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.
“Content,” that is, the feeling of satisfaction — contentedness — is a word I’d much rather use than “content,” that which is required of folks who produce material for their website/YouTube channel/social media feed/whatever. It’s a shame the world favors the latter over the former.
Or does it? We’ll get to that — right in the midst of the other content that caught my eye in October, 2024.
Adobe Content Credentials, Continued
Adobe’s positive messaging continues, saying “[it is] dedicated to responsibly developing tools that empower creators to express themselves and tell their stories while helping address their concerns.” It even carried out a study to get some feedback from creatives on generative AI and one of the standout insights was rising concerns over unauthorised sharing of their work or misattribution with 91% of creators seeking a reliable method to attach attribution to their work.
Bring on Adobe Content Authenticity. It’s a “powerful new web application that helps creators protect and get recognition for their work.”
A screenshot of Adobe Content Authenticity website.
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, creators are understandably concerned about safeguarding and gaining attribution for their work and having more control over how it’s used. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Adobe Content Authenticity, a new, free web app that allows creators to easily attach Content Credentials to their digital work — helping you protect your work, show attribution and better connect with your audiences online.
For now, it’s limited to a beta Chrome extension, with a wider beta opening to the general public in spring 2025. (I don’t use Chrome, but have signed up to the waitlist, and will update Foreword readers when I hear back.) Content Credentials are already available in Photoshop and Lightroom — provided you’re using the latest versions, which may require the latest OS.
Three on Book Design
PBS on del Rey
I’d known the publishing house since . . . well, as long as I can remember. What I’d not known is the story behind the publishing house:
Set aside thirteen minutes when you can — absolutely worth it.
Multi-Panel Book Covers
I agree with Jason Kottke: “Bento Books” is the term. A great example:
Book design by Oliver Munday.
Here’s the impetus discussing this latest book design trend, with many more examples.
It’s Nice That: Book Design in Brazil
Book design by Bloco Gráfico.
Any foreigner entering a bookshop in São Paulo is likely to be impressed by the quality of the books on display. For a country with relatively few readers, few high quality printers and binders, and a very limited assortment of paper, the Brazilian publishing market shows remarkable graphic ingenuity[.]
— Elaine Ramos, It’s Nice That
Never mind the country, the great book design caught my attention: from The Great Gatsby, above, to the J.M. Coetzee series, Orwell’s 1984, even Melville — amongst others. A great read.
Special Bonus #1: Life outside the internet . . . and physical books, please:
“The whole internet social complex … and the way people use their computers to conduct life is doomed sooner than later,” said Justin Murphy, the founder of the media and education company Other Life. “The smartest people, the people who are the most cutting-edge, will increasingly live their lives outside of computers.”
Whether or not that’s true — or even a potential — isn’t as relevant as an actual trend: physical book sales are up:
Print, too, is on the rise, from books to magazines to newspapers. Print book sales had a pop with the pandemic in 2020, and have continued to maintain sales of more than 750 million units sold each year. Meanwhile, even though they’re cheaper, sales for ebooks are down slightly, which may be owed to the fact that younger readers, much like older generations, overwhelmingly prefer printed formats.
CreativeBoom is out with their annual post on future type, “50 fonts that will be popular with creatives [next year].” Some of my favorites (links in captions):
Editorial New, by Pangram Pangram.Nave, by Jamie Clark Type. (Bonus points for the great illustration.)Right Grotesk, especially the Casual flavor, by Pangram Pangram.Canvas Inline, designed by Ryan Martinson from Yellow Design Studio. Available through Adobe Fonts.Ssonder, from Type of Feeling. (Easily the most on-trend of my highlighted items.)
An honorable mention goes to Gamuth Sans, from Production Type. See CreativeBoom’s 2025 popular fonts list here. (Note: some are available through Google Fonts, and thus free-to-use. Nice.)
Awesome. Meanwhile, the below caught my attention not due to the striking photograph, but the striking content — which, indeed, caused contentedness. Such a huge change to anyone who might recognize this former hulk, now beautifully refurbished and in a new park setting:
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.)
AIGA’s annual deep dive into great book design is out — later this year, for some reason — and brings deep satisfaction with a huge variety of titles, foreign and domestic.
“One hundred years into this competition, the book seems to be as protean and chimeric as ever. At times confounded and delighted, we asked ourselves [during the judging process], Is this a course packet or a manifesto? A sculpture or a monograph? A glossary or a guidebook? Is this book contemporary or retro? Gauche or chic? We debated books that blended the grotesque with the goofy alongside books that were delicate, subtle, and difficult to emotionally classify. In the end, we felt we found some of the best of this year’s offerings, books that in every case seem to show what design can do to bring the experience of reading to riskier-yet-more-rewarding places.”
— Rob Giampietro, AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers Chair
As pointed out above, it’s the 100th year of the competition, this time with 542 book and cover designs entered from 28 countries. In order to be eligible, submitted designs had to have been published and used in the marketplace in 2023.
Some of my favorites, in alphabetical order:
A Long Long Time Ago. Book design by You Kwok Ho.
Great texture, great graphics — on the theme of “observer.” Indeed.
A Long Long Time Ago (glow-in-the-dark detail). Book design by You Kwok Ho.
But wait: there’s more. This one observes more dramatically than it might seem, uh, at first glance.
A Long Long Time Ago (shelf detail). Book design by You Kwok Ho.
I want to get a copy just so one of my bookshelves will have this moment. Fantastic.
Alex Yudzon: A Room for the Night. Book design by David Chickey and Mat Patalano.
“Yudzon stacks, leans, and balances furniture [in the hotel rooms where he’s a guest] in configurations that transform these generic interiors into hallucinatory worlds where the laws of physics are suspended and dormant emotions released.” (After the installations are documented, crime-scene style, they are dismantled and the rooms returned to their original condition.) Really: who could resist? The compelling design isn’t even the icing on that cake — we’re well past that — it’s a fancy fork, ready to dig in.
Final Words: 578 Men and Women Executed on Texas Death Row. Book design by Michel Vrana.
I’m glad we have the whole cover here; the spine definitely adds to the overall, and the illustrations on the front add so much.
Good Men. Book design by Anna Jordan.
“I cut the letters of the title out of paper and arranged them in a way that is reminiscent of a fire – as if the words “GOOD MEN” are going up in flames. The letters rise up in a smoke-like form. Blue and red is used to emphasize the visual association with fire. The result is a visual metaphor for “GOOD MEN” blazing into entropic chaos,” designer Anna Jordan says of this novel about a firefighter, “an ordinary, sympathetic guy lost in a turbulent existence.”
Good Men (lettering detail). Book design by Anna Jordan.
Nice.
The Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design: 2020–21 Prospectus. Book design by Renata Graw and Lucas Reif.
This prospectus for the University of Houston has a special bonus:
The Hines College 2020–21 Prospectus, with its jacket casually tossed over its shoulder. Book design by Renata Graw and Lucas Reif.
Irregular Heartbeats at the Park West. Book design by Brad Norr.
“Rural gothic,” they say. “Goodness,” I append.
Iwan Baan: Moments in Architecture. Book design by Haller Brun.
Each year, 50 Books seems to latch onto a particular theme. Last year, it was irregular page sizes (often multiple sizes in the same book); this year, it’s irregular, often hand-sewn bindings, seen here with a slip jacket starring the other recurring theme this year: translucency.
Nairy Baghramian: Modèle vivant. Book design by Green Dragon Office with Nairy Baghramian.
Speaking of translucency, this jacket is that … and something more, shall we say, eye-catching. Compelling, but does it make you want to pick it up?
Night Watch. Book design by Kelly Blair.
This title was in my folder of finalists for Foreword‘s Favorite Book Covers of 2023 but ultimately not selected. Glad to see it get some recognition. (Note that The Guest Lecture and The Nursery, two other 50 Covers winners, did make my list.)
The Last Summer. Book design by Gabriela Castro, Gustavo Marchetti and Paulo Chagas.
The translucency is back, this time covering — well, jacketing — a newly-republished 1910 detective novel set in pre-revolutionary Russia.
The Last Summer (jacket detail). Book design by Gabriela Castro, Gustavo Marchetti and Paulo Chagas.Only on Saturday. Book design by Chuck Byrne.
“Printing legend Jack Stauffacher’s experimental make-ready sheets informed both the cover and the jacket for the regular edition,” 50 Books says, in another red-and-white triumph.
Overlap/Dissolve. Book design by Nancy Skolos and Thomas Wedell.
Great three-dimensionality on this cover, with an equally compelling interior:
Overlap/Dissolve interior spread. Book design by Nancy Skolos.
“We set up compositional frameworks to express harmony, conflict, resolution, or both,” the designers write. “For us there is never one perfect design solution, but the process generates one idea that overlaps and dissolves into the next.”
Sketches on Everlasting Plastics. Book design by Renata Graw and Lucas Reif.
Sketches on Everlasting Plastics, which “explores the infinite ways in which plastic permeates our bodies and our world,” accompanied the exhibition Everlasting Plastics at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. (Note the binding.)
Steel Like Paper. Book design by Wolfe Hall.
Debossed type, linen spine, great photographs. Nice.
And, last but certainly not least:
The Adult (full jacket). Book design by Kate Sinclair.
Simple at first glance, yet brings more on multiple levels. Great.
A long and diverse list this time, with a few thoughtful things and a ton of photography. Set aside a few minutes to get lost in links — and enjoy!
Books and Values
This article from the New Yorker is highlighted a little behind schedule — it’s from August (although, in my defense, I get my NYers second-hand) — but worth the read for the phrase “practitioners of bibliotherapy” alone.
Before we get into the meat of it, though, a primer on the growth of available titles in the United States:
1939: 10,640 (est.)
1970: 36,000
2020: 1,000,000 (est., including ebooks)
The New Yorker article lists this last figure as three million, but various internet sources dispute this; either way, it’s a huge number that no store could ever hope to stock. But … on to the important stuff.
The central question:
Amazon offers something like thirty million different print titles. The company has deals with purveyors of used and remaindered books, who are linked to on the site. It owns AbeBooks, the leading site for rare and out-of-print books. And there are many other places online where you can buy books, including barnesandnoble.com. So why does the world need bookstores?
— Louis Menand, New Yorker, August 29, 2024 issue
The New Yorker is kind enough to let you read a few articles a month without crashing into a paywall, so go find out the answer, appropriately enough, in their book review of Evan Friss’ The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore.
Meanwhile, Nick Heer of the always-excellent Pixel Envy cites another New Yorker article on pricing for non-physical books — “The Surprisingly Big Business of eBooks” — and comes up with a few spending figures of note regarding the New York Public Library and Barack Obama’s title, A Promised Land:
$29,450, for 310 perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each;
$22,512, for 639 one- and two-year licenses for the e-book; and,
$5,300, for 226 copies of the hardcover edition.
If you want to know why publishers so aggressively fought the Internet Archive on its model of lending out scanned copies of physical books, this is the reason. Publishers have created a model which fundamentally upsets a library’s ability to function. There is no scarcity in bytes, so publishers have created a way to charge more for something limitless, weightless, with nearly no storage costs.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy
You know what you can’t do with an ebook license? Put it on a shelf for re-reading in ten years’ time. Or resell it. In other words: control what happens to it. “[I]t is hard not to see publishers as the real villains in this mess. They are consolidating power and charging even legitimate libraries unreasonable amounts of money for electronic copies of books which the publishers and their intermediaries ultimately still control,” Heer writes.
Exactly.
Special Bonus #1: Nick Heer gets something else right, too, by noting the sharply divergent goals of social media platforms and his own wishes — indeed, those of what we would idealize as “normal people.” “Guided by Vices” is excellent. Check it out.
Book Design: Kafka
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund.
Few subjects could more appropriately follow the above, so it is with a certain sense of joy that I highlight these fantastic new covers Frank Kafka’s works, brought to us by the incredibly talented Peter Mendelsund1“Get inside the mind of Peter Mendelsund, the pianist who went from Tchaikovsky to Tolstoy and became one of the best book cover designers working today, with editor Zac Petit’s interview in PRINT’s 75th Anniversary Issue,” with the link at the source article. via an interview with Steven Heller at PRINT:
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund.
The whole article, and especially, the whole series of title designs, are exactly why I treasure book design. Read on.
Special Bonus #2: From Rolling Stone, an image reposted without comment (and absolutely not related to Kafka):
I had to lead with an image there — even as concept cars go, wow. “DS’ tribute to the bewitching Citroën SM is the cure for concept car burnout,” The Autopian says, and I completely agree.
The lights bleeding into the skirted rear wheels is, perhaps, perfection:
Photograph by DS Automobiles.Photograph by DS Automobiles.
Okay, it’s not even a Citroen, and the 1970’s are hot right now, but still, it’s an out-of-the-park home run from the staggering — perhaps even stumbling — juggernaut that is Stallantis. Read about it at Motor1 or Wallpaper*, or see one of these two YouTube videos from DS or YouCar.
Special Bonus #3: Another design icon, the Volvo 240 series, celebrates its 50th birthday this year. (I learned how to drive on a 145, the immediate predecessor, and was surrounded by 240s in my teens. I remember them fondly.)
A 1974 Volvo 245 in the perfect shade of blue. Fabulous.
Photography Turns 200
According to an article in French photography publication Réponses Photo, quoted on PetaPixel, photography turned 200 on September 16. While that’s surely a conclusion rather than documented fact, it’s worth remembering and considering the journey photography has taken over the past two hundred years.
Indeed, one need only glance at the “phone” we all carry around to realize how democratized photography has become; those of us who carry bigger, more professional gear have become the exception — and our reasons for doing do more varied. (More on that soon.)
Meanwhile, let’s celebrate with some of the latest and greatest photography from September, 2024.
“The 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition broke its 60-year record with a whopping 59,228 entries from 117 countries and territories,” and is connected with the Natural History Museum in London. (See also the 2024 Bird Photographer of the Year, via the BBC.)
2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year
“The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announced the beautiful winners of its 16th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The images show some of the most incredible cosmic objects and events in the Universe,” PetaPixel writes. (Also noted via This is Colossal, just ’cause.)
“Shadow Peaks of Sinus Iridum.” Photograph by Gábor Balázs.
Not included in that — taken too late to be entered, I understand — is this stunning photograph:
“Saturn’s Ingress.” Photograph by Andrew McCarthy.
2024 Natural Landscape Photography Awards
Last but not least, some fantastic photography in this newish contest, now in its fourth year, set up to “promote the best landscape and nature photography by digital and film photographers who value realism and authenticity in their work.”
Some of my favorites:
“Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada.” Photograph by Andrew Mielzynski.Guatemala Adventure Volcano Panorama. Photograph by Thomas Skinner.Nightscape, 3rd place. Photograph by Takeshi Kameyama.
Special Bonus #4: Phil Edwards brings us a history of one the most iconic photographs ever:
1
“Get inside the mind of Peter Mendelsund, the pianist who went from Tchaikovsky to Tolstoy and became one of the best book cover designers working today, with editor Zac Petit’s interview in PRINT’s 75th Anniversary Issue,” with the link at the source article.
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 time, we welcome the start of summer with a selection of photography and book design items — with, as usual, a couple of bonuses. Oh, and a computer item with its own “bonus.” The Summer of Joy starts now.
SteerMouse
Like many who spend a ton of time mousing, my production Mac sports an aftermarket pointing device: a Logitech MX Master 3S. It’s a great mouse: ergonomic, covered in button options, and with a freewheeling scroll wheel that makes both design and surfing a joy.
Unfortunately, Logitech’s software doesn’t live up to the hardware’s promise. I’m certainly not alone in thinking this way, but like many, I’d resigned myself to living with it . . . with one glaring, continually-irksome exception: over the years, they’d actually removed a regularly-used feature.
There’s something significant missing from the available options. (Logitech.com screen capture.)
That’s right — there is no way to reprogram the two main buttons. They’re a single click (left) and a command/control click (right), whether you want ’em that way or not. Most of the time, I don’t.
It’s fine for surfing, sure, and for other applications as well. But for book design, not so much. The right button has to be a double-click. That way, word, sentence, paragraph and section selections are readily available through a combination of first- and middle-finger clicks. Sure, they could be assigned to the side buttons (4 and 5, above), but if you’ll forgive me mangling an analogy, race drivers don’t try to get their feet on the door handles when clutching.
Speaking of PetaPixel, they’ve posted a story on someone retiring from what seems like a great way to spend a career: “The Prints and Photographs collection in the Library of Congress number more than 15 million images. Maintaining the archive is a big job and a retiring librarian has picked her favorite pictures after working there for 34 years. [Read] Jan Grenci’s final blog post.”
Even the cats know the refrigerators contain plenty of food at the Casa Grande Farms. Pinal County, Arizona. Photo by Russell Lee, 1940.Two pigeons on a ledge with a view of the Chrysler Building in the background. Photo by Angelo Rizzuto. June 1957.
The LOC’s Picture This has a plethora of great posts, and 15 million photographs is a great way to pass a rainy afternoon (or two). Enjoy.
Both of the above have been added to my “potential best covers” folder (without designer attribution, alas); the former for what I’d call “the quintessential 2024 style,” and the latter for the quintessential book cover purpose: fantastic type treatment and compelling imagery combined with the-question-that-has-to-be-answered. (“The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas […] weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick,” Amazon explains.) Good stuff.
There’s also this, which isn’t quite up to the above but still interesting:
Special Bonus #3:Chip Kidd has been promoted: “VP and art director at Knopf and graphic editor at Pantheon.” Few are more deserving, as the long list of accomplishments on his Wiki page attests.
A couple of faves from “Good is Dead,” a selection of book covers he’s designed:
Cover design by Chip Kidd.Cover design by Chip Kidd.
And, of course, Naked, in this post’s cover image. Kudos.
Special Bonus #4: One the subject of great designers, this film on Charles and Ray Eames was a winner. (It’s from 2011, but was new to me — and hopefully you, too.) Watch when you can:
YouTube won’t allow me to embed this, unfortunately — click the link above to view.
The interesting thing here is a discussion of risk — ’cause, of course, in today’s culture, a book cover alone can result in a title getting cancelled banned — revolving around things, um, yellow:
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!
In this installment, Honda’s new(ish) logo, the Travel Photographer of the Year 2023 winners, and the Macintosh turns 40. Plus, one more thing. But first:
My Favorite Book Covers of 2023
In case you missed it, the annual favorite book covers post is up — all 78 items (plus some extras). It’s best viewed large, so click and enjoy.
Honda’s New Logo: Not a Zero
Not a zero — an “H.” Clever(ish).
As car manufacturers go, Honda’s tiny. As a result, they’re way behind on the electric push: they’ve got some hybrid stuff, a hydrogen fuel-cell item only available in California, and a new battery vehicle built by GM. Not where you want to be in 2024.
So they’re trying to make a splash. And to their credit, they’re doing it in an attention-getting style. Introducing the Honda Zero series, starting with the Saloon:
Futuristic indeed.There’s no mistaking this for an Accord — but then, that’s the idea.
And the Honda Zero Space Hub:
Not minivan, Space Hub. (The no-rear-window thing is becoming a trend, alas.)
Other Zero Series cars will follow, and of course, being concepts, details are scarce. Both concepts, however, highlight a new logo for Honda’s EV effort:
Yeah, not earth-shattering. (And distinct from the Zero-series logo, above, which does not seem to appear on the cars — only marketing materials.) Here’s a history, for reference:
It’s worth noting that the non-electric cars will retain the current logo they’ve used since 2001. Read more at Motor1 or The Drive. (The latter has more on Honda’s Zero cars, too.)
2023 Travel Photographer of the Year (Contest)
Disclaimer up front: it’s another pay-to-enter photography contest, which seem to have proliferated. The problem here is the outstanding quality of output — perhaps I should just get over it and move on.
The rules of this one require both prints for final judging, no composite images, no AI, and a RAW file to check results against. All of which mean, to me at least, a higher level of achievement in order to enter. Okay.
Shout out to the BBC for bringing this year’s winners to my — our — attention.
Travel Photograph of the Year 2023 overall winner: AndreJa Ravnak, Slovenia
Slovenia is a beautiful country, and AndreJa Ravnak’s winning portfolio of photographs absolutely reflects both that and its hard-working agricultural nature. But there’s more:
Nature, Wildlife, and Conservation Portfolio Winner: Martin Broen, USA
A “ray of sunshine” joke here . . . .
Leisure and Adventure Winner: Andrea Peruzzi, Italy
Certainly a lesson in how not to enjoy the wonderful city of Petra, in the Jordanian desert — but an attention-getting photograph.
Landscape and Environment Portfolio Winner: Armand Sarlangue, France
Seriously amazing stuff: moody, dramatic, and yes, fluvial morphology. Nice.
1984 seems like so very long ago — and let’s face it: 40 years is a long time. Indeed, these forty years of technological progress has been unrivaled in human history. But the Mac is not only still with us but better than ever.
We believe that [this] technology represents the future direction of all personal computers,” said Steven P. Jobs, Chairman of the Board of Apple. “Macintosh makes this technology available for the first time to a broad audience–at a price and size unavailable from any other manufacturer. By virtue of the large amount of software written for them, the Apple II and the IBM PC became the personal-computer industry’s first two standards. We expect Macintosh to become the third industry standard.
— Apple Computer, January 24, 1984
My first Mac was the one pictured above: a 1989 Mac Plus, with an external 20MB (!) Jasmine hard drive. (I even still have the case, although mine was a black Targus item.) It didn’t last long, though, because I’d been bitten by the graphic design craze and soon traded it for a Mac called a Quadra, with its separate 256-color monitor.
A preview of the future: 2000’s PowerMac G4 Cube.
Such was the pace of technology those days: that one was replaced with another, then another. (Including one of the Macs pictured at the top of the post. Bonus points if you know which it is.) I did not have the G4 Cube, pictured above, because by then I was rocking a tower and scoffed at Apple’s first attempt at desktop miniaturization — not to mention the inferior quality of the first generations of flat screens.
All-in-ones were — and remain — the domain of Apple’s iMac.
But less than ten years later, the computer had become part of the flat screen, and these days, I’m still using a 27″ iMac. Sure, its days are numbered, but I love its ability to get huge book and photography projects out the door with a minimum of fuss — all in a simple, elegant package with very much more than a passing resemblance to the original Macintosh.
Here’s to another 40 years, Apple. Congrats.
Special Bonus: There are few folks more “Mac” than John Siracusa, who has penned a thoughtful piece on AI: “I Made This.” (Via Pixel Envy.)
One More Thing: Word of the Year, 2023
From none other than Cory Doctorow: “enshittification.”
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
— Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic, 21 January 2023
He’s specifically referring to TikTok, and cites Amazon and then Facebook as further examples, but oh, so many, many other items apply. I’ve not read something that represents where we sit — in America, sure, but beyond — at the start of 2024.
And this year promises to be a doozy.
“‘Monetize’ is a terrible word that tacitly admits that there is no such thing as an ‘Attention Economy,'” he writes. And yet, “monetize” is where business, education, and perhaps society is at. Ug.
The whole thing is fantastic and very much worth a read. But, “[n]ow that [they] have been infected by enshittifcation, the only thing left is to kill [them] with fire” might be taking things a bit far. Let’s hope — and work — for a better solution. For all of us.
2023 seemed to go by with greater speed than normal, meaning the process of accumulating my favorite book covers occurred more hastily than I would have sometimes preferred — after all, perusing the best of the new releases is tremendously enjoyable. It’s just that, due to this year’s hefty undertakings, I was not able to make as much time as I’d have liked.
So I was surprised when, in early January, the tally of candidates in the favorites folder was over two hundred items. A bounty of goodness.
Narrowing those down to the list below was exceptionally difficult. I tried to get to last year’s limit of 70 titles, but failed; I managed to narrow it to 80, then 78, but just couldn’t winnow any further.
Pull up a chair. This one’s gonna take a minute.
Please remember that 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, and 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 Favorite Book Covers of 2023 (three-way tie)
Design by Keith Hayes with art by Sasha Vinogradova.
“Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan,” the Amazon description starts, and it’s a sequel of magic, secret societies, and whatever else.
But never mind all that. This cover grabbed my attention in a way few do, with its combination of art, shadow, and type, all carved to perfection.
Design by Oliver Munday.
I dare say that only Oliver Munday could have done this expression of so much with so little. Enormously appropriate, then, for a memoir only 64 pages long.
Design by Adriana Tonello.
From The Illiterate‘s Hungarian refugee in Switzerland we move to a Norwegian immigrant seeking freedom in America. Alas, she turns out to be our first (known) serial killer — giving this hand a quiet, eerie yet somehow classic quality that quietly compels like few others. Outstanding.
Other 2023 Favorites, in alphabetical order:
Design by Holly Ovenden.
Impressive sense of movement from these figures, whose interplay with the title type combines with quotes-on-a-path (something of a trend this year) and great color choices to provide something memorable.
Design by Keith Hayes.
Such a simple concept. Such superlative results. No other concerns.
Design by Holly Ovenden.
There is another version of this on one of the “best of” lists, but I much prefer this one, with the circling birds and hand-done lettering. A two-color triumph.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Oooollllliiiiivvvvvveerr!
Design for the US version by Anna Weyant.
One of those examples where the art just shouts off the shelf, although the type treatment works exceptionally well, too. Better still, it’s one of the rare US versions that bests its UK treatment:
Design for the UK version by Kishan Rajani.
Not at all bad — in several “best of” lists, in fact. Just not mine.
Design by Sarah Wood.
I’m not sure whether the items on the page are models, made (or found) objects, or some extremely well-done Photoshop work, but ultimately it’s combination of the simple graphics and brilliant typographic treatment that earned this title its spot. Fantastic.
Design by Caroline Johnson.
The ’70s are hot right now, but this is 2023, aged to perfection. Very nearly made the “best of,” not just the “best of the rest.” Horrifically good.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Type, color, pattern, brilliance. Must be a Munday.
Design by Dylan C. Lathrop.
Eyes are a frequent guest on book covers. Rarely so many, though, and rarely in two-color. Winner of more than a Pulitzer.
Design by Emily Mahon, lettering by Martina Flor.
Edie O’Dare does tell, it turns out. “Cinematic” might be a cliché, but….
Design by Pete Garceau.
I’m a sucker for a great woodcut-style illustration. Great type treatment propels it into a standout book cover.
Design by Ingsu Liu.
There’s something decidedly non-emergency about this, yet once you understand, it works perfectly: simple, yet so very not.
Design by Eric C. Wilder.
This book of Native poetry ranges from Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) to reverence to the natural world to “the machinations of colonialism,” a cover assignment that could border on impossible. Yet, here . . . absolutely brilliant. Expressive and so much more, including possibly my favorite type treatment of all on this list.
Design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Danger: UXB. (The pink is an inspired choice, too.)
Design by Tom Etherington.
Fear knows no bounds, only stylish hats. (On the LitHub list, someone said it has “serious 2024 vibes,” which I’m concerned may turn out to have some truth to it.)
Screen print by Kate Gibb, lettering by Jodi Hunt, and photograph by Adaeze Okaro.
Rarely have photo and type worked so well together. Fantastically well done, with plenty of room for the soon-to-be-added kudos, quotes, and awards.
Design by Beste Miray Doğan.
Who splits a four-letter word onto two lines? Someone after great results, as it turns out — with bonus points for the pattern and color in the “splash.” Nice.
I’m at a bit of a loss to describe why I like this so much, except that every time I look at it, I like it even more.
Design by Kate Sinclair.
Perfect execution of a simple concept, from colors to art to type.
Design by Devin Grosz.
Wins the “best-placed title” award, among so many others.
Design by Greg Heinimann.
A reminder that something done often can still be done with originality — and incredibly well.
Design by Emily Mahon.
The collage-as-book-cover is another (perhaps) overused item, but when in the hands of Emily Mahon, this one looks you in the eye and won’t let go.
Design by No Ideas.
The jacket that covers The King of New York with . . . Lou Reed. “Well played” seems like an undersell.
Design by Janet Hansen.
From the textured paper to the type choices, this cover’s great. But with that photo choice, it’s vaulted into “best” category.
Design by Alex Merto.
The combination of geometric shapes and unexpected typography mean this little guy will never get painted into a corner.
Design by David Drummond.
“Type here,” someone said.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Type-as-a-border is a trend — one I’m surprised to see on a Munday — that’s actually a great counter to the purposely irreverent illustration. I dig it.
Bird-as-cat’s-eye. On a Margaret Atwood. ’Nuff said.
Design by Luke Bird.
Brilliantly, uh, substantive: a lesson in how-to.
Design by Jack Smyth.
The rooftops alone make this, but avoiding the stereotypical Irish colors is a huge bonus, too. (This title went on to win the 2023 Booker Prize, by the way.)
Design by Janet Hansen.
A triumph of the less-is-more approach, starring a headless human and superlative typography. Fantastic.
Design by Kimberly Glyder.
It’s rare to see children’s literature graced with such a great cover — this one literally flies off the shelf to grab your attention. A rare bird, indeed.
Design by Alban Fischer.
St. John called: this cover is fabulous, from evocative body parts to hand-lettering to die for. Awesome.
Design by Will Staehle.
A novel on the Korean Provisional Government — and so very much more. The split treatment, with both halves running at 11, get fantastic typography and the Korean characters (in gold, obvious in person) are a great touch.
Another where the US version shines, especially as cassettes are coming back into fashion. (Special points for the subtitle-as-label.) A B-side no longer.
Design by Emmily O’Connor.
Brilliant comment redacted.
Design by Will Staehle.
Mallory Viridian is an amateur detective on an extraterrestrial (and sentient!) space station — perfectly sold with this line-art-only cover. Fantastic.
Design by Anna Green.
Dead birds wouldn’t ordinarily be my go-to for cover excellence. But this one, with its painterly quality and hand lettering, perfectly hints at the haunting, slightly bizarre adventure within. Perhaps I should study more; as many will testify, it’s certainly not an obedience thing. (Read the Booker Prize listing.)
Design by Caroline Suzuki.
One of those instances where the graphic just sells the cover. Brilliant.
Design by Jaya Miceli.
The continuing stigmatization of the LGBTQ+ population in the United States is so perfectly summarized here. (I’m curious how this cover was done, too: white paint, then watercolored? Gouache? Either way, the colors serve the overall so very well.)
Design by John Gall.
This collage jumps through my psyche: sophisticated, off-kilter, and yet, somehow, completely right.
Design by Jamie Keenan.
I had to look up Charles Baudelaire, I have to admit — but didn’t need to know in order to get the disjointed, colorful appeal of this cover.
Design by Na Kim.
Leaving a trail, all right. (Also: the text colors.) This version is mercifully short of Booker notifications, too — sometimes, I wish all the callouts and clubs would just go away.
Design (and illustration) by Sarah Schulte.
Type on a path can be fraught, as can simple illustrations on off-white. Except when simple ideas are translated into compelling book design. Completely different from the above, yes, but just as accomplished.
Design by Gray318.
Crown. Asterisk. Print!
Design by Sarah Shulte.
As the risk of repeating myself: “Type on a path can be fraught, as can simple illustrations on off-white. Except when simple ideas are translated into compelling book design. Completely different from the above, yes, but just as accomplished.”
Design by Jamie Keenan.
This trick can only be pulled once, and book designers everywhere are envious downright jealous. Here’s the cover — uh, flap:
“Continued on rear flap,” it doesn’t say.
Design by Lauren Peters-Callaer.
Brilliance in titling aside, check the glint in the rabbit’s eye. Wonderful.
Design by Grace Han.
Interlocking forks, LOL. (Also, color choices.)
Design by Alex Merto.
This has gotten a bunch of well-deserved attention: from the embossed type to the gradually-increasing repetition of the artwork, Alex Merto scores and scores then repeats. Great stuff.
Design for the US version by Alicia Tatone.
Gluttonously hits a bunch of high notes, and keeps coming back for more — until:
Design for the UK version by Jo Walker.
Yeah. Score one for the UK.
Design by Kelly Winton.
Is it possible for something Escher-esque to be soothing? Yes, it turns out.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Perfectly abstract, brilliantly pulling together the remarkably disparate stories within.
Design by Kapo Ng.
“Kingdom of surfaces,” so very indeed.
Design by Beth Steidle.
“Spare, beautiful, and richly layered, the [book’s cover] is dazzling.” —Foreword
Design by Allison Saltzman.
Another of those too-simply concepts that checks out on every level. Awesome.
Design by Alex Merto.
Rarely does so much text take up so little space yet work so well — this 75th anniversary reprint stacks up. (Imagine inspiring a school-aged Stephen King, by the way. That’s “The Lottery.”)
Design by Linda Huang.
“A novel” has never played so well.
Design by Jaya Miceli.
Steppen-out: this new translation gets new meaning. (In the text, too, I understand.)
Design by John Gall.
Multi-layered shadowboxing. Nice.
Design by Steve Attardo.
A study in simple perfection. For a book examining heightening fascism, toning down the cover speaks volumes. Great choices on every level.
Design by Greg Mollica.
To collage in a way that the resulting product is of higher value than the original items: upcycling, indeed. (“The thread tying the cover together is a masterstroke,” he said.)
Design by Lauren Peters-Callaer.
“The humor of a great conversation,” one of the reviews said, and better words could not be found for the cover. Masterful.
Design by Andrew Davis.
The woodcut-style illustration is back, in two-color and aged to perfection. (The paperback kept the illustration but changed out and dulled the colors, to a much less satisfying effect. Curses.)
Design by Tom Etherington.
“Permeable boundaries,” illustrated brilliantly, with perfect texture and typography.
Design by Tyler Comrie.
“Sings,” someone said. “Seconded,” I said.
Design by Jonathan Pelham.
Stories told in a triumph of less is more. (The US version is good — another that’s one some others’ “best of” lists — but here’s another one where I think the UK slam dunks.)
Design by Laywan Kwan.
This is one of those covers that keeps giving, a three-color triumph of telling the book’s story. (Also: typographically counter-riffic.)
Design by Na Kim.
The Book of Goose was one of my top three covers last year, but high expectations are nothing when Na Kim is covering it. Storied, indeed.
UK version design by Andrew Davis.
I was going to go on for a minute, again, about how the UK gets all the good covers — and this one earned a spot in this post — but…:
US version design by Owen Gent.
…the more I look at this US version, the more I like it. The hint of cat, the red shading, the paper’s tone and texture, and the type treatment stand in direct contrast with the fabulously literal interpretation of the UK version. Given both, I literally couldn’t choose.
Design by Matt Dorfman.
“There’s a painting at the door,” in the most amazing state. (Political pun intended.)
William Morrow didn’t return a request for the cover design’s name, unfortunately.
There are so many ways to get this design wrong — but wow: someone took a cliché and literally flew in the face of it, to brilliant, memorable effect. I wish I could give appropriate credit.
• • •
Dan Wagstaff over at The Casual Optimist comments that,
[I]t’s like we’re stuck in a holding pattern, circling the same design ideas. Trends have stuck around. A lot of covers feel safe. Some of this was the books themselves. I’m not sure exactly how many celebrity memoirs is too many, but I’m pretty sure we reached that point and sailed right past it in 2023. No doubt some of it is sales and marketing departments sanding down all the edges and demanding the tried and true (see Zachary Petit’s alternative best of 2023 piece on killed covers for Fast Company). But I would not be surprised if it designers were just getting caught up in the churn — too many books, too many covers, and too much other stuff to worry about.
— Dan Wagstaff, The Casual Optimist
I think he’s right. Despite growing the number of selected covers this year over last, I feel that despite the outstanding items above, the majority of the book covers and jackets — almost certainly by publishers’ explicit direction — are playing it safe. After all, here in the Roaring Twenties, rocking the boat brings nothing short of vilification.
Thankfully, the designers on this list have battled the committees bent on mediocrity and overcome with great talent, great design, and great perseverance. Power to them, and I wish them — indeed, all of us — continued success in 2024.
Please note: I somehow missed the 2023 University Press Design Show — usually linked here — so please stay tuned for that post soon (and then again in July for the ’24 Show). Apologies.
