A long and diverse list this time, with a few thoughtful things and a ton of photography. Set aside a few minutes to get lost in links — and enjoy!
Books and Values
This article from the New Yorker is highlighted a little behind schedule — it’s from August (although, in my defense, I get my NYers second-hand) — but worth the read for the phrase “practitioners of bibliotherapy” alone.
Before we get into the meat of it, though, a primer on the growth of available titles in the United States:
1939: 10,640 (est.)
1970: 36,000
2020: 1,000,000 (est., including ebooks)
The New Yorker article lists this last figure as three million, but various internet sources dispute this; either way, it’s a huge number that no store could ever hope to stock. But … on to the important stuff.
The central question:
Amazon offers something like thirty million different print titles. The company has deals with purveyors of used and remaindered books, who are linked to on the site. It owns AbeBooks, the leading site for rare and out-of-print books. And there are many other places online where you can buy books, including barnesandnoble.com. So why does the world need bookstores?
— Louis Menand, New Yorker, August 29, 2024 issue
The New Yorker is kind enough to let you read a few articles a month without crashing into a paywall, so go find out the answer, appropriately enough, in their book review of Evan Friss’ The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore.
Meanwhile, Nick Heer of the always-excellent Pixel Envy cites another New Yorker article on pricing for non-physical books — “The Surprisingly Big Business of eBooks” — and comes up with a few spending figures of note regarding the New York Public Library and Barack Obama’s title, A Promised Land:
$29,450, for 310 perpetual audiobook licenses at ninety-five dollars each;
$22,512, for 639 one- and two-year licenses for the e-book; and,
$5,300, for 226 copies of the hardcover edition.
If you want to know why publishers so aggressively fought the Internet Archive on its model of lending out scanned copies of physical books, this is the reason. Publishers have created a model which fundamentally upsets a library’s ability to function. There is no scarcity in bytes, so publishers have created a way to charge more for something limitless, weightless, with nearly no storage costs.
— Nick Heer, Pixel Envy
You know what you can’t do with an ebook license? Put it on a shelf for re-reading in ten years’ time. Or resell it. In other words: control what happens to it. “[I]t is hard not to see publishers as the real villains in this mess. They are consolidating power and charging even legitimate libraries unreasonable amounts of money for electronic copies of books which the publishers and their intermediaries ultimately still control,” Heer writes.
Exactly.
Special Bonus #1: Nick Heer gets something else right, too, by noting the sharply divergent goals of social media platforms and his own wishes — indeed, those of what we would idealize as “normal people.” “Guided by Vices” is excellent. Check it out.
Book Design: Kafka
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund.
Few subjects could more appropriately follow the above, so it is with a certain sense of joy that I highlight these fantastic new covers Frank Kafka’s works, brought to us by the incredibly talented Peter Mendelsund1“Get inside the mind of Peter Mendelsund, the pianist who went from Tchaikovsky to Tolstoy and became one of the best book cover designers working today, with editor Zac Petit’s interview in PRINT’s 75th Anniversary Issue,” with the link at the source article. via an interview with Steven Heller at PRINT:
Cover design by Peter Mendelsund.
The whole article, and especially, the whole series of title designs, are exactly why I treasure book design. Read on.
Special Bonus #2: From Rolling Stone, an image reposted without comment (and absolutely not related to Kafka):
I had to lead with an image there — even as concept cars go, wow. “DS’ tribute to the bewitching Citroën SM is the cure for concept car burnout,” The Autopian says, and I completely agree.
The lights bleeding into the skirted rear wheels is, perhaps, perfection:
Photograph by DS Automobiles.Photograph by DS Automobiles.
Okay, it’s not even a Citroen, and the 1970’s are hot right now, but still, it’s an out-of-the-park home run from the staggering — perhaps even stumbling — juggernaut that is Stallantis. Read about it at Motor1 or Wallpaper*, or see one of these two YouTube videos from DS or YouCar.
Special Bonus #3: Another design icon, the Volvo 240 series, celebrates its 50th birthday this year. (I learned how to drive on a 145, the immediate predecessor, and was surrounded by 240s in my teens. I remember them fondly.)
A 1974 Volvo 245 in the perfect shade of blue. Fabulous.
Photography Turns 200
According to an article in French photography publication Réponses Photo, quoted on PetaPixel, photography turned 200 on September 16. While that’s surely a conclusion rather than documented fact, it’s worth remembering and considering the journey photography has taken over the past two hundred years.
Indeed, one need only glance at the “phone” we all carry around to realize how democratized photography has become; those of us who carry bigger, more professional gear have become the exception — and our reasons for doing do more varied. (More on that soon.)
Meanwhile, let’s celebrate with some of the latest and greatest photography from September, 2024.
“The 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition broke its 60-year record with a whopping 59,228 entries from 117 countries and territories,” and is connected with the Natural History Museum in London. (See also the 2024 Bird Photographer of the Year, via the BBC.)
2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year
“The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in partnership with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, announced the beautiful winners of its 16th annual Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition. The images show some of the most incredible cosmic objects and events in the Universe,” PetaPixel writes. (Also noted via This is Colossal, just ’cause.)
“Shadow Peaks of Sinus Iridum.” Photograph by Gábor Balázs.
Not included in that — taken too late to be entered, I understand — is this stunning photograph:
“Saturn’s Ingress.” Photograph by Andrew McCarthy.
2024 Natural Landscape Photography Awards
Last but not least, some fantastic photography in this newish contest, now in its fourth year, set up to “promote the best landscape and nature photography by digital and film photographers who value realism and authenticity in their work.”
Some of my favorites:
“Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada.” Photograph by Andrew Mielzynski.Guatemala Adventure Volcano Panorama. Photograph by Thomas Skinner.Nightscape, 3rd place. Photograph by Takeshi Kameyama.
Special Bonus #4: Phil Edwards brings us a history of one the most iconic photographs ever:
1
“Get inside the mind of Peter Mendelsund, the pianist who went from Tchaikovsky to Tolstoy and became one of the best book cover designers working today, with editor Zac Petit’s interview in PRINT’s 75th Anniversary Issue,” with the link at the source article.
A trio of miscellany, a trio of space photography, more than a trio of great black and white photography, and a single, very serious photography question for you this time — let’s get right into it.
Summer of Fun Miscellany
Intermezzo, Explained
The UK cover for Intermezzo. Book design by Kishan Rajani. (The US cover doesn’t compare.)
GQ UK has an interview with Kishan Rajani, a senior designer at Faber, and Pete Adlington, the publisher’s art director, “about how the Intermezzo design came together, the role of social media in modern book design, and how to make books ‘as pickupable as possible.'”
The endpapers for Intermezzo (UK). I really like that they’ve sweated the little details.
We can discuss “pickupable” as a word another time — your time is better spent, for now, reading the interview.
WeTransfer Sold
“Some of Bending Spoons’ most successful products are tools that serve creativity, therefore we are confident that this milestone will complement both businesses, supercharge our growth, and help us create even more value for creative industries at large,” says WeTransfer CEO Alexander Vassilev of the acquisition.
I like and appreciate WeTransfer — unlike the corporatespeak above (but hey, we’re inventing words today … right?) — and hope that despite being corporatized, nothing substantive will change.
PetaPixel: “The companies did not say whether or not all staff or leadership at WeTransfer would be maintained after the conclusion of the acquisition. That may come into question since Bending Spoons does have a track record of buying completed products, training its internal staff on their upkeep, and then releasing the original development team.”
Crap.
Update, 9 September, 2024: “Bending Spoons acquired file-sharing platform WeTransfer in July and has now laid off 75% of WeTransfer’s staff,” PetaPixel reports. “The Italian app company Bending Spoons has confirmed the layoffs to TechCrunch, which comprise at least 260 people based on WeTransfer’s employee headcount of around 350 people.”
Adobe, Again
The Adobe “World Headquarters” buildings in San Jose, California. Image via PetaPixel.
Adobe couldn’t explain why it let its once excellent relationship with photographers and media lapse, only that it is sorry that happened. I do believe [their explanation], at least when I hear it from the people responsible for making the software. There is a big divide between the folks who code Photoshop and the C-level executives who are so out of touch with the end users. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what those people down in the trenches of development say or even how good Adobe’s software happens to be, some photographers just don’t like the feeling of giving money to the company because of the people at the helm.
Jaron Schneider, PetaPixel
The thing is: it’s less photography, really, than design. If you’re a photographer, how you get to the point of printing or publishing the photographs offers options in software — whether iPhoto, Affinity, Photoshop, or the Pixel 9 Magic Editor — Instagram doesn’t care, Zenfolio takes multiple file formats, and so on.
But in design — that is, desktop publishing or especially book design — Adobe has a monopoly over the software used by the industry, full stop. I used to love working with their software. Today, not so much. (And for the record, it’s more than their fees, it’s the quality of the software.) It’s extremely frustrating and, at the moment, there is no alternative even on the horizon.
Crap. (Again.)
Extraordinary Astrophotography
So, how many can place Kyrgyzstan on a map? It’s a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia, and, clearly, a great place to do some astrophotography.
Star Trails Above Tash Rabat by Soumyadeep Mukherjee.
PetaPixel highlights the work of Soumyadeep Mukherjee, who traveled there specifically for the purpose — and succeeded wildly. It’s awesome to see a country I’m not familiar with served so well. (My favorite, of course, is the short depth-of-field portrait — if you can call it that — of Yuri Gargarin, seen in the header image above.)
“Josh Dury, aka ‘Starman,’ is an award-winning landscape astrophotographer, presenter, speaker and writer from The Mendip Hills ‘Super National Nature Reserve’ in Somerset, United Kingdom,” his web site trumpets.
The thing is … despite looking like he’s about 25, he’s earned it. Great stuff.
Meanwhile, back at PetaPixel, “Photographer Aaron Watson, who goes by Skies Alive Photography, has seen many incredible things in the night sky. His latest sighting is a rare double ‘moonbow,’ a rainbow created by bright moonlight in precise conditions.”
Double Moonbow by Aaron Watson.
All three of these folks need special thanks for their patience. I have trouble standing still long enough to set up a tripod, let alone do long exposures under rarely-encountered combinations of time, weather, equipment and location — plus lots of good luck — in the middle of the night. Well done, all.
“Majesty of Monochrome”
The winners of the third annual Black and White Photo Awards have been unveiled, showcasing the best in monochrome photography across multiple categories.
Monochrome Majesty: Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, by Robert Fulop. Bronze Mention from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
Naturally, I gravitate towards architecture — and the winners (of the nearly 5000 entrants) demonstrate serious talent.
Bench, by Colin Page. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.The Double Helix, by Md Tanveer Rohan. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.Windows by Manfred Gruber. Finalist from the Black and White Photo Awards 2024.
See the winners — and especially, take in the finalists, many of which I’d personally judge to be winners in their own right — at the contest’s web site.
Special Bonus #1: It’s time once again for the annual iPhone Awards, “a powerful testament to the art of storytelling through photography.” I especially liked this one:
Bicycle Forest by James Kittendorf. 3rd place in the Cityscape category, 2024 IPPAwards.
The Verge: “Anyone who buys a Pixel 9 — the latest model of Google’s flagship phone, available starting this week — will have access to the easiest, breeziest user interface for top-tier lies, built right into their mobile device.”
A montage from The Verge, thankfully clearly labeled.
Life-changing moments have long been captured using photography, from Moonrise to George Floyd. But, generally, fakes were the exception, not the rule. We’re, unfortunately, arming the folks who cry foul.
Another montage from The Verge. Note the woods filled in behind the helicopter less convincingly than the accident, above — but how many are going to notice?
It does this article disrespect to summarize. Just go read: “No one’s ready for this.”
Special Bonus #2: Nick Heer, at Pixel Envy, articulates what needs to be said: “anyone can now radically and realistically alter an entire scene within minutes of taking a photo. [O]ur expectations need to change.”
This time, another automaker logo, some automotive and architecture photography, and the special bonuses that have all become a regular part of the Beautifully Briefed standard. But we’re going to start with some generated content.
AI Book “Design”
From the “We knew this was going to happen” category, we have the first — that I’ve seen, anyway — “let AI do the work” research paper suggesting that book design is something that can be automated.
We have presented a novel approach to computationally design books. The presented system implements a generative design process which takes advantage of the scripting capabilities of Adobe InDesign to procedurally typeset books from content provided by the user. We have shown the ability of the system to (i) create book designs that consistently comply with a series of typographic rules, styles and principles identified in the literature; (ii) produce visually diversified books from the same input content; and (iii) produce visually coherent books with different contents.
Design by “AI.”
Let’s please remember that “AI” as the term is currently used is actually “applied machine learning;” in this case, specific rules within specific containers in a specific application. It’s a first step towards something, as most “AI” is in 2024.
But it’s absolutely not the only step. It’s inevitable that the necessary subsequent steps will be taken, probably sooner than later.
As usual where someone is seriously discussing replacing a human worker with a computer, there’s a pitch for the upside:
The work presented in the paper may challenge the typical roles of both the tool and the designer. First, by automatically creating and suggesting design alternatives, the tool ends up playing a more active role in the design process. Then, by modifying and developing custom tools, the designer is no longer a mere tool user and becomes the author of tools tailored to specific needs. We believe this shift can be fruitful since it enables the exploration and discovery of new technical and creative possibilities.
In other words, the designer is now responsible for creatively writing the rules then policing the output — like so many things in the machine-learning, or “AI” space — rather than the actual drudgery of directly designing the output. “Design great rules, get great design.”
And there is room for this. Amazon, especially, is going to jump on book design generated this way; never mind those folks in China or India earning (a paltry few) dollars a day, the computer can do it better for less . . . . Poof! With no human interaction whatsoever, your book is ready to publish. Indeed, for some, the bar to publish has just been lowered made easier. Perhaps even Adobe, who trumpets “AI” at every turn these days, they may choose to take this up. (Probably for a surcharge to the already-high subscription pricing.)
Let’s not even speculate about the major publishing houses for now.
But like AI-generated anything, getting actual art requires hand-tuning the input by an artist. For what amounts to “slop” — see this fantastic PixelEnvy discussion — the generated approach to book design might even be appropriate. But for book design that’s artistic, cared-for, or even “just” thoughtful, you’re going to need a human for a long time yet to come.
The excellent Odd Apples, which I’m sure I’ve highlighted before — but in a very human way, can’t find.
Special Bonus #1: I had the occasion to recently flip through Pentagram’s book design section. Some seriously interesting, seriously artistic work. (See the Odd Apples listing specifically.)
It could probably be argued that computers took book design jobs away, but….
Untitled (Fiddleheads), 1928. Photo by Karl Blossfeldt.
Special Bonus #3: The ever-great Kottke.org. points us at Public Work, “an image search engine that boasts 100,000 “copyright-free” images from institutions like the NYPL, the Met, etc. It’s fast with a relatively simple interface and uses AI to auto-categorize and suggest possibly related images (both visually and content-wise).” As Jason Kottke points out, not great in the attribution department, but good stuff nonetheless.
Mazda’s New Logo
Mazda’s logo as of 2023, seen on one of its cars.
From the automotive logo thread (previously), we have to note Mazda’s new look, reduced from the current 3D-style grayscale to flat and black and white. This one gets some criticism from me: it lacks grace, pace, or space. (Hmph. That might be someone else.)
Angry Bird, anyone? (Pardon the artifacts — this image is enlarged from a Japanese trademark post.)
Then again, Mazda has not always been successful with logos. Anyone remember the 1991–1997 version?
Mazda’s complete logo history.
The 1931–1934 version lays the name over Mitsubishi’s logo, which was responsible for sales. The 1975–1991 version is the one I remember best, but that’s likely a youth/rose-colored glasses sort of thing. See Wiki for more information.
Meanwhile, Mazda is trying to move upmarket right now, and the new “look” isn’t really in keeping with that. Curious to see where this goes. (Via The Autopian.)
Special Bonus #3:BrandNew points us at the 2024 Logo Trends report, the annual fun item from Logo Lounge that looks at what’s hot in this year’s crop of — you guessed it!
Freely (Smiley category) and Droplet (Elliptic category), left, and Olá and Backcountry Wanderer, right, from the Sticker category. (Olá could be in the Smiley category, too.)
Some of my favorites are above, but the whole report is worth a look. (Spoiler: more than flattening is on trend.)
Auto, Auto+Arch, Arch
Auto Photo Manual
Via Wallpaper*, we have Auto Photo Manual, a new monograph from Benedict Redgrove that “explores the art and science of photographing the world’s most striking cars:”
A very orange Lambo. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.
Always a sucker for a Saab, especially this concept:
The 2006 Saab Aero-X concept. Photo by Benedict Redgrove.
Also via Wallpaper*, we have a “celebration of the European Car of the Year and changing perceptions of modern design, pairing the best buildings of the age with their automotive contemporaries:”
London’s Camberwell Subamarine and the Mercedes W116. Photo by Daniel Hopkinson.
“Through the lens of time, both [cars and buildings] have become highly symbolic of their eras and hindsight will allow us to trace the roots of each design to determine how it is viewed from a 21st century perspective,” says Holroyd, noting that over this period architecture underwent a stylistic retreat, just as car design became emboldened and more avant-garde.
Via The Guardian, we have The World Architecture Festival’s 2024 shortlist, revealing projects from around the world spanning categories such as childcare, energy, transport and science. A couple of faves:
The Chodge by DCA Architects of Transformation — interesting name(s), surely — in Whakamaru, New Zealand. Photograph by Simon Devitt.
The live awards event will take place in Singapore from November 6-8. This year’s finalists represent 71 countries.
Woven Passage to Cloudy Peaks by line+ studio in Shaoxing, China. Photograph by line+studio.
Special Bonus #4: This is Colossalbrings us the drone photography of Eric Waider, shot in Iceland:
As glaciers expand and recede, they have the capacity to grind rock so fine that geologists refer to the pulverized material as glacial flour. It slips down rivers and into lakes, carrying the otherworldly turquoise hue through a unique and resilient ecosystem. In Iceland, the blue-green color is complemented by rivers that flow yellow, thanks to sulfur from nearby volcanoes, or red from dissolved ferrous iron—also known as bog iron. Coursing over rock and black sand, the streams take on dazzling, rhythmic patterns.
Photograph by Erik Waider.
Brilliant. See his website (“Abstract Landscapes of the distant North”) and enjoy that series and more — including faves such as Ocean Blues and Glacial Macro.
This time, we welcome the start of summer with a selection of photography and book design items — with, as usual, a couple of bonuses. Oh, and a computer item with its own “bonus.” The Summer of Joy starts now.
SteerMouse
Like many who spend a ton of time mousing, my production Mac sports an aftermarket pointing device: a Logitech MX Master 3S. It’s a great mouse: ergonomic, covered in button options, and with a freewheeling scroll wheel that makes both design and surfing a joy.
Unfortunately, Logitech’s software doesn’t live up to the hardware’s promise. I’m certainly not alone in thinking this way, but like many, I’d resigned myself to living with it . . . with one glaring, continually-irksome exception: over the years, they’d actually removed a regularly-used feature.
There’s something significant missing from the available options. (Logitech.com screen capture.)
That’s right — there is no way to reprogram the two main buttons. They’re a single click (left) and a command/control click (right), whether you want ’em that way or not. Most of the time, I don’t.
It’s fine for surfing, sure, and for other applications as well. But for book design, not so much. The right button has to be a double-click. That way, word, sentence, paragraph and section selections are readily available through a combination of first- and middle-finger clicks. Sure, they could be assigned to the side buttons (4 and 5, above), but if you’ll forgive me mangling an analogy, race drivers don’t try to get their feet on the door handles when clutching.
Speaking of PetaPixel, they’ve posted a story on someone retiring from what seems like a great way to spend a career: “The Prints and Photographs collection in the Library of Congress number more than 15 million images. Maintaining the archive is a big job and a retiring librarian has picked her favorite pictures after working there for 34 years. [Read] Jan Grenci’s final blog post.”
Even the cats know the refrigerators contain plenty of food at the Casa Grande Farms. Pinal County, Arizona. Photo by Russell Lee, 1940.Two pigeons on a ledge with a view of the Chrysler Building in the background. Photo by Angelo Rizzuto. June 1957.
The LOC’s Picture This has a plethora of great posts, and 15 million photographs is a great way to pass a rainy afternoon (or two). Enjoy.
Both of the above have been added to my “potential best covers” folder (without designer attribution, alas); the former for what I’d call “the quintessential 2024 style,” and the latter for the quintessential book cover purpose: fantastic type treatment and compelling imagery combined with the-question-that-has-to-be-answered. (“The seven-hundred-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas […] weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick,” Amazon explains.) Good stuff.
There’s also this, which isn’t quite up to the above but still interesting:
Special Bonus #3:Chip Kidd has been promoted: “VP and art director at Knopf and graphic editor at Pantheon.” Few are more deserving, as the long list of accomplishments on his Wiki page attests.
A couple of faves from “Good is Dead,” a selection of book covers he’s designed:
Cover design by Chip Kidd.Cover design by Chip Kidd.
And, of course, Naked, in this post’s cover image. Kudos.
Special Bonus #4: One the subject of great designers, this film on Charles and Ray Eames was a winner. (It’s from 2011, but was new to me — and hopefully you, too.) Watch when you can:
YouTube won’t allow me to embed this, unfortunately — click the link above to view.
The interesting thing here is a discussion of risk — ’cause, of course, in today’s culture, a book cover alone can result in a title getting cancelled banned — revolving around things, um, yellow:
This April has been busy — meaning that I’ve not marked as many items for this column as usual. (I generally keep a browser tab group going throughout the month with items that could potentially be added, then weed them out/down as posting time gets near; usually, I aim for four or five diverse items.) This month, a great young Egyptian photographer and some details on what goes on, er, under the covers of book design.
Karim Emr, Photographer
Infinity, Karim Emr, 2021. The print is 64×64 inches(!).
Just look at that — awesome. The moment it appeared on Kottke, it got marked for posting. It’s fantastic to see a familiar locale taken with a fresh perspective, proving once again that no matter how many cameras exist in the world, it’s what you do with it that matters.
This is great, too:
“Water, Water, Water,” Karin Amr, 2021. (Forgive the color banding; that’s my fault, not the photographer’s.)
Professional book designer Berne debuts with her first self-authored (and designed) title that seemingly anticipates every question people curious about book production might ask, as well as many they probably hadn’t thought about. . . . This title illuminates all that goes into producing and designing a book.
— Library Journal
Interior highlights from The Design of Books.
From crop marks to the editorial workings, a worthy read for those in need of better understanding the process, those in the process (you’d be surprised: it’s more than authors and editors), and, as the author — and the LJ — say, “other curious readers.” Recommended.
Special Bonus #2: HarperCollins, one of the biggest publishers in the world, has something to tout: saving trees through “eco design.”
It’s painfully clear which is easier to read: a change for the better . . . ?
Fast Companyreports on this, although to be honest I’m not sure it’s an improvement — while it’s impressive that, “so far, these subtle, imperceptible tweaks have saved 245.6 million pages, equivalent to 5,618 trees,” perhaps the startling statistic there is that a single tree can produce nearly forty-fourthousand book pages. (Along with some bark mulch, presumably.)
In any case, the VP of creative operations and production at HarperCollins — apparently an actual title — is proud of their “learnings.”
Doctor? No, Book Designer
The AIGA Eye on Design‘s book design category, always full of gems, highlights the career path of another book design professional, Jason Ramirez:
One of the first in his family to attend college, he studied biological sciences and later religious studies at the University of Rochester, and after graduation he began taking night classes in typography, color theory, graphics, and web design. At nearly 30-years-old, he applied and was accepted into Parsons School of Design, where a course with cover designer Gabriele Wilson opened up a world of possibility.
The end of March here in Middle Georgia means flowers aplenty, and usually with that, some photography — but I’ve not yet had a chance. (Stay tuned.) I have, however, been saving up links o’ interest: fonts, books, photography, and new(ish) car logos. Let’s go!
Kottke Meets 2024
Starting with one of the very few places that is still around from Foreword’s old days, the always-interesting Jason Kottke:
2024 marks Kottke.org’s 26th year on the ’net.
Great new looks for great content, with better Quick Links — the previews are ace — and incredibly-appreciated gift links to places like The New York Times and The Atlantic. If you haven’t been in a while, click and enjoy.
Fab Spring Type
With “a plethora of captivating new typefaces,” CreativeBoom celebrates spring with 11 new faces to tempt, inspire, and bring joy:
Arillatype.Studio brings us a thousand glyphs of greatness.
Zanco, with its bell-bottom style; Seabirds, inspired by 1930s book covers; Module, a “fluke side hustle;” and Graffeur, improvised from gaffer tape and glimpsed in this post’s header image, are all great. My far-and-away favorite, though, is At Briega, “inspired by the concept of hybridisation” and shown above.
“Unique perspective” never does justice to someone whose name defines the term. See some never-before-seen images alongside old favorites in a new Escher book highlighted at Hyperallergic.
Multidimensional Libri
“Experimental books are flourishing, [a]nd the evidence is seen” in this Daily Heller from PRINT: a traveling exhibition on three-dimensional books, all published titles.
“Don’t get held back from the simple pleasures of reading,” argues Natalie Fear at CreativeBloq, “not everything needs to be minimalist.” Justification for commercialism or a common-sense explanation for the bookshelves’ current look? You decide.
Photography Three-Fer
Winners of Monochromatic Minimalism
“Black Pearl” by Sascha Kohne. An honorable mention for the magazine, but a winner for me.
“Traveling through Costa da Morte, Galicia. 600m above sea level where the mountains separate the Cantabria sea from the Atlantic Ocean,” explains third-place winner Alexandre Caetano.
Aging Facades of France
“Shuttered blinds, peeling paint, and aging doors don’t usually indicate an invitation, but for French photographer Thibaut Derien, the fading facades of long-closed shops are well worth a stop,” This is Colossal says.
Sony Photography Awards: Architecture
The Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (City of Arts and Sciences) in Valencia, Spain: “Hemispheric,” by Eng Tong Tan, Malaysia.
ArchDaily‘s coverage of the annual Sony awards shortlist announcement was an insta-click.
New Bull: Now Flat. (And a BMW.)
Lamborghini practically defines flamboyant. So it’s worth a link when their logo gets less interesting:
Old logo, left, new, right.
Late at following the industry trend of flat-is-better, because, well, Volkswagen. (Okay, I undersell. Perhaps.) Read the lack of news at Motor11Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend. or The Drive, where they manage to convey the brand’s use of the phrase “digital touchpoints.”
I don’t know whether this will make any more sense in a few or even many months — which is relevant because of BMW. Four years ago, one of the industry’s design leaders expressed strong this new style, and I didn’t get it. But it’s worn better than most, and superlatively on occasion — check out the logo’s use on the Vision Neue Klasse X:
Rather than a standalone, plastic part sitting on the paint, it’s etched into the finish. Man, I hope that makes it into production.
Neue Klasse: do like. Bull? No so much.
Update, 2 April:BrandNew, itself sporting a new look, has weighed in on the new Lambo style, calling it “not good.” (FYI, BrandNew is a subscription, quite possibly the best $20/year someone interested in design can spend.)
1
Motor1 also has a decent roundup of new car logos, from 2016-present, which underscores the “flatness” trend.
This time, book design times two, book cutouts, album covers, and a reflection on my 2023 photographs. It’s one of those Februaries, so let’s leap into it.
Jodi Hunt’s Great British Design
Screen print by Kate Gibb, lettering by Jodi Hunt, and photograph by Adaeze Okaro.
You might recognize the above book cover from my 2023 Favorite Book Covers post, a fantastic series of choices that speak to all colors while definitively saying, “Black.” It’s Nice That has a short post talking about Jodi Hunt, who designer that cover — and more.
Design by Jodi Hunt.
The screen printing is prominent here, too, and the interaction between that and title are, to borrow a Britishism, “ace.” And the below, with its slightly haunting image treatment (and that great text, lower left), also earns kudos:
Design by Jodi Hunt.
Great design, deservedly highlighted. See the other examples here.
The original Book Design
Ernest Lefébure, Embroidery and Lace: Their Manufacture and History from the Remotest Antiquity to the Present Day (1888), with binding created by May Morris
Before there was book design, or even graphic design — that is, when books and pages were thought of as art instead of design — folks were still coming up with great book covers. The Grolier Club, “America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts,” has a wonderful exhibit of cover design . . . made up exclusively of antiques.
Lynd Ward, Gods’ Man: A Novel in Woodcuts, 1929, and Madman’s Drum: A Novel in Woodcuts, 1930.
One of the most memorable artworks […] is a sumptuous but comparatively delicate volume, a 1643 book of psalms created in London. Atmospheric exposure usually turns white silk-bound editions tan and brown, but this cover is a shiny cream color. The polychrome silk and gold metallic threads, which wind around one another to form a colorful floral pattern, maintain an eye-catching vibrancy. The only sign of the book’s age is the oxidized silver “stumpwork,” a type of raised embroidery that in this case resembles beading.
— Elaine Velie, Hyperallergic
The quote above refers to the book in this month’s cover image, second from left, and is but one where what you see isn’t necessarily what you think it is — it’s more complex, more interesting, made with what the artist had available in the day. Great reminders, all, that book design has a much longer history than what we think of when we hear the term.
“Meticulous incisions and methodical folding allow scenes to arise from aged books and color swatches in Thomas Allen’s paper cutouts,” This is Colossal notes — but a picture is worth a thousand words:
Timber by Thomas Allen.
The vintage paperback work happened by complete accident. I was cutting into a pulp novel one afternoon with the intent of removing the illustration completely when I noticed that if I left some areas attached, folded the parts carefully, and looked at them from a single vantage point so that everything aligned, they created the illusion of 3D pop-ups. Everything snowballed from there.
— Thomas Allen, via This is Colossal
The three-hour cutout: Shipwreck, by Thomas Allen.
Here’s his desk — whoa:
Test cutouts in Allen’s studio, via This is Colossal.
The Article’s Great — but the Headline is the Point.
“Virality over Creativity.” Few things summarize the last few years more — it’s always about getting eyeballs, not about truth or quality. It’s satisfying the algorithm. Because, of course, these days, media is social.
Real or AI?
POV, a new series of articles from It’s Nice That examines, in this case, creativity and AI in design for the music industry. “If an artist isn’t putting a piece of themselves and their experience into the work,” it asks, “why should anyone care?”
All valid questions, yes. But it’s the headline that provides another potential word of the year: virality.
The times we live in . . . .
Some of my Favorite 2023 Photographs
I’ve updated my photography page with my favorites of 2023, including these two:
Blue Against Blue Against Blue, 943 Ellis St.
The above, taken in Augusta, is architecture that doesn’t make me feel blue, while the below, taken on the main street in Sparta, does:
Bulb Moment, 12745 Broad St.
A couple of reflections: I didn’t get out as much as I did in 2022, and regret it, and have somehow pretty much eschewed both black-and-white and effects (film grain, light leaks, etc.), and kind of regret that, too. Both things to do differently in 2024.
That said, six years after investing in a different style of photography, I’m settling in — and looking forward to the future. I hope you are, too.
In this installment, Honda’s new(ish) logo, the Travel Photographer of the Year 2023 winners, and the Macintosh turns 40. Plus, one more thing. But first:
My Favorite Book Covers of 2023
In case you missed it, the annual favorite book covers post is up — all 78 items (plus some extras). It’s best viewed large, so click and enjoy.
Honda’s New Logo: Not a Zero
Not a zero — an “H.” Clever(ish).
As car manufacturers go, Honda’s tiny. As a result, they’re way behind on the electric push: they’ve got some hybrid stuff, a hydrogen fuel-cell item only available in California, and a new battery vehicle built by GM. Not where you want to be in 2024.
So they’re trying to make a splash. And to their credit, they’re doing it in an attention-getting style. Introducing the Honda Zero series, starting with the Saloon:
Futuristic indeed.There’s no mistaking this for an Accord — but then, that’s the idea.
And the Honda Zero Space Hub:
Not minivan, Space Hub. (The no-rear-window thing is becoming a trend, alas.)
Other Zero Series cars will follow, and of course, being concepts, details are scarce. Both concepts, however, highlight a new logo for Honda’s EV effort:
Yeah, not earth-shattering. (And distinct from the Zero-series logo, above, which does not seem to appear on the cars — only marketing materials.) Here’s a history, for reference:
It’s worth noting that the non-electric cars will retain the current logo they’ve used since 2001. Read more at Motor1 or The Drive. (The latter has more on Honda’s Zero cars, too.)
2023 Travel Photographer of the Year (Contest)
Disclaimer up front: it’s another pay-to-enter photography contest, which seem to have proliferated. The problem here is the outstanding quality of output — perhaps I should just get over it and move on.
The rules of this one require both prints for final judging, no composite images, no AI, and a RAW file to check results against. All of which mean, to me at least, a higher level of achievement in order to enter. Okay.
Shout out to the BBC for bringing this year’s winners to my — our — attention.
Travel Photograph of the Year 2023 overall winner: AndreJa Ravnak, Slovenia
Slovenia is a beautiful country, and AndreJa Ravnak’s winning portfolio of photographs absolutely reflects both that and its hard-working agricultural nature. But there’s more:
Nature, Wildlife, and Conservation Portfolio Winner: Martin Broen, USA
A “ray of sunshine” joke here . . . .
Leisure and Adventure Winner: Andrea Peruzzi, Italy
Certainly a lesson in how not to enjoy the wonderful city of Petra, in the Jordanian desert — but an attention-getting photograph.
Landscape and Environment Portfolio Winner: Armand Sarlangue, France
Seriously amazing stuff: moody, dramatic, and yes, fluvial morphology. Nice.
1984 seems like so very long ago — and let’s face it: 40 years is a long time. Indeed, these forty years of technological progress has been unrivaled in human history. But the Mac is not only still with us but better than ever.
We believe that [this] technology represents the future direction of all personal computers,” said Steven P. Jobs, Chairman of the Board of Apple. “Macintosh makes this technology available for the first time to a broad audience–at a price and size unavailable from any other manufacturer. By virtue of the large amount of software written for them, the Apple II and the IBM PC became the personal-computer industry’s first two standards. We expect Macintosh to become the third industry standard.
— Apple Computer, January 24, 1984
My first Mac was the one pictured above: a 1989 Mac Plus, with an external 20MB (!) Jasmine hard drive. (I even still have the case, although mine was a black Targus item.) It didn’t last long, though, because I’d been bitten by the graphic design craze and soon traded it for a Mac called a Quadra, with its separate 256-color monitor.
A preview of the future: 2000’s PowerMac G4 Cube.
Such was the pace of technology those days: that one was replaced with another, then another. (Including one of the Macs pictured at the top of the post. Bonus points if you know which it is.) I did not have the G4 Cube, pictured above, because by then I was rocking a tower and scoffed at Apple’s first attempt at desktop miniaturization — not to mention the inferior quality of the first generations of flat screens.
All-in-ones were — and remain — the domain of Apple’s iMac.
But less than ten years later, the computer had become part of the flat screen, and these days, I’m still using a 27″ iMac. Sure, its days are numbered, but I love its ability to get huge book and photography projects out the door with a minimum of fuss — all in a simple, elegant package with very much more than a passing resemblance to the original Macintosh.
Here’s to another 40 years, Apple. Congrats.
Special Bonus: There are few folks more “Mac” than John Siracusa, who has penned a thoughtful piece on AI: “I Made This.” (Via Pixel Envy.)
One More Thing: Word of the Year, 2023
From none other than Cory Doctorow: “enshittification.”
Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die.
— Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic, 21 January 2023
He’s specifically referring to TikTok, and cites Amazon and then Facebook as further examples, but oh, so many, many other items apply. I’ve not read something that represents where we sit — in America, sure, but beyond — at the start of 2024.
And this year promises to be a doozy.
“‘Monetize’ is a terrible word that tacitly admits that there is no such thing as an ‘Attention Economy,'” he writes. And yet, “monetize” is where business, education, and perhaps society is at. Ug.
The whole thing is fantastic and very much worth a read. But, “[n]ow that [they] have been infected by enshittifcation, the only thing left is to kill [them] with fire” might be taking things a bit far. Let’s hope — and work — for a better solution. For all of us.
2023 seemed to go by with greater speed than normal, meaning the process of accumulating my favorite book covers occurred more hastily than I would have sometimes preferred — after all, perusing the best of the new releases is tremendously enjoyable. It’s just that, due to this year’s hefty undertakings, I was not able to make as much time as I’d have liked.
So I was surprised when, in early January, the tally of candidates in the favorites folder was over two hundred items. A bounty of goodness.
Narrowing those down to the list below was exceptionally difficult. I tried to get to last year’s limit of 70 titles, but failed; I managed to narrow it to 80, then 78, but just couldn’t winnow any further.
Pull up a chair. This one’s gonna take a minute.
Please remember that these are my favorites — others might say “best,” but I’ve been in this business long enough to know that there’s always another title you haven’t seen or read about, and I don’t want to disrespect any of the talented book designers not on this list. I’ve tried to include design credit where I could — special thanks to the folks who answered emails with that information — and wish to stress that any mistakes in the list below are mine.
Note: If you’re on Foreword’s main page, please click on the post title, above, to view this list. You’ll get larger covers for your viewing pleasure.
My Favorite Book Covers of 2023 (three-way tie)
Design by Keith Hayes with art by Sasha Vinogradova.
“Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan,” the Amazon description starts, and it’s a sequel of magic, secret societies, and whatever else.
But never mind all that. This cover grabbed my attention in a way few do, with its combination of art, shadow, and type, all carved to perfection.
Design by Oliver Munday.
I dare say that only Oliver Munday could have done this expression of so much with so little. Enormously appropriate, then, for a memoir only 64 pages long.
Design by Adriana Tonello.
From The Illiterate‘s Hungarian refugee in Switzerland we move to a Norwegian immigrant seeking freedom in America. Alas, she turns out to be our first (known) serial killer — giving this hand a quiet, eerie yet somehow classic quality that quietly compels like few others. Outstanding.
Other 2023 Favorites, in alphabetical order:
Design by Holly Ovenden.
Impressive sense of movement from these figures, whose interplay with the title type combines with quotes-on-a-path (something of a trend this year) and great color choices to provide something memorable.
Design by Keith Hayes.
Such a simple concept. Such superlative results. No other concerns.
Design by Holly Ovenden.
There is another version of this on one of the “best of” lists, but I much prefer this one, with the circling birds and hand-done lettering. A two-color triumph.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Oooollllliiiiivvvvvveerr!
Design for the US version by Anna Weyant.
One of those examples where the art just shouts off the shelf, although the type treatment works exceptionally well, too. Better still, it’s one of the rare US versions that bests its UK treatment:
Design for the UK version by Kishan Rajani.
Not at all bad — in several “best of” lists, in fact. Just not mine.
Design by Sarah Wood.
I’m not sure whether the items on the page are models, made (or found) objects, or some extremely well-done Photoshop work, but ultimately it’s combination of the simple graphics and brilliant typographic treatment that earned this title its spot. Fantastic.
Design by Caroline Johnson.
The ’70s are hot right now, but this is 2023, aged to perfection. Very nearly made the “best of,” not just the “best of the rest.” Horrifically good.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Type, color, pattern, brilliance. Must be a Munday.
Design by Dylan C. Lathrop.
Eyes are a frequent guest on book covers. Rarely so many, though, and rarely in two-color. Winner of more than a Pulitzer.
Design by Emily Mahon, lettering by Martina Flor.
Edie O’Dare does tell, it turns out. “Cinematic” might be a cliché, but….
Design by Pete Garceau.
I’m a sucker for a great woodcut-style illustration. Great type treatment propels it into a standout book cover.
Design by Ingsu Liu.
There’s something decidedly non-emergency about this, yet once you understand, it works perfectly: simple, yet so very not.
Design by Eric C. Wilder.
This book of Native poetry ranges from Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) to reverence to the natural world to “the machinations of colonialism,” a cover assignment that could border on impossible. Yet, here . . . absolutely brilliant. Expressive and so much more, including possibly my favorite type treatment of all on this list.
Design by Arsh Raziuddin.
Danger: UXB. (The pink is an inspired choice, too.)
Design by Tom Etherington.
Fear knows no bounds, only stylish hats. (On the LitHub list, someone said it has “serious 2024 vibes,” which I’m concerned may turn out to have some truth to it.)
Screen print by Kate Gibb, lettering by Jodi Hunt, and photograph by Adaeze Okaro.
Rarely have photo and type worked so well together. Fantastically well done, with plenty of room for the soon-to-be-added kudos, quotes, and awards.
Design by Beste Miray Doğan.
Who splits a four-letter word onto two lines? Someone after great results, as it turns out — with bonus points for the pattern and color in the “splash.” Nice.
I’m at a bit of a loss to describe why I like this so much, except that every time I look at it, I like it even more.
Design by Kate Sinclair.
Perfect execution of a simple concept, from colors to art to type.
Design by Devin Grosz.
Wins the “best-placed title” award, among so many others.
Design by Greg Heinimann.
A reminder that something done often can still be done with originality — and incredibly well.
Design by Emily Mahon.
The collage-as-book-cover is another (perhaps) overused item, but when in the hands of Emily Mahon, this one looks you in the eye and won’t let go.
Design by No Ideas.
The jacket that covers The King of New York with . . . Lou Reed. “Well played” seems like an undersell.
Design by Janet Hansen.
From the textured paper to the type choices, this cover’s great. But with that photo choice, it’s vaulted into “best” category.
Design by Alex Merto.
The combination of geometric shapes and unexpected typography mean this little guy will never get painted into a corner.
Design by David Drummond.
“Type here,” someone said.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Type-as-a-border is a trend — one I’m surprised to see on a Munday — that’s actually a great counter to the purposely irreverent illustration. I dig it.
Bird-as-cat’s-eye. On a Margaret Atwood. ’Nuff said.
Design by Luke Bird.
Brilliantly, uh, substantive: a lesson in how-to.
Design by Jack Smyth.
The rooftops alone make this, but avoiding the stereotypical Irish colors is a huge bonus, too. (This title went on to win the 2023 Booker Prize, by the way.)
Design by Janet Hansen.
A triumph of the less-is-more approach, starring a headless human and superlative typography. Fantastic.
Design by Kimberly Glyder.
It’s rare to see children’s literature graced with such a great cover — this one literally flies off the shelf to grab your attention. A rare bird, indeed.
Design by Alban Fischer.
St. John called: this cover is fabulous, from evocative body parts to hand-lettering to die for. Awesome.
Design by Will Staehle.
A novel on the Korean Provisional Government — and so very much more. The split treatment, with both halves running at 11, get fantastic typography and the Korean characters (in gold, obvious in person) are a great touch.
Another where the US version shines, especially as cassettes are coming back into fashion. (Special points for the subtitle-as-label.) A B-side no longer.
Design by Emmily O’Connor.
Brilliant comment redacted.
Design by Will Staehle.
Mallory Viridian is an amateur detective on an extraterrestrial (and sentient!) space station — perfectly sold with this line-art-only cover. Fantastic.
Design by Anna Green.
Dead birds wouldn’t ordinarily be my go-to for cover excellence. But this one, with its painterly quality and hand lettering, perfectly hints at the haunting, slightly bizarre adventure within. Perhaps I should study more; as many will testify, it’s certainly not an obedience thing. (Read the Booker Prize listing.)
Design by Caroline Suzuki.
One of those instances where the graphic just sells the cover. Brilliant.
Design by Jaya Miceli.
The continuing stigmatization of the LGBTQ+ population in the United States is so perfectly summarized here. (I’m curious how this cover was done, too: white paint, then watercolored? Gouache? Either way, the colors serve the overall so very well.)
Design by John Gall.
This collage jumps through my psyche: sophisticated, off-kilter, and yet, somehow, completely right.
Design by Jamie Keenan.
I had to look up Charles Baudelaire, I have to admit — but didn’t need to know in order to get the disjointed, colorful appeal of this cover.
Design by Na Kim.
Leaving a trail, all right. (Also: the text colors.) This version is mercifully short of Booker notifications, too — sometimes, I wish all the callouts and clubs would just go away.
Design (and illustration) by Sarah Schulte.
Type on a path can be fraught, as can simple illustrations on off-white. Except when simple ideas are translated into compelling book design. Completely different from the above, yes, but just as accomplished.
Design by Gray318.
Crown. Asterisk. Print!
Design by Sarah Shulte.
As the risk of repeating myself: “Type on a path can be fraught, as can simple illustrations on off-white. Except when simple ideas are translated into compelling book design. Completely different from the above, yes, but just as accomplished.”
Design by Jamie Keenan.
This trick can only be pulled once, and book designers everywhere are envious downright jealous. Here’s the cover — uh, flap:
“Continued on rear flap,” it doesn’t say.
Design by Lauren Peters-Callaer.
Brilliance in titling aside, check the glint in the rabbit’s eye. Wonderful.
Design by Grace Han.
Interlocking forks, LOL. (Also, color choices.)
Design by Alex Merto.
This has gotten a bunch of well-deserved attention: from the embossed type to the gradually-increasing repetition of the artwork, Alex Merto scores and scores then repeats. Great stuff.
Design for the US version by Alicia Tatone.
Gluttonously hits a bunch of high notes, and keeps coming back for more — until:
Design for the UK version by Jo Walker.
Yeah. Score one for the UK.
Design by Kelly Winton.
Is it possible for something Escher-esque to be soothing? Yes, it turns out.
Design by Oliver Munday.
Perfectly abstract, brilliantly pulling together the remarkably disparate stories within.
Design by Kapo Ng.
“Kingdom of surfaces,” so very indeed.
Design by Beth Steidle.
“Spare, beautiful, and richly layered, the [book’s cover] is dazzling.” —Foreword
Design by Allison Saltzman.
Another of those too-simply concepts that checks out on every level. Awesome.
Design by Alex Merto.
Rarely does so much text take up so little space yet work so well — this 75th anniversary reprint stacks up. (Imagine inspiring a school-aged Stephen King, by the way. That’s “The Lottery.”)
Design by Linda Huang.
“A novel” has never played so well.
Design by Jaya Miceli.
Steppen-out: this new translation gets new meaning. (In the text, too, I understand.)
Design by John Gall.
Multi-layered shadowboxing. Nice.
Design by Steve Attardo.
A study in simple perfection. For a book examining heightening fascism, toning down the cover speaks volumes. Great choices on every level.
Design by Greg Mollica.
To collage in a way that the resulting product is of higher value than the original items: upcycling, indeed. (“The thread tying the cover together is a masterstroke,” he said.)
Design by Lauren Peters-Callaer.
“The humor of a great conversation,” one of the reviews said, and better words could not be found for the cover. Masterful.
Design by Andrew Davis.
The woodcut-style illustration is back, in two-color and aged to perfection. (The paperback kept the illustration but changed out and dulled the colors, to a much less satisfying effect. Curses.)
Design by Tom Etherington.
“Permeable boundaries,” illustrated brilliantly, with perfect texture and typography.
Design by Tyler Comrie.
“Sings,” someone said. “Seconded,” I said.
Design by Jonathan Pelham.
Stories told in a triumph of less is more. (The US version is good — another that’s one some others’ “best of” lists — but here’s another one where I think the UK slam dunks.)
Design by Laywan Kwan.
This is one of those covers that keeps giving, a three-color triumph of telling the book’s story. (Also: typographically counter-riffic.)
Design by Na Kim.
The Book of Goose was one of my top three covers last year, but high expectations are nothing when Na Kim is covering it. Storied, indeed.
UK version design by Andrew Davis.
I was going to go on for a minute, again, about how the UK gets all the good covers — and this one earned a spot in this post — but…:
US version design by Owen Gent.
…the more I look at this US version, the more I like it. The hint of cat, the red shading, the paper’s tone and texture, and the type treatment stand in direct contrast with the fabulously literal interpretation of the UK version. Given both, I literally couldn’t choose.
Design by Matt Dorfman.
“There’s a painting at the door,” in the most amazing state. (Political pun intended.)
William Morrow didn’t return a request for the cover design’s name, unfortunately.
There are so many ways to get this design wrong — but wow: someone took a cliché and literally flew in the face of it, to brilliant, memorable effect. I wish I could give appropriate credit.
• • •
Dan Wagstaff over at The Casual Optimist comments that,
[I]t’s like we’re stuck in a holding pattern, circling the same design ideas. Trends have stuck around. A lot of covers feel safe. Some of this was the books themselves. I’m not sure exactly how many celebrity memoirs is too many, but I’m pretty sure we reached that point and sailed right past it in 2023. No doubt some of it is sales and marketing departments sanding down all the edges and demanding the tried and true (see Zachary Petit’s alternative best of 2023 piece on killed covers for Fast Company). But I would not be surprised if it designers were just getting caught up in the churn — too many books, too many covers, and too much other stuff to worry about.
— Dan Wagstaff, The Casual Optimist
I think he’s right. Despite growing the number of selected covers this year over last, I feel that despite the outstanding items above, the majority of the book covers and jackets — almost certainly by publishers’ explicit direction — are playing it safe. After all, here in the Roaring Twenties, rocking the boat brings nothing short of vilification.
Thankfully, the designers on this list have battled the committees bent on mediocrity and overcome with great talent, great design, and great perseverance. Power to them, and I wish them — indeed, all of us — continued success in 2024.
Please note: I somehow missed the 2023 University Press Design Show — usually linked here — so please stay tuned for that post soon (and then again in July for the ’24 Show). Apologies.
We round out 2023 — how’d that happen? — with some items pulled from the stockings: PRINT on a few favorite books and two different photography contests that impress. (Plus bonuses thrown in, just ’cause.)
Books in PRINT
Book designer Daniel Benneworth-Gray brings us some of his favorite books on design published in 2023:
It’s that time of year when “stop asking for books, you have too many books, look at all these piles of bloody books” echoes around our house. My excuse for all this tsundokustacking: it’s professional research! After all, my job is just … book. Plus I have an untested but absolutely correct theory that books pay for themselves by acting as insulation and thus reducing your heating bill.
— Daniel Benneworth-Gray, PRINT
They act in that role here at my place, too. In any case, I agree with several of his choices enough to highlight them:
The Graphic Design Bible has won numerous accolades this year, and reminds us that despite . . . well, the internet, a well-edited, well-curated examination of a subject as diverse as graphic design benefits from book form.
Saul Leiter’s mid-century photographic genius earned him a long career, as proven by just glancing at the cover photograph on this latest tome:
Lastly, something I’ve added to my wish list:
Note: UK cover shown, ’cause it’s better.
It’s great that PRINT pulled this article from behind the unfortunate mess that is Substack and out into the light. Enjoy.
Special bonus #2:The Guardian reminds us that, for younger readers especially, reading print improves comprehension far more than looking at digital text.
Fantastic Landscape Photographs
“2023 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Winners,” PetaPixel announces, and some of these are just wonderful:
International Landscape Photographer of the Year: photo by runner-up Andrew Mielzynski.
Interestingly, this one reminds me a good deal of last month’s Natural Landscape winner from Adam Gibbs. (Maybe birches in water are a thing; I don’t do trends.) Also, kudos to this black-and-white taken right here in Georgia:
Winner of the Aerial Award, a special category. Taken in George L Smith State Park, Georgia, by Jim Guerard.
Again, like last month, here are two beautiful shots from the same photographer highlighted:
International Landscape Photographer of the Year: third-place photo by Matt Meisenheimer.International Landscape Photographer of the Year: third-place photo also by Matt Meisenheimer.
“The incredible winning images,” PetaPixel announces of reFocus, a black-and-white-only photography competition, split into both professional and non-professional categories. (PetaPixel seems to have taken the flame that DPReview used to represent and run with it, thankfully.)
Overall professional winner Bill Pack and a small Mercedes:
reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: “CarScape” by Bill Pack.
“Sensual” might be an understatement there. Meanwhile, there seem to be some overlap between categories, but when you can capture action like these two, maybe they just wanted to make room for both:
reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: Oddly-filed Domestic Animals winning photo by David Zlotky.reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: Event winner from Laura Thomson.
Wow. Meanwhile, there are landscapes and architecture, too:
reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: Winner, landscape (non-professional) by Thomas de Franzoni.reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: Eyes of the Sea, winning architecture by Hilda Champion.
We round out this list with something shot on film:
reFocus Awards Black & White Photo Contest: Winner of the film/analog non-professional category by Shinya Ichikawa.
Wonderful. See all the winners at the (thankfully well-presented) reFocus website.
Leica’s 2022 version of the M6 film camera, a bargain at $5695. (Lens not included.)
Special Bonus #3: Speaking of film, Nick Heer reminds us why he’s a daily read: The Neverending Film Photography ‘Resurgence’. (The Leica is relevant, not just me taking an opportunity to post a photograph of their awesome gear.)
Foreword . . . On Towards 2024
The end of 2023 hasn’t seen as much posting as I’d like, something I’m hoping to change once the new year gets underway — starting with the annual list of my favorite book covers of the year mid-January. Meanwhile, wishing you and yours all the best in 2024 and beyond.
A selection of diverse items for this entry in the series: a new publication from The Guardian, open source fonts for your 2023 goodness (along with more for ’24), and the Natural Landscape Photography Award winners. Also: DAK. Let’s get into it.
The Long Read
Regular readers will know that I’m a big fan of The Guardian, including its unusual-for-journalism payment model (that, frankly, some outlets in the US would be wise to copy). Now, they’re on newsstands with a “bookazine” called The Long Read.
The back cover. (See the front cover at the left in the header image.)
“We know that for many people, myself included, when it comes to long, immersive pieces, reading in print […] is still the most satisfying reading experience, and one that should be cherished in a climate so saturated by disturbance,” quotes It’s Nice That. With most of these more evergreen stories taking months or even years to build, hardy print felt the best way for them to live. [A] ‘bookazine’, it balances all the things we love about magazines (“the drama, the pace, the energy”) with the considered typesetting of a book. A lot of attention was given to packaging its large volume of text – clocking in at 55,000 words – to make the reading experience as relaxing as possible, from body type size to column widths.
As a self-confessed font junkie, I’m always interested when a new one comes across the bow — but there are so many these days, they’ve unfortunately become almost commodities. (That’s a huge shame, but also a discussion for another time.) So it’s interesting when I see ones that are not only good but also available for everyone, free and open source.
Monaspace is the first of three I want to highlight, “a monospaced type superfamily with some modern tricks up its sleeve.” Designed for code — hence the monospace — it’s a successful answer to the question, “Letters on a grid is how we see our code. Why not make those letters better?”
B612 is designed for — get this — the screens on Airbus commercial planes. “[T]he challenge was to improve the display of information on the cockpit screens, in particular in terms of legibility and comfort of reading, and to optimize the overall homogeneity of the cockpit.” Read the back story here.
Inter is described as, “The 21st century standard,” “a workhorse of a typeface carefully crafted & designed for a wide range of applications, from detailed user interfaces to marketing & signage.” One of the world’s most-used font families, it’s perfect when readability is at the fore.
Brinca by In-House International. (Image via CreativeBoom.)
CreativeBoom has their annual compilation of 50 new fonts for the coming year up, “a comprehensive list of the best fonts that demand your attention in 2024. We’ve compiled this comprehensive list by asking the creative industry for their favourites, analysing work from the last 12 months, and taking on board the design trends emerging right now.”
National Museum in Gdańsk by Tofu Studio. Featuring Migra by Pangram Pangram. (Image via CreativeBoom.)
Special Bonus: Simon Garfield publishes biographies on Albertus, Baskerville and Comic Sans. Seriously:
The Natural Landscape Photography Awards
For once: a contest that demands more — like the original RAW files. (Literally the raw image from the camera, before processing, for those who don’t know — think film negatives, rather than the resulting prints.) Okay, sure, it’s not perfect; there are entry fees and it doesn’t have a long track record, but the rules are solid with respect to image integrity.
Of course, the quality of the subject chosen to photograph is, if you’ll pardon the expression, subjective. The overriding theme here seems to be the perfection of dramatic subtlety — not an easy thing to get right.
Photo: Adam GibbsPhoto: Adam Gibbs
The two photographs above are both by Adam Gibbs and reflect the judges’ desire to reward photographers who display a diverse portfolio of subjects.
Photo: Alberto Rodriguez Garcia“Once Upon a Time.” Photo: Matt Redfern
A winner from the “abstracts and details” category for the first and a great title for the second image that does indeed tell so many stories. Rounding it out, another beautiful black-and-white:
If you’re a certain age — that is, were around in the ’80s — the DAK catalog was a regular. (Give me one, together with a JC Whitney catalog, and a weekend was gone.) A recent post by Cabel Sasser brought it all back:
The catalog from Summer 1983.
Oh, the products. The explanations. The fun.
I’m not going to spoil the effort put into the story of Drew Alan Kaplan, a.k.a. DAK, Joseph Sugarman, Products That Think, or any of it: go enjoy for yourself.
A variety of interests addressed this time: a bit on Shift Happens, a great question on branding, and Leica’s new M camera — and its content credentials. (Plus, bonuses.) Happy October!
Booking a Keyboard
We talked about this title back in January, but it’s worth the reminder:
A 3D rendering of Shift Happens.
Marcin Wichary has long been interested in keyboards. In his words,
Keyboards fascinated me for years. But it occurred to me that a good, comprehensive, and human story of keyboards — starting with typewriters and ending with modern computers and phones — has never been written. How did we get from then to now? What were the steps along the way? And how on earth does QWERTY still look the same now as it did 150 years ago? I wanted a book like this for years. So I wrote it.
—Marcin Wichary, Shift Happens
This title fascinates me, partially because it’s an interesting subject — one we’ve all interacted with, often without thinking about — and partially because it’s a great, well-covered exercise in book design.
A very cool photograph of an IBM Electric. Photo by Marcin Wichary.
I am a web guy, and I used to think that the web (just like typewriters, once) took away a lot of hard-won typesetting nuance and tradition. But it turns out that the web also makes it much easier to do certain things. To have a word be surrounded by a rounded rectangle—a visual representation of a key—is a few lines of CSS or a few clicks in Figma. But for the book, I had to cut my own font and then write Python scripts to do typesetting inside the font-making software, which I’m pretty sure you are not supposed to do[.]
—Marcin Wichary, Shift Happens
Really looking forward this title. Copies are, as of this writing, still available.
Let’s Talk Branding.
It’s Nice That asks a great question: “Are rebrands starting to look the same? The challenges facing commercial design,” in which author Elizabeth Goodspeed discusses whether “shortened turnarounds and economic tensions” are taking a toll on originality.
Westinghouse branding guidelines from the ’60s.
The answer might seem to be, “Well, duh,” but it’s nonetheless a thoughtful and insightful article that asks the correct question: “how does one define originality in an age saturated with visual stimuli?”
[T]he digital applications more often associated with modern rebrands, while comparatively easy to update, may counter-intuitively promote less care and attention towards their making. [A]nother possible issue contributing to rebrand redundancy: lack of rollout support beyond rebrand launch. Even a unique identity may lose its spark when its primary consumer touchpoint is what a social media manager produces on Canva after skimming the brand guidelines once. Further still, many clients no longer approach design studios to harness their expertise but, instead, with preconceived notions of the result they expect; design studios may want to create original work, but sometimes clients are willing to pay more for a rebrand that mirrors their own preconceived ideas of what the work should look like.
— Elizabeth Goodspeed, It’s Nice That
The logo’s the same, but the applications vastly different.
Special Bonuses #1 & 2: Let’s look at a couple of places where branding has been in the news recently (pun intended). Also from It’s Nice That, an article on The Irish Independent rebrand. Here, as is often the case recently, it’s the custom illustrations that carry the day:
“Andy Goodman is the illustrator responsible for the lively work found throughout, which toe the line between measured and playful,” It’s Nice That writes. Agreed 100%.
Less successful is England’s The Guardian, whose ongoing campaign to raise money — they don’t have a paywall, relying instead on reader contributions — perhaps could have used more work:
These ads don’t really have me on the fence: The Guardian deserves better.
Special Bonus #3: From the wildly successful, original branding department comes, of course, the brilliantly-named Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity. They’ve been covered here twicebefore, but are back in the news with a new branding Manual. See why that’s capitalized at Dezeen.
The Eames Institute branding oozes positivity, class, and — you guessed it — infinite curiosity. Nice.
Leica, Adobe, and Content Authenticity
One would assume that Leica users are the epitome of content authenticity — there’s nothing like the world’s best lenses (IMHO), attached to some incredible cameras, to provide photographers with all that’s needed to make the bestpossible images.
Leica’s new M11-P, however, packs a world first: hardware encryption that supports a system called the “Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).” In CAI corporate-speak, it’s “the future of photojournalism […] usher[ing] in a powerful new way for photojournalists and creatives to combat misinformation and bring authenticity to their work and consumers, while pioneering widespread adoption of Content Credentials.”
Leica’s new M11-P. A bargain at $9,195. (Lenses extra, of course.)
The Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) is a collaborative effort initiated by Adobe in partnership with various other organizations, including The New York Times and Leica, among others. Announced in late 2019, its primary goal is to develop a standard for digital content attribution. The rise in manipulated digital content, deep fakes, and misinformation has underlined the need for a more transparent system of content attribution, which the CAI seeks to address.
The interesting thing here is Adobe’s initiative. What’s their goal?
Adobe has been suffering a few hits recently. They’ve just raised prices — on the heels of record profits — and “monopoly” is not in any way a stretch. Photoshop? Entered the lexicon. InDesign? No credible alternatives. Illustrator? Professional standard across multiple industries. In other words, we’re stuck with ’em, and they know it.
Ignore’s Adobe’s unfailingly cute examples: AI + texture = exactly what some “creative director” needed. Seriously uncute.
They’re pushing hard into AI, too, and surprisingly up-front about it changing creative work in ways potentially less creative:
Firefly 2 was unveiled yesterday at the 2023 Adobe Max conference with the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool incorporated into Lightroom’s new lens blur feature that simulates depth of field along with a host of other tools.However, it was the new “Generative Match” tool that will allow users to upload a reference image to guide the AI image generator to a specific style that prompted Adobe to comment that the new tools could mean less work for photographers.
Adobe is appealing to companies who want a “consistent look across assets.” It is offering brands the chance to generate hundreds, if not thousands, of similar images for different uses such as websites, social media, and print advertisements.
— Matt Growcoot, PetaPixel
Or how about this example: An agency or freelancer working on a vector image in Illustrator, and need to add something that they either don’t have the time or talent to do myself. Previously, they could find either a stock item — made by a human (who is paid, by the way) — or hire it out (again, to a human, and again, one who is paid for their work). Now? Just tell the computer what you need.
All of which ties nicely back to the previous section on whether branding is beginning to homogenize. Is AI going to accelerate that process? You betcha.
Value human creativity, folks. Artists, teachers, writers, thinkers: all the people pushing at the edges of the envelope will now have to push even harder, in an era when envelope-pushing is increasingly demonized.
Special Bonus #4:Ars Technica argues that the U.S. Copyright Office’s blanket ban on the copyright-ability of AI-generated images isn’t going to age well, using photography as an argument.
That little town — more a hamlet, really — is called Deepstep, and I’ve marked it for a stop since. On the way home from Augusta (part 1, part 2), I finally had the opportunity.
Alonzo G. Veal & Son (What We Don’t Have, We Can Get), 9665 Deepstep Rd.Veal & Son Building Detail #1, 9665 Deepstep Rd.
What a great little spot.
Gate and Field, 9665 Deepstep Rd.Outbuilding and Pine, 9731 Deepstep Rd.
The gallery’s only eighteen photographs, but absolutely a worthy addition to the newly revised Middle Georgia group. Those galleries cover everything from Pine Mountain in the west to Sandersville in the east, Madison in the north to Dublin in the south.
Indeed, I’ve rearranged pretty much all of the Georgia galleries:
The new Georgia gallery group: five items instead of three, all featuring rearranged contents.
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve been meaning to get to downtown Augusta with a camera for years. Actually, that not correct: I’ve been meaning to get to downtown Augusta . . . period. I’d never been there, despite living 130 miles away for almost two decades, despite having been nearby, despite — well, you get the idea.
Statue at James Brown Plaza, Broad St. and Augusta Common
So it was a pleasure to get to the home of Woodrow Wilson, James Brown, Jessye Norman, and countless others — and see a city a lot like so many others in the American South, a city that’s struggling with identity, history, vacancy, gentrification, and so many other issues prevalent in the 2020s.
The Confederates and the Albion, Broad St.
One of them is the continued presence of a huge Confederate memorial, a shame in a majority-Black city — and just in front of the Lamar Building, soon to be luxury apartments. What message are Augusta, and its new luxury residents, sending?
Miller and Lamar, Broad St.
Nonetheless, the day’s efforts resulted in some satisfying images, from architecture to neat details:
Augusta Cotton Exchange Building #1, 32 8th St.Miller Theater (Entry Detail), 708 Broad St.Edgar’s Above Broad (Logo) Sign, 699 Broad St.
Augusta is a riverfront city I’m looking forward to returning to. In the meantime, please enjoy a total of 128 photographs in the newly-posted gallery.
Together with Columbus and Macon, Augusta is one of Georgia’s “Fall Line” cities, and is home to more than 200,000 people. Located on the eastern edge of the state on the Savannah River, it was founded by James Oglethorpe in 1736 on the site of a Native American river crossing.
Augusta has long been on the to-photograph list, but it’s just far enough away from Macon to make a quick, unplanned trip difficult — so this past weekend, when another trip was cancelled, I took advantage of the available time and made it happen.
Blue Against Blue Against Blue, 943 Ellis St.
Of course, rather than a quiet Sunday downtown, I ran headlong — no pun intended — into the Augusta Ironman marathon. There were crowded street corners, intersections closed aplenty, and a combination of competitors and supporters everywhere.
Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery, 10 James Brown Blvd.
Nonetheless, it was a beautiful early-fall day in Georgia, and over the course of several hours, I really enjoyed photography in downtown Augusta — as usual, without people in the shots.
Decorative Facade, 103 Macartan St.
Excepting, of course, The Godfather of Soul:
Spirit of Funk Mural, 190 James Brown Blvd.
The photostroll also included the Riverwalk, a stretch both at water level and atop the levee — doing my best to stay out of the runners’ way, moving around to the chants of “water!” and “ice!”
Fountain at Riverwalk Enterance (#1), James Brown Blvd.Savannah River at Augusta, Georgia
The first 64 photographs — part one of two — have been posted to the new Augusta gallery. Stay tuned for the second part, along with a bonus gallery and some housekeeping news, tomorrow.
