This time: authenticity fake and real, practical photography, and lots more goodness — things you can connect with. Enjoy.
This Month’s Spine
University of Kentucky Press. Cover design by Dominique Jones.
“[T]his collection of connected stories is about a Black family moving to and living in a very white New York town — begging the question that is the title. This is supported by an absolutely superb cover, whose painterly qualities and expert composition evoke emotions and make potential readers want to seek answers,” I said in this month’s University Press Coverage.
“There’s well-done, and then there’s next-level. This is definitely the latter.”
But Where’s Home is one of fifteen covers highlighted this month. Check it out.
Elsewhere in Book Design
While we’re on subject of Spine, Linnea Gradin posted an article — she’s usually a writer for Reedsy — about design trends for ’25 and predictions for this year.
A selection of titles the article calls, “The Serialized Standalone.”
I didn’t devote much time to book design trends in my annual Favorite Book Covers post, so if you’re not familiar with what’s hot in book design at the moment, this article could be worth a moment of your time.
That’s not to say trends aren’t important. I completely (begrudgingly?) acknowledge trends exist and definitely drive design, from book design to logos; however, like so many things these days, trends seem to beare about chasing social media — and I’m not going to celebrate popular opinion when I can celebrate excellence.
A selection of 1960s Penguin crime novels.
Meanwhile, Jason Kottke posted a link to The Case of the Green Covers, a risograph-printed zine that documents the history of the “Green Penguins”, “a series of hundreds of crime novels published with green covers by the UK publisher Penguin in the 1960s.”
After years and years of doggedly collecting what are commonly called “Green Penguins,” a series of hundreds of crime novels published with green covers by the UK publisher Penguin in the 1960s, I’ve both mounted an exhibition of the collection, and created a zine that documents the history of the books, their design, and the designers that made them. The content in the zine is an expansion and re-crafting of the writing I did about these books here, on the Justseeds blog, for my old Judging Books By Their Covers series (you can read those HERE).
— Josh MacPhee, Justseeds
Great stuff. If you’re in Philly, go see the exhibit — “held at Tomorrow Today, a very cool art & politics bookshop that recently opened,” Josh writes — but if not, the zine might very well be fun.
Special Bonus #1: It’s Nice That highlights a new title from the British Design Council:
Tucked away in a Manchester Metropolitan University archive lies 22,000 photographic slides of iconic British post-war design, ranging from the grand (a high-speed passenger train, for example) to the seemingly inconspicuous (plush bean bags and stackable ashtrays). These 35mm slides were made between 1948-1994 by the UK’s Design Council […] as a means of cataloging and preserving the UK’s design history, alongside a select handful of items from abroad. Now, Projecting British Design, a book published by the modernist, documents a selection of 100 of those slides — in the process demonstrating the vast array of objects that have changed the way we live.
— Olivia Hingley, It’s Nice That
I do wish the collection were online, but the post is cool — there are a bunch of examples — and the book will be fun for aficionados of British design, no matter the era.
Faking Analog
Elizabeth Goodspeed, by now a regular here on Foreword, has a new column up at It’s Nice That, in which she posits on imperfection as a design strategy: “Faking ‘realness’ on a computer doesn’t get us anywhere new.”
By now, the central point — “[f]or every person declaring that analogue is back, there’s someone offering the same explanation why: AI and other digital tools have made perfection cheap, fast, and easy, so imperfection now signals authenticity” — is generally accepted in design circles. (See comments regarding trends, above.) But she asks a better question: “But if analogue only matters as a foil to the digital, why are analogue aesthetics being embraced without analogue tools?”
She provides a lovely — and classic — graphic.
“[T]his suggests that what’s being described as an “analogue revival” is less a material shift than a semiotic one. Terms like “handcrafted” no longer reliably describe how something was produced, but how an image wants to be read. Whether something was made with ink, a brush, or film often seems secondary, if it matters at all. What’s actually taken on weight is the idea of analogue, and the set of values now projected onto it.
As ever, the blame doesn’t fall on artists (or even the people selling texture packs). The practical reality is that most people no longer have the time, tools, or support to make fully analogue work, even if they want to. The creative infrastructure that would make it viable – materials access, slower timelines, financial stability – isn’t widely available. Designers and illustrators are stuck in a bind: analogue signals value, but digital is what’s feasible.”
— Elizabeth Goodspeed, It’s Nice That
It’s another case of I-could-quote-the-whole-thing-but-should’t, of course — so please just go read it. Because she’s right: it’s a trend, it’s a response, and it’s something that needs to be recognized. (Additional teasers for the article: a stack o’ pancakes and pre-stained Prada. No mention of who’s wearing it.)
Actual Analog
A three-fer for you:
Cover design by Samantha Hahn.
• From Spine, a book cover where analog — that is, actual composition of items, arranged and photographed, won the day. See the other options presented.
A lovely additive-printed stamp from Poland.
• From It’s Nice That, via Kottke: lovely collection of stamps. If you’re into great examples of “graphic design in miniature,” “from the recurring Olympics theme to the colourful modernist designs” — and you can stomach Instagram — you can enjoy daily goodness. If not, there are plenty of still to choose from at the links.
Flyer design by Cat Duncan.
• An identity for Athene Club, a women-centred run and hike club in the UK, designed by Cat Duncan. Done in a style that’s awesomely analog — okay, okay, there might be a computer involved — and started before it became a trend. (Also via It’s Nice That.)
Architecture Poster Favorites, Again
Archinect‘s ongoing series of architecture school lecture posters (previously) highlights examples that continue serve an informational purpose with fantastic design:
Washington University.UTexas at Austin. Yale University.
Although their contest for readers to vote for their favorite closed yesterday, it’s not the winner — it’s that they all pretty much win. See the whole list. (And get a head start with the Spring ’26 posters with one from Pratt.)
Your February Fonts
CreativeBoom‘s usually-monthly roundup of new fonts includes some I’d like to mention — and hopefully use. (Is typeface addiction a thing?)
WG Buttered Crumpet by Jamie Clark Type
Yes, absolutely, the name has everything to do with Wallace and Gromit.
“The finished typeface – Buttered Crumpet – gives Aardman [Studios] a timeless, familiar tone of voice with bundles of charm. It includes over 200 characters, covering all Western European languages, and was designed in a single, carefully crafted weight with room for future expansion,” Clark writes. “As a Bristol-based designer, it was a joy to create a lasting connection with my home city and one of its most renowned creative studios.”
Veloce by Rob Andrews
Yes, absolutely named after an Alfa Romeo.
“Veloce began as a single-weight studio font and grew into something with real range. Clear and neutral, with enough personality to avoid feeling anonymous, it’s a strong choice for both body text and signage,” CreativeBoom writes. “What really sets it apart, though, is the language coverage. […] It’s an unusually thoughtful decision for a debut, reflecting serious long-term thinking about global communication.”
“[A] font born from a spark of energy and a little nudge of mischief. It started as a scribble with attitude, leaning forward like it had somewhere important to be — and honestly, it still does,” Yenty Jap writes on her site. “YJC Volt Swing carries that charged-up spirit into every letter, giving your words a bold voice that feels alive, confident, and just a tiny bit rebellious (in the good, hug-you-after kind of way).”
(CreativeBoom had listed — and spoke well of — YJ Knotted Ink, something completely different, while using pictures from YJC Volt Swing. Oops.)
Special Bonus #2:PRINT says, “From DSType Foundry [and] designed by Dino dos Santos in 2025, Ensaio feels like a modular system for book design.” The caption flavor is my favorite — but they’re all awesome.
“Rather than having one set of forms stretch across every application, it’s built into four purpose-built variants: Text, Cover, Caption, and Capitals — acknowledging that the typographic needs of a novel’s body copy are fundamentally different from those of a cover or a footnote,” PRINT says.
“Yes,” this book designer agrees.
BMW-Alpina, Again
Last month’s Beautifully Briefed mentioned the new BMW-Alpina wordmark. (I incorrectly used the word logo, ’cause someone did in something I read and I repeated it without thinking — sorry). The actual logo, which is to say, the badge you’ll see on the vehicles, the website, and some marketing materials, has now been made public:
Still an exhaust and crankshaft, but in the “flat” style also used by BMW (and countless others — see trends, above).
Parenthetically, BMW has suggested that at some point their logo will be etched into the paint rather than a chrome add-on (as on the concept, below), or possibly used as a backlight on the grille (much more trendy likely, I believe):
From the Vision Neue Classe X concept.
In any case, here’s a before-and-after, courtesy of The Autopian:
MacFilos‘ title for their profile of Italian photographer Marco Ronconi suggests a certain negativity — which, in a way, is true. But in the positive sense.
Face to Face (Arctic Hare). Photograph by Marco Ronconi.
He “masters the art of reducing his images to what is essential. By omitting everything he believes to be unnecessary, even colour, he creates unusual wildlife images.”
An image from the Chiaro | Scuro Project. Photograph by Marco Ronconi.
Special Bonus #3: “Berlin-based Italian photographer Paride Ambrogi recently combined two of his loves, photography and pasta, in a brilliant, possibly tasty way,” PetaPixel writes. “Ambrogi made the Ravihole Camera, a working pinhole camera made entirely from fresh pasta dough.”
Al Dente Photography.
SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year 2025
Bird photography is an incredibly specialized skill. So contest winners are usually pretty amazing photographs. These absolutely don’t disappoint:
Photograph by Liam McBride.
“With over 2,200 photographs submitted from around the globe, the SINWP Bird Photographer of the Year 2025 competition has revealed a stunning celebration of avian beauty, from kingfishers and bald eagles to owls, flamingos, and countless species beyond. The diversity and quality of the entries have been truly breathtaking,” a press release reads. The contest benefits the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, or RSPB.
Photograph by Emma Brooke.
That’s Society of International Nature and Wildlife Photographers, by the way. See more at PetaPixel.
Sony World Photography Awards Open Competition Winners 2025
Sony has announced the “10 category winners and the 120 shortlisted photographs from its Open competition, which recognizes the best single images captured by photographers worldwide in the past year.”
Winner, Architecture. Photograph by Markus Naarttijarvi.
Photographers do not need Sony cameras or lenses, only talent — of which there’s plenty.
Shortlisted, Motion. Photograph by Christoph Oberschneider.
As is often the case, I prefer some of the shortlisted photographs to the winners. Like the skier above, or this dystopian, almost science fiction shot from Asia:
Shortlisted, Architecture. Photograph by Utshaho Gupta.
A couple of celebrities, lots of great portraits, and many of nature. That latter category has what’s probably my favorite:
Winner, Natural World and Wildlife. Photograph by Klaus Hellmich.
“The World Nature Photography Awards were founded in 2020 with the goal of not only promoting the world’s best nature photos but also inspiring people to connect deeper with nature,” PetaPixel writes. “WNPA partners with Ecologi to plant a tree every time someone enters the competition as well.”
“Shy but Still Majestic.” Silver, Black and White. Photograph by Ross Wheeler.
“This year’s winning images are a powerful reminder of both the wonder of our planet and the importance of protecting it,” a press release perhaps understates.
“Stoicism in a Sandstorm.” Gold, Behavior — Amphibians and Reptiles. Photograph by Dewalkd Tromp.
Special Bonus #4: “My photography boomed when I stopped looking at social media,” Ivor Rackham writes at PetaPixel, with tips and ideas for successful business alternatives aplenty.
Cold and wet — but happy. Photograph by Ivor Rackham.
Interesting comparison to soap operas — or is that soapboxing? You decide, but I’d argue that his photos prove some talent.
The flowers are just starting to come out here in Georgia. May spring bloom for all of you, too. See you soon.
We’re setting into our third snow of the season here in Georgia, an extraordinary event even in a world where “normal” doesn’t seem to happen all that often any more. Thankfully, there are still gems, waiting to be discovered. Hopefully you’ll find several in the links below.
Note: The site was offline for several hours mid-month due entirely to my mismanaging an update; the backups took a minute and didn’t restore the plug-ins, so it wound up being rough around the edges for a couple of days. If you visited — or tried to — during that time, apologies.
Favorite Book Covers of 2025, and More
If you’ve not seen, set aside a few minutes to enjoy:
LitHub has posted a summary of the last decade of their favorites, too. Whew!
Cover design by Alicia Tatone.
Special Bonus #1:Our Culture has a feature on seven book designers to watch in 2026. None will be a surprise to regular readers, although Alicia Tatone hasn’t been highlighted here as much as she deserves (she had three cover designs, including Dusk, in the runners-up folder for my ’25 favorites, but didn’t appear in the final list).
Steven Heller’s column in PRINT is always fantastic, but some introduce designers more of us should know by name — this time, Roy Kuhlman:
Cover design by Roy Kulhman.
“He designed almost exclusively for the edgy indie Grove Press, defining its list of literary, critical, philosophical and politically radical nonfiction titles,” Heller writes, discussing a new retrospective (that he wrote the introduction for):
Many of his abstractions tested the reader’s perception. His lexicon of kinetic, morphing shapes was usually rendered in flat colors with painterly and collage randomness. They could stand on their own. But usually, to make them functional, he used simple sans serif or elegant classic serif typefaces; fitting the abstract nature of his manner, he’d frequently draw or paint hand-scrawled titles and subsidiary texts. Much of his work employed two or three colors, as opposed to four-color process — and he was more than adept with limitations.
Speaking of CreativeBoom, their regular feature on new typefaces has several that I like. Let’s start with the elegant Appeal, by new foundry We Type:
Next up, the old-style, almost-evokes-needlepoint Bárur, by MNDT Type:
Another new foundry, Designomatt, brings us the neat and “unpretentiously functional” Stróc:
The last to highlight is probably my favorite of the bunch, this cool and well-executed script called Pennline, from The Northern Block. It’s a “meticulous resurrection of Bulletin — a script first cast in 1899 by Philadelphia’s Keystone Type Foundry — demonstrat[ing] how historical preservation and contemporary utility can coexist when approached with respect and imagination.”
It’s Nice That has a great feature on the new — actually, newly-revisited — Faber Edition titles, with their primarily type-driven cover designs:
“In an industry that can often be focused on newness, Faber Editions is a great reminder of the groundbreaking literature that’s come before us, and a clear indicator of the importance of the artwork the words sit within,” writes Olivia Hingley.
Cover design by Bill Bragg.
Faber is a UK publisher, so while these covers could be excellent because they’re British — see several examples of the US vs. UK titles in the favorites post — I’m just going to call the style interesting, the “look” of the complete series compelling, and the resulting work excellent. Read on.
Special Bonus #2: “The graphic trends you’ll want to bookmark for 2026,” also from It’s Nice That. In short: lo-fi, anti-trends continue:
In other words, if AI struggles with it — if it’s authentic — it could be a winner. See the specifics.
Special Bonus #3: “AI isn’t the enemy. Our lack of nuance is,” Liz Seabrook writes at CreativeBoom. “The most powerful response is being more human.”
Life in ’26: DDOS? Or Just Velocity?
A few days apart, two new essays caught my attention and wound up feeling relevant enough — significant enough — that I wanted to share. They’re new takes on where we’re at, or, the specifics of “how.”
The first is from new-to-me author Joan Westenberg, discussing a computer term called the Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack:
[The] attack works by exhausting resources. It doesn’t need to be clever. It just needs to be overwhelming. The target’s defenses are simply overrun. The server can’t distinguish between legitimate requests and attack traffic because, in a sense, all the traffic is legitimate. The attack succeeds when the system has spent so much energy processing requests that it can no longer serve its actual function.
— Joan Westenberg, “The Discourse is a DDOS”
Does that sound like it might apply to life in the ’Twenties? Yeah.
The old media ecosystem had gatekeepers, and those gatekeepers were often stupid or corrupt, but at least the stupidity and corruption were bounded. There were only so many column inches in the New York Times, only so many minutes of evening news. A finite supply of attention-worthy items existed, and someone had to decide which ones made the cut. That selection process was biased and imperfect, but it performed an important function: it told you, implicitly, that you didn’t have to have an opinion about everything. Most things that happened in the world weren’t important enough to make it into your awareness at all. Local political disputes in New South Wales? Nobody in Washington DC gave a [crap], and vice-versa. This was as close to optimal as we’ve ever got.
But the gatekeeping function has now been distributed across millions of individual users, each of whom can boost any piece of content into viral prominence if it happens to resonate with the right combination of tribal anxieties and engagement incentives. The feed is infinite, and every slot in the feed is optimized to make you feel something strongly enough that you’ll engage with it. Outrage works, and so does fear. Disgust works, and righteousness really […] works. Nuance and careful reasoning don’t work at all, because by the time you’ve finished a thought that begins with “Well, it’s complicated…” someone else has already posted a much simpler take that makes people feel validated, and the algorithm has moved on.
Authority used to be the organizing principle of information, and thus the media. You earned attention by being right, by being first in discovery, or by being big enough to be the default. That world is gone. The new and current organizing principle of information is velocity.
What matters now is how fast something moves through the network: how quickly it is clicked, shared, quoted, replied to, remixed, and replaced. In a system tuned for speed, authority is ornamental. The network rewards motion first and judgment later, if ever. Perhaps that’s why you feel you can’t discern between truths, half-truths, and lies.
— Om Malik, “Velocity Is the New Authority. Here’s Why.”
Westenberg has a suggestion I wholeheartedly recommend:
What I do know is that the feeling of being overwhelmed, of never being able to keep up, of having strong opinions about everything and confident understanding of nothing, is not a personal failing. It’s a predictable response to an impossible situation. Your brain is being DDoS’d, and the fact that you’re struggling to think clearly under that onslaught is evidence that your brain is working normally. The servers aren’t broken. They’re overloaded. And until we figure out how to reduce the load or increase the bandwidth, the best any of us can do is recognize what’s happening and try, when possible, to step away from the flood long enough to do some actual thinking.
— Joan Westenberg, “The Discourse is a DDOS”
“Find one topic,” she says, and start there. Get with experts, get evidence, get uncomfortable, actually get into it … but just get into that one.
And stay true to the idea that it shouldn’t — can’t — get away from you.
I get some feedback for my lack of participation in social media. I don’t hate social media; if anything, the past few weeks of mayhem organized resistance in Minneapolis proves it has a place. But I long ago heeded advice to narrow my focus. Instead of burying my head in the sand — tempting though it may be at times — I choose to concentrate on those things that a) really hold interest and b) things I actually want to be part of my life.
Both of these essays summarize the situation well, and both offer insights on how we got here. Westenberg’s offers good advice. When you have a spare few minutes, readboth.
Let’s please turn to something that the Internet does right.
Whenever I worry about where the Internet is headed, I remember that this example of the collective generosity and goodness of people still exists. There are so many folks just working away, every day, to make something good and valuable for strangers out there, simply from the goodness of their hearts. They have no way of ever knowing who they’ve helped. But they believe in the simple power of doing a little bit of good using some of the most basic technologies of the internet.
— Anil Dash, “Wikipedia At 25: What The Web Can Be”
“When Wikipedia launched 25 years ago today, I heard about it almost immediately, because the Internet was small back then, and I thought ‘Well… good luck to those guys,’” Dash writes.1I, too, remember those days of a small Internet — not a young person anymore. While I miss the community it felt like, the resources available today, of which Wiki might be at the fore, are without parallel. But it’s grown into something something amazing: the encyclopedia that’s free in every sense of the word.
Like countless others, I value being a contributor, in an incredibly small way, to the collective effort that is Wikipedia. Indeed, editors “span continents, professions and motivations,” a CreativeBoom article writes. “Together, their stories underline that, even in an age of AI, knowledge is still human and it still needs humans.”
“The site is still amongst the most popular sites on the web,” Dash agrees. “[B]igger than almost every commercial website or app that has ever existed. There’s never been a single ad promoting it. It has unlocked trillions of dollars in value for the business world, and unmeasurable educational value for multiple generations of children.”
Of course, all is not perfect. Like Universities, DEI, and whatever else, Wikipedia has become a target; Grokipedia, for instance, exists specifically to undermine Wiki’s centrality and success. (And, it’s important to note, Groki used Wiki as a basis … because it’s open and freely available. No hypocrisy.)
In fact, so many rely on Wikipedia that access has become a thing. Luckily, some large enterprise users of the site have recognized that the trillions they’ve earned as a result of having access to Wiki’s collective knowledge is worth paying for:
[T]he Wikimedia Foundation announced API access deals with Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity, and Mistral AI, expanding its effort to get major tech companies to pay for high-volume API access to Wikipedia content, which these companies use to train AI models like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT. […] In April 2025, the foundation reported that bandwidth used for downloading multimedia content had grown 50 percent since January 2024, with bots accounting for 65 percent of the most expensive requests to core infrastructure despite making up just 35 percent of total pageviews.
Anil Dash best finishes up: “Twenty-five years later, all of the evidence has shown that they really have changed the world.” I couldn’t agree more.
Happy 25 to Wikipedia. May there be countless more.
Special Bonus #4: In an excellent article, Ars calls 2025 “the year AI came back down to Earth.” And while we’re on the subject of excellence, Cory Doctorow’s essay for The Guardian applies.
Cory Doctorow in The Guardian.
Follow-Up: BMW Alpina and Honda Formalize Logos
Alpina, for formerly-independent tuner of BMW cars (and SUVs), has, as of the first of this year, officially become a division of BMW, akin to MINI or Rolls-Royce. With it comes a new logo — well, at least, this:
Conservative, cool, collected. Definitely part of a bigger corporation now.
[Alpina] recently entered into an agreement to be purchased by BMW itself, not unlike AMG becoming part of Mercedes-Benz; starting in 2026, they are scheduled to represent the middle ground between BMW and Rolls-Royce — hopefully continuing the comfort, power, and style. It seems that the new ground will be the upmarket models only (that is, no 3-series-based items, and possibly even no 5-series), so think of items $200,000 and up.
— Beautifully Briefed, June 2023
Here’s the old logo, for reference:
Alpina’s now-old logo: exhaust and crankshaft, sir. Nuthin’ like it.
And: they’re going to update the wheels!
Photo via BMW Blog.
As someone who’s become much more familiar with Alpina in the ten years I’ve owned BMWs, these wheels are iconic. Here’s the existing version, on one of my favorite pieces of unobtainium:
Photo via BMW Blog.
That’s a 2016 Aplina B4 BiTurbo Coupé, by the way. Not quite my favorite B3 Touring, but in either case, “drool” doesn’t quite cover it. (Neither were available in the States.)
Curious to see whether this is successful. Expectations are high.
Meanwhile, Honda initially said — and I reported, two years ago — that their new, slightly-retro “H” logo would be limited to electric cars. Of course, electric as a strategy has changed; they decided this month to make it official for all their cars.
Motorsports, too. Here’s their F1 engine with the new logo:
Photo via The Drive.
I love that both Honda and BMW are, at their heart, engineering companies.
Get the full story on BMW Alpina at Dezeen or BMW Blog (logo, wheels). Honda’s details are available at The Drive (logo, F1) or The Autopian, where you can enjoy some sharp commentary on Honda’s press release.
January Photography Round-Up
2025 Architecture Master Prize
“Arbour House.” Photograph by Younes Bounhar (Interior Architecture).
I suppose it’s no surprise that an architectural photography selection tops this round-up, but the annual Architecture Photography MasterPrize highlights “compelling perspectives on buildings, cities, landscapes, and interior spaces, revealing the rich visual language of the built environment.”
In other words, “catnip.”
“Details (Series).” Photograph by Guanhong Chen (Other Architecture).“Details (Series).” Photograph by Guanhong Chen (Other Architecture).
There’s a huge variety of winning photographs, from professionals, amateurs, and students alike — all excellent. (They have awards for designs, firms, and products, as well.)
“Mustras,” Sardinia. Photograph by Barbara Corsico (Exterior Architecture).
Neither drone images nor folks who primarily post to social media usually get featured here, but these images of Greenland are both timely and excellent. This is Colossal has a great selection of items from photographer Dennis Lehtonen.
“From Alps to Andromeda.” Photograph by Tom Rae.
“My photography style is rooted in landscape and night photography, with an emphasis on atmosphere, scale, and a strong sense of place. I’m drawn to environments that feel raw, remote, and otherworldly,” Tom Rae relates to PetaPixel. Otherworldly feels just right: good stuff.
Society of Photographers’ Photographer of the Year 2025
Photograph by Terry Donnelly.
I also usually don’t cover documentary-style photography — see narrow focus, discussed above — but there were several documentary-style photographs in this set of award winners that were excellent, including this Medivac flight from the UK.
However — thankfully — there were more categories:
Photograph by Mark Scicluna.
It’s the winner in the “travel” category, because apparently they don’t have one called “dramatically soothing.” No matter the labelling, see the rest of the winners at PetaPixel or head over to the Society’s website for more.
Finally: Some Cats
Speaking of catnip, let’s close out with something that purrs — in soprano:
A “whimsical visual survey of the house cat in art and popular culture, exploring humanity’s enduring connection to one of our most loved animal companions.” Awesome. (Via This is Colossal.)
Have a great February, everyone!
1
I, too, remember those days of a small Internet — not a young person anymore. While I miss the community it felt like, the resources available today, of which Wiki might be at the fore, are without parallel.
When it comes to describing 2025, “tumultuous” is probably an understatement.
So it’s probably not a surprise that, when looking at the hundred covers that make up this list, there’s a definite direction: favoring quality over quantity. Which is to say, consciously or not, I’ve tended to prefer designs where more is said with less.
Perhaps I’m striving for calm in a world that just … isn’t. Perhaps it’s my choice not to participate in social media and its race for likes, loves, and “latests.”1Publishers need to remember that not all of their customers select what to read based on influencers, what they see on Facebook, or by doomscrolling Instagram. Some of us are lifelong learners, have hundred or thousands of books, and discover by … reading. Real articles, by real people, on websites with those people’s real names on them. (Or even, occasionally, this thing called paper.) Perhaps it’s my advancing age — closing in on 60 now — and thus “old-fashioned” standards.
In fact, it could be said that I value not keeping up: I don’t want to highlight the trendy. I want to celebrate great talent, design that’s standout in its day but will still be great as time passes.
However, it’s appropriate to emphasize 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 whose work I didn’t see, and consequently didn’t feature. I’ve tried to include design credit where I could — many thanks to the folks who answered requests for that information — and wish to stress that any mistakes in the list below are mine.
Note: By request, titles starting with “The” are alphabetized correctly. Also, if you’re on Foreword’s main page, please click on the post title, above, to read this list. You’ll get larger covers for your viewing pleasure.
• • •
My Favorite Book Cover of 2025
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
There was no question which of these hundred titles would take the title: this heavyweight, brought to us by Dublin-based Jack Smyth. Fellow cover designer Jaya Nicely, in LitHub‘s 2025 list, called it “tactile,” but it’s more than that — it’s downright visceral.
In fact, and indeed in direct contradiction to what I said in the intro, I’m celebrating something trendy: silhouettes are “in” — even overused — but I love this cover because I don’t recall ever seeing one more effectively implemented. Simultaneously hiding around the edge and using it to an advantage, our boxer (presumably the book’s subject, Nathaniel) looks poised to strike.
When combined with type and lines slightly off kilter, use of a fantastic orange, and aging and grain that ice the cake, this cover has it down.
2025’s Runners-Up
Cover design by Paul Sahre, with illustration by David Plunkert.
A triumph of less-is-more illustration, with color and a title treatment that knows how compliment. The pressed or sprayed, aged-but-not, white and black are magnificent, while the rings stand out as the only use of “gold.” I love that the arm above the glove is just an outline.
Cover design by Kris Potter; photography by Laurent Tixador.
Photography seems almost passé these days, so its use requires something extra — here served up in spades. On the one hand, I want the boats on the horizon to have been removed, but on the other, it highlights the fraud within in a subtle, realize-after-the-fact way that’s awesome.
I have to say, too: this is about fifteen light years beyond the woman-folded-into-the-chair edition, one of those trends that needs to just stop.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
While it compliments Free, from 2022’s list, it’s more: more sophisticated, more of a story, and leaves you with more questions — and more likely that you’ll pick it up to get those answers.
Bonus points for the folded papers, the Albanian coat of arms, and planes “outside” the collage.
• • •
Other 2025 Favorites, in Alphabetical Order
Cover design by David Fassett.
Christian titles so often reach for stereotype — something easily pigeonholed, almost like romance (for instance, unless of course I’m the one stereotyping). It’s often to the detriment of the subject: prematurely dooming the worthy, as it were.
This one very much rises above: the mountain/clouds, the spiral, the mixed and colored illustrations, and titles stacked at an angle (with slight em- or debossing?) are all exceptionally well done.
Riverhead/Penguin didn’t return a request for cover design info. Apologies.
The opposite of sinking beneath the waves: a beautiful pen-and-ink illustration, a color block of sea — or sky — heeling over at just the right angle, with the wonderful knock outs. Then there’s the hint-of-blue tail, the design equivalent of a spinnaker, standing out at the fore of a crowded race. Unmistakably awesome.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
Simple without being simplistic, quiet while not quite, this one deserves that satisfying “thunk” that goes with a stamp of approval. (No cancellations allowed.)
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Eye-catching is a cliché too far — but it’s definitely more than just a collection of shapes artfully arranged. Bonus points for the edge between red and star, the color choices, and title spacing.
Special bonus — continues the family look:
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Fantastic.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Neither a zig nor zag: the combo of pink, alligator skin, and “tears” is nigh-on perfect.
Algonquin Books didn’t return an inquiry for the cover design info — sorry. (If you know….)
The part-human-part-animal design tool is another of those overused items — except when it’s handled as well as it is here. The eyes are brilliant, the title treatment fun, and the colors standout. The subject, superficially, is not dissimilar to Alligator Tears, above, but the details, the design — and most certainly the text within — celebrate being different.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
The cover-in-two-parts is another of those items potentially overused, but the repetition and title treatment — the r-l tie-up is fab — take this one to the next level. Bonus points for “a novel,” both less and so much more.
Cover design by Elena Giavaldi.
Another where the pressed/stamped ink works well — but the black on top of the almost-overstyled photo is the winner here, a photo that doesn’t say “South Dakota” in all the right ways.
Cover design and illustration by Elizabeth Story.
Never mind the awesome type, layout, and color — that illustration, or perhaps just the expression, does everything. A winner at first sight.
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
Sometimes, it’s possible to be knocked askew awed by a simple idea.
Cover design by Linda Huang.
“My aye!”
(Yeah, yeah, the paper pattern and color, aged red and great brown outlines, type choices, and inclusion of Asian name seal, not to mention the geese, are all awesome too.)
Cover design by Monograph.
One is more — one-color, that is, with a perfect combination of blur and line, “shadow” and light, simplicity and complexity.
Not the only one-color item on this list, I’m happy to see.
Cover design by Luisa Dias.
From texture to type, photo to illustration, this is a cover that keeps giving the more the viewer keeps looking.
Cover design by Stephanie Ross, with art by Maria Guimaraes.
Cool illustration, cool idea — but it’s the use of color that earns this cover a spot here. The bright pink and various greens delight, as does the unusual-but-perfect background box for the title.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello.
“Guaranteed to augment your … life,” Vi thought.
Cover design by Rodrigo Corral Studio.
This is based on the Korean edition; the art came with the title. That said, this version uses that ah-ha moment that is title’s holding area, combined with infinitely better type — and gets serious compliments as a result.
Bonus points to the original designer for a painting that’s anything but postmodern.
Cover design and art by Na Kim.
Speaking of paintings, Na Kim’s often take center stage in her cover designs. Here, however, it’s everything. Fantastic!
Cover design by Thoman Colligan.
The two-pane cover gets overdone, no question, but like others on this list that rise above a trend, this cover triumphs in complimentary colors, type treatments, and spacing. Somehow soothing and attention-getting — an accomplishment.
Cover art by Scott Mescudi.
Every time one zoomed out to look at the collected — every single time — this persevered. Survived. Stayed. And then became incredibly successful.
(The cover, too.)
Cover design by Josh Durham.
Pictures running in time, complimented by the vertical title. (Rare and attention-demanding use of duotone here, too — nice.) Bonus points for the title and other text being subtly different colors.
Cover design by Adriana Tonello and Frances Digiovanni, Rodrigo Corral Studio. Illustration by Sophy Hollington.
Letterpress or inkblot? When it’s as much eye candy as this, do you care?
Cover design by Na Kim.
The contrast to Na’s Brother Brontë cover, above, couldn’t be more stark — yet this one, in its … well, stark simplicity, is no less accomplished.
Work that stands out, from one of the standouts.
Cover design by Chris Bentham.
Retro-tastic burst of style that takes something ostensibly text-only to another level.
Parenthetically, the author argues that we’re in the third “information crisis,” the first being invention of writing and the second the invention of the printing press. We survived those, maybe we can survive this…. A UK title I wish were readily available in the States. (The Brit Amazon wants you to buy it together with Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification, by the way. There‘s an afternoon’s reading.)
Cover design by Matt Dorfman.
Old-fashioned illustration, type arranged in a way that’s anything but old-fashioned, and great color choices: successful in a way that suggests simple in one of those “effortless ease” ways. (“Yo-Yo Ma just saws on a big fiddle” kind of thing.)
Cover design by Eli Mock.
“Missile Command meets The New York Times,” you say, in an effort to describe this design to someone who hasn’t seen it — something guaranteed to get a laugh. But here it is, in all its glory.
Cover design by Jaya Miceli, with art by Anna Brones.
Cookbooks are such a well-trod genre that it’s nearly impossible to break out of the pack and generate something not only truly original but truly excellent: a feast indeed.
Cover design by Jared Oriel.
Burnt matches have never made such sweet music.
Cover design by Darren Haggar; illustration by Cecilia Caristedt.
Poppy? Or a view into something deeper?
Cover design by June Park.
“What happens when your world goes sideways?” this cover — and book — ask. From illustration to style, basically … perfect.
Cover design by Janet Hansen.
Simple, practical, awesome. (“Chef’s kiss” is probably tacky, so I’ll avoid saying that.)
The author’s previous title, Lucky Dogs, was in my 2023 Favorites.
Cover design by Rodrigo Corral and Adriana Tonello.
At first glance, something we see all the time, from image to typestyle.
But then it goes on to ring the bell.
Cover design by Frances Digiovanni, Rodrigo Corral Studios.
The case where something like “a two-color triumph” feels not only cliché but a genuine undersell. The illustration, the color choices, the exquisitely shaky hand lettering — all beyond perfect, and that’s before we start talking about those strings. And the power that’s pulling on them.
Cover design by Jared Bartman.
The bear feels like something generated by bad AI, or even a suit; as it turns out, we don’t care. Bright, funny, and fun in just the right way. (I do wish they’d kept the single quotes proper English uses.)
Cover design by Adriana Tonello.
On the one hand, the opposite of “bright, funny and fun” — and yet, one the other, somehow, not.
Cover design by Maddy Angstreich.
I swore, possibly in public, that cropped classical paintings is something we should move on from in book design.
Clearly, I was wrong.
Cover design and illustration by Micaela Alcaino.
One of the few times in recent memory that something so original was so funny, so satisfying, and such a standout design … on any shelf.
(One of those covers that would work well as a print, I think.)
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
The triumph of the simple.
Cover design by Keith Kayes, with art by Jose David Morales.
“Sometimes a new author will sidle up and whisper in your ear, and sometimes she’ll grab you by the neck,” one of this book’s blurbs reads. The design of Immemorial, above, is the former. This design is very much the latter — completely and delightfully.
Ballantine’s contact page is a 404 error — I kid you not — so the designer remains anonymous.
Power, grace, and color — and, of course, the title treatment. A cover that was never in danger of losing its groove. (Bonus points for the pink “earring.”)
Cover design by Matt Dorfman.
Simplicity can mask death depth.
Special bonus — related brilliance, from 2022:
Cover design by Matt Dorfman.Cover design by Nick Misani.
Illustration and lettering triumph for this classic title, slightly reminiscent of the Farmer’s Almanac I remember from my youth (in the most complimentary way), with appropriately-English “characters” for the UK edition.
Cover design by Katy Homans.
I mentioned above that for photographs to work today, they have to have that something that grabs and won’t let go. This one does.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Next-level collection of long views both together with and simultaneously separated by brilliant use color. Bonus points for the repetition in author and subtitle.
Cover design by La Boca.
Gets the award for “most zany,” in the best possible way: “a scream,” indeed.
Cover design by Stephen Brayda.
Speaking of awards, let’s have one for “soothing.” The dotted path is brilliant and colors awesome. (And while it’s not part of the design, it’s impossible not to appreciate that subtitle.)
Cover design and art by Alex Merto.
Colorful, original, retro-yet-not — with that tiger. I want to make jokes about how this cover so very well illuminates, but really, I just want to go read it. Awesome.
Cover design by Beth Steidle, with art by Uzo Njoku.
I’m not a fan of the text-around-the-edge trend — I get it, it’s a framing device, but, suddenly it was everywhere, too much, all at once.
Once in a while, however, it’s done so well that greatness must be acknowledged. Weaving the title text into the pattern helps, as does, of course, the fantastic art.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.
I had the UK version of this in last year’s list — but the paperback, out this year, gives me an excuse to not only highlight the US version, but the associated redesigned back titles:
Cover designs by Tyler Comrie.
I do not believe “brilliant” is resorting to cliché.
Cover design by Grace Han.
The second one-color cover on this list, whose simplicity belies the story within. (Lauren Peters-Collaer, on LitHub‘s “best of” list, describes it as “fractured,” which I love — along with the “minor Black artist” being named Wyeth.)
Cover design by Jaya Miceli.
“I forgot the blueprints parsley!”
Awesome stuff: the lips being the only thing on her face, the dog’s expression, the rough sketch style, the way the title stands out, um … okay, everything.
Cover design by Matt Broughton, with art by Katrien de Blauwer.
As mentioned, the two-pane cover has become a thing; this one breaks out not only with the black-and-white photos (possibly a subtle duotone) and a bright title in a great typeface (Herbus, by OTT) but cropping on the bottom photo that causes a double-take, and that hint — just a hint — of just-sank in the top photo. Good stuff.
Much stronger without the quotes fouling the water, by the way. The tug-of-war between design and marketing sometimes gets makes ugly.
Cover design by Jenny Volvovski.
Brilliantly simple stand-out: nest and enjoy.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
A fantastic example of a photograph plus — that illustration, those lines, that green, those stars. (And, of course, the eyes.)
Cover design by Chris Bentham.
This UK cover expresses the arrogance — the cockiness — while bringing forth all of the disjointedness and even kleptocracy. Timely and compelling.
Cover design by Matt Dorfman.
I like the design of this series — the title holding area (literally) is unusual enough to catch attention on today’s shelves socials — but the colors and treatment on this title, specifically, are the most pleasing.
Cover design by Erik Carter.
A brilliant idea, perfectly fulfilling the idea of communicating everything needed with one simple concept. (Alas, since putting this aside — the candidates for this list are gathered throughout the year — it’s gained splashy “ketchup” and what can only be described as “cheese.” Boo.)
Special bonus — the UK version:
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
No less brilliant — yet, as covers from the “right” side of the pond often are, more sophisticated.
Cover design by Janet Hansen, with art by Ahmad Sabbagh.
Okay, let’s revisit the text describing the previous title.
To quote Jason Kottke: “The US cover, like many American things, is somewhat less subtle & elegant.” In this specific instance, however, I have to disagree: sometimes, more is more.
Here, the US version brings a power to the table that US versions often struggle with; a “a few strokes of the pen” can wield enormous strength — often too much — and thought, talent, and consideration are appreciated. This is all of those.
Cover design by Claire Sullivan, with art by Alex Eckman Lawn.
“Not for the faint of heart,” one of the blurbs for this title reads — and applies equally well to the cover, which communicates “lovely” and “grotesque” in equal measure. (The UK version trendily plays up the lighter approach.)
Cover design by Jaya Nicely, with art by Rokas Aleliunas.
A “brilliant, funny, unsettling” illustration, too. (Love the green, by the way.)
Cover design by Devon Manney.
“From screening to aging, suggestion to content, color to style, this one, put simply, gets everything right,” I said on Spine in October’s University Press Coverage column — but when it was highlighted in October’s Beautifully Briefed, here on Foreword, I added, “One could argue that this cover — and title — could work well even if the word “climate” was removed.”
Cover design by David Eckersall.
“Tatreez, meaning ‘embroidery’ in Arabic, is used to refer to the traditional style of embroidery practiced in Palestine and Palestinian diaspora communities. The contemporary form of tatreez is often dated back to the 19th century. The style of cross-stitch embroidery called fallaḥi has been practiced amongst Arab communities in the Mediterranean for centuries,” Wikipedia notes. (NY’s Met Museum has more.)
Beautifully applied.
Special bonus — see also:
Cover design by Chantal Jahchan.
Yeah.
Cover design by Janet Hansen.
Pan, panic, or just surprise? No matter the expression, a delightful way to break all of the rules. (Bonus points for the knee to the nose.)
With apologies, I don’t know the designer for this cover.
A disgraced comedian-turned-politician is recruited by the CIA — a grainy prospect that you wouldn’t expect to look like this.
Um, yes.
(“This title is absolutely about Bolrovia,” he added.)
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
Less chess and more Cold War, another where a powerful, simple idea triumphs. The orange and the hand-lettering deserve special praise, as well.
Cover design by Luke Bird.
From expression to ears, brings new delight to deer-in-the … highlights.
Rutgers University Press did not return a request for cover design information.
“From the woodcut hall of fame, we have this,” I wrote in Spine‘s November column.
(I’m sad Rutgers never returns emails, because this artist deserves named credit. If you know….)
Cover design by Ella Laytham.
That “Essays” is printed in little tiny pink stamps is merely the kicker: awesomeness, defined.
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
Might I have mentioned that silhouettes are overused, even trendy? And that photographs are passé? Not here.
Like The Slip, this title goes out of its way to do something different, something appreciated, with the cutout. Combined with a great photo and grainy sky, it steps out of line and requires your attention.
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
“Deadpan wit” could be used to describe more than the contents: simultaneously simple and simply brilliant.
A cheat here: the green version is the hardcover from 2024; the paperback, from November ’25, is orange with a pink chair — and not quite as good.
Cover design by Sarah Schulte.
“A controversial Swahili classic — banned on publication — translated into English, published by Yale, and represented with a cover best described as a gift. A design that belongs in every ‘best of’ list,” I said in the inaugural column for Spine.
So added.
Cover design by Josh Durham.
Close-ups of women’s lips is another trend I’ve been avoiding — except when it positively drips with photographic brilliance: millennial pink, taken to the next level. (Once again, a cover measurably better without the detritus rytuałły added by the publicity department.)
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
I don’t know whether Beth did the art for this — presumably — but that art, together with the title treatment, add up to one of those “wow” covers instantly added to the list of year’s best.
Cover design by Holly Battle.
A “doting grandmother and vicious crime matriarch”: raven mad. This UK cover gets points for illustration style, type style, and, of course, just the right dose of splatter.
Cover design by Jared Bartman.
“The bull’s expression,” he said.
“The no bulls*** expression of nature,” she retorted.
Cover design by Jamie Keener.
Never mind the huge negative space: it’s the eyes. (Okay, it’s also the unlikely collection — collision? — of leopard and printer. Plus the loose page/quote. Plus the background color. But still.)
Cover design by Rodrigo Corral.
Heroin addiction, AIDS, French doctors, family drama: how do you weave that together into a compelling cover? Well, this.
Cover design by Gabriele Wilson; collage by Arsh Raziuddin.
“Fragmented colonialism in Africa, illustrated incredibly well,” I said in October’s Spine column — then went on to do both designers a disservice by failing to include the appropriate credit. Sheesh. (Apologies.)
Cover design by Farina Yasmin.
The US vs. UK “style” has been mentioned, well, possibly too much. Sorry.
But.
Here’s a great example of two great covers — both where all eyes are very much on the performer’s … uh, performance — yet in remarkably different ways.
Cover design by Julia Connolly; photograph by Sandra Casado.
Even though this kicks serious a**, in this case (and to continue the back-and-forth), I don’t think the US version is any less sophisticated.
Cover design by Nicole Caputo.
Beautiful illustration, beautiful type treatment; it’s something that could almost be described as “soothing.”
(With the possible exception of the text within.)
Cover design by Steve Attardo.
An awesome illustration against one of the year’s creamiest backgrounds, yes, but absolutely one of the year’s best title type treatments.
“‘Ebullient’ is used in the description of this title, and quite frankly I can’t think of a better word to describe this text-only treatment: superlative work.
“(In Miceli’s library, this would be shelved with Milk Fed and Joy of Consent instead of Big Swiss and Victorian Psycho — but it’s telling that she’s great at both styles.)”
Special bonus — another from that post:
Cover design by Issac Morris.
“The ayes have it,” I quipped. “Also, both the title type and color choices are out of this world. (Not sorry.)”
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
The word “acerbic” is used several times to describe this tile, but the UK cover just isn’t — the type and treatment are wonderful, and the surrogate egg is perfect.
Special bonus — the US version, which received a good deal of praise:
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.Cover design by Dana Li.
As mentioned on And I’ll Take Out Your Eyes, the part-human, part animal thing could possibly be described as “overdone.”
Here, though, it’s a home run wrapped in a night out: from colors to drips, pose to poise. Awesome.
Cover design by Michel Vrana.
A “decades-long earthquake,” indeed: layered, hopeful, wonderful.
Cover design by Sarah Schulte.
Another text-in-a-square exception to the rule: framing rarely works so well. (Besides, there’s that illustration.)
Cover design by Daisy Bates; photograph by Vanessa McKeown.
Cover photograph of the year, foot hands down.
Cover design and illustration by Kimberly Glyder.
“A risqué cross-dressing interpretation of a Shakespeare classic”: I can’t decide if it’s a crown, horns, or teeth. (“Yes,” someone said.)
But it’s the red overprint that steals the show. Fantastic.
Parenthetically, the author is “a founding artistic director of The Semitic Root, a collective that supports innovative theatre co-created by Arab and Jewish Americans.” How awesome is that?
Cover design by Kelly Hill.
“Canadian text soothes,” some belligerent American said.
(Another one of those illustrations I’d happily hang on my office wall, by the way.)
Cover design by Kimberly Glyder.
Never mind anything else: it’s the scribble. (The title font’s beautiful, too, honestly.)
I try to reserve “perfect” for occasions that warrant it — this does.
Cover design by Luke Bird.
A geometric, simple triumph of illustration: I suppose if anyone can do a bird well….
(Sorry.)
As an aside, this title is not to be confused with Under the Eye of Big Bird, which is in a whole ’nuther category.
Cover design by Jamie Keenan.
Entangled in wonder. (Also, the background color is super, and the font — Celtic Hand by Dieter Steffmann — is proof that freebies sometimes work beautifully.)
A book about a professional weeper, [whose] “services are sorely needed these days, as the town, the region, the country as a whole has become more or less numb.”
Ummmm….
(The cover’s fantastic, too.)
Cover design by Maddy Angstreich; photograph by Bobby Doherty.
Dang, that’s not raw meat being squeezed there. (Nor a fruit, for that matter.)
Cover design by Pablo Delcan.
From June’s Spine column: “19th-century hair styles: the absolutely fantastic world of university press cover design briefs … absolutely nailed here, with pen-and-ink illustrations and aged type handled perfectly. (Great title, too.)”
Cover design by Na Kim.
To close out, another painting by Na Kim, as visually arresting as Brother Brontë, above, but 180 degrees in the other direction. (Bonus points for the pointillist lettering.)
Come to think of it, it’s 180 degrees from Dominion, too. Is it possible to have a 540-degree compass? Na apparently does — awesome.
• • •
2025’s favorites folder contained more than four hundred examples by the end of the year — a hundred more than 2024 — and represented a huge variety of titles, publishers, and design styles. (Significantly different from last year, too — interesting.)
It was a huge task to whittle the selections down; 400 to 300 was relatively easy, 300 to 200 more difficult, and those last hundred involved making hard choices between covers I really liked.
One thing helped: as mentioned in the intro, I worried less this year about highlighting every style, every designer, in every category — given the drama that was 2025, there was, in fact, a smidgen of comfort food involved.
But oh, that comfort food. Michelin starred.
Another help: my column at Spine.2Vyki Hendy, Spine‘s publisher, deserves a special thank you for that opportunity. It’s reminded me of the gems that exist in an area that doesn’t get enough attention — outstanding, often great, book covers I’m more than happy to find the time to celebrate. While I enjoyed casually perusing University Press designs in the past, they didn’t live under the same microscope that they did starting last June (and will continue to). Adding more University titles is an ongoing bonus, and several of those titles made it into this list; perhaps egotistically, I’d like to think that the exposure those titles received allowed them to make others’ lists, as well, a benefit for all. Nice.
Thank you for taking the time to spend a few minutes here today. I wish you a wonderful, successful, and above all, peaceful 2026. See you soon.
How This List was Compiled
There were fewer sources for titles in 2025 than in years past; the BBC disappeared behind a paywall, the quality of mainstream publishers continues to decline, and those articles I did read seemed to stress trends and “what’s hot” rather than actual quality. Thankfully, there’s still PRINT, Spine, LitHub, The Casual Optimist, and NPR’s Books We Love. There’s also The Guardian, which does pretty well with books; the New Yorker‘s book reviews are outstanding (although rarely centered on their design); and, of course, there’s the New York Times Book Review (likewise, although Matt Dorfman’s best designs article deserves note). If you haven’t already, when you have a moment, please enjoy some of those links— a great many more outstanding examples of book cover creativity await.
1
Publishers need to remember that not all of their customers select what to read based on influencers, what they see on Facebook, or by doomscrolling Instagram. Some of us are lifelong learners, have hundred or thousands of books, and discover by … reading. Real articles, by real people, on websites with those people’s real names on them. (Or even, occasionally, this thing called paper.)
2
Vyki Hendy, Spine‘s publisher, deserves a special thank you for that opportunity. It’s reminded me of the gems that exist in an area that doesn’t get enough attention — outstanding, often great, book covers I’m more than happy to find the time to celebrate.
To close out 2025, a bunch of disparate items for your edification and enjoyment: the usual categories plus some stuff imported from left-field. Get caffeinated, get comfy, and let’s get to it.
Please note that the photography trip planned for mid-December had to be cancelled at the last minute — circumstances beyond my control — and hasn’t yet been rescheduled. Apologies.
December’s Spine
Stanford University Press. Cover design by Jan Šabach; art director, Michele Wetherbee.
Fourteen great University Press book covers in December’s column, including the genre-bending example above. Check it out.
“Long live the Christmas card — a ritual that feels increasingly endangered in our digital age. The simple act of putting pen to paper and sending wishes inked in black or blue is, in a word of instant messages, profoundly gratifying,” Wallpaper* writes. “In celebrating this venerable tradition, we found ourselves asking: what sort of Christmas card does an architect send?”
January 1st: Public Domain Day
Image courtesy of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Duke Law.
On January 1, 2026, thousands of copyrighted works from 1930 enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1925. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. The literary highlights range from William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying to Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage and the first four Nancy Drew novels. From cartoons and comic strips, the characters Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover), and Blondie and Dagwood made their first appearances. Films from the year featured Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, the Marx Brothers, and John Wayne in his first leading role. Among the public domain compositions are I Got Rhythm, Georgia on My Mind, and Dream a Little Dream of Me. We are also celebrating paintings from Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee. [In this post] you can find lists of some of the most notable books, characters, comics, and cartoons, films, songs, sound recordings, and art entering the public domain. After each of them, we have provided an analysis of their significance.
Excellent question from It’s Nice That, discussed in a post with book designers Na Kim and David Pearson. Book covers these days are driven by trends that are all-too-fleeting — what does that mean for what’s contained within? Is “salability” all that matters?
Perhaps the question should be, “Where are we as a society, and is this it, in microcosm?”
Special Bonus #1: 100 Notable Small Press Books of 2025, from LitHub:
A reminder that press size and cover quality do not necessarily correlate — as noted in the above item, small presses might be willing to bend the “rules” more readily than the big players.
“Our guiding principles were ‘read a lot, recommend a few’ and ‘seek out a diverse array of authors and publishers,’” they write. “We were especially interested in BIPOC and LGBTQ authors and publishers, who have an even steeper climb to mainstream recognition.” Enjoy.
Special Bonus #2: Bar codes as design objects:
This short piece from type foundry Pangram Pangram includes several book covers.
CreativeBoom: Six Surprising Illustration Trends for 2026
A linocut by Emily Robertson.
Contrary to popular belief, illustration — like photography — is not on its deathbed. Despite the temptation for some companies (or budgets) to reach for generative AI, the consensus is that in order to stand out, bringing something unique to the table will be worth the effort. CreativeBoom talked to seven illustration agencies to get an idea what will work in 2026.
Special Bonus #3: A repository of mid-20th-century illustration, for research or just enjoyment: “Illustrator Zara Picken has an incredible searchable archive of mid-century modern illustration from c.1950-1975. It’s a goldmine of graphic, type, color, and texture inspiration.”
CreativeBoom‘s new font post for December includes Snowee, which is far and away my favorite: interesting, characterful (heh), and just fun — something lacking amongst the sea of Helvetica wannabes.
It’s caps-only and not great at small sizes, but given a headline or poster or … whatever, it could be a pleasant, different choice. (I love that the O looks like an olive.)
LEGO’s Letterforms
Meanwhile, LEGO features in a new project called “A2Z,” an international effort to create letterforms highlighting strength found in limited systems:
LEGO “offered an ideal blend of fixed constraints and room for playful exploration. Each brick’s scale and form could not be altered, but the grid’s size could be individually defined,” This is Colossal writes of this hand-printed awesomeness.
“In 2021, Monotype bought Hoefler & Co, and with it several families that I designed. As these families are now further removed from their origin, I want to ensure that their stories are accurately recorded,” Frere-Jones says. (Part of a series, in fact.)
The Garamonds
Lastly (for now), John Gruber’s Daring Fireball is among many who point out that condensed serifs are back in vogue, including — naturally, given the source — Apple Garamond:
It’s TrueType, but now open source.
Gruber also reminds us that Apple’s gone through more processor types than typefaces.
Special Bonus #5: Gruber also has a quick item linking to a brilliant essay arguing that not all Garamonds are created equal — ITC’s version, especially. (Which Apple Garamond was based on, interestingly.)
Hoefler & Co’s brief item is worth it for the varied examples alone.
Fonts, Pt. 2: The Calibri Flame-Out
Let’s face it: type rarely generates headlines. But these aren’t “normal” times. Headlines were definitely made when the US State Department decided that its house style rules ditch Calibri, a font chosen to be more readable — more inclusive — and revert to Times New Roman. Because … tradition? Politics? Readability?
Let’s stipulate for the moment that the memo’s drafters saw choices as limited to the defaults available in Microsoft Word. (Because … you saw that coming.)
While neither is a good choice, between the two, Times New Roman is clearly better. […] I just think it’s stupid for an institution with the resources of the U.S. State Department to shrug its shoulders at the notion that they should license and install whatever fonts they want on all of their computers. Anyone making excuses that they “can’t” do that should be fired. […]
Calibri does convey a sense of casualness — and more so, modernity — that is not appropriate for the U.S. State Department. And I do not buy the argument that Calibri is somehow more accessible for those with low vision or reading disabilities. People with actual accessibility needs should be catered to, but they need more than a sans serif typeface, and their needs should not primarily motivate the choice for the default typeface.
— John Gruber, Daring Fireball
But he didn’t stop there. He somehow got his hands on the complete memo written by Secretary of State Rubio, and it’s … surprisingly sober. Gruber comments:
It drives me nuts when news sites in possession of a statement or original document do not make the full original text available, even if only in a link at the bottom, and choose only to quote short excerpts.
With regard to today’s news regarding Marco Rubio’s directive re-establishing Times New Roman as the default font for U.S. State Department documents (rescinding the Biden administration’s 2023 change to Calibri), I very much wanted to read the original. The New York Times broke the news, stated that they had obtained the memo, and quoted phrases and words from it, but they did not provide a copy of the original.
The State Department has not made this document publicly available, and to my knowledge, no one else has published it. I have obtained a copy from a source, and have made it available here in plain text format. The only change I’ve made is to replace non-breaking spaces (U+00A0) with regular spaces.
Please do read it yourself, and do so with an open mind.
It seems clear to me that The New York Times did Rubio dirty in their characterization of the directive. The Times story, credited to reporters Michael Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz, ran under the headline “At State Dept., a Typeface Falls Victim in the War Against Woke.”
— John Gruber, Daring Fireball
Engagement sells?
Wallpaper*, a UK publication I generally enjoy (and cite elsewhere in this post), is one of many examples where a chosen narrative framed the piece. However, they did one thing to help: they introduced us to Calibri’s designer:
The decision to abandon Calibri on the grounds of it being a so-called “wasteful diversity font” is both amusing and regrettable. Calibri was specifically designed to enhance readability on modern computer screens and was selected by Microsoft in 2007 to replace Times New Roman as the default font in the Office suite. There were sound reasons for moving away from Times: Calibri performs exceptionally well at small sizes and on standard office monitors, whereas serif fonts like Times New Roman tend to appear more distorted. While serif fonts are well-suited to high-resolution displays, such as those found on modern smartphones, on typical office screens the serifs introduce unnecessary visual noise and can be particularly problematic for users with impaired vision, such as older adults.
Professional typography can be achieved with both serif and sans-serif fonts. However, Times New Roman—a typeface older than the current president—presents unique challenges. Originally crafted in Great Britain for newspaper printing, Times was optimised for paper, with each letterform meticulously cut and tested for specific sizes. In the digital era, larger size drawings were repurposed as models, resulting in a typeface that appears too thin and sharp when printed at high quality.
Serif fonts are often perceived as more traditional, but they are also more demanding to use effectively. While a skilled typographer can, in theory, produce excellent results with Times, using it in its default digital form is not considered professional practice.
I don’t know whether there’s much needed beyond that takedown. Okay, maybe this:
[Y]ou can still make good typography with system fonts. But choose wisely. And never choose Times New Roman or Arial, as those fonts are favored only by the apathetic and sloppy. Not by typographers. Not by you.
Merriam-Webster announced that “slop” is its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting how the term has become shorthand for the flood of low-quality AI-generated content that has spread across social media, search results, and the web at large. The dictionary defines slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”
“It’s such an illustrative word,” Merriam-Webster President Greg Barlow told The Associated Press. “It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying, and a little bit ridiculous.”
To select its Word of the Year, Merriam-Webster’s editors review data on which words rose in search volume and usage, then reach consensus on which term best captures the year.
Brown is the color you don’t want to be in the U.S. right now, lest you face legalized discrimination, illegal arrest — or worse. Brown is the color of the FUD the “Health Department” employs to prevent use of lifesaving treatments and vaccines. Brown is the substance, or lack thereof, the United States exports worldwide in the place of aid, education, fairness, or leadership. Brown is the color of the ink the Supreme Court uses to write opinions stripping people of their rights. Brown is the color of the flag a supine Congress continues to wave, surrendering its authority. Brown is the color of everything that comes from the stool-sample spectacular otherwise known as the U.S. Executive. And, of course, brown is today’s engagement-driven social media, a fecosystem of algorithms and AI built to exploit people for profit.
Red Scare? Been there, done that. Welcome to the new.
The Brown Scare.
[/soapbox]
Briefly: Jaguar
On multiple occasions, I predicted that JLR might actually succeed at making something interesting out of Jaguar — in the face of, well, the Internet. They’re still working on it:
The actual new Jaguar previewed by the Type 00 concept.
Alas, the world has changed around them; EVs are no longer what they were, and basing a new, ultra-high-end product line exclusively around an EV platform might not work out quite the way they’d hoped.
Frankly, the pullback from EVs is beyond stupid — ask anyone who owns one — but then, “stupid” is something to be proud of these days. (I know: soapbox. Sorry.)
What’s important regarding Jaguar at this moment in time is, supposedly, the company has pulled so far back that it fired its chief designer, Gerry McGovern.
Or not. There are questions.
Professor Gerry McGovern, OBE, in 2021.
“It’s long been rumoured that McGovern was personally liked by Ratan Tata, who ran JRL’s parent company,” The Drive quotes. “Mr. Tata passed away last year, leaving Autocar India to speculate that ‘key support’ for Mr. McGovern may have waned in the corporate titan’s absence.”
That was on December 2nd. On the 15th, rumors started circulating that the news stories weren’t correct: Jaguar has reportedly stated it’s “untrue” that McGovern was “terminated.”
Time will tell.
Special Bonus #7: How ’bout a mash-up? Cars and type: Volvo has a new corporate font, Centum, designed “with safety in mind.” (Naturally.) Dezeen has the story.
December’s Photography Round-Up
A Royal Competition
Runner-up, “Between Auroras and Dawn — A South Pole Sunrise After the Longest Night on Earth.” Photograph by Aman Chokshi.
“Rings of Fire,” lenticular clouds, Villarrica volcano, Chile. Photography by Francisco Negroni.
Nature’s annual picks for favorite science photography reflect a diverse range that’s always worth checking out. While it includes the skydiving image covered briefly last month without appropriate comment, the others delight (especially the sloth). Props, too, for the excellent web design on show here.
International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2025
Three examples among the twenty winning — and astonishing and inspiring — images:
“Morning in Dolomites,” Italy. Photography by Martin Morávek.“Shiprock,” New Mexico. Photograph by Karol Nienartowicz.“Starry Night.” Photograph by Joyce Bealer.
The rules of the competition state that all images must be taken by the photographer and AI-generated images of any kind are prohibited. Photographers are required to edit the images themselves as the competition “consider[s] this part of the art of landscape photography.” Nice.
I remember lying on my back on the rocks by the Maine beach where I grew up, watching with wonder at the natural display. It’s a pleasure to revisit, however vicariously.
Otherworldly Forest Photos
Photograph by Michelle Blancke.Photograph by Michelle Blancke.
“‘I’ve always been fascinated by the idea that our perceived reality is shaped by our minds and reflecting our inner world,’ says artist Michelle Blancke, whose ethereal photographs of trees, glens, and foliage invite us into a familiar yet uncanny world,” writes This is Colossal. Great stuff.
Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025
“Now Which Direction Is My Nest,” United Kingdom. Photograph by Alison Tuck.
At MacFilos, Andrew has a new piece of kit — an “unexpected trade deal benefit” — that’s capable of making all his images everything he’s ever dreamed of:
AI image generated by Andrew Owen-Price.
“May we all remain capable of laughing and smiling through these turbulent times,” he writes. Yes, please!
The AIGA’s book design competition has been around for 101 years now — and every year, it’s a pleasure to explore the great work featured within. This year, the jury “had the unique opportunity to view 523 entries from practitioners working in the book design field. It is encouraging that designers continue to be interested in this medium and are currently developing new ways of working with publishers and printers to push our discipline further,” said chair JP Haynie.
In order to be eligible, submitted designs had to have been published and used in the marketplace in 2024. Like last year, the winners were announced in October.
I’m sorry to be running late on this coverage, but as always with 50 Books | 50 Covers, it’s absolutely worth taking the time to go through the gallery and appreciate the dedication to craft shown within. (It just took a little longer than usual to share.)
Twenty titles are highlighted below. Taking a page from my Spine column, I’m including links to each book’s page so you can explore further. The titles are in alphabetical order.
Note: As with all posts here on Foreword, click the title to get to a dedicated page with a wider text column and, more importantly, bigger images.
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
Many layers of Flattery deserved here.
Unfortunately, several of the individual AIGA gallery pages contain nothing other than the book and some rudimentary information. This is one.
Cover design by Pouya Ahmadi; art by Tanya Aguiñiga; photography by Gina Clyne.
Two specific shout-outs here: this issue’s title, AlieNation, and those flaps. It’s not the first time I’ve seen those large reverse flaps, but here done oh-so-well; there’s useful text hidden in those areas and dynamic photography (art, really) on the “surface.”
It’s fantastic to see journals in these awards, too — an underrepresented category, to be sure.
Book design by John Key.Book design by John Key.Book design by John Key.
One of the best things about the 50 Books competition is that it’s about the whole project, not just the cover. We get to see interior designs like this one, designs that are interesting and contributory to the mission of the title — which, when the title is about a designer, a high bar indeed.
Wading into this minefield — even as a book designer — could be an issue, to put it mildly. This one’s got just the right character, leaning into the great (and perfectly cropped) image, simple-yet-effective use of color, and large text to, um, score a lot with a small input.
Billed by The Washington Post as “riding a unicycle up and down a set of Escher staircases,” this novel deserves a cover design that’s not quite what’s expected.
As I mentioned above regarding 50 Books, one of the great things about 50 Covers is that we often get to see not only the cover image but the jacket as a whole.
Jacket design by Jennifer Griffiths.
The cover is awesome, a juxtaposition in just the right way. But the jacket as a whole is more complete, more contextual, and in this case, calmly supportive of the more provocative front cover.
I’m surprised that this style of vignetting isn’t used more often, using both the light area to draw the viewer’s attention to the title and the dark areas as a holding area for other necessary text. Falls into what I like to call, “simply, elevated.”
This title has an interesting cover, yes, but it’s the highly competent interior design that really caught my eye:
Book design by Alexandra Folino.Book design by Alexandra Folino.
With the wealth that is Glamour‘s history to pull from, the designer here has wisely used that content to elevate this title beyond simple spreads to something truly compelling. Well done.
Another great cover — the textures rock, the colors hit hard, the title text just right — backed up with a complimentary jacket:
Jacket design by Lynn Buckley.
It was probably tempting to load up the design, possibly even with visual puns as bad as my descriptions, but instead it supports perfectly. Nice.
There is a link for this title, but it’s another sadly lacking any description.
Book design by Andy Baron, Robert Williams, and Sarah Moffat.
The only title to get four images in this post. “Simply right,” taken to the next level.
Book design by Andy Baron, Robert Williams, and Sarah Moffat.Book design by Andy Baron, Robert Williams, and Sarah Moffat.
Oh, and the interior:
Book design by Andy Baron, Robert Williams, and Sarah Moffat.
Books on graphic design can miss the mark surprisingly often, either through trying to hard and thus overwhelming the content or by attempting to let the content be the star in such a hands-off way that the book design winds up detracting. Here, every part of this supports with respect, with style, and with a smile. A real highlight.
“Screw it, we’ll just make it awesome.” (The title is Chilean, by the way — and apparently awesomely-written, as it’s the first work to be awarded the three most prestigious Chilean literary awards.)
Another unfortunately-blank AIGA gallery page, but here’s a link in case it’s been temporally teleported somewhere important.
Cover design by Mike Tully and Cat Wentworth.
One of those photographs that doesn’t quite do justice. Exploring a little more yields rewards:
Cover design by Mike Tully and Cat Wentworth.
“Architecture is the perfect form on camouflage,” the description reads — and the book itself pulls a real varnishing act, inside and out.
The second journal on this list, by the way. Nice to see.
Cover design by Allan Espiritu, Kevin Kernan, and Jazel Panagsagan.
Treating the title (blind embossing and clear matte foil stamping) as reflective of the rising sun background is … genius. It’s also another entry from the awesome-flaps department:
Cover design by Allan Espiritu, Kevin Kernan, and Jazel Panagsagan.
Cover design by Ben Demzer, Rodrigo Corral Studio.
It’s not necessary to slow down to appreciate the alternating, repeating covers — even at today’s drive-by speeds, it’s easily appreciated.
The becoming-familiar not-quite-blank gallery page at AIGA, but here’s a link anyway.
Cover design by Ben Denzer.
Two in a row for Ben, and in a completely different direction. Still, a simple concept done exceptionally well. (Rodrigo Corral Studio isn’t listed in the credits, by the way, hence the credit line here.)
In this episode, design whims and wins, fontastic links, a Toyota Century, and the monthly round-up of great photography bracket some thoughts on — what else? — AI, especially as it relates to art. Grab a beverage, brush, or a comfy chair, and let’s dig in.
This Month’s Spine
New York University Press. Cover design by Devon Manney, art director, Rachel Perkins.
One could argue that this cover — and title — could work well even if the word “climate” was removed. See the whole list of University Press goodness.
And check back for a special, mid-month post in honor of University Press week, Nov. 10–14.
Good Movies as Old Books, Revisited
Let’s start with something great: Steven Heller highlights the “talent and imagination” of Matt Stevens (previously) as the paperback version of his book, Good Movies as Old Books, becomes available.
Cover design by Matt Stevens.Cover design by Matt Stevens.
“My goal with the style was to try new things and create interesting combinations. Oftentimes, I was trying to do something that had not been done for a particular film,” Stevens says. Short and fun, the PRINT interview is worth a few minutes of your time.
While we’re on the subject of movies, let’s slip closer to … well, what passes for reality these days: items “steeped in human anxieties and fever dreams.” It’s Nice That highlights poster and title design for films by Greek artist Vasilis Marmatakis.
Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.
With design, much like life itself, Vasilis says that his posters are his honest reactions to the films. The same approach runs like a red thread throughout his work, each poster leaning a little too heavily into one of the film’s themes. […] In Bugonia, Vasilis consciously restricts superfluous elements and allows the frames to breathe.
— Arman Kahn, It’s Nice That
Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.
Even the font — and how it’s used — is interesting: the freely-available Churchward Roundsquare, customized with brush and ink. That and much more is discussed in this great article.
New Vintage Classics Series
It’s unusual not to relish a new set of reissues from Vintage, and the new editions of Julio Cortázar are no exception:
Also via Kottke are these posters, which evoke a certain … something:
In a fascist movement inspired by art, how does the fascist government influence the artists living in its grasp? This exhibition explores how Benito Mussolini’s government created a broad-reaching culture that grew with and into the Futurist movement to claw into advertising, propaganda, and the very heart of the nation he commanded.
The exhibit features “some of the best posters produced during the worst period in modern Italian history.” See more.
Special Bonus #2: While we’re perusing the poster department, Archinect‘s ongoing lecture series (previously) has another winner:
Fontastic Fall
New for October
CreativeBoom‘s monthly roundup is out, and while Grundtvig is retrotastic and the three-axis variable Pranzo is accompanied by some great illustrations, it’s Jovie that I’d love to use in print project:
“Jovie’s character emerges through its soft-serif approach, which tempers traditional serif authority with contemporary approachability. Playful italics, expressive alternates, swashes, and ligatures provide designers with a rich typographic palette, whilst maintaining coherent family relationships across all variations,” they note. (Another variable-width item, too.) Great stuff.
Custom Type is Everywhere, It Seems
Meanwhile, custom type for branding is becoming the norm. In another article, CreativeBoom explains why: “Bespoke letterforms are no longer a “nice-to-have” and they are increasingly seen as a strategic necessity[.] Type has become the glue that holds their voice together,” they write.
Those letters are your brand’s voice. They do the heavy lifting, they carry personality, and they create instant recognition – sometimes without the need for any other distinctive assets. […] Typography is everywhere in a brand system – packaging, products, campaigns, interfaces. When you build your own, you’re not at the mercy of someone else’s design choices, and you get a voice that’s tuned to your values, your audiences, and your long-term ambitions.
Elizabeth Goodspeed (previously) agrees, mostly. “For most of the 20th century, branding treated typography as background, not backbone,” she writes. But now, brands are recognizing that, “[a]s a primary container for meaning, typography inevitably carries an enormous share of that emotional load.”
An exception to the rule: a type gem — with legs! — from 1971.
But, she cautions, “[s]peed also feeds a kind of conceptual shallowness. With so many studios drawing type, the market has been flooded with fonts that solve narrow visual problems but can’t stand up to long-term use. Too often, new brand fonts cling to a single gimmick while leaving the structure of the letters untouched.”
The Oatmeal, penned by Matthew Inman, has some thoughts on AI.
The new-to-me FlowingData — via Kottke’s rolodex feature — first pointed me to this piece, and it’s gotten a ton of press. In summary, Inman suggests that AI art causes a certain discomfort; that, perhaps, AI art even deserves air quotes around the word art because it’s somehow less than “actual” art.
Indeed, much of that press has been approving: a pile-on of people (not that such things happen on the internet) saying, “yes, AI art deserves those air quotes. It is less.”
One of my favorite reactions was from Nick Heer:
A good question to ask when looking at an artwork is “who made this?”, and learning more about what motivated them and what influences they had. This is a vast opportunity for learning about art of all mediums, and it even applies to commercial projects. Sometimes I look up the portfolios of photographers I find on stock image sites; their non-stock work is often interesting and different. There is potential for asking both questions of A.I.-assisted works in the hands of interesting artists. But it is too often a tool used to circumvent the process entirely, producing work that has nothing to offer beyond its technical accomplishment.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy
“Who made this?” is the right question — to start. But let’s take that a step further.
John Gruber, at Daring Fireball, quotes the piece: “[When] I find out that it’s AI art[,] I feel deflated, grossed out, and maybe a little bit bored. This feeling isn’t a choice.” Then says that he fundamentally disagrees with that premise:
I think it very much is a choice. If your opinion about a work of art changes after you find out which tools were used to make it, or who the artist is or what they’ve done, you’re no longer judging the art. You’re making a choice not to form your opinion based on the work itself, but rather on something else. […] Stanley Kubrick said, “The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good.” If an image, a song, a poem, or video evokes affection in your heart, and then that affection dissipates when you learn what tools were used to create it, that’s not a test of the work of art itself. To me it’s no different than losing affection for a movie only upon learning that special effects were created digitally, not practically. Or whether a movie — or a photograph — was shot using a digital camera or on film. Or whether a novel was written using a computer or with pen and paper.
— John Gruber, Daring Fireball
“Good art is being made with AI tools, though, and more — much more — is coming,” he says. Over the next few days, he cited some examples, including David Hockney’s art made with a Xerox machine, and then this:
Jonathan Hoefler’s ongoing series, called Apocryphal Inventions.
The objects in the Apocryphal Inventions series are technical chimeras, intentional misdirections coaxed from the generative AI platform Midjourney. Instead of iterating on the system’s early drafts to create ever more accurate renderings of real-world objects, creator Jonathan Hoefler subverted the system to refine and intensify its most intriguing misunderstandings, pushing the software to create beguiling, aestheticized nonsense. Some images have been retouched to make them more plausible; others have been left intact, appearing exactly as generated by the software. The accompanying descriptions, written by the author, offer fictitious backstories rooted in historical fact, which suggest how each of these inventions might have come to be.
These images represent some of AI’s most intriguing answers to confounding questions — an inversion of the more urgent debate, in which it is humanity that must confront the difficult and existential questions posed by artificial intelligence.
“This is art,” Gruber says, with no other text. I don’t think any other is needed.
On a Related Note
This is AI.
“The top 200 photographers requested by Midjourney users have been exclusively revealed to PetaPixel — and it’s a world-famous, still active photographer that tops the list.” I bet you can guess who that is.
This is, in fact, the majority of what Inman was thinking — or at least, feeling — when he drew out an argument on why AI art can be such a let-down, both intellectually and emotionally. The above “photograph” is both awesome and hugely disappointing at the same time.
Further Reading
I’m not qualified to speak with any authority on the state or potential future of AI, AGI (artificial general intelligence), or the continuing convergence of AI with … well, all the things. I will say that, to me, there’s a palpable sense of bubble going on; whether financial, material, or resource requirements, it feels like something is going to need to give fairly soon.
Below are several articles on the intersection of AI with life, culture, or art that I found valuable. If you can set aside a few minutes, the information provided could be helpful in the quest to stay informed:
Side Note: I’ve dropped the punctuation in “AI.” Not unlike capitalizing “Internet,” I think we’ve crossed that bridge.
Special Bonus #3: AI apparently overuses em dashes, something that has, frankly, caused me to use them less. Which is a good thing — I overuse them. But then, I am a professional. [That’s only funny if you’ve read the link. —Ed.]
The Century Coupé Concept
Toyota (the company) has reorganized: there are now three levels. There’s Toyota (the car line), for the mass market; Lexus, Japan’s first answer to BMW et al from the late ’80s and also very much mass market (if targeted differently); and now, to compete in the ultra-high-end market, Century:
Long hood, imposing “grille” — trend, recycling, or cliché, depending on outlook.The no-rear-window thing continues to grow in popularity. (For “cocooning.”) Hmph.
Powertrain is yet to be determined; the rumors suggest it’ll be available both with a combustion engine (possibly a V12) and electric drive. In the case of the latter, owners will, of course, be able to send their driver off to get the thing charged while they lunch or plot takeovers — no range anxiety here.
Century’s logo is a phoenix.
Car geeks will know that Toyota’s Century sedan model has been around forever. It’s always been badged as a Toyota, and is aimed at Japanese executives and members of state (and will, in fact, still be produced). It was joined a few years ago by a SUV that bears more than a passing resemblance to a Rolls-Royce Cullinan. Both existing Century models available only in Japan and China.
The 2025 Century SUV. That D-pillar absolutely “borrows” from the Cullinan.
Toyota has decided to make those three models into a new brand that’s just called, “Century.” It’s going to be set up with exclusive dealers, eventually be available worldwide, and compete with Bentley’s new EXP 15 (previously) and Rolls-Royce’s … everything.
And, of course, Jaguar. The elephant in the room get a mention here because it’s looking more and more like JLR made the right call in targeting one-percenters with out-there, vaguely coupe-like designs. Because if the Century SUV resembles a Cullinan, the new coupé concept looks like a cross between the Jaguar Type 00 concept and said Bentley:
The Bentley EXP15, top, with the Jaguar Type 00, bottom.
Very much unlike the Jag, which is low and could possibly be described as “sleek,” the Toyota has a higher stance; a coupé/sedan and SUV mix seems to be a new answer to the so-called “death of the sedan.” Volvo’s ES 90 might also apply here.
Bear in mind that I’m not talking about the coupé-style SUVs (BMW’s X6, for instance), which are a different animal — at least for now. It’s possible the whole class of “coupe-like things” might converge in the not-too-distant future.
That being said, a member of that new class of vehicle being aimed at the chauffeur-driven market is new.
The glass divider is to allow the chauffeured their privacy.
One more item: The old-school isn’t going quietly.
Did someone mention grille? (Lit, naturally.)Leaving the hood long behind.
Mercedes is, arguably, the best (non-American manufacturer) at displaying “gangster” qualities. Oh, and check out the awesomely-retro interior:
Note the lack of screens amongst that vintage style. And yes, velour is “in.”
Special Bonus #4: Audi poached the Type 00’s designer. His first showing is the Concept C, Audi’s return to form, called “radical simplicity.” It’s a cross between their sports-driven R8 and designer-driver TT:
Love the wheels. The grille less so (there have been dictator comparisons), and the lack of rear window not at all.
October’s Photography Round-Up
2x Film
Grays Fisheries, Bradford (UK), left standing during inner city slum clearance. Photograph by Ian Beesley, 1977.
From an interesting and moving feature at MacFilos, “Capturing the decline of industries and communities with a Leica M6”:
At my recent career retrospective exhibition “Life” at Salt’s Mill, Saltaire (a world heritage centre near Bradford, West Yorkshire, England), a man came to talk to me. He said, “You won’t remember me, but I remember you. I worked in a camera shop in Bradford, and you were always coming in to buy rolls of black and white film. It makes me so proud to think that the film I sold you created some of these wonderful photographs.”
I take this as a great compliment and a very moving one. It is one of the reasons why I decided to donate my entire archive of negatives, prints, notebooks (over 200,000 items) to Bradford City Art Galleries and Museums. I am hanging on to my Leica M6 for a bit longer, but at some point, it will be re-united with all the negatives it created.
— Ian Beesley, MacFilos
“Rocky Mountains On Wetplate Collodion,” Canada. Photograph by Bill Hao.
“The Analog Sparks 2025 International Film Photography Awards celebrate analog photography as a medium and elevate the best film photographers worldwide,” PetaPixel writes. Some excellent reminders that sometimes, the old ways are still the best ways.
Color and Pano
“Beholders No. 1.” Photograph by Li Sun.
“All About Photo Magazine unveiled the winners of its latest competition: Colors. The 25 prize-winning photographers demonstrate how powerful color can be in images, whether it’s vibrant, subtle, or minimal,” PetaPixel writes.
To be honest: at first, I thought this was a coin-operated binocular thing you see at attractions or overlooks, and laughed out loud. Alas, the laughter died away when I realized it was, in fact, CCTV — an overlook of an entirely different kind. I guess there’s a certain irony in the “face.”
The Mirror, Valencia, Spain. Photograph by Anto Camacho Villaneuva.
It is possible to recognize a Santiago Calatrava building immediately, with its soaring, often winged structures. (The World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York springs to mind, for instance.) This panoramic photograph captures two of them — nice.
A press release from Epson, the contest’s sponsor, notes that this year there was a “prevalence of ultra-wide panoramas and increasingly innovative perspectives, including very low angles, very close-up subjects, and aerial photography,” including the above. PetaPixel has more.
Birds and Wildlife
“Snowstorm,” Germany. Bronze Award, Best Portrait. Photograph by Luca Lorenz.
“The 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year gives a lesson in planning and patience,” This is Colossalwrites about this year’s contest winners (specifically, regarding the photo seen at the right in the header image) — but getting the cold shot, above, wasn’t an easy thing either. (See also: PetaPixel‘s plumagearticle.)
“Ghost Town Visitor,” Kolmanskop, Namibia. Winner, Urban Wildlife and Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025. Photograph by Wim van den Heever.
From PetaPixel‘s coverage of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 contest: “Capturing the unusual intersection between nature and abandoned urban spaces, Wim’s photograph is a haunting yet captivating image of a brown hyena wandering through the skeletal remains of Kolmanskop, Namibia’s long-deserted diamond mining town. The shot was taken with a camera trap and is the result of a decade-long effort that began when Van den Heever first discovered the animal’s tracks at the site.” [Emphasis mine.] See This is Colossal‘s post, too.
Comedy and Dogs
To round out this month’s super-long post — thanks for bearing with me — something from the light-hearted department:
“It is tough being a duck.” Photograph by John Speirs.“Bad Hair Day!” Photograph by Christy Grinton.
The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards, 2025 edition, brings us 40 … um, moments. Awesome. PetaPixel has all the winners.
“Suppertime,” winner of the Open category. Photograph by Katie Brockman.
“Good Boys and Girls,” PetaPixel barks, regarding the 2025 Dog Photographer of the Year. (In the name of equal-opportunity pet celebration, I chose one that includes cats.)
Have a great Halloween. If you’re in the US, be sure to vote, Tuesday, Nov. 4th. And, don’t forget to check back for the special Spine post, Nov. 10th. Thank you!
It’s fontastic, illustrative, and full of imagery: your beginning-of-fall design round-up here on Foreword. (And A.I., because it’s everywhere.) Enjoy.
That was not a simple photograph to set up. Awesome.
Generative Book Cover Design
How 2 Shout Media presents a how-to: 20 cover design prompts for ChatGPT. “Creating the perfect book cover starts with the right vision — and that’s where ChatGPT transforms from a writing assistant into your creative design partner.” (Emphasis theirs.)
There are, for instance, specifics on “the anatomy of an effective prompt” and how to customize the provided templates; they even provide bonus templates to save and reuse, including one to quickly iterate on previous output.
The article contains some good advice, honestly, but the most relevant suggestion — to “[t]hink of ChatGPT as [a] creative director who provides vision and direction rather than final artwork” — is buried at the bottom of a fairly long page. I’m willing to get there are more than a few (especially in the self-publishing space) who read this as the definitive how-to . . . possibly without judging the output versus what a professional can create.
This cover sample is far and away the best of the eight illustrated options:
The prompt: “Design a literary fiction cover for ‘[Title]’ using a single continuous brushstroke that forms both an abstract landscape and a human profile when viewed differently—an optical illusion revealing loneliness and connection. Executed in indigo ink wash on cream paper texture. The brushstroke starts thick and confident, becoming increasingly fragmented and uncertain. Minimal color palette: indigo, cream, with one tiny spot of cadmium red as a focal point (perhaps a bird or flower). Title integrated into the negative space using a classic Garamond variant, appearing to be part of the original artwork. Author name in small, understated caps at bottom. Overall feeling: wistful, sophisticated, gallery-worthy.”
Take a moment to compare the output with the prompt, and you’ll see the generated output ignores several of the items, but overall, is kinda — sorta — close.
The other examples not so much. But I’m not going to spoil the whole thing: Go and see for yourself.
For now, I’d suggest that book design professionals — those that make a living from the art and science that is publishing excellence — are safe. Other professionals in the industry recognize what talent is and how valuable it is, and the designers themselves can take advantage of the power that some of these models offer to help brainstorm.
That said, today’s A.I. models are gaining quality at a rapid rate. In 5–10 years, at most, publishers (and authors self-publishing) that might not recognize that they’re best served by professionals — or those who don’t have the budget, despite the recognition — will have access to what might very well be “good enough.”
From Your Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence
So, where do the A.I. engines get their training material? From you and yours, of course; to quote a source we’ll get to in a moment, “[i]n writing this […] I am acutely aware it will become part of a training data set.” Some sites, such as Wikipedia and the Internet Archive, have seen an exponential upswing in traffic — all from the so-called “bots,” programs sweeping internet content into the never-satisfied regurgitation chamber that is today’s ChatGPT, Claude, and others.1One of the reasons my photography, as presented both here on Foreword and in the galleries, is both relatively lo-res and watermarked is to preserve a sense of ownership; likewise, one of the (many) reasons I no longer participate in social media is due to posts specifically being used to train A.I. — Instagram/Meta, for instance.
Ars Technica and Pixel Envy both highlight a new program, modeled on Really Simple Syndication (RSS), designed to “block bots that don’t fairly compensate creators for content.”
To quote Doug Leeds, the founder, “A.I. companies know that they need a constant stream of fresh content to keep their tools relevant and to continually innovate.” The “Really Simple Licensing” (RSL) standard evolves robots.txt instructions by adding an automated licensing layer that’s designed to block bots that don’t fairly compensate creators for content.
Free for any publisher to use starting today, the RSL standard is an open, decentralized protocol that makes clear to AI crawlers and agents the terms for licensing, usage, and compensation of any content used to train A.I[.] The new standard supports “a range of licensing, usage, and royalty models, including free, attribution, subscription, pay-per-crawl (publishers get compensated every time an AI application crawls their content), and pay-per-inference (publishers get compensated every time an AI application uses their content to generate a response).”
— RSL Press Release
But — and it’s a big “but” — RSL is only one response to the problem. Another is to wall content off entirely, breaking one of the most valuable qualities of the internet itself: its openness.
We’re watching the construction of a fundamentally different internet, one where access is controlled by gatekeepers and paywalls rather than governed by open protocols and user choice. And we’re doing it in the name of stopping AI companies, even though the real result will be to concentrate even more power in the hands of those same large tech companies while making the internet less useful for everyone else.
A.I. organizations have not created a bottom-up rebellious exploration of the limits of intellectual property law. They are big businesses with deep pockets exploiting decades of news, blogging, photography, video, and art. Nobody, as near as makes no difference, expected something they published online would one day feed the machines that now produce personalized Facebook slop.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy
“One thing that might help, not suggested by Masnick, is improving the controls available to publishers,” Heer writes, going on to discuss the new RSL standard proposal and what it might do to help. But, in the end, he’s not optimistic:
I simply do not know how much control I reclaim now will be relevant in the future, and I am sure the same is true of any real media organization. I write here for you, not for the benefit of building the machines producing a firehose of spam, scams, and slop. The artificial intelligence companies have already violated the expectations of even a public web. Regardless of the benefits they have created — and I do believe there are benefits to these technologies — they have behaved unethically. Defensive action is the only control a publisher can assume right now.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy
Yeah.
Special bonus #1: From the you’ve-trained-it-so-enjoy-A.I.-for-fun department,Kottke introduces us to generativ.design. “I wore out the “randomize” button on each of these,” he writes. (Via the new-to-me sidebar.)
Prefab Design
Meet fabricá, a new hair care company, whose identity ticks all the boxes: it’s trendy, eco-friendly, and well put-together:
But there’s a catch: fabricá doesn’t exist — at least not yet. It’s a fully-formed identity, available now at Brands Like These, a new prefab identity outfit from Lyon&Lyon.
Now I’ll admit: at first, this seemed like a Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe thing,2Yes, I grew up listening to Car Talk. something that we all had a chuckle over before allowing it to shuffle into the background, readily available for use as a pithy line whenever we needed it: “Ha, we got Lyin’ and Lyin’ selling your precious startup canned … stuff.”
Unfortunately, it’s not a joke.
When Elizabeth Goodspeed, of It’s Nice That, got thinking about it, she had lots to say. “In a good design engagement, the back-and-forth between company and designer pushes the company itself to sharpen what it is; the ‘friction’ people complain about is also the juice that makes the work exciting.” (I find this true in editorial and publishing work, certainly.) But there’s a warning, too:
If this cart-before-horse approach takes hold, it won’t just change how companies buy branding, but how designers make it. The skills a designer needs shift from listening and refining to cranking out polished shells that could plausibly fit anything. […] Even if sites like BLT only sell a brand once, the more ambiguous the design, the more it risks echoing a dozen others (and collapsing under trend fatigue). These models also threaten to hollow out the middle of the industry. We’ve seen this pattern before: bookstores went from indie shops and regional chains to Amazon or your local holdout; music from affordable CDs to either $50 LPs or all-you-can-stream. Branding may be headed for the same split – prefab kits at the low end, ultra-expensive bespoke at the high end, and little in between. And if prefab becomes the norm, it’s hard not to imagine the next step: why should these kits even be designed by humans? Once clients are trained to buy a look off the shelf, there’s little stopping A.I. from flooding the market with pre-packaged “brands” generated at scale.
They have several, but my favorite is not dissimilar to the above, a new face called Urbolyt, a variable “that represents a clash between geometric rigor and organic forms.”
Zelow Studio’s Nature
Pixel Surplus brings us a new — and free! — variable grotesk typeface called Nature, available in a variety of styles.
CreativeBoom’s 50 for 2026
The vast majority of these are, basically, Helvetica; like Nature, the simple sans serifs are what’s in right now. (Sigh.) However, there are some gems on the list, and I’d like to take a moment to highlight an absolute favorite: Freight.
Freight is a collection of integrated typefaces ready to add unique style to any design project. What Joshua Darden started as a serif family inspired by the warmth and pragmatism found in 18th-century Dutch typefaces became The Freight Collection and now ranges across multiple weights, widths, and optical sizes — from Big to Display, Text, Micro, Macro, Sans, Neo, and Round — all of which include companion italics. That’s 192 fonts that have the ability to be bold and daring just as easily as they can be quiet and unassuming.
— freightcollection.com
I’ve used Freight in a variety of book projects and the breadth of options available always satisfies. It’s referred to as a superfamily: from the standard Text and beyond-excellent Neo (a sans with style), there’s an option for going Big and even two — Micro and Macro — best used at small sizes (readable footnotes!).
I cannot recommend more highly. Indeed, I could only take one font family with me to a desert island, I’d take Freight.
Illustrations Open Doors
Illustration Awards 2025
CreativeBoom: “From playful packaging to poignant explorations of identity, the World Illustration Awards 2025 showcase the breadth of contemporary illustration. With over 4,700 entries from 85 countries, this year’s winners reveal how artists are shaping how we see, think and connect.”
One of the overall winners is this great poster:
Léane Ruggli – RTD’s Cocktail Campaign
Book covers (adult and children’s):
Jennifer Dionisio – The Talented Mr RipleyJenya Polosina – The Country of the BlindCamila Carrossine – The Girl, the Ghost and the Beetroot Forest
Site Specific:
Ren Kyles – Pride mural in Wilsonville, Oregon
The awards underline “how illustration continues to thrive as a medium of both beauty and urgency”: from packaging that delights to books that challenge taboos, the winning works reveal the versatility of illustrators working today.
See the whole list of winners and commended artists at the WIA 2025 Online Showcase, including interviews and insights into their creative process.
Illustration for Branding
Another CreativeBoom article suggests that, “[f]rom murals to motion, illustration is starting to reassert itself in advertising,” because “illustration still offers unique advantages. Distinctiveness is the obvious one because, in a sea of photography-led campaigns, an illustrated execution can […] cut through precisely because they are unexpected.”
While we’re on the subject of cats — and dogs, whose entries far outstripped those for cats (and horses, rabbits, pigs, and all the other things folks keep for pets) — this year’s pet photography contest has some pretty spectacular results:
Photograph by Mirka Koot.Photograph by Shandess Griffin.Photograph by Janneke De Graaf.
Getting my dog to stand still long enough for a photograph is nigh-on impossible; some of the accomplishments shown in these winning photographs are fantastic. Kudos.
This is Colossal: “The universe’s workings may always remain a mystery. So it’s no surprise that when peering up at the night sky, whether it’s homing in on distant stellar clusters or simply watching the moon rise, photography helps us appreciate its enigmatic beauty.”
“ISS Lunar Flyby.” Photograph by Tom Williams.“Saturnrise.” Photograph by Tom Williams.
I didn’t realize until after I’d selected them that these were both from the same photographer, but unlike some that are just (amazing) night sky, these have an almost-science-fiction quality.
’Course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg: “The Royal Observatory Greenwich’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year 17 contest showcases the best astronomical and night sky images of the year, captured by exceptional photographers worldwide,” writes PetaPixel.
Two more that aren’t quite what you expect:
“Encounter Across Light-Years.” Photograph by Yurui Gong and Xizhen Ruan.“Fourth Dimension.” Photograph by Leonardo Di Maggio.
Special bonus #4: While we’re on the subject of Earth and sky, PetaPixelprofiles Italian photographer Gianluca Rubinacci:
Photograph by Gianluca Rubinacci.
Special bonus #5: The UK’s Weather Photographer of the Year 2025 Competition list of finalists has been announced, including this one:
Photograph by Lukáš Gallo.
See all of ’em — and vote (until October 16th) — here.
Natural Landscape Photography Awards
This one’s a little different, in that there can be no generative AI, no compositing of different photographs, and RAW files are checked by judges to ensure authenticity. (Refreshing, honestly.) “The competition is designed to promote photographers looking to work within the constraints of the natural landscape and traditional bounds of photography.”
From the Project of the Year, Sápmi (Lapland). Photograph by Hanneke Van Camp.
“Cyberpunk” and “Gotham” vs. “Otherworldly” and “Forgotten”
To close out this month, I’d like to mention a couple more book projects. Let’s start with Ben Moore, whose new photo book is titled Above & Across London. As the name suggests, he found high-up vantage spots: “I’ve always loved the look of a cool, urban, cyber-futuristic world, and at times I catch glimpses of that in London,” he writes.
Photograph by Ben Moore.
Meanwhile, photographer Bryan Sansivero feels a strong pull to document and explore forgotten dwellings; his new book, America the Abandoned, explores deserted homes around the country in 200 striking images — including this one:
“The Grand Room.” Photograph by Bryan Sansivero.
Have a great October, everyone.
1
One of the reasons my photography, as presented both here on Foreword and in the galleries, is both relatively lo-res and watermarked is to preserve a sense of ownership; likewise, one of the (many) reasons I no longer participate in social media is due to posts specifically being used to train A.I. — Instagram/Meta, for instance.
Type opens up, the best designer you’ve never heard of, and photography to admire and inspire: all this and more for your August edification and enjoyment.
August University Press Coverage on Spine
Rather than show my favorite this month, I thought I’d share four of the runners up:
My favorite of the covers not in the Spine post.
Clockwise from upper left: Duke University Press, Mercer University Press, and two from the University of Washington. These are all good, but just missed being in the post because another option offered a better design — or story.
I’m highlighting these to celebrate the strong design in university work; despite limited budgets — or whatever other, shall we say, challenges universities face these days — most have realized that great design is worth the extra. Long live the University Press!
FYI, it’s at Figma, a site I’d heard of but not interacted with (it’s aimed at the collaborative market, aka “teams”); it took me a minute to orient myself. (Use the zoom in the upper right, then drag.)
In the comments at BrandNew, several folks point to the two Typewolf lists on the subject, one for Google and one for Adobe/Typekit. (Interestingly, I was not familiar with Typewolf — it was good enough to earn an instant bookmark. Stay tuned for more from them.)
That was on the 7th. On the 8th, BrandNew linked to a Google Design article on “the benefits of brands — for the brands and for users — making their proprietary typefaces open source and available to all to use, modify, and tinker with.” Google Fonts currently has 17 of them.
Lastly, on the 15th: Keep Calm and Icon. “Bettina Reinemann, Staff Experience Designer, Brand & Icons, at Adobe, offers an interesting and comprehensive deep dive into the evolution of a handful of Adobe’s most iconic, well, icons and how they have changed over the decades in style, meaning, and depiction.”
BrandNew is subscription, yes, but it’s one of the web’s subscription bargains at less than $25/year and packed with great stuff. I do wish they’d offer a free article or two within a given period of time so new folks can sample before purchasing, but that criticism aside, I can’t recommend them highly enough.
Many Thanks to … Double-Oh Who?
Joe Caroff, designer of so many things yet a so completely unknown personality, died on the 17th — one day short of his 104th (!) birthday. The Guardian has a nice obit … with this graphic:
The 2015 film by Sam Mendes, the 24th James Bond adventure.
That’s right, he’s the guy who designed that logo. John Gruber, at Daring Fireball, has a nice discussion of the logo and, specifically, its subtle evolution within the Bond franchise. (Did you know it was initially created for use on letterhead? Wow.)
He also links to a bunch of Bond one-sheet posters, a couple of which I’d like to post:
The 1962 film by Terence Young, andThe 1987 film by John Glen, the 15th.
I’m of the age to have grown up with Roger Moore, and really liked Timothy Dalton’s first film — it’s a shame it crashed and burned with the second — whose portrayal of the character has an edge you don’t see again until Daniel Craig stepped into the role.
But I digress. Joe Caroff’s poster history covers some greats, including this one:
Original 1961 U.S. one sheet poster by Joe Caroff.
But it’s a tidbit on the Wiki entry that warrants my publicly spending a minute remembering Joe Caroff: he designed the original jacket for Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead:
When I had the privilege of redesigning The Mailer Review in 2017, the first cover paid homage to the above design:
The illustration is a self-portrait by Norman Mailer. (See Wikipedia for the old design.)
Read more about Joe Caroff’s many accomplishments at Print (spoiler: Steven Heller hadn’t heard of him before 2016!) or DesignWeek.
And Now For Something Completely … Wait.
A quick drive-by here: this is a Buick.
It’s quite literally out of this world: the Electra Orbit Concept is only for the Chinese market — their biggest. The interior, especially, has more than a few overtones of the Jaguar Type 00 concept. (Which is looking more and more prescient, frankly; see previouscoverage.) Read more at Motor1 or the Autopian.
“Sedans are dead,” someone said. Hmph.
August’s Photography Faves
100 Years of the Leica 1
1925’s Leica 1, the world’s first mass-produced 35mm camera.
PetaPixel has a nice piece covering all of the many ways the Leica 1 — the first from “a tiny German camera company” — has had such an outsized influence on the huge world that is photography today.
The 2025 M11 New York Edition. You can absolutely see the family resemblance.
2025 iPhone Photography Awards
It’s time for the annual iPhone Photography Awards — along with my annual observation that the camera you have with you is the most powerful of all. And since a substantial percentage of the world carries an iPhone, the possibilities are nearly endless.
Architecture: Photograph by Adrian Beasley, United Kingdom.Architecture: Photograph by Vladyslav Vasylkevych, Ukraine.Cityscapes: A second from Adrian Beasley, United Kingdom. (I didn’t see that until after I’d selected ones to post — and decided to post it anyway.)
Special Bonus #1: “Perhaps no building in the world captures the early 20th-century art deco movement quite like the Chrysler Building, which has been an iconic fixture in the Manhattan skyline since 1930. Its grace and beauty have captivated photographers for decades. For one NYC shooter, the building has become his life’s work. Mitchell Funk has been photographing the Chrysler Building for 50 years; his images are vibrant, eye-catching, and extremely creative.”
2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year Awards, and Prints for Wildlife
“Fragility, beauty, and urgency characterize” this competition, with “an emphasis on ocean conservation and the outsize influence humans have on marine life,” This is Colossal says. (More at PetaPixel, too.)
From the Adventure category: photograph by Ben Thouard.Human Connections: photograph by Jianping Li.Impact: photograph by Henley Spiers.
On that last one: “This green turtle was killed by a boat strike, an unnatural and unnecessary death for an endangered species,” says photographer Henley Spiers. “Only recently deceased, it is partly decomposed, with the haunting view of the bare skull in contrast to the skin, which remains on the rest of its body, and the juvenile fish which have adopted the turtle carcass as a form of safe refuge. We came across this turtle by chance, a dispiriting sight at the end of a long and fruitless day at sea. I can only hope that this image acts as a reminder of the enormous human burden placed on turtles and the ocean as a whole.”
“In 2025, the crisis isn’t a virus — it’s a withdrawal of critical funding for wildlife and conservation,” says program co-founder Pie Aerts. “Prints for Wildlife is more than a fundraiser; it’s a platform for connection, consciousness and hope in a time of crisis.” Browse photos by more than 200 photographers on the fundraiser’s website. The limited-edition prints will be available until September 21.
Special Bonus #2: “The Natural History Museum in London unveiled a first look at 15 of the breathtaking photos that are in the running to win the 61st Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, including a lion staring down a cobra, a pack of Arctic wolves, and bats flying through the dark toward the camera; the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest attracted 60,636 total entries, the most ever in the contest’s illustrious history.”
2025 Capture the Dark Sky Contest
DarkSky International announced the winners of its fifth annual Capture the Dark photography contest. Winners across eight main categories showcase the best in astrophotography and demonstrate why it is vital to protect dark skies worldwide; PetaPixel has a nice roundup.
In other words, I’m not going to let you go enjoy your Labor Day weekend (here in the US, at least) without once again closing with a photograph of two of my favorite things: lupines against a beautiful night sky.
“Celestial Dance over Lupine Fields,” New Zealand. Photograph by Lucy Yunxi Hu.
Take a break from the summer heat with a Mac delight, two interesting typefaces, a discussion of Bentley’s new concept — and updated flying “B,” with a quick mention of the other double-R — and, of course, some great photography. Better still, we close out with a guaranteed smile.
’Cause we need more smiles these days.
July’s Spine Post
July’s University Press Coverage has already been posted. My personal favorite of the bunch:
Yale University Press. Cover design by Jonathan Pelham; art direction by Rachael Lonsdale; image is an adaptation of Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon Crossing the Alps.
While we’re on the subject of darn near perfect, Marcin Wichary — he of the now-sold-out Shift Happens fame, not to mention The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan — has gifted the world with another absolute gem:
Frame of Preference (Screenshot)
If you’re a Mac geek, whether a software history buff, or a just grizzled veteran, set aside a few minutes to take this trip down memory lane. There are 150 tasks to complete (!), five extra Easter eggs, great Mac hardware and software, and some of the best web programming extant. Enjoy!
ATC Identity Program Upgraded
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy celebrates its hundredth anniversary this year, and took advantage of the occasion to update its logo and identity system for the next hundred years.
Previous logo (left) and new (right).
The logo is a combination of a mountain peak, the AT symbol, a trail shovel, leaves (“growth and diversity”), and a holding shape (“protected ecosystem”); while overcomplicated in explanation, in practice it’s warm and friendly at first glance yet has depth for folks who know the Trail.
The blur and grain, highlighted against the beautiful scenery the AT is known for.The new logo against one of grain/blur backgrounds.
I’ll have to guess as to whether it’s actually “good for BookTok.”
July’s Font Finds
Karel, by Typonym
“Inspired by glyphs on a mid-century Prague plaque, Karel synthesises historical discovery with contemporary invention. Developed for brand messaging and retail identity, it includes alternate figures to vary the level of stylisation,” CreativeBoom writes.
Details on some of the glyph choices.Different versions are available, allowing you to match style with project.
“A constructivist condensed sans, [that,] in every case stands apart from the multitude of neo-grotesque alternatives,” Typonym writes. (Great company name, by the way.)
Penguin Inclusive Sans, with Olivia King
We’ve covered Inclusive Sans before, but to recap, it’s awesome, it’s free, it’s open-source, and as of February, it’s available at Google Fonts for anyone to use. So, guess who has adapted it into something new? (Okay, header spoiler, but still.) No one less than a publishing heavyweight: “A bespoke typeface for Penguin Books, uniting brand heritage, accessibility, and contemporary design to create a versatile typeface for its global publishing house,” creative director Olivia King writes.
Some historical images, worth including just for the penguin reading in the chair — feet up, natch.
“For 90 years, Penguin has been committed to making books for everyone. Its iconic sixpenny paperbacks revolutionised access to stories and knowledge, making reading more inclusive and affordable. Staying true to this spirit of inclusion, Penguin commissioned a custom version of Inclusive Sans — an accessible typeface — to serve as its primary brand font across its global publishing house.”
— Olivia King, Creative Director
Another item included “just ’cause” — mostly for the science fiction illustration.Included in the character set are glyphs for the Penguin.
“We transitioned Inclusive Sans from a Grotesque to a Humanist foundation, adding playful flicks and flourishes to create a sense of movement and approachability[;] whether used in a refined, understated way or in strong, confident applications, the typeface offers flexibility and distinctiveness.” Marketing speak, sure, but speaking to the applications rather than past them.
Penguin’s footprints as arrows: says something positive, I think.
The entire page is great: well put-together, well illustrated, and approachable. And wander around the site while you’re there — more than “O.K.,” it’s example after example of work the rest of us aspire to. (Via BrandNew.)
July’s Graphic Design Two-Fer
The World Illustration Awards 2025 Shortlist
From the book covers category, Ripples on the Lake by Becca Thorne.
“The Association of Illustrators has unveiled those in the running for this year’s World Illustration Awards, featuring 200 standout projects from over 4,700 entries worldwide. From editorial brilliance to site-specific design, it’s a showcase of illustration at its most imaginative,” CreativeBoom writes. It’s books and editorial to animation and product design — a cornucopia of illustrative goodness. Check it out.
Designer as Influencer
More than slightly NSFW — while actually about work. Read wherever you’re comfortable.
“As social platforms reward visibility, creatives are increasingly expected to make their practice public. Designers are no longer just making work; they are the work. But what started as promotion now risks swallowing design itself,” It’s Nice That writes.
Yet another reason to avoid social media … says the old guy who reads web pages published by actual individuals (and sticks to blogging). Still, very much worth a read.
Special Bonus Two-Fer. #2: From PetaPixel, DuckDuckGo, my search engine of choice, can now filter out AI images from search results. (It’s a simple toggle.) Nice.
Let’s just get this out of the way: the brutalist automobile is officially a trend.
The new EXP15 with a 1930 Speed Six.
Yes, you’ve seen that shape before — and that time, I asked y’all to hang on see what happens. This time, I’m less confident it will turn out well:
The EXP15, top, with the Jaguar Type 00, bottom.
The Jaguar is both more compelling and fresh — it’s somehow more, yet with less detail. Interestingly, Jag is trying to reposition itself in the Bentley space (including comparative pricing), preferring to move upmarket rather than compete with the likes of BMW or Mercedes.
It’d be quite the coup for Jaguar to leap in (sorry) and take charge.
Enough about Jaguar. Some more photographs/renders of the Bentley:
Arguably the best angle, somewhat hiding the EXP15’s SUV-esque size.The interior is better than the exterior, with some Bentley traditions intact. (Yes, the concept is a three-seater: the passenger seat was eliminated in favor of the pampered purebred.)The dash is all screens, yes, but not necessarily obviously so — something likely to age better than the iPad-on-dash approach.
Lastly, from the rear:
Wait. I’ve seen that look somewhere else.Oh, yeah, the Volvo ES90. (Itself riding at SUV height.)
I apologize for not being more positive on this one; I’ve been down on the Volkswagen Group in general for a while, and it makes me sad that, with their flagship brand, nothing in their new concept suggests they’re trying to reverse the trend.
Coverage: “This is What the Future of Bentley Will Look Like,” from Motor1; “The Bentley EXP 15 brings the bling and delves into tomorrow’s luxury automotive experience,” from Wallpaper*; and “Bentley Is Showing Jaguar How To Take A Luxury Brand Into The Future With The New EXP 15 (IPSO Fatso),” from The Autopian. (Apologies also for the three differing headline capitalization styles — blame the sources.)
Also worth reading: The Autopianquestions whether the new “Autobrutalist movement” — where I got the term — can be stopped; and Motor1 has not one but twoitems asking readers to give Jaguar a chance. (Probably unrelated.)
But wait: there’s another reason I’m down on Bentley right now.
The New Bentley Logo: Style over Substance
The five versions of the “winged B” logo, in order: 2025, 2002, 1996, 1931, and 1919.BMW called light “the new chrome.” Bentley absolutely gagged on it. At least the infamous Flying B is still there — hood ornaments are few-and-far-between these days.
When you’re Bentley, you shouldn’t be chasing trends, you should be leading them. Style over substance is nothing less than a mistake.
Also, because everyone else has one:
The flat version.
This new version was done in-house, the wrong choice on every level; this isn’t a time to save money. Another sad moment: the storied history of a brand like Bentley, running on the equivalent of a flat tire. (Perhaps even the rim. Trailing sparks.)
Special Bonus #5: In case you’ve never seen it, Paul Rand’s 1966 proposal for a redesign of the now-iconic Ford logo:
The Autopian has a nice piece on this.
July’s Photography Faves
Astronomy Photographer of the Year Shortlist
“Awe-inspiring scenes of the Milky Way, dancing aurorae, and serene galaxies all feature on the shortlist for this year’s ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year,” PetaPixel writes. Indeed:
“Blood Moon Rising Behind the City Skyscrapers,” Shanghai. Photograph by Tianyao Yang.
The competition is run by Royal Observatory Greenwich, supported by ZWO and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
“The Last Mineral Supermoon of 2024,” Delhi. Photograph by Karthik Easvur.
See the other 28 on the shortlist here. The winners will be announced in September, so stay tuned.
Abstract Fireworks
Every year, photographers across the world flock to fireworks displays, something that’s never interested me — until now:
Photograph by Bryan Szucs.
PetaPixel takes a moment to self-congratulate here, and I think they’ve earned it — although it’s good to note that the original post cites This is Colossal. (And that PetaPixel did a poor job with the cite in that original story, using only Colossal’s photography tag rather than an easily-found, specific link. Shame on them.)
Anyway, photographer Bryan Szucs took the defocusing idea and absolutely ran with it:
Special Bonus #6: Apple filed a fascinating image sensor technology patent last month, which describes a stacked image sensor with vast dynamic range and very low noise. PetaPixel has the story.
Unbuilt Frank Lloyd Wright
Okay, officially these are renders, not photographs. Still:
Trinity Chapel. Image by David Romero.
“Hooked on the Past emerged from the intersection of two personal passions: the history of architecture and the fascinating world of computer-generated imagery,” Romero tells This is Colossal.
Gordon Strong Automobile Objective. Image by David Romero.
Wright was ahead of his time in that he pushed material science to make a concept, shape, or cantilever work (often demonstrated in the maintenance and repair bills); his unbuilt projects demonstrate what could have been, and there’s nowhere better to imagine those than in generated imagery.
“Ultimately, it’s not the equipment that creates the magic. It’s the connection with the dog, the timing, the light, and the intention behind every shot. The gear just helps bring that vision to life,” photographer Caludio Piccoli tells PetaPixel.
Photograph by Caludio Piccoli.
I could easily repost every photograph from the story; they’re all great. Just go read it instead.
City Cats of Istanbul
To close out this month, well, the title says it all:
It’s hard to believe that 2025 is half over — but at the same time, the amount of water under the bridge in the first half of this year is quite astonishing. For those of us in the United States (indeed, worldwide), this year seems to rival the pandemic for necessary use of the word, “unprecedented.”
Therefore, your monthly dose of sanity great design and photography awaits. Enjoy.
University Presses Coverage on Spine
Spine is a regular stop for book designers everywhere. The site’s interviews with designers, authors and illustrators and especially their monthly book design faves are all items not to be missed; they do, in fact, live up to the tagline, “how books are put together.”
Unfortunately, their “Uni-Press Round Up” — Uni, of course, being English for University — has been MIA since the columnist left in 2021. So it was a great honor when Spine editor Vyki Hendy accepted my offer to republish my best of the Association of University Presses (AUPresses) Show 2025. (Indeed, Spinerepublished this year’s Foreword post in its entirety.) But that’s just the beginning: she asked me to take over the column, too.
I said “yes” without a second thought.
It’s important to me that I share a word or two about why: simply put, I believe that university presses worldwide deserve celebration. Part of it is the political atmosphere in the US recently, sure, but conservatives have been targeting higher education for a minute now. (See New College of Florida, “where education goes to die.”)
It’s more that I feel that university presses are the unsung hero of the publishing world. Titles are often complicated and difficult to visualize, and limited budgets often make it difficult to attract talent for great book design. An opportunity to highlight the best is not to be ignored.
Please head on over to Spine to enjoy the books I gathered for the first post, covering titles published in May and June of this year. But I’d like to call out a couple of favorites here:
University of Texas Press. Cover design by Lauren Michelle Smith, art director Derek George. Cover image, “Hybrid Paper Gods & Queens,” by Julius Poncelet Manapul.
Yale University Press. Cover design and illustration by Sarah Schulte, art director, Dustin Kilgore.
A difficulty subject — and book design brief, surely — treated with classic style and an illustration showing an uncommon depth of meaning.
It’ll be an incredible pleasure to keep a closer eye on the university press publications with monthly round-ups of the best new work. I hope you’ll read the column regularly.
The Creative Independent: “On Developing a Solid Foundation,” with Creative Director Arsh Raziuddin
Book designer extraordinaire Arsh Raziuddin has been featured here before — this year’s Favorite Book Covers post, for instance — but it turns out she wears many hats indeed, as this interview at The Creative Independent proves.
An insightful highlight:
Book covers taught me how to pay attention to detail both in terms of the story and the design. What’s different between magazine work and book design is that with a book, you’re often condensing a 300-page story into a single cover; whereas editorial work might involve an 800- or 1,000-word essay that you need to visualize. It’s so difficult to capture the essence of an entire novel in one image — something really has to stand out. […] It feels a bit daunting to fit an entire novel in a 6×9-inch rectangle.
— Arsh Raziuddin, wearing her book design hat
Her cover design for Salman Rushdie’s Knife is discussed, an extraordinarily good example of, as she puts it, “not overcomplicating”:
Book design by Arsh Raziuddin.
It’s a treat to see some rough drafts:
Book design by Arsh Raziuddin.
“We’re [that is, book designers] all trying to make something sexy or loud without a solid foundation,” she says. “We all need to collectively focus on craft.” Perhaps like this fantastic book cover, this time for a Pulitzer prize-winning poet:
“The 2025 PRINT Awards Honorees in Advertising & Editorial Cut Through the Noise,” the headline reads. Yes.
It’s Nice That asks, “Are social media pile-ons stifling the creative industry?” Yes, I’d argue, and for more than just rebranding exercises. Read the article to see if you agree.
“Jon McNaught has created more than forty covers for the LRB as well as artwork for books, diaries, posters and campaigns.” Follow his process.
“Chris Ware, known for his New Yorker magazine covers, is hailed as a master of the comic art form.” Follow his process.
“Designers needed a book about their history that didn’t exist… so I wrote it myself,” Tom May says at CreativeBoom.
Archinect covers the best of the spring lecture series posters. (Previously.) Building an intersection of design and architecture: when getting a lecture is a good thing.
AI: Desctructive to Books — Literally
Photograph: Alexander Spatari via Google Images.
Anthropic destroyed millions of print books to build its AI models, Ars Technica reports.
On Monday, court documents revealed that AI company Anthropic spent millions of dollars physically scanning print books to build Claude, an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT. In the process, the company cut millions of print books from their bindings, scanned them into digital files, and threw away the originals solely for the purpose of training AI[.]
— Benj Edwards, Ars Technica
“Buying used physical books sidestepped licensing entirely while providing the high-quality, professionally edited text that AI models need, and destructive scanning was simply the fastest way to digitize millions of volumes,” they continue.
The icon as of MacOS 16/26 Beta 2 (right). And the title, uh….
Calling it only “slightly better” — something I agree with — John Gruber’s Daring Fireballmakes a strong case for something that sticks closer to tradition, with this specific example:
“Glasses it up but keeps it true to itself.” — Gruber. (Icon by Michael Flarup.)
I have a feeling that Apple is going to keep the outline; generally, when it does these redesigns, the rules tend to overrule, if that makes sense.
This is Colossal: “Architectural Symmetry in Europe’s Subways,” Say no more.
Richard Wagner station, Berlin. Photograph by Theibault Drutel.
Brilliant on many levels, but it’s the dual trains-in-motion that takes it over the top. Another:
Solna Centrum station, Stockholm. Photograph by Theibault Drutel.
“Each city approaches underground architecture differently, mixing brutalism, futurism, minimalism, or sometimes unexpected touches of ornamentation,” the photographer says. Read the article or visit Theibault’s website.
Nat Geo Traveler Photo Contest 2025
PetaPixel covers the National Geographic Traveler (UK) contest, honoring the best travel images by photographers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. My favorite:
“Tree Tunnel,” Singapore. Photograph by Scott Antcliffe.
“I found this spot and was struck by the sheer density of the foliage — vines had completely enveloped the supporting walls, but the view of the Yellow Rain Tree at the top was simply stunning and utterly mesmerizing,” the photographer says.
See more. (NatGeo’s website has an article, but it requires you to enter your email to read. Boo.)
National Park Foundation Celebrates America the Beautiful
The National Park Foundation has announced the winners of its 2024 Share the Experience photo contest — the official competition of America’s national parks, for amateurs only. Still:
History & Heritage category winner, Cape Cod National Seashore. Photograph by Matt Ley.
Doesn’t really require too much explanation: brilliant stuff. It may be little more than a fluff piece, but the photography makes it worth visiting this PetaPixel post. (Reminds me, on some level, of the tongue-in-cheek mentality of the ’60s TV series.)
Full Circle: 2.1 Trillion
Humanity is overflowing with imagery, according to research from Photutorial:
162 billion photos are taken every month. That’s 5.3 billion photos per day. Or 221 million photos per hour. 3.7 million photos per minute. 61,400 photos per second.
94 percent of those are taken on smartphones — itself a shocking number — but there’s an important statistic in the data:
Source: Photutorial
It doesn’t take much to wonder why the US takes, on average, four times the number of photographs Europeans do.
It’s been a lovely, cool spring here in Middle Georgia; it seems that in the 2020s, springtime has had more rain and less of the dive from winter into hot that’s featured in years past. (Not to fear: we’ll be into summer soon enough.) Open window weather, we call it, to be enjoyed while we can.
That said, there’s been plenty of goodness gathering for this month’s posting: more movie/books, more album art, more typefaces, and more great photography. There’s also an excellent observation regarding design trends and a bit on Adobe.
This is the 200th post on the new Foreword, which I restarted six years ago today. It’s taken a bit to get back into regular blogging, but I’ve once again found my sea legs, really enjoy it and hope to continue for a long while yet.
Thanks very much for stopping by — genuinely appreciated.
“Good Movies as Old Books,” Again
I’ve featured the work of designer Matt Stevens before, but there’s an update to his fantastic personal project to make vintage paperback covers from movies.
Perfect — and still available as prints. They’re also now available in new book, which combines the best of the first two books (published via Kickstarter) and adds a few more … or as a set of 100 postcards, perfect for framing and scattering about on walls near you.
Special Bonus #1: Heading to Europe? It’s Nice That has “Where to book hunt in Amsterdam, a playground for contemporary book design,” listing “why the city is so known for its publishing prowess, and shares a comprehensive list of places for designers, printers, publishers, and enthusiasts alike, to check out.”
The History of Album Art
Album art didn’t always exist, Matt Ström-Awn reminds us. Utilitarian at first, it evolved.
Alex Steinweiss’ cover art for Columbia’s recording of Bartók’s Concerto No. 3.
The invention of album art can get lost in the story of technological mastery. But among all the factors that contributed to the rise of recorded music, it stands as one of the few that was wholly driven by creators themselves. Album art — first as marketing material, then as pure creative expression — turned an audio-only medium into a multi-sensory experience.
This is the story of the people who made music visible.
Reid Miles’ cover for Art Blakey’s The Freedom Rider
Well-written and informative. If, like me, you’re old enough to remember music on vinyl — or you’re one of the new generation of devotees — take a minute this weekend to appreciate the particular goodness that is album art.
I’m a sucker for fonts that have both serif and sans together in the same family — they’re incredibly flexible and perfectly complimentary in design projects. “Order Type Foundry’s first superfamily is a thoughtful homage to 19th-century Scottish typographic traditions, reimagined for contemporary design needs,” CreativeBoom writes. See more at Order.
Nadrey means “My Heart” in Bété, the designer’s mother tongue. Artworks by Ivorian artist Obou Gbais.
Described by its creator as a “typographical rendition of love,” the beautiful letterforms “draw inspiration from 90s poster fonts, combining narrow-ish, rounded letterforms with a contemporary sensibility. Its gentle curves and subtle serifs create a sophisticated softness while maintaining refined elegance.” Côte d’Ivoire-based type designer O’Plérou does the world a favor, as far as I’m concerned. See more at ALT.
Sofia Pro by Mostardesign.
Up there with Futura, from which it’s descended (see what I did there?), Sofia is one of those faces you see everywhere: “a familiar presence in contemporary visual communication, even for those who can’t identify it by name,” CreativeBoom writes. Sofia’s been updated and expanded, now available in a variable format. Spread the Mostard.
Special Bonus #2: It’s not over the top: “[r]ather than uber-pragmatic, sterile fonts, Ornamental & Title Type (OTT) is dedicated to expressive display typefaces,” It’s Nice That writes in a profile of Eliott Grunewald’s foundry. Check it out.
“Fun Fatigue”
Branding agency Collins’ approach for RobinHood, an online investing and stock trading company.
DesignWeek asks, “Is formality returning in branding?” An article by Mother Design’s Alec Mezzetti covers how we got to casual in the first place — and why we might be turning a corner away from it.
Casual vs. not-so-much — and, of course, once corporate trends become a “new direction…..”
“In a landscape of homogenous casualised branding, widespread disillusion with the idealism that birthed it, and a growing sense of insecurity, these old codes hold power,” Mezzetti writes. The RobinHood investing/trading example, shown above, now looks like this:
RobinHood, as rebranded by Porto Rocha.
The money quote, if you’ll forgive the expression: “The extreme end of this trend towards symbols of old luxury, hierarchy and tradition has been labelled […] as ‘Boom Boom’ aesthetics, which overtly embrace past eras of excess such as the roaring 1920s or, the boom years of the 1980s.”
A two-parter, here. First, let’s start with more from Mother Design:1Oddly, Mother Design’s page on Adobe, mentioned in Google Search results, now nets a 404 error. I wonder what that’s about.
That’s right, Adobe has a new logo and branding. ’Course, some of us have been using Adobe’s software for a minute — and clearly remember this:
In any case, Adobe is ignoring the trend mentioned above and heavily embracing the current-thinking, very corporate-casual approach:
And hyping the value:
This leads directly to the second part: Adobe is, once again, both flouting its record profits and raising its prices. Why? AI, of course. (We’ll save the potential monopoly position for another discussion.)
Adobe has rewritten pretty much all of their apps to include AI, making it so that many functions are better; retouching power lines in Lightroom, for example, is now a one-click affair. Others seem to be there because Adobe believes the general public somehow demands it. (The AI “summaries” of the PDFs in Acrobat, for example, are being pushed so hard it’s actually annoying, although to be fair, that’s not unique to Adobe.)
In retrospect, it’s obvious that the new AI functions have been written in such a way that we’d get used to having them … and then be forced to pay extra to keep them. In other words, you’d think that, as customers of the Adobe ecosystem for decades now, we’d somehow get to the other side of the fishbowl and not be surprised at the wall.
Adobe has introduced a new “Standard” tier that’s actually slightly less pricy, but with the AI stuff — along with iPad functionality, online access, and other features — turned off. No one who already has a subscription and gotten used to what’s available is going to want that.
Firefly, shown above, is new, and AI from the ground up, and the generative fill options in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Illustrator, plus the always-useful access to the Adobe Font collection, mean that I’m going to continue to argue that the yearly subscription actually represents a value.
That said, it’s an increasing cost that has to get passed along. I don’t like it, and I’m going to continue to say — in public, on the record — that Adobe is putting profits before people. But this is 2025, and these days, sport contains blood.
Special Bonus #3: Apple, the most beloved of all motherships, is also taking fire these days. Longtime fans will know the name John Siracusa — and, thus, know instinctively what this essay represents.
Update, 9 June, 2025:Nick Heer, Pixel Envy: “It is hard to see how one could be a fan of a multi-trillion-dollar company. I am just a customer, like a billion-plus others.”
Special Bonus #4:The Onion, May 16. “[Today, we] announced today the launch of its in-house advertising venture, America’s Finest Creative Agency.” Chef’s kiss.
May Photography Round-up
As has become the norm, let’s end with some awesome photography posted around the ’net in May.
Just a little bit “off,” in the best way
Putting the “fun” in funeral services. Photograph by Frank Kunert.
No, it’s not AI: it’s a fabulous series of miniatures, meticulously constructed and photographed for our viewing pleasure. This is Colossal has more. (The behind-the-scenes photo shows all: lots of work.)
The German Society of Nature Photographers
This annual competition is a members-only affair, but in no way, shape, or form is that a compromise:
1st Place, Mammals: “Chamois.” Photograph by Radomir Jakubowski.1st Place, Landscape: “Deforestation.” Photograph by Hanneke Van Camp.
“Like a love letter to nature, Arild Heitman weaves images together as letters into words to create a visual narrative,” PetaPixel writes of the Norwegian photographer.
Photograph by Arild Heitman.
A style that’s “more fine art than sweeping vistas,” they argue; I agree. Of course, there are some vistas, too, but with an interesting quality:
Photograph by Arild Heitman.
Architecture is another where details and point of view matter. French photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze moved to Hong Kong in 2009, partially because of what he describes as “verticality,” something the Chinese city certainly has in abundance.
“44.” Photograph by Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze.
“I am especially proud of my latest body of work, Echoing Above. I started it by shooting trees growing wildly on residential buildings in the middle of the city. While looking up to find the trees, I spotted the men building scaffolding. And by looking for the men, I discovered the variety of birds that live in the heights of the city,” PetaPixel quotes.
“Flock Over Mong Kok.” Photograph by Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze.
“I find it beautiful to see how the presence of trees, men, and birds are taking turns above our heads, like an echo in a concrete canyon,” he tells This is Colossal. His latest collection has been gathered into a book, available on his website.
Paris in Color
Jason Kottke brings us an incredible before-and-after, which I hope he won’t mind my reposting:
Photograph by Albert Kahn, 1914. (Color in original.)
“That photo is of the entrance to the Passage du Caire at the corner of Rue d’Alexandrie and Rue Sainte-Foy in the 2nd arrondissement.” he writes. Here’s what it looks like today:
Google Street View, undated.
Is it just me, or is the photograph from 1914 infinitely more compelling? Click through for more.
Looking Up
In its sixth year, Nature‘s Scientist at Work competition invites readers to submit their best photos that show the “diverse, interesting, challenging, striking, and colorful work that scientists do around the world.”
Photograph by Aman Chokshi.
For scale, look closely: there are two people at the bottom of that dish. Awesome.
“Winter Fairy Tale,” Austria. Photograph by Uros Fink.
We finish up this month with one of the most beautiful sights in the night sky: the Milky Way. Travel photography blog Capture the Atlas has announced the winners of its annual Milky Way Photographer of the Year competition. (And getting these isn’t easy: the photographer shown above, Uros Fink, hiked through the snow for hours with a 22-kilogram backpack and sled.)
“It bridges the gap between science and art, giving us an awe-inspiring look at the galaxy that surrounds us — from both Earth and orbit,” Capture the Atlas explains, via PetaPixel. The competition site includes the winning photographs, a bit about each, and camera data. Using the word “awesome” somehow falls a little short here….
My favorite gets both the sky and, implausibly, my favorite flower — in an amazing location:
“A Sea of Lupines,” New Zealand. Photograph by Max Inwood.
The annual Association of University Presses (AUPresses) Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has announced its winners for items published during 2024. The show, now in its 60th year, “honors the university publishing community’s design and production professionals. By recognizing achievement in design, production, and manufacture of print publications, it also sparks thoughtful, creative, and resourceful publishing design in the future.”
“The impressive compilation of this year’s award-winning books is evident of the commitment, skill, and craftsmanship alive and well in academic publishing. It has been an honor not only to witness this work, but to feel its impact.”
— AUPresses Show Judge Lara Minja, Lime Design Inc., Victoria, British Columbia
Entries are extensive — up to 575 this year, from universities all over the world — with the winners are separated into eight categories. Some of my favorites are listed below, but by no means all of them; this post is long enough as is.
Grab a refreshing beverage, pull up a chair, and enjoy.
Please note: This is one of those posts that’s better seen in full width. Please click on the title, above, to get there. Thanks.
Scholarly Typographic
University of California Press. Book design by Kevin Barrett Kane.
Japanese … in cursive. Typography? Dunno, but the overall look is great.
Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson.
One of the great things about this show is seeing an entire cover (or jacket). Note here the great treatment of filing/info in the upper left, the publisher in the lower left, and how well they tie in with the author info on the front. Love the skulls, too., and even the bar code is well-handled. Kudos all around.
Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson.Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson.
The goodness continues inside, too; the contents spread is fantastic. Nice.
Aarhus University Press. Book design by Nina Lachmann Sinding.Aarhus University Press. Book design by Nina Lachmann Sinding.Aarhus University Press. Book design by Nina Lachmann Sinding.
Eye-catching and interesting illustrations that become an integral part of the design. Well done.
University of Texas Press. Book design by Erin Mayes. (See larger here.)University of Texas Press. Book design by Erin Mayes.University of Texas Press. Book design by Erin Mayes.University of Texas Press. Book design by Erin Mayes.
Essential American historical photographs, presented in exactly the right way.
University of California Press. Book design by Kevin Barrett Kane.University of California Press. Book design by Kevin Barrett Kane.
The cover is great, but that section title spread…!
Princeton University Press. Book design by Roy Brooks.Princeton University Press. Book design by Roy Brooks.Princeton University Press. Book design by Roy Brooks.Princeton University Press. Book design by Roy Brooks.Princeton University Press. Book design by Roy Brooks.
I don’t suffer from insta-buy often, but a copy of this title was ordered for my library the moment I saw it. Excellent on every level.
University of Texas Press. Book design by Derek George.
Great to see this title from UTexas (another example of why university presses are essential — in every political environment.) The great design is deserved … and received.
Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson, from a design concept by Gabrielle Gay. (See larger here.)Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson, from a design concept by Gabrielle Gay.Duke University Press. Book design by Courtney Richardson, from a design concept by Gabrielle Gay.
Fabulous cover combined with well-handled interior design, the contents and chapter numbers especially.
Louisiana State University Press. Book design by Michelle A. Neustrom.
Love this jacket, from the type boxes and general typography to color choices; a great way to handle black-and-white photographs in a dynamic way. Special mention for the author’s photo.
University of Chicago Press. Book design by Rae Ganci Hammers.University of Chicago Press. Book design by Rae Ganci Hammers.
Perfect title, handled with aplomb — the juxtaposition of the two pages, above, is brilliant.
Aarhus University Press. Book design by AM Copenhagen.Aarhus University Press. Book design by AM Copenhagen.Aarhus University Press. Book design by AM Copenhagen.Aarhus University Press. Book design by AM Copenhagen.
Good cover — the shape of the chair on the back is used well — with a fab contents spread, well-done callout pages (love the yellow), and awesome timeline design. As pages on seating go, these do, in fact, stand out.
University of Chicago Press. Book design by Debbie Berne.University of Chicago Press. Book design by Debbie Berne.University of Chicago Press. Book design by Debbie Berne.
It’s only appropriate that a book on book design is laid out well — no pressure. It’s approachable for folks not familiar with the lingo and systems, and deserving of the selection.
University of Texas Press. Book design by Derek George, with illustrations by Caroline Brown.University of Texas Press. Book design by Derek George, with illustrations by Caroline Brown.
For the Bees’ subtitle reads, “A Handbook for Happy Beekeeping,” and the design and illustrations work hard to meet that goal. Get the buzz: another deserving title.
Getty Publications. Book design by Jeffrey Cohen.Getty Publications. Book design by Jeffrey Cohen.Getty Publications. Book design by Jeffrey Cohen.
The back cover rocks. There’s also good use of “the aged look” — with bonus points for “tape” — and great typography, especially the great layout from the chronology department. It all adds up to a very well-deserved selection. (Getty Publications is the educational arm of the Getty Museum, by the way.)
Princeton University Press. Book design by Chris Ferrante. Illustrated by Roberto Abbiati.Princeton University Press. Book design by Chris Ferrante. Illustrated by Roberto Abbiati.
The wide spine tape is definitely a look this year (because it works), but it’s the illustrations that carry the day here.
Duke University Press. Book design by Matthew Tauch.
Book design for poetry is a tough thing to do well. Left Turns in Brown Study does the work and earns this win.
Yale University Press. Book design by Oliver Uberti Creative.Yale University Press. Book design by Oliver Uberti Creative.Yale University Press. Book design by Oliver Uberti Creative.
I did not expect something with this title to have standout design, but taking inspiration from money — often the very definition of great design — was a genius move. The spread above, though, proves that the book was treated with thoughtfulness and thoroughness throughout. Kudos.
Princeton University Press. Book design by Heather Hansen.Princeton University Press. Book design by Heather Hansen.Princeton University Press. Book design by Heather Hansen.Princeton University Press. Book design by Heather Hansen.
Another insta-buy. (Score: 2–0, Princeton.) I’d like to make this title required reading for book design clients everywhere.
Vanderbilt University Press. Book design by Alissa Faden.Vanderbilt University Press. Book design by Alissa Faden.Vanderbilt University Press. Book design by Alissa Faden.
With the pandemic still visible in the rear-view mirror, this title should be on the shelf in every government department, in every location worldwide (and the shelves of a good chunk of the general public, too). Great layout and good use of color, with bonus points for the contents spread, add to this approachable book — well done.
There were a stack of books in this (largest) category; it was tough not to list more than I have. Let’s dig into it, in alphabetical order:
University of Pittsburgh Press. Book design by Alex Wolfe.
Great colors, great photograph, great script on the cover — basically, the whole thing.
University of Tennessee Press. Book design by Brian Fuson.
An unexpected combination handled well; the colors and style are right.
University of North Carolina Press. Book design by Lindsay Starr.
Erasure for the win. (Irony, too.)
University of Georgia Press. Book design by Erin Kirk.
Compelling combo of photographs and title, with a great type treatment running along the right edge. Perfect texture, too. “Best available,” indeed.
Rutgers University Press. Book design by TG Design.
“Feel good” in all the right ways, from photography to typography. Have a treat.
University of Virginia Press. Book design by David Fassett.
Scholarly title meets pop culture book design. Bonus points for texture.
McGill-Queen’s University Press. Book design by David Drummond.
Book design heavy hitter David Drummond nails it with a creative hint hit at the National Examiner, America’s poshest paper.
University of Minnesota Press. Book design by Michel Vrana.
Another from the cutting edge of book design trends, and another that feels “just right.”
University of Minnesota Press. Book design by Victor Mingovits.
“Unexpected style,” the Out-In-Left-Field department said. Overall pick, surely.
Rutgers University Press. Book design by David Drummond.
Signs of a design done well, especially “the” in a shield — nice. (I might just have to read this title to test out the theory of finding anything on the Jersey Turnpike.)
University of Minnesota Press. Book design by Sandra Friesen.
Familiar and compelling while simultaneously fresh and compelling, if that makes any sense. I like.
University of Chicago Press. Book design by Brian Chartier.
Tracks perfectly.
Princeton University Press. Book design by Karl Spurzem.
If there were ever a better illustration of gaslighting…. (Also, grain. And did I mention that it’s one color!?)
University of Chicago Press. Book design by Ryan Li.
Specter, indeed: those caps could be eyes, fingerprints, pick something. Great use of texture on this one, too.
Princeton University Press. Book design by Haley Jin Mee Chung.
The unexpected choice of pink here works together with the type and illustrations to make this potentially difficult title approachable.
University of Guam Press. Book design by Ralph Eurich Patacsil.
Front cover treatment for all the wins — awesome.
University of Texas Press. Book design by Jenny Volvovski.
Stamping out. (Also, color blocks.)
University of Virginia Press. Book design by David Fassett.
Chef’s kiss collage … and title treatment.
University of Chicago Press. Book design by Rae Ganci Hammers.
Yes. Seriously, just “yes.”
West Virginia University Press. Book design by Than Saffel.
Not sure what this is a photograph of, and that’s just right for the title. Props to both the designer and art director who approved it. (West Virginia. Just a reminder.)
McGill-Queen’s University Press. Book design by Jeremy Parker.
Splattered with drops of … brilliance.
Stanford University Press. Book design by Michele Wetherbee.
Title and treatment in perfect sync, this analysis says.
Honorable mentions to Just City and London for doing cities justice; Resistant Practices in Communities of Sound for the waves (and title, frankly); The Fenway Effect for The Wall; and the Phoenix Poets Series for illustration. See the whole Jackets and Covers category here.
• • •
That’s a bunch of book design — thanks for going through ’em with me — and a bunch of great titles from university and academic presses that so often go overlooked in a world that seems to value education less and less every day. Congratulations to all for their entries, wins, and effort. See you next year!
Please note: I sometimes add updates to previous posts; this happened with both the March and February posts, below. Thanks.
In this edition of the Beautifully Briefed series: a little book and book design news, a couple of complaints, and, in celebration of April, a (gentle) shower of great photography.
Books and Book Design
LitHub 10th
Happy Birthday to LitHub, the most popular editorial book site in the world — after Amazon’s Goodreads — and a continued source of great book cover content. 36,108 posts later, they’re better and stronger than ever. Congrats.
Penguin’s 90th
Art direction by Jim Stoddart.
Penguin’s story started in 1935 with the simple idea that quality literature shouldn’t cost more than a packet of cigarettes. Despite scepticism from publishers and booksellers, when founder Allen Lane launched his publishing company he sparked a paperback revolution in the UK. Within a year, three million Penguins had made it to readers’ shelves.
— Aimee Mclaughlin, Creative Review (UK)
To mark its milestone anniversary in 2025, the publisher’s new Penguin Archive series draws from its expansive archive with 90 short books — and interesting new covers for the same.
May they enjoy another 90 years. Or many more.
Some Colossal Notebooks
From postage stamps to jetliner specifications to items he packed for the journey, José Naranja’s sketchbooks capture minute details of numerous international trips. “I’m lost in the intricate details, as always,” he tells Colossal. Everything from currency to noodle varieties to film references make their way into small books brimming with travel ephemera and observations.
Special Bonus #1:The Guardian has a wonderful story of a bookstore in downtown Chelsea, Michigan, moving about a block to a new location. Patrons helped … by forming a human chain and passing the books, one by one, to the correct location on the new shelves.
Special Bonus #2: Use generative AI to create steal fonts, too: BrandNew, which is paywalled (alas), highlights an Instagram post — which I’m not going to link to — about a dude feeding pictures of fonts into ChatGPT and claiming the generated results, a “new” typeface, as free to use.
My favorite of the comments summarizes perfectly: “That’s how humans work as well – we copy each other’s work like crazy; art history is rife with this in plain view. What AI misses, however, are the little innovations that happen over time that lead to new and incredible ideas.”
Special Bonus #3: On the subject of piracy, Adobe’s previously-mentioned Content Authenticity Initiative have born fruit — both in their major applications like Photoshop and a new, standalone app now in public beta. This PetaPixel piece has more.
The (New) Synology Tax
Starting with the 2025 series of plus-level (and above) devices, Synology will now restrict drives — spinning or solid-state — to their own, branded items, which offer the “highest levels of security and performance, while also offering more efficient support.” The pitch:
Without a Synology-branded or approved drive in a device that requires it, NAS devices could fail to create storage pools and lose volume-wide deduplication and lifespan analysis, Synology’s German press release stated.
— Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica
I’d seen this story go by on Ars, remembered that it had been predicted a while back when they restricted their enterprise-level items, and tried not to get upset about it. But it ground at me; at lunch with a friend this weekend, I went off on them a bit.
I decided to vent publicly upon hearing part of this week’s ATP — that’s Accidental Tech Podcast — wherein Casey Liss introduced me to the term “footgun.” “Synology have turned off so many of their most ardent evangelists. Just so they can sell some overpriced hard drives,” he says, highlighting some other examples of companies (Eero, Sonos) doing precisely that … and mentioning Apple doing to opposite.
But then I had a chance to hear the rest of that program. The other two guys on ATP, Marco Arment (Overcast, among others) and John Siracusa (long-time Mac guy, former Ars reviewer), had some excellent counter-arguments: 1) that we all pay the Apple Tax, sometimes begrudgingly but almost always willingly … becauseit’s worth it; 2) it’s a small price to pay to have the research of what to buy — what actually works best — done for you (plus the ease of support); and 3) that just because a company you’ve worked with for a long time changes their policies in a way that upsets or even angers, it’s not necessarily a betrayal: in other words, if you hadn’t been used to a specific approach with that company, the new setup would just be the way it works. We have to keep that in mind.
I want to be upset with Synology. I should probably get over it.
Photography, Showered
2025 Sony Awards, Again
Following up from last month, the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards winners have been announced. I erred last month in suggesting that the winners had been announced when it was, in fact, only the finalists; apologies.
Photograph by Zed Nelson.
British photographer Zed Nelson is “Photographer of the Year 2025” for his incredible series, The Anthropocene Illusion, an example of which is seen above. (See more.)
Photograph by Ulana Switucha.
Gotta give a shout out to some Canadian photographer Ulana Switucha, their overall winner in the Architecture & Design category, for The Public Toilet Project. “The distinctive buildings are as much works of art as they are a public convenience. These images are part of a larger body of work documenting the architectural aesthetics of these structures in their urban environment,” Switucha writes in a statement to Wallpaper*. (See more.)
Some of these contests get to be a bit much. Sony’s is consistently interesting, challenging, and has earned its status as one to pay attention to.
NASA Needs Our Support
Like seemingly everything in the past few months, NASA has taken some major hits — and been forced to do something it should never have to: launch a campaign to remind folks what it is that they actually do. The ISS is one, yes, but arguably the tip of a very large iceberg.
Talk about taking the long view.
Oh, and one other NASA thing: it’s the Hubble Space Telescope’s 35th (!) birthday.
“This skewed spiral galaxy, called Arp 184, is about 190 million light-years away from Earth; it earned its spot in the Peculiar Galaxies catalog thanks to its single broad, star-speckled spiral arm that appears to stretch toward us,” The Atlantic writes in this timely — and appreciated — edition of In Focus, their photo series.
While NASA can provide us with wonderful images of many worlds, for now at least, we have only one pale blue dot to share. Let’s all do our part to make sure that NASA’s role in actually keeping America great — that is, at the forefront of science and research — is recognized and supported.
Update, 7 May 2025:PetaPixel follows up on the Hubble image of Arp 184, seen above. Read more.
Space for More
In other NASA news, Don Petit recently returned to Earth, having spent a minute doing science giving us gifts. Like this one:
Photograph by Don Petit.
His photographs, taken from the International Space Station, showcase both his artistic talent and his desire to share with the wider world the beauty and fragility of this pale blue dot. (As if that isn’t enough, he touched down on his 70th birthday — fantastic.)
Hungry?
While not one of the world’s leading photography contests, the shortlist for the World Food Photography Awards did its job: it celebrates some incredibly artistic work:
“Nature’s Hand.” Photograph by Wim Demessemaekers.
Okay, yes, it’s veggies in a bowl. But restaurant-quality or even Michelin-quality food presentation is its own thing — and it’s a thriving photographic specialty:
“‘At Alchémille in Kaysersberg, Chef Jérôme Jaegle transforms ingredients into artistry. Bathed in natural sunlight, this moment captures the essence of his plant-forward philosophy — fresh flavors, wild botanicals, and pure craftsmanship. The light reveals every detail, turning this dish into a celebration of seasonality, taste and dedication,” the full caption for the above photograph reads.
Charles Brooks (previously) is back into it — literally:
“Larilee Elkhart Oboe.” Photograph by Charles Brooks.
“This formidable concept of capturing the unseen lies at the core of Charles Brooks’ work, as he photographs the small but vast interiors of musical — and most recently scientific — instruments,” This is Colossal writes.
“St. Marks Pipe Organ, Part 2.” Photograph by Charles Brooks.
The behind-the-scenes photograph posted at the link tells much, but it’s the talent that the photographer brings to the table — screen, wall, wherever — that works so very well. Once again, sir, kudos.
“Sigma’s cameras, lenses, and accessories are sure to arrive in style and come in simple, understated boxes with embossed type. Accessories, like straps, chargers, cables, and batteries, arrive in a lovely goldenrod yellow, while lenses will ship in black, beige, blue, or olive green containers. As for the Sigma BF camera, it is nestled in a classic medium gray,” PetaPixel‘s Jeremy Gray writes.
A bunch of tasty ingredients in this month’s post — from friendly identities and open-source typefaces to feel-good photography. Once past the minor rant we’re that covers the other meaning of stew, that is. Read on.
It’s Nice That on Copyright and Reuse
Elizabeth Goodspeed, editor-at-large for It’s Nice That, has a great column up regarding copyright and the current — and trending — business climate, especially with regard to copyright: it’s become the norm, she argues, for companies to mine open-source and expired-copyright imagery instead of hiring an artist, a trend exacerbated by the rise of AI. “Instead of safeguarding creators, copyright now favors whoever has the resources to outlast their opponent in a legal battle,” she writes. “Since public domain material already looks polished, using it also eliminates the time, effort, and expense of creating something new from scratch (not to mention the time spent building its associative meaning from the ground up). But why would anyone ever commission an illustrator when they can just pull something free from an archive?”
She’s done it herself:
The Murders in the Rue Morgue, 1895 (public domain). Aubrey Beardsley.New Antiquarians, 2023. Book design by Elizabeth Goodspeed.
She also points to a new UK proposal for a data mining exemption to be given to AI companies. “[I]t would lead to a “wholesale” transfer of wealth from the creative industries to the tech sector,” Sir Paul McCartney argues. (Source.) But isn’t that true of the larger picture these days, no matter the country?
Not all borrowing is the same. Copying is often more about power than propriety. When working with archival material myself, I like to think in terms of the stand-up comedy rule: punching up vs. punching down. Picking up visual motifs from a billion-dollar corporation that’s built its empire on copyright hoarding? That’s punching up. Repackaging the work of a living artist from a marginalised background without credit or compensation? Likewise, using found material for an indie zine is a far cry from pulling from the same source for a corporate client that could easily afford to commission something new.
— Elizabeth Goodspeed, It’s Nice That Editor-at-large
It is most certainly a trend in book design — but the bigger question here is one she states as fact: “[r]ather than referencing the past, designers are stripping it for parts.” It’s worth stepping back, as designers, and consider how we source — and use — imagery.
The entire article, only part of which is discussed above, is worth a read. And more than a moment’s thought.
LitHub’s great cover graphic — pun likely intended — for Mary’s attempts.
“This very slight, low-stakes request for ‘inspiration’ became an all-consuming assignment. My brain started spitting out cover ideas. And then more cover ideas. I was sure I would break through and create the Great American Finance-book-that-reads-like-a-Novel Cover,” she writes — and, better still, backs up with illustrations.
Cover design by the Flatiron Books in-house art dept.
In the end, she left it to the professionals — but the trip is absolutely worth the read. (Be sure to follow the Na Kim link, too.) Via Kottke.
“Pluckish and playful” is more than a description of the wonderfully-named Fantastic Mr. Font, it’s the description of the new identity for the Roald Dahl Story Company. (Which is, unfortunately, a division of Netflix — but we’ll leave that for another day.)
Just right. So, too, it the font’s interaction with various illustration elements:
Roald Dahl and Sir Quentin Blake — plus the new font.
The typeface was “developed in collaboration with type foundry Pangram Pangram, the font is a customisation of its existing font PP Acma, turning its already unconventional characteristics into something ‘more mischievous,’” Ellis Tree — another great name — writes at It’s Nice That.
Speaking of Pangram Pangram, let’s start there: their Lettra Mono was the standout of Creative Boom’s roundup of new fonts for February. Monospaced serif fonts are unusual, but good ones….
The italics, especially.
Inclusive Sans
CB also chose the incredible update to Inclusive Sans, which was also the subject of an article at It’s Nice That — and, better still, free, open-sourced, and now available in five-weight goodness at Google Fonts.
Love the retro style of the supporting images.
“Inclusive Sans is a new typeface from Olivia King that puts accessibility at the forefront,” It’s Nice That writes. “It’s arisen from the type designer’s research into typographic accessibility and readability – from highly regarded traditional guides and papers to more modern approaches to letterform legibility.”
Available in a variable weight, too.
Gorton
Marcin Wichary — he of Shift Happens fame — pens (heh) an comprehensive and incredibly well-illustrated article on Gorton, a typeface you’re undoubtedly seen but don’t know.
Anyone who knows Shift Happens will recognize the illustrative style. Photograph by Marcin Wichary.
“One day,” he writes, “I saw what felt like Gorton on a ferry traversing the waters Bay Area. A few weeks later, I spotted it on a sign in a national park. Then on an intercom. On a street lighting access cover. In an elevator. At my dentist’s office. In an alley.”
See also the f6 in the title image, above. Photograph by Marcin Wichary.
It’s a long post, so save it for when you’ve a minute to enjoy — but 110% worth it.
Special Bonus #3:Creative Bloq has a list of the best typography of the 1920s — “from Futura to Industria Gravur” — as chosen by designers. My fave? Gill Sans, of course.
Used in Saab’s advertising, amongst about a billion other examples.
Meanwhile, on the subject of space — and PetaPixel — a reminder that one of the most infamous photographs in history turned 35 on Valentine’s Day:
The Pale Blue Dot. (2020 remastered edition.)
Aaaand one more from PetaPixel: a book. Eight photographers documented 24 hours at the Vienna Airport, offering up more than a few behind-the-scenes shots — in celebration of its 70th anniversary:
Photograph by Jérôme Gence.
“The project was overseen by Lois Lammerhuber,” PetaPixel writes, “a publisher and photographer, who has since turned the collection of images into a book titled The Dream of Flying.”
Photograph by Ulla Lohmann.
The project was “about showing the people who use the airport as well as highlighting the staff who ensure all the airplanes depart and land safely.” My favorite shot:
Photograph by Ana María Arévalo Gosen.
I’m an airport and large/commercial plane junkie — and old enough to remember when all-access at the local airport wasn’t a big deal — so it was great to see these.
Lastly, from This is Colossal, another round of the “coincidental” style of Eric Kogan:
Special Bonus #5: Art News notes that Paul Rudoph’s Walker Guest House is for sale for the bargain price of $2 million. It’s a kit home that’s been assembled in various places, including the grounds of the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida. (It’s currently in storage in Rhinebeck, New York. Shipping is not included.)
So why is in the photography section, you ask?
Photograph by Giles Hoover.
That’s why. Check out more of my photography from Ringling and Sarasota. (The Walker images are near the top.)
Photograph by Giles Hoover.
Sigma: a new BFF?
No, that’s just BF — it stands for “beautiful foolishness,” after a line from a poem in Okura Tenshin’s The Book of Tea — but, as usual for them, something different. Something good.
Like the FP before it, there’s nothing you don’t need, bordering perhaps on a minimalism that’s … stark? No viewfinder, no stabilization, no mechanical shutter, built-in memory (so no card slot), haptic interface. But style for days, a great shape and texture, and absolutely the right size.
It’s made at the rapid clip of nine per day, because it’s made from a single billet of aluminum — shades of the Leica T/TL/TL2 (something I maintain was before its time, and discontinued short-sightedly) — except full-frame. And, of course, supported by Sigma’s extensive catalog of L-mount lenses. (Another commonality with the TL.)
At $2000, it’s the right price, too. Read more here or here or here.
Slightly more formal, slightly on-trend typography, which is fine — but the logo is clever in being both a letter and a lens. More of that just right to close out the day.
Special Bonus #6: Sigma’s CEO Kazuto Yamaki is charismatic, interesting, and dedicated, as seen in the videos PetaPixel has introducing their new HQ building in 2022. Love the library-wrapped staircase.
Update, 4 March 2025: PetaPixel has posted a YouTube podcast/interview with Kazuto Yamaki, in which he talks about the BF and possibly a new, “serious” camera to compliment their 300-600mm lens. (This is probably a better intro to Sigma’s CEO than the above.)
Special Bonus #7: TTArtisan, the Chinese manufacturer making interesting L-mount lenses — I have two, both solidly in the cheap-and-cheerful category — is about to introduce their first camera … and “interesting” is, in fact, the best way to describe it:
Purely mechanical, no batteries required, instant film camera that’s decidedly retro.
2024 was interesting in the way of the apocryphal Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Taking the time out to peruse the best of the new releases — for both book cover design and books in general — is tremendously enjoyable. Needed, even, now more than ever.
When it came time to do the years’ tally, summary, and post, the number of candidates in the favorites folder was well over three hundred: a third more than last year, more than double 2022’s.
It’s been argued that the increasing number of published titles is a reflection of publishers’ woes, including fighting back against publishing slop. (See my Beautifully Briefed series for more.) However, the increasing number of published titles means more work for the book designers among us — some of whom show, or continue to show, exceptional skill.
Consequently, this year’s list of favorite book design items has grown: up to one hundred and sixteen. Wow.
Fix a beverage and get comfy.
Please remember that the usual disclaimer applies: these are my favorites — others might say “best,” but I’ve been in this business long enough to know that there’s always another title you haven’t seen or read about. I don’t want to disrespect any of the talented book designers not on this list. I’ve tried to include design credit where I could — special thanks to the folks who answered emails with that information — and wish to stress that any mistakes in the list below are mine.
Note: If you’re on Foreword’s main page, please click on the post title, above, to view this list. You’ll get larger covers for your viewing pleasure.
• • •
My Four Faves for ’24
Cover design by Pablo Delcan.
It’s no surprise that we’re leading with an example of minimalism-as-superlative. This UK title is described thusly: “The centre of Chimera engages with a three-year field research project on the goat-herding practices of the Vlachs, a nomadic people of Northern Greece and the Southern Balkans, who speak their own language. In these poems, day-to-day activities such as shearing and shepherding mix with snippets of conversations, oral tradition and song―locating a larger story in this ancient marriage between humans and animals.”
Aside from being visually arresting, I can’t think of a better visual summary — yet still in keeping with the style of Cicada, the previous title. Awesome.
Cover design by Kelly Winton.
“[F]our generations of Eastern European Jewish women bound by blood, half-hidden secrets, and the fantastical visitation of a shapeshifting stranger over the course of 100 years,” all on a book cover, in a style that’s fresh and colorful with great lettering.
Cover design by Faber. Photograph by Juno Calypso.
Occasionally, a photograph just makes a cover — and this one vaults it to the top. (Sometimes, great book design is as “simple” as selecting great elements.) Part of a series called “the Honeymoon,” it’s absolutely the style of photographer Juno Calypso.
Cover design by Alison Forner. Typography by Andrew Footit.
Never mind the “time travel romance, spy thriller, workplace comedy, and ingenious exploration of the nature of power and the potential for love to change it all” — it’s the oh-so-dimensional title that transcends. (All that other stuff is just a bonus.)
The paper is perfect, the title interleaved with the water superlative, and the blood, which can absolutely be done into the realm of cliché, drips rather than gushes.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
The first of five appearances for Jack Smyth — tops this year — this cover speaks to solitude (and cats!) with fantastic expression.
This photographic subject is so strong, yet clearly speaks to the cloudy tenderness within. (Also, title placement.)
Cover design by Helen Yentus.
Another examples of typography-on-the-edge — but, really, the hero on this cover.
Cover design by Johnathan Pelham.
Fantastic title placement (with the perfect hint of wear), complimented by the unusual treatment of the author’s name and pull quote, this cover only hints at the story within yet holds it up.
Cover design by Janet Hansen.
I’ll admit: it’s not immediately clear how this title and cover work together. Yet they do, and it’s not just because of the (male) hand and (female) face — or striking colors — it’s more the representation of reflection, something required in maturity.
Cover design by Chris Bentham.
The rearrange-the-pieces treatment for faces has become a thing, but few do it so well. Special bonus for the selection of photograph for this UK version of the title — and great color choices.
Cover design by Charlotte Stroomer. Photograph by Kelsey Mcclellan.
Another example of the photograph making the cover — but with simply awesome typography, too. (Huge fan of the overall color scheme, too.)
Cover design by Luke Bird.
This UK title shoots to kill, perfect for a story of shooting one’s self in the back. (The Irony Dept. reports that the publisher is Dead Ink, by the way.)
Cover design by Emma Pidsley.
Sticks it to ’em in the most compelling way. (Also: “There are two things that I simply cannot tolerate: feminists and margarine.”)
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
Another UK title, this one counters the too-much-blood thing with fabulous typography and an over-the-top — well, off-the-side, really — crop. (I especially love that the top of the rook’s head just peeks above the yellow.)
Cover design by Olivia Mcgiff.
“Hair-raising,” indeed. (Check out the veins.) The opposite of queer, brown, and fat — and yet, somehow, just right.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
Few others can express so much with just a line. It sounds like a joke, something that treats the subject with something less than it deserves, but quite literally the lines on this gray background make all the difference.
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Illusustion by Neue Gestaltung.
Greeks myths, contemporary dystopian narratives — never mind that, it’s the illustration on this cover that gets the “terrifyingly talented” label.
Cover design by Terri Nimmo.
Subversive, surreal, yet “refuses to pander or be pinned down and possessed.” (Also, “Essays.”)
Cover design by Sara Wood. Art by Isabel Emrich.
Real estate agent Lexi senses a drowning, leading to … well, a novel — but it’s the artwork, by painter Isabel Emrich, that carries this cover to the next level.
Cover design by Steve Coventry-Panton.
Minimalism exemplified. While some could argue cliché, I’d argue that it’s the perfect choice: for the weary, for the curious, for this cover.
Cover design by Isabel Urbina-Peña.
The eyes just grab you — “crackle like a bonfire,” to quote one of the reviews. (They were speaking of the text, not the cover, but better words….)
Cover design by Michael Salu.
Simple and geometric, yet story-telling in the finest.
Also, the whole jacket wins. (The bar code space is below “a novel,” by the way.)
Cover design by Ssarahmay Wilkinson. Art by Day Brierre.
Containing short stories set in Lagos, Nigeria, this cover speaks to African roots yet does so in a way that causes both admiration and upset in equal measure. “Brilliant” is overused, but….
Cover design by Gregg Kulick.
“Glorious Exploits,” indeed.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
It’s, oddly, the UK version of this cover that does it for me: the US version relies on art, while Smyth’s version relies on talent. (Perhaps a metaphor for the bestseller within…?)
Cover design by Alex Merto.
Shades of M*A*S*H, certainly, yet brilliant on its own: lunatics is war.
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
“Playful demotic,” writ large.
Cover design by Olivia McGiff.
“A novel” is King. (Sorry.) Most haunting in exactly the right way.
Cover design by Anna Morrison.
The paper, the lines, all perfect — but it’s the crop that, well, sends it over the top.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello.
Labeled “perfect.”
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
This girl represents the appropriate reaction to an image-based culture, a cut-apart look in the mirror that shouldn’t necessarily be limited to the fashion industry. (That the collage is vaguely heart-shaped probably ins’t a coincidence.) Bonus points for the title repeating around the edge.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
“In a near-future world addled by climate change and inhabited by intelligent robots called ‘hums,’ May loses her job to artificial intelligence,” the description reads. Yes.
Cover design by Edward Bettison.
The illustration and type work so very well together. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Erik Carter.
Movie poster! (Also, color.)
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
With a title like that, it’s tempting to let it carry the day. Uh … no.
Cover design by Alex Merto.
The pink isn’t in halftone. (Also, the drops of drool.)
Cover design by Adriana Tonell.
A red, red rat is awesome. But it’s the way the green works — in the feet, yes, but especially the type — defines “win.”
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Not an easy title, handled with absolute skill.
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
“This book is written out of both love and hate for the world.” Nuthin’ but love for the cover from me.
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
Sometimes, the literal approach works. (Pardon the expression.) But it’s the added burn mark that makes it.
Cover design by Dominique Jones.
The red and gold, the title treatment, the complimentary blue ink, and the woman in the “o” are all fantastic. The snake, though, from scales to bite, is superlative.
“British and Black, with Jazz and Character” is a tough brief, handled here in a way that makes the title incredibly appealing.
Cover by Linda Huang.
Unusual color choice, eye-catching type, the explanation point! But, of course, it’s the illustration — and the accompanying speech bubbles — that take it to the next level. Bonus points for both the hooves balanced on the “K” and the treatment for the pull quote.
Cover design by Zoe Norvell.
That yellow, the blackletter title and unusually-spaced author play perfect — and curiosity-peaking — supporting roles to that painting. Purity, indeed.
Cover design by Jonathan Pelham.
What’s he pulling on, now? (Also, the title/author treatment.)
Cover design by Daniel Beneworth-Gray based on a concept by Daniel Fresán.
Cropped to perfection.
Cover by Suzanne Dean.
The first of three UK versions in a row: this title lights it up.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
The US version of this title was in last year’s list, but this UK version is equally strong — in an entirely different way.
Cover design by Kate Sinclair.
Another UK version, another winner. Love the typography. Bonus points for the homemade emoji.
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
All kinds of goodness nested into this one, from the title treatment to the slight fading in the tears (which continue on the back cover).
Cover design by Jon Gray.
From the green to the typography to — especially — the illustration, this cover weaves a tale from 1434 straight into our brains.
Cover design by Adriana Tonello.
The disembodied bits. ’Nuff said.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
I feel for the rabbit.
Cover by David Drummond.
Speaking of empathy for the animal: this slim volume of poetry is perhaps an all-too-real sign of the times. (The cover, too.)
Cover by Luisa Dias.
Pink Rabbit, slightly dirty: there’s a quality to this that grabs on and won’t let go. (Thankfully, it’s the first in a series….)
Cover by William Ruoto.
The opposite of the above, yet still bloody good at capturing attention.
Cover by Jack Smyth.
1968 called, with the perfect cover original of the moment.
Cover by Zak Tebbal.
“Do a cover on sacrilegious theft,” someone said. Saint Nick brought us a gift.
Cover by Holly Battle.
Hard as one might try, topping this might never be possible.
Cover by Pete Adlington.
This UK title’s cover does so much more than it has any right to. Brilliant. (Bonus points for the grain.)
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Art by Anton Logov.
Another gem from the less-is-more department. (Also, the paper texture and slight aging on the lettering.)
Cover design by Lynn Buckley. Art by Damilola Opedun.
There’s something about this that just works. Take a moment to read this LitHub intro instead of listening to me.
Cover design by Lucie Kohler.
Overstays … in your brain. Very nearly put this at the top of the pile.
Cover design by Suzanne Dean.
The energy in this cover is fantastic. But it’s what’s under the cover:
Paper art by Nathan Ward. Photos courtesy of LitHub.
The printed cover, too. Awesome.
Cover design by Jenni Oughton. Art by Noah Verrier.
Leaving aside the notion that Americans can recognize a Big Mac on sight, even when idealized/stylized — beautifully — like this, it’s the perfect compliment to this title.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.
Farcical dystopia, embodied.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Unsee the face! (Bonus points for superlative typography.) Battled with Chimera and Rough Trade for one of the top spots.
Cover design and illustration by Vivian Lopez Rowe.
Reflections, indeed. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Sukruti Anah Staneley.
“Prod the bitch that is Life and become her.” These thirteen linked stories demand a cover that leaps off the shelf and grabs you.
Every year, there’s at least one title that so incredibly well illustrates how that notion works here in the US versus in the UK, and this year, it’s this one. I really like the above — the color’s awesome, and those teeth! — and believe it’s exactly right for the US market.
Cover design by Luke Bird. Photography by Graciela Iturbide.
But for the UK market … that photograph. (Bonus points for the title treatment.)
Cover design by Na Kim.
Watercolor perfection. Competed with Chimera and Point Line Plane for the one of the top spots. (I felt only one illustration-against-plain-background cover should be at the top. Might have been wrong.)
Cover design by Jamie Keenan.
The title treatment, the ink author’s name, and the photograph alone would be compelling. But … wow.
Cover design by Amanda Hudson.
From the illustration-makes-it dept. (Bonus points for the not-quite-halves.)
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Paper and color, oh my.
Cover design by Luke Bird.
Yeah, it’s a cookbook. Who knew? Also:
Quadrille unfortunately didn’t return a request for the photographer’s name.
Bonus points for the fantastic photography within.
Cover design by Sarahmay Wilkins.
This would work perfectly well on the vertical. But it’s so much more this way.
Cover design by Perry De Le Vega.
Definitely amongst the 1%.
Cover design by Jamie Keenan.
Someone chose not to butcher. Except…. (Extra points for the apron strings.)
Cover design by Kelly Winton.
I’m a huge fan of a photorealistic collage, but this, interleaved with the title, defines superlative.
Cover design by Robin Bilardello.
In a world of algorithms, proof that creativity and talent are so very human. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Jaya Miceli.
That awesome green, the color-burned title treatment, the hand lettering, the texture — all add up to top-flight attention-getting. (Bonus points for the entomology illustration/hint.)
Cover design by David Pearson.
The swan’s pose of contemplation, indeed. (Also, color — perfect.)
Cover design by Holly Battle.
We all know a George.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
So much more than just a pet rabbit. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Suzanne Dean. Illustration by Jialun Deng. Painting by Takaya Katsuragawa.
Never mind that this shade of yellow seems to be having a moment, let’s talk about that photograph: the goal of any cover is to peak your curiosity. And we have … win.
Cover design by Diego Becas.
A collection, indeed. (Also, color.)
Cover design by Lauren Peters-Collaer.
Ink gets blotted out. (Also, paper.)
Cover design by Jack Smyth.
Never mind the brilliance in the middle — the four pull quotes are, quite literally, the end of the rainbow.
Cover design by Derek Thornton.
Cultural and emotional shifts through technology, as expressed in (cover) art.
Cover design by Oliver Munday.
At the risk of repeating myself, no one does more with less than Oliver Munday: this level of white space deserves an award.
Cover design by Luisa Dias.
The eyes are eclipsed only by the rising magic dust. (Also, screening.)
Cover design by Jonathan Pelham.
Another where the US and UK express things differently; the UK’s, above, is brilliantly simple and simple in its brilliance.
Cover design by Sarah Schulte.
While the US version is more while still “less” in the big scheme of things. A two-fer.
Cover design by Kelli McAdams.
Text blocks do. (Also, awesome art.)
Cover design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Get lost in it. (Also, the article peeking out on the left.)
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
Reflections, torn asunder yet so lovingly smoothed out and preserved for posterity.
Cover design by Tom Etherington.
Two-color, geometric brilliance, given center stage.
Cover design by Ben Prior.
“Self-seeding wind / is a wind of ever-replenishing breath,” the title poem reads, but it’s the cover that drops the ultimate clipping. (Also, placement of “poems,” appropriately.)
Cover design by Jaya Miceli.
“Heavily textured” has never read so well.
Cover design by Alica Tatone.
I’m not sure what the illustration on this cover stands for — desert, sea, paths taken or not, or something I don’t or even can’t understand — and perhaps that’s why this design works on so many levels: an enigma that requires further exploration.
Cover design by Beth Steidle.
Cuddly in just the right way.
Cover design by Kimberly Glider. Illustration by Cory Feder.
“An affair with an arborist could result in a cutting,” I chose not to say. Wait. (Also, the accompanying cover.)
Cover design by Emily Mahon.
Geometry, color, content: this cover’s been promoted to the actual story.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie. Photograph by Matt Eich.
Photograph, texture, photograph, title treatment, photograph. (Also, the subtle shadowing in the author’s name and previous title.) Another very nearly at the top.
Cover design by Kaitlin Kall.
From color to art choice, this is a masterpiece. But those bite marks … aaaah!
Cover design by Holly Ovenden.
Tripping on a quest for a Bomb: yes.
Cover design by Tyler Comrie.
Tripping on a quest for Utopia: yes.
Cover design by Alex Merto.
The eyes, the fur … and the horns. Transcendent.
Cover design by David Mann.
Something not to talk about … yet, so remarkably expressive.
Cover design by Angela Maasalu.
Never mind anything else: it’s the fingernails.
Cover design by Nicole Caputo.
Just when you think these eyes have seen it all…. (Also, the typography.)
Cover design by Alicia Tatone. Art by Shannon Cartier Lucy.
“Dryly witty” describes more than just the text within. (Also, the title treatment … and “Mormon mommy bloggers.”)
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker.
Surround yourself, feel, and bring great typography.
• • •
A moment of self-criticism, if I may: comparing this year’s list to the 2023 favorites, I can’t help but notice there’s a bit too much of the same. For myself, for my clients, and for my readers, I need to work on being too much inside a comfort zone. (Apparently hypocritically, in the 2023 summary, I commented on “sameism” being a thing.)
Meanwhile, again like last year, I’d like to highlight Dan Wagstaff’s comments over at The Casual Optimist:
A recent article on Spine argued that there is a battle between minimalism and maximalism going on. I think that could be true. Different approaches work for different audiences. But I also think it’s messier than that. I get the sense that publishers are less sure of what they want and what sells (certain genres notwithstanding).
It has been a rough year for a lot of publishers, so there is undoubtedly a lot of uncertainty, and no small amount of anxiety. I could go on about why that it is (and the publishing’s self-inflicted wounds) but, in short, what I think we’re also seeing with book covers is more meddling and less direction.
— Dan Wagstaff, The Casual Optimist
I’d read that Spine article, too, and generally agree with their argument that, “This is not just because designers have different ideas about the best way to cut through the noise, but because they are ultimately trying to appeal to two different types of readers. […] It is the designer’s job to know how to grab the attention of the specific readership that the author is trying to reach.”1I have point out: one of their minimalist examples, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, is a 2025 title already in the favorites folder. Stay tuned.
The buyers that minimalist and the maximalist covers appeal to don’t always overlap. But they do appear next to one another on shelves, actual or virtual. For one just perusing, it’s possible for the volume, whether minimalist or maximalist, to dissolve into noise. Dan’s right to caution.
Thankfully, the designers on this list have battled the committees bent on mediocrity and overcome with great talent, great design, and great perseverance.
My best wishes to them — indeed, all of us — in 2025. It has all the hallmarks of another interesting year.
