)
“We know that for many people, myself included, when it comes to long, immersive pieces, reading in print […] is still the most satisfying reading experience, and one that should be cherished in a climate so saturated by disturbance,” quotes It’s Nice That. With most of these more evergreen stories taking months or even years to build, hardy print felt the best way for them to live. [A] ‘bookazine’, it balances all the things we love about magazines (“the drama, the pace, the energy”) with the considered typesetting of a book. A lot of attention was given to packaging its large volume of text – clocking in at 55,000 words – to make the reading experience as relaxing as possible, from body type size to column widths.
As a self-confessed font junkie, I’m always interested when a new one comes across the bow — but there are so many these days, they’ve unfortunately become almost commodities. (That’s a huge shame, but also a discussion for another time.) So it’s interesting when I see ones that are not only good but also available for everyone, free and open source.
Monaspace is the first of three I want to highlight, “a monospaced type superfamily with some modern tricks up its sleeve.” Designed for code — hence the monospace — it’s a successful answer to the question, “Letters on a grid is how we see our code. Why not make those letters better?”
B612 is designed for — get this — the screens on Airbus commercial planes. “[T]he challenge was to improve the display of information on the cockpit screens, in particular in terms of legibility and comfort of reading, and to optimize the overall homogeneity of the cockpit.” Read the back story here.
Inter is described as, “The 21st century standard,” “a workhorse of a typeface carefully crafted & designed for a wide range of applications, from detailed user interfaces to marketing & signage.” One of the world’s most-used font families, it’s perfect when readability is at the fore.
Brinca by In-House International. (Image via CreativeBoom.)
CreativeBoom has their annual compilation of 50 new fonts for the coming year up, “a comprehensive list of the best fonts that demand your attention in 2024. We’ve compiled this comprehensive list by asking the creative industry for their favourites, analysing work from the last 12 months, and taking on board the design trends emerging right now.”
National Museum in Gdańsk by Tofu Studio. Featuring Migra by Pangram Pangram. (Image via CreativeBoom.)
Special Bonus: Simon Garfield publishes biographies on Albertus, Baskerville and Comic Sans. Seriously:
The Natural Landscape Photography Awards
For once: a contest that demands more — like the original RAW files. (Literally the raw image from the camera, before processing, for those who don’t know — think film negatives, rather than the resulting prints.) Okay, sure, it’s not perfect; there are entry fees and it doesn’t have a long track record, but the rules are solid with respect to image integrity.
Of course, the quality of the subject chosen to photograph is, if you’ll pardon the expression, subjective. The overriding theme here seems to be the perfection of dramatic subtlety — not an easy thing to get right.
Photo: Adam GibbsPhoto: Adam Gibbs
The two photographs above are both by Adam Gibbs and reflect the judges’ desire to reward photographers who display a diverse portfolio of subjects.
Photo: Alberto Rodriguez Garcia“Once Upon a Time.” Photo: Matt Redfern
A winner from the “abstracts and details” category for the first and a great title for the second image that does indeed tell so many stories. Rounding it out, another beautiful black-and-white:
If you’re a certain age — that is, were around in the ’80s — the DAK catalog was a regular. (Give me one, together with a JC Whitney catalog, and a weekend was gone.) A recent post by Cabel Sasser brought it all back:
The catalog from Summer 1983.
Oh, the products. The explanations. The fun.
I’m not going to spoil the effort put into the story of Drew Alan Kaplan, a.k.a. DAK, Joseph Sugarman, Products That Think, or any of it: go enjoy for yourself.
A variety of interests addressed this time: a bit on Shift Happens, a great question on branding, and Leica’s new M camera — and its content credentials. (Plus, bonuses.) Happy October!
Booking a Keyboard
We talked about this title back in January, but it’s worth the reminder:
A 3D rendering of Shift Happens.
Marcin Wichary has long been interested in keyboards. In his words,
Keyboards fascinated me for years. But it occurred to me that a good, comprehensive, and human story of keyboards — starting with typewriters and ending with modern computers and phones — has never been written. How did we get from then to now? What were the steps along the way? And how on earth does QWERTY still look the same now as it did 150 years ago? I wanted a book like this for years. So I wrote it.
—Marcin Wichary, Shift Happens
This title fascinates me, partially because it’s an interesting subject — one we’ve all interacted with, often without thinking about — and partially because it’s a great, well-covered exercise in book design.
A very cool photograph of an IBM Electric. Photo by Marcin Wichary.
I am a web guy, and I used to think that the web (just like typewriters, once) took away a lot of hard-won typesetting nuance and tradition. But it turns out that the web also makes it much easier to do certain things. To have a word be surrounded by a rounded rectangle—a visual representation of a key—is a few lines of CSS or a few clicks in Figma. But for the book, I had to cut my own font and then write Python scripts to do typesetting inside the font-making software, which I’m pretty sure you are not supposed to do[.]
—Marcin Wichary, Shift Happens
Really looking forward this title. Copies are, as of this writing, still available.
Let’s Talk Branding.
It’s Nice That asks a great question: “Are rebrands starting to look the same? The challenges facing commercial design,” in which author Elizabeth Goodspeed discusses whether “shortened turnarounds and economic tensions” are taking a toll on originality.
Westinghouse branding guidelines from the ’60s.
The answer might seem to be, “Well, duh,” but it’s nonetheless a thoughtful and insightful article that asks the correct question: “how does one define originality in an age saturated with visual stimuli?”
[T]he digital applications more often associated with modern rebrands, while comparatively easy to update, may counter-intuitively promote less care and attention towards their making. [A]nother possible issue contributing to rebrand redundancy: lack of rollout support beyond rebrand launch. Even a unique identity may lose its spark when its primary consumer touchpoint is what a social media manager produces on Canva after skimming the brand guidelines once. Further still, many clients no longer approach design studios to harness their expertise but, instead, with preconceived notions of the result they expect; design studios may want to create original work, but sometimes clients are willing to pay more for a rebrand that mirrors their own preconceived ideas of what the work should look like.
— Elizabeth Goodspeed, It’s Nice That
The logo’s the same, but the applications vastly different.
Special Bonuses #1 & 2: Let’s look at a couple of places where branding has been in the news recently (pun intended). Also from It’s Nice That, an article on The Irish Independent rebrand. Here, as is often the case recently, it’s the custom illustrations that carry the day:
“Andy Goodman is the illustrator responsible for the lively work found throughout, which toe the line between measured and playful,” It’s Nice That writes. Agreed 100%.
Less successful is England’s The Guardian, whose ongoing campaign to raise money — they don’t have a paywall, relying instead on reader contributions — perhaps could have used more work:
These ads don’t really have me on the fence: The Guardian deserves better.
Special Bonus #3: From the wildly successful, original branding department comes, of course, the brilliantly-named Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity. They’ve been covered here twicebefore, but are back in the news with a new branding Manual. See why that’s capitalized at Dezeen.
The Eames Institute branding oozes positivity, class, and — you guessed it — infinite curiosity. Nice.
Leica, Adobe, and Content Authenticity
One would assume that Leica users are the epitome of content authenticity — there’s nothing like the world’s best lenses (IMHO), attached to some incredible cameras, to provide photographers with all that’s needed to make the bestpossible images.
Leica’s new M11-P, however, packs a world first: hardware encryption that supports a system called the “Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).” In CAI corporate-speak, it’s “the future of photojournalism […] usher[ing] in a powerful new way for photojournalists and creatives to combat misinformation and bring authenticity to their work and consumers, while pioneering widespread adoption of Content Credentials.”
Leica’s new M11-P. A bargain at $9,195. (Lenses extra, of course.)
The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is a collaborative effort initiated by Adobe in partnership with various other organizations, including The New York Times and Leica, among others. Announced in late 2019, its primary goal is to develop a standard for digital content attribution. The rise in manipulated digital content, deep fakes, and misinformation has underlined the need for a more transparent system of content attribution, which the CAI seeks to address.
The interesting thing here is Adobe’s initiative. What’s their goal?
Adobe has been suffering a few hits recently. They’ve just raised prices — on the heels of record profits — and “monopoly” is not in any way a stretch. Photoshop? Entered the lexicon. InDesign? No credible alternatives. Illustrator? Professional standard across multiple industries. In other words, we’re stuck with ’em, and they know it.
Ignore’s Adobe’s unfailingly cute examples: AI + texture = exactly what some “creative director” needed. Seriously uncute.
They’re pushing hard into AI, too, and surprisingly up-front about it changing creative work in ways potentially less creative:
Firefly 2 was unveiled yesterday at the 2023 Adobe Max conference with the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool incorporated into Lightroom’s new lens blur feature that simulates depth of field along with a host of other tools.However, it was the new “Generative Match” tool that will allow users to upload a reference image to guide the AI image generator to a specific style that prompted Adobe to comment that the new tools could mean less work for photographers.
Adobe is appealing to companies who want a “consistent look across assets.” It is offering brands the chance to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of similar images for different uses such as websites, social media, and print advertisements.
— Matt Growcoot, PetaPixel
Or how about this example: An agency or freelancer working on a vector image in Illustrator, and need to add something that they either don’t have the time or talent to do myself. Previously, they could find either a stock item — made by a human (who is paid, by the way) — or hire it out (again, to a human, and again, one who is paid for their work). Now? Just tell the computer what you need.
All of which ties nicely back to the previous section on whether branding is beginning to homogenize. Is AI going to accelerate that process? You betcha.
Value human creativity, folks. Artists, teachers, writers, thinkers: all the people pushing at the edges of the envelope will now have to push even harder, in an era when envelope-pushing is increasingly demonized.
Special Bonus #4:Ars Technica argues that the U.S. Copyright Office’s blanket ban on the copyright-ability of AI-generated images isn’t going to age well, using photography as an argument.
As summer turns to fall, let’s take a look at Type 1 fonts, a library index, revolutionary posters, posters for “get lectured,” and two different photography contests. Let’s get right into it.
Adobe discontinues a standard: The Type 1 font
Back in the early days of desktop publishing — up to about the turn of the century, give or take — everything typographic used PostScript, a programming language by Adobe. (Other stuff, too, like Adobe’s vector program, Illustrator.) PostScript fonts were the so-called “Type 1” variety, made up of a bitmapped “suitcase” that housed the standard display sizes and an outline file used by the output device to print clean, what-you-see-is-what-you-get beauty.
The Apple LaserWriter Plus and some vintage Macs: nostalgia! (Note the book — heh.) Image: YouTube.
Companies from Apple to Microsoft didn’t want Adobe to hold a monopoly on output tech, so later fonts evolved into TrueType and then OpenType, the latter of which is the standard today.
So much so that Adobe has now discontinued Type 1, and they, along with Microsoft, have stopped being supported. Which is understandable and yet a shame: some of us still have hundreds of them.
It’s Nice That has a post that reminds us of a library’s central purpose: to leave knowing more than you did when you entered. “The library, in our shared public imagination, is a special place,” the author argues — reminding us of what libraries were established to do, often distinctly different from the modern reality (especially in the United States).
In the library you begin to be convinced that language matters, that words have the power to clarify, to rouse, to make us feel something, to help us understand the political and cultural features of historical and contemporary moments.
Lola Olufemi, It’s Nice That
All the Libraries in London. Cover design: unknown. Image via It’s Nice That.
All the Libraries in London does something artistic with a simple listing, elevating it, reminding us how compelling the ideal that libraries represent really is:
This is a political and artistic listing, one that invites the reader to rediscover their own memories of their local library as a site of discovery. The book’s authors invite us to reflect on our personal relationship to libraries as well as the necessity of collectively securing their future existence.
Lola Olufemi, It’s Nice That
Alan Kitching, Durning Library. Image via It’s Nice That.
We need more of this everywhere, but especially here in the States. Meanwhile, check out this great item at It’s Nice That.
Special Bonus #1: Another British treasure, via the very British Antiques Roadshow (a British original, natch): this incredible poster by Ralph Steadman.
Ralph Steadman’s Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) poster. Image via Wikipedia.
Special Bonus #2: British book designer Steve Leard has launched a new book design podcast, Cover Meeting, featuring interviews between Leard and fellow book designers on the work, the industry, and more. The Bookseller has more.
Cuban Movie Posters. No, Really.
While we’re on the subject of great posters — and It’s Nice That — let’s talk about how Cuba’s revolution-era political posters transformed their poster design for films. Appropriately enough, a new film, El Cartel Cubano, highlights these amazing (and, likely, never seen before) items.
Besos Robados, ICAIC, by Sotolongo & Carole Goodman. Image via It’s Nice That.
“How come our posters in the US aren’t this beautiful? What did this say about the priorities of the revolution? What did the medium or choices in the scarcity of materials used say about the economic situation in Cuba?” It’s these questions which form the bedrock of El Cartel Cubano, a fascinating and tender tribute to the artists on the island.
Adrienne Hall, co-director, El Cartel Cubano
Sur, by Michael Myiares Holland. Image via It’s Nice That.
I have to admit: this isn’t a subject I would have leapt at, but It’s Nice That sold it. Awesome.
Get Lectured (on Architecture)
Closing out our trifecta of great posters, Archinect‘s Get Lectured series brings us these fantastic items from their Fall 2023 series:
Woodbury University School of Architecture’s Fall 2023 lecture series.The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture’s Fall 2023 lecture series
Going to soapbox a little here: pay-to-enter photo contests aren’t usually something I want to spread the word about. So ArchDaily‘s basically-a-press-release, “URBAN Photo Awards 2023 has announced its list of Finalist Photographers, marking the penultimate stage of the international contest,” was guaranteed a pass.
But there’s a problem: some of the photographs are really compelling.
Winners of the 2023 Black and White Photography Awards
Another contest, yes. They’re everywhere. But … wow.
Street Lights – Ottawa, by Gareth Jones, category winner, architectureAnother mushroom? By Hector Ballester Ballester. Silver mention, architecture.Alamillo bridge, by Manuel Ponce Luque. Finalist.The concert, by Helena García Huertas. Finalist.Reflections on the stairwell, by Max Dobens. Finalist.
And that’s just the buildings/architecture — there are portraits, street photography, landscapes, and more. A reminder to aspire, every day, with every image.
