Photography and design for print production
Book design in all its forms, from jackets and hardcover books to trade paperbacks, mass-market paperbacks (although rarely), and academic journals.
Penguin has introduced — and reissued — a number of small titles regarding climate change, and done so with some great design:
They’re even available as a boxed set:
More at Penguin (UK). Via It’s Nice That, which has a nice writeup — check it out.
Let’s get the shock news out of the way first:
It’s been thirty-two years, four months, and fourteen days since I hung out a shingle to announce that The Hoefler Type Foundry was open for business. What started as a sole proprietorship grew into the Hoefler&Co of today, a diversified design and technology practice with an international reach, still dedicated to the invention of original, thoughtful, and hard-working typefaces.
Meanwhile, “nothing will change,” Jonathan Hoefler (previously) says, except that he’ll be stepping down. That’s kind of a big change, IMHO — but after using typography to “help elect a president,” where do you go from there? Read more here.
In happier news, the much-delayed new Bond movie, No Time to Die, is finally in theaters next week.
Ever wonder who was responsible for the above (slightly brilliant) graphic? Read Stephen Heller’s The Daily Heller: The Most Prolific Designer You’ve Never Known. Informative and great. Bang!
Keith Fleck has gotten a good deal of press for his Corporate States of America, but in case you haven’t seen it, it’s absolutely worth a look. Maine’s L.L. Bean, Florida’s Publix, and, of course, Georgia’s Coca-Cola are all winners. 51 bonus points!
Lastly for this month, some book design:
Daily Nous asks their readers to nominate the best philosophy book covers — Judging Philosophy Books By Their Covers — and there are some winners, some absolute losers, and a few funny moments, too:
“This always reminded me of a rejected Black Sabbath album cover or something,” says the poster. Nice. (And only 185 cents!)
It’s been a busy summer here in Middle Georgia; after regular updates to Foreword for several months, things have slowed down a little. Thus, some good items have piled up.
Starting with a book design I really like:
NPR describes it as, “A Monk And A Robot Meet In A Forest … And Talk Philosophy.” Interesting description, interesting design. I’d pick it up off a shelf.
Speaking of bookshelves, a notable quote from Andy Hunter, of Bookshop.org:
Take a look at this graph. The blue is Amazon’s share of book sales in the past six years. The orange is where we are headed if their average growth rate (8%) continues. If nothing slows their momentum, Amazon will control nearly 80% of the consumer book market by the end of 2025. Every single book lover should worry. After we’re done worrying, we must change the way we buy books.
The graph:
I’m not a fan of Medium — Andy, please choose a better place to post your very valid point — but it’s worth reading. Then change your book-buying habits if possible!
Also from the book category, check out Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s latest book of built work 2009-2019. Tons of great work here, but one example might tower over the others:
Great photography, too. designboom has more, in their famous all-lower-case style.
While we’re talking about great photographs of New York City, check this out — complete with 1WTC in the background:
A winner from the recent 2021 iPhone Photography Awards, which I enjoyed … until I found out it’s just another contest, complete with entry fee. (Hey, at least they don’t reassign copyright.)
While we’re at the intersection of photography and architecture, these shots of modern churches across Europe are stunningly beautiful:
From the nearby intersection of photography and illustration:
The whole series is great, great stuff, and has very deservingly been used by the likes of Apple, The New Yorker, and more. Read on.
Last and almost certainly least, I’ve updated the Musella gallery:
Check that gallery out, look at the Middle Georgia collection, or peruse all my Georgia photographs on the road to purchasing a print or getting in touch to let me know you’d like to use something in a book or design project. Thank you.
On to September!
From AUPresses:
“Since 1965, the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has fulfilled its mission to “honor and instruct”: honoring the design and production teams whose work furthers a long tradition of excellence in book design […]. The Book, Jacket, and Journal Show recognizes meritorious achievement in design, production, and manufacture of books, jackets, covers, and journals by members of the university press community. It also provides an evaluation of their work and serves as a focus of discussion and a source of ideas for intelligent, creative, and resourceful bookmaking.”
Credit where credit is due: Spine, in their excellent way, has already covered this. Head on over there, knowing that I largely agree with their post in its entirety. However, there are a number of covers I like that they didn’t talk about — and they didn’t talk about interior design at all.
So, without further ado, let’s start with the covers and jackets. Interiors follow, then items that are in both categories.
Columbia University Press with a series (in order, top to bottom): Woe from Wit, The Little Devil and Other Stories, and Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Each is great on their own, but put ’em together and the series stands tall. Excellent design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich.
Louisiana State University brings us Performing Jane, with design by Barbara Neely Bourgoyne. Simplicity wins.
On the subject of simplicity, Inside the Critic’s Circle brings a seemingly-casual-yet-carefully-designed newspaper clipping onto a yellow background. Together, they’re attention-getting and just right. Nice. Design by Chris Ferrante for Princeton University Press.
Vénus Noire is about as far from a bust as can be — except not really:
Another example of simpler-is-better, yet something so much more. Design by Kaelin Chappell Broaddus.
Wayne State University Press brings us Stars and Silhouettes, in all its hand-drawn glory. Love the design by Brad Norr.
My favorite of the stand-alone cover designs, however, contains a wrinkle or two:
Lovely. The illustration and paper photograph combine into something really special. Design by Derek Thornton — whose website, by the way, has a bunch of other great stuff. Nice!
On to some interior design, with Pinceton’s Dante:
Puts “boring academic title [page]” to rest. Design by Chris Ferrante.
Next, a title on “knowing what not to know in contemporary China”, called Negative Spaces:
Design by Courtney Leigh Richardson for Duke University Press.
Next, stories from “the people of the land”:
Our Whole Gwich’in Way of Life Has Changed / Gwich’in K’yuu Gwiidandài’ Tthak Ejuk Gòonlih, with design by Alan Brownoff for the University of Alberta Press.
Next, a couple where both the cover and interior excel, starting with Horace Kephart from the University of Tennessee Press:
UTenn Press has a cool logo, too.
Lovely detailing in this design by Mindy Basinger Hill. Only one question here: Why doesn’t the script on the cover match that used inside? Both are nice — I prefer the one used on the cover — but either way, pick one!
Last but certainly not least, perhaps the best designed of all the projects in the AUPresses 2021 Show, Duke’s Sentient Flesh:
Fantastic. And check the interior:
Kudos to designer Matthew Tauch for a “best in show,” at least as far as I’m concerned!
It’s time once again for AIGA’s 50 Books, 50 Covers:
This time-honored competition aims to identify the 50 best-designed books and book covers. With 696 entries from 36 countries, the juror-selections from this year’s 50 Books | 50 Covers of 2020 competition exemplify the best current work from a year marked by unparalleled change.
Picking favorites from this list is always fun, and often includes books and/or covers that I haven’t seen before — especially 2020, when seeing things in person was often … difficult. So without further ado (in no particular order):
The unique destinations of Accidentally Wes Anderson. This 50 Books item catches the eye with the cover and the photographs carry you inside and to places heretofore unknown. Great stuff. Design by Mia Johnson.
Manifesto is more than meets the eye, even though the cover does an excellent job leading you in. It’s easier to quote the existing description than write one, so: “The opening pages contain an original text employing the sort of bombastic rhetoric traditionally associated with the manifesto genre. The typeset text is then cut up and reassembled, repeating throughout the book, each iteration becoming source material for subsequent cut-ups. The project takes a critical approach to book arts to explore authorship, readership, and the materiality of language.” Yeah:
It’s tiny, too: 4.125 by 6. The design, by Victor Mingovits, is anything but. Well done!
Not Dead of Famous Enough, Yet compiles 10 years of work from a design firm into one place, with this surprisingly modest cover. DR. ME, as the duo of Ryan Doyle & Mark Edwards became known, not only do quality work, they know how to stitch together a quality book — to a point where they picked up a prestigious award. See more.
Talking Animals violates one of my usual cover-design rules: it’s not immediately apparent which title word is first. Nonetheless, it’s eye-catching enough to warrant an exception — and a 50 Covers award. Design by Na Kim.
Na Kim makes another appearance with Self Portrait with Russian Piano. Kudos for something that’s equally eye-catching yet about as completely different as humanely possible — talent, defined.
“Eye-catching and mysterious,” says the entry for Sestry. “Oppressive and mysterious,” says the description. Both work — it’s certainly mysterious enough to catch your attention, grab it off the shelf, and investigate further. Design by Jan Šabach.
Once Upon a Time, I Lived on Mars: Space Exploration, and Life on Earth is a loooooong title/subtitle combination. It’s something that, as a cover designer, you dread — but Johnathan Bush knocked it out of the park with this hand-lettered illustrated piece that’s 180 degrees from where you’d expect.
The Turn of the Screw is probably my favorite of the whole collection:
Almost simplistic … until you really look at it; the kind that makes you think, “I wish I’d done that.” Fantastic work by Kaitlin Kall.
Lastly, two covers previously mentioned here:
Verge, where unexpected choices lead to great new places here, especially with the yellow band overlaying the wolf. So, so good. Design by Rachel Willey. And:
Zo, which uses illustrations to huge effect — but this time with a huge typography effect to go along with it, and lo, it works. Great design choices by Janet Hansen.
Again, see the whole list at AIGA: 50 Books, 50 Covers. Props to Hyperallergic for the heads up.
On David Hockney’s Piccadilly Circus logo:
It’s been a minute since I’ve been in London — 2011, to be exact — and I’d love to go back. The food, the parks, the museums, the Thames, the short train rides to more interesting places (Hello, Cambridge?), and even the Tube. (We’ll leave the anti-Americanism aside for right now — we’re post-Trump and post-Covid, so traveling is at least an option!) Yet even the cultural masterpiece that is London is showing some cracks; from the New Statesman:
Hockney’s Piccadilly Circus has also drawn criticism for its simplistic approach. Over on the cesspit of arts criticism that is Twitter, anonymous accounts that decry all art made post-1920 as an abomination have ridiculed Hockney’s scrawl as indicative of the death of art. Other critics have rightly argued that the work feels like a red flag to a bull: fuelling culture-war debates about the legitimacy of public art, rather than encouraging the public to get onside.
I like it more every time I see it. Read more at It’s Nice That.
On the NYC subway map:
Speaking of It’s Nice That, an interesting new book from Gary Hustwit . . . on the debate over the New York City subway map. On the one side, the iconic Massimo Vignelli version, introduced in 1972, representing the less-is-more approach. On the other, the replacement version from John Tauranac, introduced in 1979, representing the more-accurate-is-more approach. (An updated version of the latter is still in use today.)
But back in 1978, the two got up on stage at Cooper Union’s Great Hall — home to debates of, among others, Abraham Lincoln — and pitched their case:
Newly discovered photographs and audio lead to this new, smartly-designed, book. Read more at It’s Nice That; Dezeen has an interview with the author. Pre-order the book and get a limited-edition letterpress print at Oh You Pretty Things.
On books and book design:
Nice new cookbook chock full o’ seventies-era design, “Violaine et Jérémy returns with a cookbook for Molly Baz, featuring three of the studio’s much-loved typefaces,” at — wait for it — It’s Nice That:
Sandwich Nicoice. Mmmmmmm.
Lastly, just because, Kottke collects pencil photography to examine the typography. Nice.
Four things for you in this edition of Briefed, starting with a redesign for Grist:
“Climate. Justice. Solutions,” now looking good. Still worth reading (and bookmarking). Love that shade of green, too. Read about the hows and whys at Upstatement. Kudos for the excellent work.
Next, from the regularly-brilliant Jason Kottke — which he got from Print magazine — winners of the 2021 Type Directors Club Design Awards, including this fave:
Read more about the SF Symphony redesign at the (also) regularly-brilliant Brand New (very worthy subscription required).
And two books, starting with a nice interview with NPR:
Really like the design, more so than the others in the series.
Lastly, a reminder that this blog originates in Middle Georgia, home of the Cherry Blossom Festival — which might explain why this title and its quite awesome cover design caught my eye:
Enjoy!
Three items for your update this month, starting with one of the best logos I’ve seen in a long while: Realm. Check this out:
Just … wow. Colors aplenty in the supporting materials, but the logo itself in beautiful black and white — and that GIF. (Update: the GIF isn’t working here, which lessens its appeal. CRAP. See it at either link below, but either way, see it. So worth it!) Congrats to Mother Design on this triumph.
Read the story at It’s Nice That or visit the source at Realm.fm.
Update, May 4: Brand New says, “A Nightmare on Realm Street.” Frankly, I’m surprised:
The animations for both the full wordmark and monogram are a little clunky. Maybe it’s on purpose, maybe not, but something about them feels half-cooked. Some killer animations would have really taken this to the next level.
Hmph. Read the rest.
Next. a Guardian item on book covers — and how being “Instagrammable” is now, thanks to Covid and bookstores being less accessible, what’s expected:
I’ve famously chosen to boycott social media, so it’s probably not a surprise that I’m not 100% in agreement with the sentiment that Instagram is necessary for successful cover design. Nonetheless, supporting quality design — and acknowledging that more than a few do, in fact, judge a book by its cover — is a good thing. Read the rest.
Last but not least, from Spine’s fantastic University Press Cover Round-Up, this:
Check the shadow of the bottle cap. Now, go to Spine and check the texture in the background. Revel. Repeat.
A History of Arab Graphic Design is easily the best introduction to the history of modern Arab visual culture on the market today. It lacks the jargon of exhibition catalogues, leans heavily on visual sources, and dismisses some previously held assumptions about Arab art[.]
Something for those of us in the West who sometimes suffer from Western-centricity. More at the Brooklyn Rail.
Great list — I agree with almost all of them, but wanted to call a few out especially:
Infinite Country, mentioned here;
O, Steven Carroll, cover by John Gray;
Speak, Okinawa, Elizabeth Miki Brina, cover by Janet Hansen; and
Migratory Birds, Mariana Oliver, cover by Anna Morrison.
In “XXXX Swatchbook,” Evelin Kasikov explores all of the variables of CMYK printing without a single drop of ink. She catalogs primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, two-dozen combinations showing how rotation affects the final pigment, and a full spectrum of rich gradients. In total, the printing-focused book is comprised of four base tones, 16 elements, and 400 swatches of color entirely hand-embroidered in 219,647 stitches.
Six years. Six years.
More @ Colossal.
Five book design items that caught my attention recently.
First, from ArtNet News. Prior to basically everything, Andy Warhol did this:
“The whimsical book was a collaboration with interior decorator Suzie Frankfurt, who wrote the ridiculous recipes, and the artist’s mother, Julia Warhola, who provided the calligraphy, replete with charming misspellings. [It] was the last of a number of books Warhol designed in the 1950s, before he shot to fame in 1962 with Pop art compositions featuring Campbell’s soup and Coca-Cola. Book design offered him a valuable creative outlet during the years he worked as a commercial illustrator.” See more.
The rest are from the New Yorker‘s “Briefly Noted” reviews — which, I’ll admit, inspired the title of this post. They pick four titles weekly, and while I’m sure many are great, actually great book design is rare. So to have four in two weeks … well, just had to say, “noted.” (The New Yorker is, of course, subscription — but there is a free account with limited options if you’d like to read their review.)
The first three are from the March 8th, 2021, issue, starting with In Memory of Memory:
The simplicity of the concentric rectangles — and “destination” dot — is mesmerizing.
Next, Cathedral:
Not a simple illustration in this case, and still an attention-getter in the background. Nice.
Next, my favorite of this set, The Weak Spot:
A very brief (176 page!) debut novel with hits-above-its-weight cover design. (Content, too, presumably…;)
Lastly, from the March 15th issue, Infinite Country:
Color and composition unite into something … infinitely good.
Enjoy.
Creativeboom points out that Heath Kane, not a citizen but in fact a subject of the Crown, has designed new covers for George Orwell’s classics Animal Farm, 1984, and more.
Two interesting things about this: they call it the “final printed edition,” without further explanation. I somehow doubt there won’t be more editions in print — high schoolers everywhere would mourn, professors cry, and surveillance societies everywhere smile. Okay, overdramatic, but still.
And, I really preferred this one:
“A technicoloured cover can draw me to it like the proverbial moth to a flame. But as covers get more vivid, the buyers’ senses can become overwhelmed. They can’t see the books for the rainbow.”
Spine’s Vyki Hendy argues that monochrome — by which she means black-and-white-or-shades-thereof — is powerful. I’d argue that single-color items should belong in this category, too, but her piece stands on its own. Take a look.
“It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed since I published one of these annual Favorite Fonts lists. A lot has happened in the interim: I now have less hair, more grey hairs, sometimes complain about my back, and now live in another country! Anyway, that’s quite enough about me. Here are, then, in no particular order, my favorite typefaces of 2020…”
Some great choices here, especially:
A layer font — something described as “fashionable for a while” — this one deserves to be on a book cover.
Special mention: ILT’s web design. This blog and this entry both are easy to look at, well put-together, and something that makes me a little envious.
Read all of the 2020 favorites, or ILT’s main page.