Giles Hoover

Photography and design for print production

Tag: typography

  • Beautifully Briefed 26.8: The Anti-Drought

    Beautifully Briefed 26.8: The Anti-Drought

    It’s finally dried out here in Georgia, after a summer best described as “WTF” — where the “F” stands for flood, because you know it does. (As opposed to England, for instance, which is WTF in the other direction.)

    So: some design, typography, and imagery to inform and cheer. And ten special bonuses. You deserve no less.

    This Month’s Spine
    Vanderbilt University Press. Cover design and art direction by Alissa Faden.

    It was my pleasure to feature some titles from Vanderbilt University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Louisiana — because Stanford and NYU don’t have a lock on my attention. (’Sides, it’s fall catalog season, so there’s lots to choose from.)

    Enjoy fourteen great covers from University Press titles in my regular column for Spine Magazine.

    Reading reports that its death is greatly exaggerated

    As you’ll recall — or not, depending on whether you were able to read the article — The Atlantic worried out loud that reading is in such decline that we may have to think in terms of living in a “post-literate” world. (Because “post-truth” isn’t enough.)

    Turns out that there’s a back story to that take; it originated on a Substack titled, “The dawn of the post-literate society, and the end of civilisation,” by someone whose profile I can’t see because I refuse to create an account.1Soap box: getting a website, whose contents you own, is so painfully simple that I tend to discount those that rely on other platforms to publish what might otherwise be interesting material/thoughts/content. And in this case, the author is a Times journalist, who should definitely know better.

    So, I owe you an apology: this “moral panic,” as it’s been termed, originates in . . . what amounts to social media.2It’s been pointed out that blogs are social media, too (the original social media, in fact) — something I don’t necessarily disagree with. From my perspective, writing that is owned, put out there due to belief, and read by folks who trust your opinion, is completely distinct from having your potentially-anonymous “take” promoted to strangers by an algorithmic mechanism that profits from conflict — or, at least, provocation. In my opinion, it’s the latter that defines “social media.” I’m disappointed in The Atlantic for taking that bait, and in myself for trusting them and then making something of it here.

    Time for a reality check.

    Which comes courtesy of an article that’s part of It’s Nice That‘s POV series:

    It’s Nice That discusses Stack Reading Habits Report.

    . . . whose author puts forth just the right perspective, one that folks here can relate to:

    “The death of reading sounds uncannily similar to the death of print, which is another issue that’s prone to over-simplification.”

    — Steven Watson, It’s Nice That

    I still work in print. Many of us do. While it’s become a more specialized area of expertise, it’s still very much viable; whether it’s reached the stage of the horse post-motorcar or the manual transmission post-electric is something else entirely. (More on that latter item below, by the way.)

    The author quotes another response to the piece, which I almost completely agree with:

    All these pieces — from The Atlantic and elsewhere — about “the end” make this seem like a problem because of how they’re framing it, and who they’re framing it for. Maybe kids aren’t reading the classics, but look at the romantasy moral panic stewing in the background of social media. It’s a whole bunch of mostly men — who, demographically, do not read or buy books at all — declaring it the death of literature even though women and queer people are reading a ton of it. [. . .] It seems as though Americans have decided that the amount and kind of reading they personally do is normal and someone else doing it any more or less or differently than them is a social emergency. We may be seeing the end of certain kinds of reading [. . .] or certain kinds of culture, but that also means that something is replacing it. And good God do we need to replace a lot of it. If only to break up the corporations that dictate how it all currently works.

    — Ryan Broderick, Garbage Day

    To summarize, I fell for the “intellectual tragedy” represented by “the end of reading as we know it” and said something without thinking it through. I’ll try to do better.

    Rare books > AI. Unless…

    If you can truly appreciate an old book — and maybe even marvel at how its fragile, yellowing pages contain some of the earliest ways that people tried to make sense of the world around them — then headlines about tech companies that are destroying books to train AI likely torture a tender part of your soul.

    — Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica

    This article, dated August 12th, reminds us that, “Google patented a non-destructive book-scanning technology in 2009 that AI firms could use to efficiently scan books — if they were willing to slow down and invest in the process.”

    It continues, “The biggest fear for people who want to see books preserved through the training process is that AI firms will callously pulp rare books that can never be replaced.” Rare book dealers, it turns out, have started to flag suspicious bulk orders to safeguard the irreplaceable.

    Not Google’s patented process . . . but you can probably guess where this is going.

    Five days later, the same author reported:

    On Monday, 404 Media revealed that it had connected with a bookseller who agreed to plant an [Apple] Airtag in a rare book that was part of a bulk order. That Airtag was then tracked to an Amazon AI training facility in Las Vegas that housed a team focused on tearing books from their spines and scanning pages, 404 Media reported. Apparently tone-deaf to the escalating backlash over destructive book scanning, a logo on the door of that team’s warehouse, VGT3, showed a Tyrannosaurus rex preparing to devour a book, 404 Media documented.

    “Amazon declined to comment on 404 Media’s findings,” the article continues, “only providing Ars with the same statement it gave to 404 Media, which does not mention AI training specifically: ‘Amazon purchases books through commercial channels to help develop and improve the products and services our customers use.‘“

    The Internet, in its wisdom, has suggested that it’s all for profit — to “hide history behind a paywall.” How likely is that? After all, we know that Amazon, Anthropic, and Meta are altruistic.

    And now, courtesy of the ’Net’s most-trusted source, we have insider details: “when I see a one-of-a-kind, three-hundred-year-old tome taking up six whole inches of shelf space, I immediately start thinking about scale and efficiency.”

    Profit, efficiency, whatever — chewing up rare books for AI training is the very definition of “facepalm.”

    Special bonus #1: McSweeney’s new book, Obey in Advance, How to Survive and Thrive under Authoritarianism, is available this fall. An early review:

    “Democracy is priceless, but fascism sure seems to pay well. If you’re morally bankrupt and looking to sell your soul, Obey in Advance has everything you need for a profitable life of lickspittlery.”

    — Kevin Kruse, Professor of History, Princeton University

    Naturally, the book arrives at your door pre-scanned by AI.

    Special bonus #2: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment. ”It was an era when the term ‘discovery’ carried actual weight, when you could authentically be one of the first people viewing a piece of content, regardless of its quality or how long it may have existed — an era of equal parts wonder and frustration.”

    Four scores and twenty-seven years ago . . . .
    The story behind Present & Correct
    Dick Bruna book covers, 1970s, from the Zwarte Beertjes publishing house. Image by Present & Correct.

    “The perfectly curated stationery shop that’s every graphic designer’s dream” has a new gig: publishing. But first, the origin story, thanks to a Q&A with It’s Nice That.

    Tins and boxes for crayons and pencils, mixed eras. Germany, USA & Japan. Image by Present & Correct.

    To talk more about this publishing journey and the designers’ joint practice, we spoke to [the owners] about the story of Present & Correct to date, tracing habits of collecting and archiving all the way back to a childhood spent carefully putting away scrapbooks of sugar sachets, napkins, postcards and coasters, a final major project at art school (a paper concept store called . . . Present & Correct), to their joint travels across the world today, foraging for original vintage stationery to curate the shop’s stocks from over 18 different countries.

    — Ellis Tree, It’s Nice That

    ”This habit of archiving and collecting vintage ephemera,” the article continues, ”has informed your first self-published book at P&C Paper Trails: Pre-war tourist maps from Japan featuring fifty incredibly illustrated maps for various attractions around Japan.”

    Paper Trails, the first title published by P&C Additions.

    “We named it P&C Additions because we hope to make editions of varying sizes (might be a single sheet, might be a book) and they are additional to what we generally do (a stationery shop!). And yes, we want to make more as and when we can. No pressure, just a natural offshoot which will manifest as a published item when we feel the content is strong enough,” the owners report.

    The interview is awesome. Give it a moment of your time.

    Special bonus #3: The Last Museum’s curators: ““We currently have around five million artworks indexed, and strive to eventually index all museum art in the world.” Not sure about the name, but definitely bookmarked under useful resources. (Via This is Colossal.)

    “A Dutch Courtyard” by Pieter de Hooch, via The Last Museum. Chosen because the original absolutely does not hang in my living room, a joke one or two of you will actually get.
    August’s new typefaves

    Yes, I’ve coined a new word just there — and will continue to deny that it was, in any way, a typo involving the word “typefaces.”

    Franglais, by Emigre
    Franglais, by Emigre.

    ”Franglais was designed by John Downer in sporadic bursts of inspiration dating back to 2000,” Emigre writes on their blog. “It was originally conceived as a standalone italic, and expanded to include two upright companions, Roman and Informal, developed in collaboration with Zuzana Licko.

    Pretty much everything Emigre puts out is beautiful, but Franglais is just gorgeous.

    “Reflecting on the origins of Franglais, Downer describes it as lettering devised for imaginary signage inspired by a hybrid of postwar metal type and vernacular chalk-written menu boards. Elements of ‘ruler writing’ — in which a ruler is used to keep the baseline straight across repeated lines — are evident throughout.”

    Special bonus #4: “ShieldFont, as designers Isaque Seneda and Gabriel Abrucio write in a recent white paper, was made to offer web publishers ‘a practical opt-out from unauthorized AI training and [to] disrupt what is collected when that choice is ignored.’” Read about it at Ars Technica.

    Not sure I’m on board with this approach.
    SE Micro, by Gallery Type
    SE Micro, by Gallery Type.

    “Se Micro is the small-size companion to Se Macro, released by Gallery Type earlier this year,” CreativeBoom writes in this month’s recommendations. “They share the same basic skeleton, but Se Micro works well in small or difficult settings, like tiny text or low-quality printing, perhaps even on screens.

    “There’s a nice twist, too. When you blow this typeface up to larger sizes, those practical features become a visual style in their own right. It looks distinctive and quirky rather than just doing its thing of being legible, especially in bolder weights.”

    Ink traps may be on-trend, but I still like their treatment in this typeface.

    “This is an option for branding work across fashion, culture and design-led products. It comes with 10 weights and three widths. And it’s part of a growing family: Se Macro is also out, as I’ve mentioned, but hold onto your hats for Se Mono and Se Rounded, due out later this year or early 2027.”

    Resan, by The Designer’s Foundry
    Resan, by The Designer’s Foundry.

    “Daniel McQueen from The Designers Foundry has been in touch,” CreativeBoom writes. ”He’s just released Resan, a super family inspired by the transitional types of the 17th and 18th centuries. It’s got warmth. It’s got timeless elegance. But it’s also precise.

    “It has a sharp rhythm with generous proportions, giving it decent impact at display sizes. It also lets you change the terminal shapes, shifting the type’s entire feel and mood.”

    I especially like Resan’s alternative terminals.

    ”It’s currently offered in 10 distinct display styles, and if you like what you’ve seen so far, a series of optical weights is in the works.”

    Special bonus #5: “Typographic tourism, or the art of hunting for beautiful signs all over the world,” from Wallpaper*. Never mind searching for the hashtag, read the article then just do it for fun!

    Architecture and typography in one photograph. Hmmm….
    RTFM: Resurgence of The Effing Manual

    Okay, sure, that’s not actually what the acronym stands for. But I don’t care. The United States and its cadre of point-one-percenters have chosen to lead the world in an important new area: preserving the true manual transmission.

    To be clear, they’re also demanding bans on internal combustion go away, so it’s not all good news. They’re apparently unconvinced by Ferrari’s approach, outlined last month and which still uses combustion engines but with increased efficiency, or Hyundai’s approach, which uses electric motors and simulated shifts (the latter of which is being adopted by BMW, among others).

    Two small manufacturers, McLaren and Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA), have both chosen this year’s Monterey/Quail festival of the uber-rich to introduce new cars. Both feature manuals. Porsche was on hand trying to play catch-up.

    McLaren’s first manual since the F1
    The McLaren McL 6GT.

    The original and perhaps most iconic modern hypercar — arguably, the car that launched the term — was the McLaren F1. This month, McLaren introduced something that’s . . . not at all like an F1. It’s a fresh take on 1969’s M6 GT.

    It is both retro and modern, hypercar and hyper-cool — an insta-buy if I could afford it. (Doesn’t matter: already sold out.)

    References to the [original] M6 GT abound, from the vertical headlights and Kamm tail to the position and shape of every duct, rendered with a simplicity that we used to see in supercars of the ’90s and 2000s but see less today. And inside, McLaren has transformed the shifter into an art piece itself, its metallic linkages attracting natural light from every angle in a sea of black and carbon fiber. They’re clearly proud of it, and they suitably want it to be the focal point in here.

    — Adam Ismail, The Drive
    Just look at that — nothing less than a celebration.

    “McLaren bills this as a ‘new type’ of supercar ‘beyond the core portfolio,’” the article continues. “Based on that, it sounds like manual transmissions aren’t about to become a standard feature of the brand; that, beyond the delineation of ‘Sports, Super, and Ultimate’ models of the past, McLaren is diversifying into more exclusive offerings that, at least in this particular case, pursue a more analog experience counter to the regular lineup.”

    Yeah. Do want. But there’s a wrinkle.

    GMA’s new . . . McLaren F1

    The McLaren F1 was designed by an automotive racing legend named Gordon Murray. He subsequently started GMA, and brought out the amazing T.50, among others. Last year, his Special Vehicles department issued a track-only reimagining of the F1 — and has followed up with a road version, called the S1:

    Since it’s less of a concept than the McLaren, some details are available. It features a 4.2-liter, naturally-aspirated Cosworth V12 making 680 horsepower with a rev limit of 12,100 RPM. It exclusively sports a six-speed manual transmission. It is multi-millions of dollars. And it, too, is sold out. The Autopian has more.

    Special bonus #6: From the combining-cars-and-print-department (“not a stretch,” he insisted), Road & Track has a new ampersand:

    The before-and-after:

    Via the subscription-only Brand New.
    Porsche adds another 911 manual

    If you’ve not heard, one of the brands not doing too well at the moment is Porsche. They went hard into electrification, suffered hard from being part of parent company Volkswagen’s arrogantly inept approach,3Just one example: see Scout. It’s actually sad. and subsequently run afoul of social media’s society’s hard turn against EVs. It has cost them dearly.

    Despite insisting that they were going to do it all along, they’re scrambling to get back to what customers actually want. This month, they introduced a third variant of the venerable 911 available with a stick shift.

    It’s not purple, it’s aubergine. (Love the pinstripes.)

    Like the others, it features a wooden shift knob, a throwback to the Carrera GT V10 masterpiece from the heady days of the early naughties. Like the others, it puts the cupholder immediately behind the shifter, guaranteeing spills. (Or thirst.) Like the others, it costs twice what it did six years ago — although it’s still “only” a tenth of either of the above.

    Like the others, I’d be happy to receive one as a gift.

    Unlike the others, it’s US-only, and it’s available this fall. Details, if you’re interested, are available at The Drive or The Autopian.

    Special bonus #7: Jaguar has released the first image — a rendering, actually, but still — of the new Type 01’s interior:

    As it turns out, they’re not backing down from their vision for a completely-new Jaguar, and I respect them for it. The electric four-door also made its US debut at Monterey, albeit in disguise, and should be out sometime next year. More details and pics at Wallpaper*.

    Special bonus #8: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of BMW’s Art Cars, they’ve gathered them all together in Germany.

    A sampling of cars under the iconic four-cylinder BMW HQ.

    Lots of press has ensued, but in case you’re not familiar, they’re exactly what it sounds like they should be — but so very much more. Decorated by artists from Roy Lichtenstein to Andy Warhol, all twenty are unique, daring, and different. Some were even raced before becoming priceless.

    #12, by Esther Mahlangu, on display at BMW Welt Munich.

    The above is a South African item, a country that, it turns out, has a special history for BMW. Meanwhile, get the history of all 20 cars at BMW Blog.

    Special bonus #9: From the not-a-joke department comes this beautiful — and beautifully green — 1979 Mercedes wagon with 6,088 miles. Long buried by an earthquake (!), has been unearthed and restored:

    The very definition of “classic.” The Autopian has the story.

    August’s photography round-up
    Sam Nicklin / Alessi

    Alessi, a “beacon of well-designed homeware,” is celebrated by photographer Sam Nicklin in a new series called Chrome & Colour:

    Photograph by Sam Nicklin.

    “My main goal was to define the silhouette of each object through colour in the reflections, using negative space and keeping highlights to a minimum to really make them pop,” he tells It’s Nice That. To give the images the feel of the 1970s and 80s, “Sam went truly analogue, using the time-consuming process of holding sheets of coloured paper cut to different shapes and moving them around the objects until the reflection was exactly as he envisaged.”

    Photographs by Sam Nicklin.

    See more, including behind-the-shots photographs.

    Pure Street Photography Awards 2026

    This is Colossal caught my attention with these.

    Finalist, open category. Photograph by Pierra Hauser.

    A category that’s not usually at the Fore(word), but excellence won out.

    250 trailblazing women photographers

    In the introduction of a new book titled Great Women Photographers, Fiona Rogers writes, “If ‘greatness’ has long been defined by visibility and remembrance, then the continued documentation and celebration of women’s photographic practice is not only relevant but essential.”

    — Jackie Andres, This is Colossal
    Photograph by Simryn Gill.

    Phaidon’s stuff is always great. See more.

    Sixteen years of not-so-merry land

    From crumbling row houses in the inner city to abandoned houses on the Eastern Shore to temporary homeless camps, “greater” Baltimore demonstrates decay . . . and courage:

    Carroll County, Maryland. Photograph by Ben Marcin.

    Photographer Ben Marcin documents The Holdouts.

    One of 1.2 million

    “Astronaut Don Pettit takes photos so good that people have a hard time believing they are real,” PetaPixel writes. Case in point:

    Photograph by Don Petit, NASA.

    Internet skeptics tried to call him out. But he’d brought notes.

    Eclipse #1: 84 seconds

    A wingsuit and a total eclipse fly into a frame together:

    Photograph by Noah Wetzel for Red Bull.

    Genius marketing, nine months in the making. (Longer, arguably, in the case of the eclipse.)

    Eclipse #2: the fijord
    Photograph by Marc Muench.

    Right place, right time — stunning results, part one.

    Eclipse #3: the sunset
    Photograph by Andrew McCarthy.

    Right place, right time — stunning results, part two.

    Photograph by Andrew McCarthy.

    Special bonus #10: Jason Kottke is moving house, and when he has a moment, posting en-masse. It’s an “old-school, stream-of-consciousness” sort of thing — which, to emphasize, is still awesome. Among the three dozen or so nuggets of greatness:

    “Half Dome, Apple Orchard, Yosemite,” trees with snow on branches, April 1933. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

    More than 200 Ansel Adams photos, mostly of National Parks, that are free to view & download. Via Open Culture, one of the gems of the open web.

    — Jason Kottke, “Empting out browser tabs“

    Anything but empty, I’d argue. Enjoy the rest of your summer, folks!

    • 1
      Soap box: getting a website, whose contents you own, is so painfully simple that I tend to discount those that rely on other platforms to publish what might otherwise be interesting material/thoughts/content. And in this case, the author is a Times journalist, who should definitely know better. ↩︎
    • 2
      It’s been pointed out that blogs are social media, too (the original social media, in fact) — something I don’t necessarily disagree with. From my perspective, writing that is owned, put out there due to belief, and read by folks who trust your opinion, is completely distinct from having your potentially-anonymous “take” promoted to strangers by an algorithmic mechanism that profits from conflict — or, at least, provocation. In my opinion, it’s the latter that defines “social media.” ↩︎
    • 3
      Just one example: see Scout. It’s actually sad. ↩︎
  • Beautifully Briefed 26.7: The Long Heat

    Beautifully Briefed 26.7: The Long Heat

    It’s July, and it’s hot. Bring a beverage. Umbrella optional.

    Spine!
    Stanford University Press. Cover design by Lindy Kasler; art director, Michele Wetherbee. Cover art: Map of Kunitachi, Japan, National Archives and Records Administration; photograph of refugee dwellings in Busan, Korea, United Nations Archives; US military payment certificates note, US Army Finance Corps.

    “The cover asks questions,” I wrote in this month’s column for Spine. “Illustrations and scripts combine in myriad ways; maps plot; and blood drops. Rather than telling you what the title is about, it suggests that it’s not easily summarized — in all the right ways.”

    Read!
    The End of Reading is Here
    Cool header graphic from The Atlantic article.

    “Optimists once believed that universal literacy was inevitable. Now it seems that the age of reading might be a short anomaly in human history,” The Atlantic writes. “The decline of reading will bring about changes of the same magnitude. It will affect our innermost thoughts, our society’s politics and culture, and how we tell the history of our civilization.”

    Reading requires imagination; consumption, whether social media, television, or gaming, really doesn’t. It’s no surprise that the lowering of the common denominator is the result.

    But what if the premise is, in fact, true? I can’t imagine a life without reading — and you’re reading this, so you probably can’t either. Will humanity reach to a point where ingestion of knowledge doesn’t involve the written word? Should it?

    Read the article here. (Gift link via Kottke.)

    Update, 31 July (after publishing): The gift link has expired, darn it — apologies. (One of the downsides of gathering items throughout the month, I guess; this is from the 8th of July.)

    “Read More. Read Often. Read Every Day.”

    We keep searching for lifehacks, productivity tips, and bullshit, but the answer is right there. If you want to be better, grow more, understand your life, understand your purpose, learn something, or just find somewhere to stay a while when life gets overwhelming — pick up a damn book.

    — Joan Westenberg

    She calls it the 80/20 rule: “I believe that spending 20% of your time buried in a book, buried in something that will inspire you, excite you, and make you want to jump out of your seat is going to give you the fuel, the ideas, and the power to create 80% of your output.”

    It’s worrying to think that The Atlantic might be right. This, In its brevity and forthrightness, is a strong counter-argument.

    Special bonus #1: Uncovered is a site for judging books by their first pages. “No cover. No bestseller sticker, no celebrity book club, no BookTok trend. You read the opening of a real book, blind, and answer the only question that matters: would you keep reading?”

    Great address, by the way — I didn’t know .ink was a thing. (Also via Kottke.)

    250 for 250
    Photograph of the Brooklyn Library’s main branch by the Municipal Art Society of New York.

    Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating our country’s 250th anniversary the best way we know how: with a thoughtful, surprising, irresistible booklist. Organized by genre and category of interest, this all-ages list is a deep dive on the stories, voices and moments that shaped America. Selected by our expert librarians — with help from a few notable New Yorkers! — here are the 250 most influential books in United States history.

    — Brooklyn Library’s 250 for 250 Booklist Intro

    Whether it’s actually the most influential 250 titles in the country’s history is probably intentionally debatable, but it’s still a great list. From The Hunger Games to The Snowy Day, The Warmth of Other Suns to Where the Sidewalk Ends, the choices are sometimes surprising, sometimes great memories, and sometimes inspirational.

    If you’re looking for the next title to read — or the next gift to give — start here. (Also available in a handy PDF if you’d like to send to someone.)

    Special bonus #2: Bookmobile, my favorite short-run printer, has been sold — but remains privately-owned, non-corporate, and dedicated to craft. Founder Don Leeper is retiring after 44 years; Michael Shoemaker is the new owner.

    “Mike is the perfect buyer for Bookmobile, with the passion, skills and resources to continue and improve our services to publishers. From the beginning of our discussions he displayed an aptitude for grasping the complexities of book publishing in the 21st century and bringing to bear his deep experience in technology, ecommerce, and business in general. Last but not least, he has an understanding and appreciation for the importance of book culture. I am damned lucky we connected.”

    — Don Leeper, Bookmobile

    “No major changes are planned,” the press release says. “Under its new ownership, Bookmobile will continue to invest in the growth of the business and the success of its publisher customers.”

    (Via Publisher’s Weekly.)

    Type!

    This month has seen a wealth of new typefaces introduced. A few that caught my eye are below, but it’s start with a question.

    “What is Queer Typography?”

    “Looking for queer anything often feels lonely,” Paul Soulellis writes. “The word queer resists definition, sometimes aligned with ideas about rejection, refusal, deviating from the expected, away from the normative. It’s certainly a political word, one that’s taken on expansive qualities throughout its history, qualities that aren’t necessarily confined to gender and sexuality.”

    Image via soulellis.com.

    An interesting text, certainly, with many possible answers to the question and accompanying designs and images. “[W]e need to stay with queer as an action, actively engaging with the past and the future as a verb.”

    Read more. (This is from 2024, but was recently linked at Kottke — and was new to me, so forgive the late notice/attention.)

    Emigre’s Modulator now at Adobe Type

    Adobe prices are a regular gripe amongst many, but one of their strongest offerings is the type catalog — and it just got better:

    “Modulator was conceived as a dialogue between two designs separated by nearly three decades: Modula Round Black (1995) and Lo-Res Monospaced Solid (2023),” Emigre writes. The results are Modulator and its companion Modulator Text Variable, “optimized for smaller sizes by expanding the stem and counter dimensions to improve legibility.”

    Pretty much everything Emigre is awesome, and this is a welcome addition.

    Data as type

    “Datatype is an OpenType variable font that turns simple text expressions into inline charts. No JavaScript, no images, no rendering library — just type the syntax and Datatype’s ligature substitution does the rest.”

    Very cool — and very open source, thus very free. Available on GitHub or Google Fonts.

    Special bonus #3: I don’t actually know how much AI is driving new typeface design; honestly, it seems like an art form requiring human decision-making. Dutch foundry Mass-Driver is one that will always design fonts by hand:

    AI tools perceive reality as a finite set of data, up-to-date as of about 2021: the shadows on the wall of Plato’s Cave. Right now they are very good at making shadow puppets, but they cannot see the world outside.

    If we allow these tools to dictate our visual culture, we must accept that it will be vitrified by machines which consider a few billion webpages equivalent to the sum total of human existence. I don’t accept that. How dare we abandon so many countless traditions and people and ideas and nuances, simply because they are under­represented in the training data?

    — Rutherford Craze & Co., known as Mass-Driver
    CreativeBoom’s July Fonts

    Fourteen in all this time — last month’s suggestion of a summer lull was wrong, apparently — with some strong selections. I wanted to show several, but narrowed it down to three that deserve highlighting:

    Solaflare Sans, by John Reshell of Swell Type.
    Solaflare Flare.

    “Solaflare’s mood is both unmistakable and timely, evoking warm evenings, hand-painted shop signs, and the particular quality of light in a California coastal town. John Roshell of Swell Type was inspired by the hand-painted signage of Santa Barbara, but rather than simply reviving that aesthetic, he built a variable font around it; one that lets designers slide between three distinct typographic personalities within a single file.”

    Solaflare Serif.

    That’s right: a variable flare — meaning sans on one end, flare in the middle, serif on the other. Check it out.

    Oratorio, by Alex Chavot of Apex Type Foundry.

    “Alex Chavot’s latest release for Apex Type Foundry — launched alongside a comprehensively rebuilt foundry website — takes Halbfette Cantate, a display face released around 1910 by H. Berthold AG and designed by Johann Graf, as its starting point, then runs it through the filter of Ed Benguiat’s flamboyant 1970s classics. The result is sweeping swashes, lyrical terminals, high contrast, and an unapologetically theatrical personality that Chavot describes, accurately, as ornamental excess meeting typographic swagger, with just enough restraint to keep it printable.”

    Oratorio.

    Single-weight fonts are rare these days — but oh, what a weight it is. Expressive, serious, almost lavish. Check it out.

    Milgram, by Max Phillips of Signal Type Foundry.

    “Max Phillips of Signal Type Foundry has a gift for describing typefaces, and his account of Milgram is direct. They’d always wanted to add a humanist sans to the library, and always wanted to add a rounded sans. So they decided to save time by making them the same typeface and seeing what happened. What happened was a wave of nostalgia for Frankfurter, VAG Rundschrift, and an all-caps dry-transfer face called Formula One that nobody else seems to remember.”

    Milgram.

    ’Course, anybody who mocks up book covers with their new font … instaclick! Check it out.

    Vote!
    Archinect’s Spring ’26 lecture posters

    Twice a year, Archinect holds a contest for their readers to decide which of the season’s lecture posters from architecture schools around the country are their favorites.

    East Los Angeles College.

    Alas, the contest usually ends just before this column gets posted, so sometimes y’all are able to vote, sometimes not. This time, we only get to compare my favorites with the results.

    University of California at Berkley.

    Along with these three, I’d also give honorable mentions to Yale, Sci-Arc, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

    University of Minnesota.

    ELEC won the contest, too. As for the rest, we’ll just have to agree that they’re all winners in one way or another. See the readers’ and editors’ choices.

    “Choose Euro’n Adventure”

    Brand New‘s penchant for punny-yet-perfect post titles scores another with this one — another one that voting might be just out of reach for, depending on where you’re reading this from.

    Design submission by Rudy Guedj and François Girard-Meunier.

    That’s right: it’s time to redesign the Euro! Finalists have been chosen.

    “A panel of jurors selected the designs, which follow one of two themes: European places and ideas or birds and rivers, the latter of which is meant to symbolize freedom and unity,” This is Colossal writes.

    Design submission by Isabelle Daëron.

    Interestingly, the notes get bigger with denomination — the 5 is the smallest, then 10, then 20; the 50, 100, and 200 are all the same size. (Not the boring uniformity we get here in the States.)

    Same colors, same denominations, vastly differing details. (Overview via Brand New.)

    “While basic elements are the same — all collections devoted to culture feature the same six figures, for example — individual approaches appear in the layout, aesthetic, and composition,” Colossal continues.

    Design submission by Atelier Goppel-Toperngpong.

    I’m unsurprisingly partial to the birds & places, but no matter which theme or which specific design, these are all excellent. See all the available options at the European Central Bank website — and, if you’re in the EU, take the survey!

    Special bonus #4: It’s not the Europeans, it’s the English we have to thank: Getty has abandoned its takeover/merger with/of Shutterstock. Hooray!

    Amuse!
    Lil’ Finder Guy
    It may be a social media campaign, but darn it’s cute.

    Basic Apple Guy, who introduced me to Apple’s social media campaign1As you probably know, I don’t participate in social media. I have to rely on others to bring Apple’s media efforts to my attention — folks covering the coverage, as it were. for the MacBook Neo, has an update with all things regarding this unofficial mascot.

    Details, stickers, and more.

    It’s the Internet, of course, so even items that have been posted briefly then deleted are fodder for careful investigation — and some of the details he’s dug up are neat. (He’s also done a bunch of generated varieties of the character, which make occasional — and often delightful — appearances in his articles.)

    Save the manuals

    No, not of the RTFM variety. It’s actually a non sequitur.

    Image via The Autopian.

    Ferrari went and did something interesting, again: having introduced the world of high-performance motoring to the automated manual (the F1, in 1997),2Ferrari’s F1 wasn’t actually the first automated or even semi-automated manual gearbox/transmission, by a long shot. It is, however, the one that brought it to sports cars, followed almost immediately by BMW’s SMG. Wiki has a history, if you’re interested. it’s now introducing … the manualized automatic.3Technically, Koenigsegg got there first with its CC850. However, a) you have to be a car geek to know Koenigsegg, and b) that shift-by-wire unit doesn’t use traditional selector forks, or synchronizers. Instead, it uses seven wet clutches, six to select forward ratios and one for reverse, all with their own pressure sensors and mechatronic actuators. “Changing up is as simple as engaging the right clutches,” The Autopian says. Ferrari’s is a gated dual-clutch automatic, although to call that an oversimplification is an undersell.

    Photograph via Ferrari’s press department.

    First of all, let’s all please agree that the 12 Cilindri, their 819-horsepower, half-million-Euro, two-seater Grand Touring masterpiece, is a beautiful thing — retro, but in a modern way. Especially in this merlot-and-gold combo.

    Photograph via Ferrari’s press department.

    In the new Manuale model, the transmission is the story: a gated dual-clutch automatic, or DCT, with a twist. It’s got buttons for drive, reverse, etc., as usual — but a clutch and a shift lever instead of paddles.

    By doing so, offers a road map for other automakers (cough *BMW*) whose customers are demanding the engagement of a manual but whose governments are demanding reduced emissions and increased mileage — plus all those safety mandates like automatic braking and conveniences like adaptive cruise control.

    Photograph via Ferrari’s press department.

    I’m convinced this is the future of the manual transmission. It’s unconventional, unexpected, and is going to take a minute to trickle down. But … fingers crossed.

    Get details at The Autopian or The Drive.

    Special bonus #5: Driving stick can help prevent dementia. Okay, sure, it’s not the most scientific post extant, but it makes sense.

    Gaze!
    Astronomy Photographer of the Year finalists 2026

    “Now in its 18th year, the ZWO Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest is among the premier photo competitions that celebrate the art of astrophotography and astronomy,” PetaPixel writes.

    Moody Partial Solar Eclipse. “Our Sun” category. Photograph by James McBeath, UK.

    “The competition features nine categories, a pair of special prizes, and the expert panel of judges selects a single overall winner, all of which will be showcased in an exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in England starting on September 18.”

    Te Hoho Rock Moonrise. “Skyscapes” category. Photograph by Evan McKay, New Zealand.

    Astrophotography is fascinating — a reminder that we’re merely a blip — and requires patience, skill, and specialized gear. But the results … wow.

    See all 29 finalists.

    25 Amazing JWST photographs

    While we’re on the subject of space photography, the imagery from space-based cameras amaze no less. The James Webb Space Telescope just celebrated its fourth birthday, and PetaPixel has gathered 25 of its most spectacular and insightful images.

    Jupiter. Photograph credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hueso (UPV), I. de Pater (UC Berkeley), T. Fouchet (Observatory of Paris), L. Fletcher (University of Leicester), M.H. Wong (UC Berkeley), J. DePasquale (STScI).

    Cloud details, aurora, the eye — and all on a planet we’re “familiar” with.

    Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. Photograph credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (STScI), A. Pagan (STScI).

    The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is the closest star-forming region to Earth, and demonstrates both the beauty and power of the Universe.

    “The $10 billion NASA/ESA/CSA JWST has produced a great deal of exceptional scientific work in its first four years of operation, much of which is utterly groundbreaking,” PetaPixel writes. “However, that alone is not enough to warrant a photo’s inclusion. While scientific value is important, a Webb image featured here must also be beautiful.”

    See also: PetaPixel‘s selections from JWST’s second birthday two years ago.

    Illumination

    What do these two photographs have in common?

    Cerro Torre. Photograph by Darren Almond.
    Porquerolles. Photograph by Darren Almond.

    Both were taken by the light of the full moon!

    In his new book, aptly named Darren Almond. Fullmoon, “the light of the Moon is eerily enhanced, infusing the landscape with haunting ideas of nature and time,” PetaPixel (dramatically) writes.

    iPhone Photographer of the Year 2026

    It’s that time of year again: the iPhone Photography Awards, now in its 20th season, has announced its annual competition winners.

    Winner, Abstract category. Photograph by Barry Mayes, UK.

    Entrants from more than 140 countries “showed just how powerful an iPhone can be in the right hands and how great photos don’t always require high-end, dedicated camera equipment,” PetaPixel writes.

    Winner, Architecture category. Photograph by Ziwen Chen, China.
    3rd Place, Architecture category. Photograph by Preethy Ganesan, US.
    Honorable Mention, Architecture category. Photograph by Adrian Beasley, UK.

    Of course, these four barely scratch the surface of the fantastic selection from a variety of categories; see all the winners, runners-up, and more at the official website.

    The Architecture of Connection

    A left turn, so to speak:

    The Last Landmark. Image by Jen Orpin.

    “The Modernist Society takes a detour from its usual publishing habits with a new monograph, The Architecture of Connection,” Wallpaper* writes, “featuring the work of painter Jen Orpin.”

    Let Love Grow. Image by Jen Orpin.

    That’s right: paintings. We’re “in the realm of unseen and overlooked infrastructure, with Orpin’s eye – and careful framing – capturing over 200 images of the bridges that span Britain’s motorways. […] The Architecture of Connection brings the entire series together in a monograph for the first time, together with some of the artist’s writings about the work.”

    Without traffic, but with something bordering tranquility, it’s of course right up my street. I sometimes wish I could stop and photograph every interesting bridge — or even roadside attraction — while out in the world, but don’t, of course; few of us do. Orpin did. With an easel, no less.

    2026 International Pet Photography finalists

    Finally, something to send you into August with a smile on your face: humanity’s best friends.

    Untitled, Action category. Photograph by Shandess Griffin.
    ‘Cat Goalkeeper,’ Phone category. Photograph by He Huapei.
    “Weightless,” Action category. Photograph by Linda Glomb.

    The winners will be announced tomorrow, August 1st.

    Happy summer, everyone!

    • 1
      As you probably know, I don’t participate in social media. I have to rely on others to bring Apple’s media efforts to my attention — folks covering the coverage, as it were. ↩︎
    • 2
      Ferrari’s F1 wasn’t actually the first automated or even semi-automated manual gearbox/transmission, by a long shot. It is, however, the one that brought it to sports cars, followed almost immediately by BMW’s SMG. Wiki has a history, if you’re interested. ↩︎
    • 3
      Technically, Koenigsegg got there first with its CC850. However, a) you have to be a car geek to know Koenigsegg, and b) that shift-by-wire unit doesn’t use traditional selector forks, or synchronizers. Instead, it uses seven wet clutches, six to select forward ratios and one for reverse, all with their own pressure sensors and mechatronic actuators. “Changing up is as simple as engaging the right clutches,” The Autopian says. Ferrari’s is a gated dual-clutch automatic, although to call that an oversimplification is an undersell. ↩︎
  • Beautifully Briefed 26.6: New is Good. Old is Good.

    Beautifully Briefed 26.6: New is Good. Old is Good.

    “Welcome to the new,” he said, pointing to the old, now dressed in a new suit. You’re reading this because the words and ideas resonated — and it’s why only the style is newly tailored.

    Sometimes, though, a new look can be enormously satisfying. Enjoy.

    This month’s Spine
    Beacon Press.

    “Paperwork. Nice,” I said, while potentially allowing a smidgen of political speak through the door. (Not sorry.) Read the column here.

    Design and type
    Matt Dorfman’s many hats

    Matt Dorfman’s book covers are a regular item here on Foreword, including several of my Favorite Book Covers of the Year posts. So it was a delight to see a new interview with It’s Nice That.

    [B]usy days and late nights begin with, as Matt puts it, “churning out a generous amount of trash”. Much to his frustration he will be “working through what often feels like a landfill-sized hill of boring ideas”. Despite taking up quite a bit of time, it’s a necessity, as among this trash will be a shred of an idea worth expanding upon. “Usually it’s a minor detail from an earlier comp made in haste and far afield from anything that book is actually about,” he says, “but it typically has a quality of brokenness or something unfinished that just looks interesting.”

    — Harry Bennett, It’s Nice That

    “Do anything except what’s right in front of you,” he tells them, while mentioning that he often favors collage. “Collage has become one of my shorthands for pairing themes and ideas together that aren’t so readily represented in nature or culture.” As in:

    VQR. Book design by Matt Dorfman. Image via It’s Nice That.

    Did I mention that he’s also the art director The New York Times Book Review? Yeah:

    One of Matt Dorfman’s covers for the NYT Book Review. Image via It’s Nice That.

    And a quick preview of next year’s Favorites list, with this gem:

    Cover design by Matt Dorfman.

    If it looks familiar, that’s because…:

    Cover design by Matt Dorfman.
    Cover design by Matt Dorfman.

    Both previous Favorites here on Foreword. Awesome.

    Read the whole interview at It’s Nice That.

    “It’s All Greeked to Me”

    Glenn Fleishman, writing at Six Colors, points us at a YouTube documentary on the history of Lorem Ipsum:

    A screenshot of the YouTube video.

    “I found it riveting and hilarious, and exactly the kind of Rabbit Hole (her channel name) that I fall down with printing and type history myself,” he writes. “[H]er dogged research has largely filled in the missing pieces of the story of where the run of seemingly Latin text used by designers to act as placeholder (or ‘Greeked’) text in mock-ups since the late 1960s came from.”

    I agree: it’s well put-together and, more importantly, answers a question you might not have actually had — but now can’t resist. Enjoy.

    Side note: Privacy where possible: I’ve switched to screenshots of YouTube videos rather than embedding them. That way folks who choose not follow the link aren’t stuck with the trackers embedding foists upon all.

    Special bonus #1: Glenn is one of those people who wears many hats — 2019’s awesome Tiny Type Museum project is his, for instance — but it’s the comics connection that might be most appreciated. He’s got a book out about it, now in its second edition, which has just been nominated for Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards — the Eisners. Read more.

    2026 logo trends
    The Logo Lounge has posted its 2026 Report.

    The quality of the Logo Trend Report has slipped over the past couple of years — there are suggestions that parts of it are generated rather of written — but I think the zoom-out is still useful for those of us in design.

    If, for no other reason, to make sure our work is ahead of the curve.

    Via Brand New, one of the only subscription sites I’ll link to. (Because it gives me an excuse to encourage you to subscribe, too: at $20/year, it’s sensibly priced and very much earns its keep.)

    Best new fonts: a one-off

    This month’s CreativeBoom post on new fonts was shorter than some — it’s summer! — with only one I’d like to highlight:

    Sahlia, by Arcane Type Foundry.

    But what a one it is. How often are we given an excuse get excited about stencil-style?

    Close-up details (and more butterflies).

    Sahlia is available from Arcane Type Foundry.

    Font previews: not simple

    Marcin Wichary, whose brilliant Unsung continues to impress, has a neat item that we’ve all seen at this point: font menus that preview the font name in the style of the typeface, sometimes poorly.

    Turns out, that’s not at all easy.

    Oopsie. Screenshot courtesy of Unsung.

    “Font previews are fascinating because they are the perfect showcase of how tricky fonts can be at scale,” he writes. The question is: why?

    It’s actually impossible to left align or center text. Ever. Not just because each font does whatever it wants – font size is a number that doesn’t really give you anything to hang a hat on, and the font can place itself in its box however it desires, too – and not just because fonts often lie (via bad metrics) about what they store inside, but also because aligning and centering are really in the eye of the license holder, and have more than one definition.

    So, every time you align text to anything, in whatever way, it’s only an approximation. Most of the time that’s good enough. Here it is not.

    — Marcin Wichary, Unsung
    It takes a surprising amount of work to get this right. Screenshot courtesy of Unsung.

    “There are icon fonts, color fonts, and non-Western fonts so rich in variety and tradition that this category itself is basically a fractal,” he says. “There’s a craft to getting it right.”

    Read the rest.

    Special bonus #2: Wichary also built something called Fontificator. “I thought it’d be fun to share this internal tool I made over a decade ago to aid with exploring options for Medium’s typographical redesign,” he says.

    Fontificator. Screenshot courtesy of Unsung.

    “The motivation for building Fontificator came from two observations:

    • font previews on type foundry sites were generally too limited to get a real sense of how a certain typeface feels, and it was best to see a font in situ,
    • often an extremely tiny nuance — like adding some letter spacing, or messing with line height — was what separated something that was promising from something that seemed very far from working.”

    It’s both brilliant and fun. Check it out.

    Adobe does AI

    I know, I know, more Abode stuff. I’ll keep it quick(ish).

    PetaPixel reminds us that, “the vast majority of working photographers are using AI to help save them time, handling tedious tasks that aren’t necessarily all that creative.” Adobe’s latest updates address that:

    AI removal tools now have flavors, including on-device if needed.
    • Lightroom’s AI Sharpen tool can now use Topaz Labs’ Noise-Aware Sharpen model directly in the app. This promises to recover fine details more effectively, per Adobe. (More on Topaz below.) 👍
    • Lightroom’s Assisted Culling automatically stacks similar images into groups and automatically suggests the “strongest one.” 👎
    • Lightroom has a new Photo to Video feature that uses Firefly and Google Veo to turn a still photo into “polished b-roll or reels with AI-generated motion.” 👎
    • Photoshop’s reflection removals are now isolated on a separate layer, “giving users control over opacity for more natural-looking results,” according to PetaPixel. 👍
    • Photoshop’s Remove Tool, which uses generative AI to erase a selected object and replace it with realistic-looking pixels, can now be used offline using an on-device AI model. 👍

    Get the full story at PetaPixel.

    The agentic AI “assistant” might — or might not — be good. (Subscribers pay $$ for it, so….)

    Meanwhile, Adobe’s promised “creative agent” — ’cause agentic AI — has “fully arrived” in Creative Cloud, PetaPixel writes. “Inside Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Frame.io, users can tell Adobe’s Firefly-powered AI Assistant how to edit photos, videos, and other graphics.” It runs in a panel, like having Chat GPT or Claude right in the app.

    “As a creative, you remain in control, choosing what to hand off, what to refine and how to apply your taste, expertise and judgment to shape every editable outcome. These tools are built for how you’ve told us you actually work,” Adobe explains.

    I’m going to have to try this one. Maybe. Someday.

    Several days after the above items were debuted, Adobe purchased Topaz outright. It’ll “fully integrate Topaz’s [AI scaling] models across apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, and its AI image generator Firefly” — which should be a good thing.

    Special bonus #3: In case AI-all-the-things is getting to you, there’s this:

    “A ‘centaur’ describes a human augmented with a technology, like machine learning, or even just driving a car or using autocomplete,” ArsTechnica writes as part of an interview with Doctorow. “A reverse centaur ‘is a machine head on a human body, a person who is serving as a squishy meat appendage for an uncaring machine.’”

    “Being a centaur is generally viewed as a positive thing; few people relish being a reverse centaur. And yet the AI industry….” Read the rest.

    People
    Jason Snell

    Amongst the tech names I’ve know for what seems forever, Jason Snell’s is up there. He was first at MacUser, then Macworld, then hung out his own banner at Six Colors.

    From Macworld: Jason Snell (highlighted) at the introduction of the iPod, 2001.

    My first day on the job at Macworld, Apple was perilously close to going out of business. It was the fall of 1997, and Steve Jobs had returned to Apple and engineered the ejection of Gil Amelio as CEO, but there was no iMac yet, no visible turnaround in terms of products at all. Beyond the release of the iconic “Think Different” ad campaign, there was nothing.

    Apple’s survival hung by a thread. Steve Jobs asked everyone to trust him. At Macworld Expo, he had enlisted Bill Gates — Bill Gates, of all people! — to help him instill belief in the world that Apple would find a way to survive.

    The world was skeptical, to say the least. My family asked what job I thought I’d get once Apple went out of business.

    —Jason Snell

    Ah, the good old days. (I jest.) Hard to believe, but that was almost 30 years ago. Sheesh.

    So long, in fact, that another milestone has passed: Jason’s left Macworld. Read the column. I’m glad he’ll be continuing with Six Colors, and am looking forward to his new podcast on Apple’s history, Designed in California.

    David Hockney

    I was familiar more than a fan, but it’s undeniable that the world has lost a character — something very ably underscored by the tribute illustrations posted at CreativeBoom:

    Illustration by Nia Gould.

    “From Bradford to Beverly Hills, Hockney’s bold colours and irrepressible joy for living inspired a generation. Here’s what they created in response to his passing,” they write. See the rest.

    Om Malik

    Early this month, Om released an essay for the times — and the ages:

    Most people remember Pinocchio as a story about lying. The nose grows. You get caught. Lesson learned. But that reading misses almost everything Collodi was actually doing. The book is a close study of a society where deception has gone ambient, woven into every institution, every transaction. Courts punish victims. Authority figures perform competence without exercising it. Experts are decorative. Society holds together through spectacle and habit rather than accountability. Into this environment, a naive creature is released, constitutionally unable to resist a good story about easy reward.

    The nose is the least interesting lie in the book. The interesting lies are the ones that work.

    — Om Malik, om.co (Via Daring FIreball.)

    Okay, sure, it was social commentary cleverly disguised as an essay about a pen. This Mont Blanc, in fact:

    The point is, it was as insightful as ever. (See also the previously-cited “Velocity is the New Authority.”) It was immediately deposited in the to-be-posted folder. Before I could could get to that, however, heart disease snatched him away. He was 59.

    I first heard via Pixel Envy, which linked to Om’s excellent photographs posted to Glass (social media),1Forgive the repetition, but just in case: I don’t participate in social media. While I’d heard of Glass, I didn’t know of Om’s posts there — and wouldn’t have followed in any case. Perusing those photos, and posting that link, are a one-off celebrating Om’s talent. and, later, appreciated John Gruber’s thoughtful piece at Daring Fireball.

    Both reminded me of Om’s love of Leica and preference for black-and-white:

    “Sleepy in Seattle.” Photograph by Om Malik.
    “Does This Qualify as Flora?” Photograph by Om Malik.

    Or almost-black-and-white:

    Untitled. Photograph by Om Malik.

    See a few more, called “Selects,” at Om’s personal photography site.

    Special bonus #4: The day after Om’s Pinocchio essay, above, Daring Fireball posted on Jason Zweig’ on’s three ways to get paid. I won’t spoil it — just go read.

    Photography
    2026 Beaker Street Science Photography finalists

    “This is the 10th anniversary of the Australian Beaker Street Festival. Each year, the competition celebrates fantastic photos of rare and unusual scientific phenomena, endangered species, conservation missions, and much more,” PetaPixel writes.

    Some of these are awesome:

    “Southern Ocean Energy.” Photograph by Nick Green.
    “Just Another Bioluminescent Tantrum.” Photograph by Deni Cupit.

    26 finalists in all. See the rest (and, if you’d like, vote at the link).

    2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year shortlist

    This contest takes entries from the majestic Australasian Realm, including the ANZANG bioregion consisting of Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and New Guinea, and to quote PetaPixel, “there are some real bangers on there.”

    “Bin Turkey.” Photograph by Emma Perry.
    “Penguin Poe.” Photograph by Matt Bell.

    Nature in all its marvelously diverse glory. See the rest.

    Burton’s America

    I’m surprised I haven’t linked to Brendon Burton’s work before, ’cause it’s right up my alley:

    Traces #10. Photograph by Brendon Burton.
    Traces #6. Photograph by Brendon Burton.

    His second book, Epitaph, “is a series that attempts to unravel the knot of mystery that exists within the dark corners of North America, shedding light on unseen histories and buried past lives.”

    See more. (Via This is Colossal.)

    Landscapes three-fer

    • Travel and nature photographer Jake Guzman has spent the past two years creating Otherworldly America, his new 256-page photography book:

    “Picture Lake Washington.” Photograph by Jake Guzman.
    “Richardson Highway, Alaska.” Photograph by Jake Guzman.

    • Arpan Das has fallen in love with the Kishtwar Himalaya in the Jammu and Kashmir region, part of the Indian Himalayas:

    “Barnaj Rainbow.” Photograph by Arpan Das.

    •  Michael Shainblum photographs the volatile, weather-driven landscapes of New Zealand with “a body of work shaped less by fixed composition and more by responsiveness to constant change”:

    “New Zealand #19.” Photograph by Michael Shainblum.
    “New Zealand #40.” Photograph by Michael Shainblum.

    All three are via PetaPixel: Jake Guzman, Apran Das, and a longer feature on Michael Shainblum.

    Finally: soothing surf
    “Venice Beach: Dreamy #3.” Photograph by Craig Hubbard.

    Hubbard’s photos are ethereal and cinematic, with surfers and wave crests illuminated by the early morning sun or backdropped by the marine layer. Sometimes the intense spray, curl, shoulder, or lip become the sole subjects of the portraits. “The water is the muse and artist,” Hubbard recently told an interviewer. “I’m just a biased translator and documentarian. Lastly, my ego relaxes in the ocean; the need to peacock recedes. This is where my best work comes from — or favorite, I should say.”

    — Kate Mothes, This is Colossal
    “Venice Beach: Dreamy #9.” Photograph by Craig Hubbard.

    See more at This is Colossal.

    That’s it for this month. As always, thanks for visiting.

    For folks in the US, have a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend as America turns 250. Let’s hope that we can make it a better place.

    Also: Please don’t forget to let me know of any problems or concerns with the new site. I’ve got a list of items — going to work on them now — but always welcome feedback. Thanks.

    • 1
      Forgive the repetition, but just in case: I don’t participate in social media. While I’d heard of Glass, I didn’t know of Om’s posts there — and wouldn’t have followed in any case. Perusing those photos, and posting that link, are a one-off celebrating Om’s talent. ↩︎
  • Beautifully Briefed 26.5: May All Things Be Grand

    Beautifully Briefed 26.5: May All Things Be Grand

    Design is grand; illustration and type are grand, too; the new BMW Alpina is a grand tourer extraordinaire; and space photography is grand indeed. Only Adobe, unfortunately, is the outlier, but on balance, a grand sendoff to Spring.

    This month’s Spine
    University of Chicago Press.
    University of Chicago Press.

    I inked as many jokes as I could — penishment, one could say — but the University Presses column is still worth a read when you have a moment.

    Painting book covers

    Hyperallergic comments, “In a market flooded with design templates and AI-generated imagery, the painted cover stands out as distinctly human.” Which, they suppose, is why when you “[w]alk into any bookstore in the United States lately, […] the shelves and new-release tables resemble group exhibitions.”

    Cover design by Rodrigo Corral Studio. (A 2025 Favorite Book Cover here on Foreword, too.)

    The recent shift from color fields and geometric abstraction to gestural figuration on book covers may reflect a broader craving for embodiment and physical presence — proof, in other words, of the artist’s hand and subjectivity in the era of the internet. Just as painting implies time, so does the novel, demanding sustained attention to both write and to read. It’s a tension that undermines the forces driving creation and consumption in the service of ever-increasing profit margins, both in the art market and the publishing industry.

    — Tara Anne Dalbow, Hyperallergic

    Cover design by Jaya Miceli.

    Regular readers will know this isn’t a new thing, but I think the post — whose author is much more likely to be familiar with social media and bigger-picture trends than I am — is correct in the notion that, “the painted cover seemingly aligns the book with an art-historical lineage rather than the curation of an algorithmic feed.”

    Aside from misspelling Jaya Miceli’s name, there’s lots of good stuff in the article. Take a look.

    Note: I somehow hadn’t seen I Am You before, and am disappointed to have missed this great cover … that would absolutely have been in running for the 2025 Favorite Book Covers. Apologies.

    Speaking of great book design: Jenny Volvovski

    In 2012, Jenny Volvovski “really wanted to design book covers but didn’t have any book cover work. So I hired myself to redesign my personal library.” An interesting approach, to be sure:

    A small selection of items from Volvovski’s unsolicited covers collection.

    That, as it turns out, has worked very well for her — she’s now amongst the elite:

    Cover design by Jenny Volvovski. Was a finalist — but not selected — for my 2025 Favorite Book Covers.

    “Yeah,” I hear you say, “but that’s only a runner-up.” Okay:

    Cover design by Jenny Volvovski. One of my 2025 Favorite Book Covers.

    In addition to the above, Beethoven, The Novel and the Blank, and The Master of Contradictions are among several that fall into the outstanding category; see many more in the “published” section of her website.

    Enjoy! (Prompted by Kottke.)

    Fantastic early 20th-century movie posters (and more)

    Eric Rohman wasn’t a name I was familiar with — he’s Swedish, so I suppose there’s an excuse — but the great design transcends not only the language barrier but the years, as well:

    Poster design by Eric Rohman, 1918.

    “Eric Rohman (1891–1949) was born in Nyköping and grew up in Helsingborg. He was one of the very few people in Sweden who could make a living by only producing posters. He produced about 7,000 works, according to his own estimate. 

    “Rohman’s brother was the manager of one of the big cinema chains and the need for posters was great. Rohman usually worked with few colors and did not spend much time on details, he had a great ability to quickly pick out the essentials.”

    Poster design by Eric Rohman, 1917.

    From Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin to Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo, this online archive is both inspirational and sure to bring a smile to your face.

    When you’re done, the site, Artvee, has countless more from artists worldwide, in hi-res where possible, all in the public domain. A fantastic resource.

    (Another via Kottke.)

    Special bonus #1: Quentin Blake, at 93, continues to advocate “for a discipline that’s lacked attention and prestige for far too long,” CreativeBoom writes. 

    Photograph courtesy of CreativeBoom.

    The master illustrator of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, The BFG, and around 500 more instantly-recognizable titles has been working on a singular goal for more than three decades; the fruit of his labor, The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, “the world’s largest permanent public space dedicated to illustration,” opens its doors in Clerkenwell, London, this summer.

    One of the famous cockatoos gifted to the world by Quentin Blake.

    Update, 6 June 2026: Dezeen has a great article on both the Center and its facility: “The site, known as New River Head, was once the end of an artificial river created in the early 1600s to channel drinking water into London,” they write. 

    Facility by Tim Ronalds Architects. Photograph courtesy of Dezeen.

    “Many of the structures on the site were created as part of the endeavour to pump this water to people’s houses. The oldest of these was the base of a windmill dating back to 1707, which stands at the entrance to the museum’s site and has been converted into a gallery space for temporary exhibitions.” Check it out.

    This month’s new fonts

    CreativeBoom‘s monthly feature has twelve choices, a couple of which I’d love to have the opportunity to use.

    Ardent, by Typofounderie
    Ardent, by Typofonderie.

    “Jean François Porchez began designing Ardent in January 2021, starting from his earlier Le Monde Journal and asking what that typeface would need to become to serve modern screen reading. The answer involved drawing wider letterforms and more open counterforms, following the research of Ladislas Mandel and Matthew Carter on legibility and apparent size. Serifs in the italics (an unusual, but actually sensible choice) serve readability on screen, rather than print conventions. […]

    Ardent’s ”angular counters,” as they call them, do stand out.

    “More broadly, the font draws on a rich historical lineage: Elzevirs, Albertus, Vendôme, Meridien, even Verdana. Angular and triangular shapes sit alongside round terminals and both bracketed and unbracketed serifs, creating what Jean describes as a typeface that reveals subtle contrasts invisible at small sizes but gives graphic projects a distinct identity at large ones.”

    Have to emphasize: unlike my usual selections, this is aimed at screens, not the printed page. Still, good stuff.

    Tareco, by Dalton Maag
    Tareco, by Dalton Maag.

    “Deiverson Ribeiro’s pulled off something a bit special here. Developed at Dalton Maag, Tareco takes the beloved sweet treat of the same name as its starting point. This is not a polite, restrained script, but one with a loud, confident personality. Thick, confident strokes and precise details give these letterforms a jazz-like syncopation: a sense of forward propulsion and playful energy that helps to bring designs to life on the page.”

    And seriously: who doesn’t love a biscuit?

    Software woes, rants and hopes
    Part One: Adobe

    I’ve not had much good to say about Adobe recently, I’ll admit. I’m also not thrilled to be back, bemoaning something else. It’s a shame they’ve given me another reason to.

    Recently, I’ve noticed that in Photoshop, the “canvas size” dialog (among others) has looked … well, off. Windows-like, even, which is most assuredly not a compliment. But on a more fundamental level, it’s broken — it has, to use the parlance, lost its focus sequence: the standard workflow of open dialog, type value, tab, type, enter (no mousing required) is just gone. Each value has to be manually selected and entered, a much more arduous process — it’s additional movement, clicks, and time unnecessarily added.

    The old interface is on the left, “new” on the right. Screenshot courtesy of Unsung.

    You can bet I’m not the only one to have noticed.

    Marcin Wichary, at the excellent Unsung:

    I generally avoid such harsh labels on this blog, but: this is awful work. 

    I’m angry. (Clearly.) We should all be angry in the face of stuff like this. This is how people get fed up with software – because it feels unstable and deteriorates on its own without needing to. 

    I know I brought up that an existing power user base can be a huge pain in the ass, and I am a decades-old Photoshop power user. But this is different than other examples where the product needs or at least wants to evolve past its core audience or toward a different market. For Photoshop here, nothing I see indicates any change in course or clientele – and yet all of these good moments in UI that used to help me out no longer exist.

    Plus, all those transgressions are solved problems. Those issues are not buried in pages of heavily litigated patents, or in seven collective brains of world-class interface designers whose driveways are presently occupied by cash-filled trucks sent over by frontier companies. This isn’t some long lost art that requires archaeologists to decipher. This feels like carelessness and laziness in face of basic UI engineering; in a likely internally-motivated effort to refresh the interface, the team threw an entire nursery worth of babies [out] with the bathwater.

    — Marcin Wichary, Unsung

    “It’s not just about disservice to craft. It’s not even about disrespect for change management, trivialization of institutional memory, and disinvestment in quality assurance. This isn’t only […] sloppy coding,“ he continues. “This is a failure of imagination.”

    Jason Snell, at Six Colors:

    I have been using Photoshop since John Sculley was the CEO of Apple. Longtime users can be brutally resistant to change, but I would like to think that I remain open-minded. One can’t have used Photoshop for more than three decades without having adapted to change and found utility in the new features Adobe has added over the years. I’ve used generative fill. I’ve used AI-enhanced edge detection. I’m hip and with it.

    But, as Wichary detected, what Adobe is doing with the Modern User Interface is not to make a new, improved, modern interface. Adobe’s own description gives it away: It’s a hammering of all of Adobe’s user interfaces so they look alike, across Creative Cloud. It’s a “multi-platform design system,” which means in addition to Adobe being committed to “modernizing” Photoshop by making it look like Premiere, it’s also going to make it look the same on the Mac as Windows.

    Already, Photoshop desperately wants to run in single-window mode, with multiple documents opening in a single uberwindow—in other words, the stink of Windows. Fortunately, you can turn that feature off, and I have. […]

    That all said, of course, this decision could benefit Photoshop users, because Adobe could put in the work to make the app better while also fulfilling its own corporate goals of homogeneity.

    Ha ha ha. Sorry. I tried to write that with a straight face.

    — Jason Snell, Six Colors

    It gets worse. Nick Heer, he of PixelEnvy, noted:

    If you do a little poking around in Adobe’s application bundles, a key reason for the jankiness of these user interfaces becomes apparent: it is because they are little webpages. These dialog boxes are HTML files that reference a chunky CSS file and oodles of JavaScript […].

    This is loathsome.

    There are people out there who will insist it is unfair to blame the tools and that bad user interfaces can be built in entirely native languages, too, which is true. Also, Adobe’s interface has always been unique and not quite at home on either MacOS or Windows. Maybe it really is possible to build a web app that feels platform native. But I have never used one — not once — and for this mess to be increasingly used in the industry-standard professional suite of creative tools is maddening.

    — Nick Heer, Pixel Envy

    John Gruber, on Daring Fireball, notes that, “The before-and-after screenshots look like examples from a lecture on user interface design  —  if you swap them around make the new ones ‘before’ and the old ones ‘after’. Better balance, better focus behavior, appropriate platform-native typography.”

    Michael Tsai has a post on the whole “conversation” if you’d like to get a sense of just how many people are upset; for what it’s worth, it includes a comment from Adobe’s “Lead Scientist” for user interface: “These sharp edges are acknowledged, and we are working on them.” I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t entirely trust their reassurances.

    Wichary did provide a solution, however temporary: turn off the interface “improvements.” There’s an option buried in the settings:

    Uncheck the box, then note the last line.
    Part Two: Folklore

    The hope part: Gruber followed up with a thought-provoking piece called, “Software as the Product of Obsession Times Voice.” He reminds us of a famous quote from Walt Disney — “We don’t make movies to make money; we make money to make more movies” — and that it applies to software development, especially for independents. To wit:

    It feels like the world of software is bifurcating quality-wise. This whole thing about Adobe’s new craptacular “modern” UI language (a.k.a. “Spectrum”) exemplifies one side of that bifurcation — the bad-and-getting-worse side. Software that is the product not just of an ignorance of long-established principles of interaction design, but of a willful disdain for those principles. What Adobe is now shipping is just inexplicably bad UI, ignoring literally decades of great work and long-mastered concepts — a lot of which work was pioneered by Adobe itself!

    — John Gruber, Daring Fireball

    He goes on to discuss that what’s expected from Apple is “insanely great,” and that Adobe is failing so hard precisely because they’re Adobe and know better. He also mentions a concept known as software brain — read the post to get that — but, in a nutshell, it’s not about the quality of the software. It’s about the quality of the profits. Quelle surprise.

    However, “[t]he other side of the software fork is not deserted. It’s just populated, more than ever, by the products of small independent developers who obsess, first and foremost, over quality and artistic vision.”

    Which leads us to Folklore. Mentioned on Upgrade’s Apple 50th anniversary podcast episode, Folklore is a list of 123 great stories from Apple’s early days, from when Apple was that company obsessing, first and foremost, over quality and artistic vision.

    Great stuff. Wander through the list at your leisure — and revel in the glory days.

    Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

    — Margaret Mead

    Special bonus #2: Taken, a single webpage that shows just how much information you share by … visiting a webpage. Sigh.

    Special bonus #3: Boring, an interactive essay arguing that some of the items mentioned above have, in fact, gone too far — and that forces are at work to redress. Speaking of hope: let’s do that.

    BMW Alpina

    So, it’s finally happened: after what seems like forever — including several mentions here on Foreword — we’ve now seen where BMW is going to take the Alpina brand.

    I’m both relieved and excited: it could be very cool.

    Image courtesy of BMW.

    Unlike BMW M, which is focused on sport, BMW Alpina will be focused on speed. Mile-munching, cross-continent stuff. (If you’re a Mercedes fan, think closer to Maybach than AMG — or maybe an amalgamation of both.) “[T]he understated character of ALPINA fits the way wealthy buyers are spending now,” writes BMW Blog. “That is the market BMW is aiming at — not M buyers, not 7 Series buyers, but the segment above both.”

    “An ALPINA is for connoisseurs, meaning people that love driving, they like driving fast, but they don’t want to communicate to the outside world that they bought a race car,” said BMW Group Chief Designer Adrian van Hooydonk. “That would be an M customer. And therefore we thought that is the position, that is the opportunity for ALPINA.”

    Image courtesy of BMW.

    Which makes sense. It’s what Alpina always stood for: faster than standard models, more luxurious than M models. Exclusive and expensive.

    Four images above courtesy of BMW Blog.

    There’s nothing about this I don’t like. It’s a great design in a great color with a fantastic interior. Indeed, it’s a great presentation, and looks like a great place to park yourself for hours on end while scenery rips by.

    Of course, not all is perfect: it’s only a “vision.” BMW’s concept cars tend to get watered down fairly extensively, and this one’s no exception; the first model isn’t even going to be a coupé but rather a modified 7-series sedan. They’ll be both gas — ahem, petrol — and electric, and will cost Bentley money.

    The concept on stage at the 2026 Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este. Image courtesy of BMW Blog.

    Alpina has always been the car for people who found M too loud and Rolls-Royce too theatrical. The buyer who knew what a it was and didn’t need anyone else to. I’m excited that Alpina is going to, thankfully, continue to represent that — and seemingly, successfully transition to a new era under direct BMW control. 

    Read more at BMW Blog (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) or The Autopian.

    This month’s photography round-up
    Space #1: More from Artemis II

    “NASA has released a tranche of 12,000 photos taken during the historic voyage that were shot on a combination of the Nikon D5 SLR, Nikon Z9 mirrorless, and iPhone 17 cameras that the Artemis crew took with them,” PetaPixelnotes in a post showing some of their favorites. (This is Colossal has a post of their favorites, as well.)

    Hank Green — of the Sci Show YouTube channel, among many others — has put together the very cool Artemis II Photo Timeline, as noted long-time Mac guy (and co-founder of the Relay network of podcasts) Stephen Hackett.

    The timeline is an interactive way to scroll through photos from the mission — but pinned to NASA’s official schedule. Green also explains something I was wondering, which is why there are no credits on the photos: “the four astronauts together agreed that they did not want credit for any photos taken on the mission. I’m somewhat conflicted about this because this project is about giving as much context as possible, but of course there is also something very beautiful about not wanting to take individual credit for something that was the result of so much collaboration.”

    Hat tipped to all of that. A month later, and the excitement is still palpable.

    Space #2: The Milky Way
    “Night at the Remarkables.” Photograph by Tom Rae.

    The 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year winning images have been announced, and they’re stunning. “Every year, this collection reminds us that photographing the Milky Way is not only about technique or planning. It is about curiosity, patience, and the desire to experience the night sky in places where it still feels wild,” says Dan Zafra, editor of Capture the Atlas.

    “Perseid Meteors Over Durdle Door.” Photograph by Josh Dury.

    See all of the winning images at This is Colossal, PetaPixel, or the contest website.

    Space #3: Triple Arch
    The Matterhorn, the summer arch (left), the Gegenschein (center), and the winter arm of the Milky Way (right). Photograph by Angel Fux.

    From high up in the Alps, a stacked image of events that took place in one night, taken from one location by one photographer, with no AI involved: a celestial phenomenon that has never been captured in this exact way before. Awesome. PetaPixel has the details.

    And Finally: Lightning Bugs, Indeed
    “Presence,” Australia. Photograph by JJ.

    PetaPixel brings us the story of JJ, who went on a mission to capture lightning sprites, an elusive-yet-beautiful item — and got something else, too.

    “Those little fireflies reminded me of why I do this in the first place. It reminded me that it wasn’t about getting something better; it was about fully appreciating things there in the moment. And this is why I named the image ‘Presence.’” 

    Special bonus #4: Engagement with the arts slows aging!

    “[R]esearchers believe that a significant part of why engaging with the arts slows biological aging is the diverse range of visual, sensory, and physical stimuli associated with art, as well as the social interactions that often accompany it,” PetaPixel notes. 

    “The new findings go much farther than that, though: they also found evidence that artistic engagement can have roughly the same health benefits as physical exercise. This is a huge deal, especially for those in middle- and late-age groups who may find strenuous physical exercise too difficult.”

    So, be glad: taking the time to read Foreword today may have had benefits beyond entertainment. Thanks for visiting.

  • Beautifully Briefed 26.4: Showered with… [Insert Here]

    Beautifully Briefed 26.4: Showered with… [Insert Here]

    This month, Apple turned 50. Plus, the usual dose of great design, fonts, and photographs. Let’s spring into it!

    This month’s Spine
    The University of Iowa Press.

    Genius placement of record label, great typography, and more — although the folks at the University of Iowa generally don’t respond to requests for information (hence the lack of designer credits), their production department deserves all the kudos. Great stuff.

    See the whole list of University Press Coverage at Spine.

    Apple turns 50

    I’m just enough older than Apple that it’s been pretty much a constant presence in my life. Early on, it was only in schools that I interacted with them; we couldn’t afford a Mac in 1984, and I was stuck, nose pressed up against the glass, until 1990.

    The original Mac 128k. Photo courtesy of Apple.

    My first Mac was the same iconic beige, except it was a Mac Plus — which, together with a 20MB (!) Jasmine external hard drive and an ImageWriter — really allowed me to start down the path of making documents and publications lookgreat.

    Over the years, I’ve been through many Macs (more than I should probably try to count, honestly). I still use and love the platform today.

    Of course, I’ve added iPhones, iPads, and miscellaneous others, too. (Oddly, I was never an iPod person — I’ll take speakers over headphones if at all possible.)

    iPad wallpaper courtesy of Basic Apple Guy.

    There are too many great opinions on this anniversary, frankly, for mine to really matter — so I’m going to point to a few excellent items from others, in case you’ve not read them or would appreciate some additional perspectives:

    If you’d rather listen, this episode of the podcast Upgrade (Jason Snell and Myke Hurley) also covers the early — that is, really early — years:

    Whew. Enjoy.

    Meanwhile, I have to point at another article that will probably surprise … well, none of my regular readers: a great Architectural Record piece on the many Apple Stores and their fantastic, now-iconic look.

    Apple Aventura (Miami). Photograph courtesy of Architectural Record / Nigel Young, Foster + Partners.

    The possibility exists that I might have mocked Apple in 2001 for announcing that they’d be opening brick-and-mortar locations. (They had resellers, after all.) But, man, did I get that one wrong. Five hundred plus stores later, all over the world, Apple’s story is being told every day through great products — and great architecture.

    Apple Zorlu Center (Istanbul). Photograph courtesy of Architectural Record / Nigel Young, Foster + Partners.
    Apple Marina Bay Sands (Singapore). Photograph courtesy of Architectural Record / Finbarr Fallon.

    Many thanks to Apple for making my daily life better. It sounds strange to thank a company with a nearly four trillion dollar market cap, but as someone who’s been there since the dark days of the ’90s — indeed, basically all of those 50 years — they’re more than just a company to me. May there be many more anniversaries to come.

    Late-breaking supplement: new Apple CEO

    As it turns out, Apple’s 50th also marks a turning point:

    Today we announced that I’m taking the next step in my journey at Apple. Over the coming months I will be transitioning into a new role, leaving the CEO job behind in September and becoming Apple’s executive chairman. A new person will be stepping into what I know in my heart is the best job in the world. That leader is John Ternus, a brilliant engineer and thinker who has spent the past 25 years building the Apple products our users love so much, obsessed with every detail, focused on every possible way we can make something better, bolder, more beautiful, and more meaningful. He is the perfect person for the job.

    John cares so much about who we are at Apple, what we do at Apple, who we reach at Apple, and he has the heart and character to lead with extraordinary integrity. I am so proud to call him Apple’s next CEO. 

    — Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

    John Ternus and Tim Cook. Photograph courtesy of Apple.

    Ternus’ long-time role at Apple has been as its head of hardware. Among the things Apple does extraordinarily well, hardware arguably tops that list. Every piece of hardware has an level of quality the rest of the industry just can’t match; from the early days of the iMac to today’s MacBook Neo, from the first iPhone to the orange powerhouse that is today’s iPhone 17 Pro, there’s a feel that Apple does like no one else.

    That also means, for all intents and purposes, that Apple recognizes that the next CEO isn’t going to — can’t — increase its net worth another thousand percent the way it did under Cook’s tenure. They’re going to concentrate on what they do best: products.

    I hope.

    For more on the CEO announcement, see also: 

    Special bonus #1: What happens when you put greed first. I’ve spent a minute slogging on Adobe — hopefully fairly — but Nick Heer of PixelEnvy summarizes better than I have.

    Design
    Penguin’s 2026 cover design award

    This CreativeBoom article is framed as “Gen Z judges books by their covers” — breaking news, surely — but is really about what happens when you give some design novices1Entrants had to have no more than one year of paid creative experience, and 60% of those on this year’s shortlist were students. an assignment redesigning covers of two iconic titles. Here are a couple of winners:

    Night Watch design study for Penguin UK by Peter Goddard.
    Night Watch design study for Penguin UK by Sunny Tsang.

    Of course, there are a couple of age-related stats in the article worth mentioning: “40% of 18 to 24-year-olds like to display books at home, with nearly a third using them as interior design objects or art pieces. Among the over-55s, that figure drops to 8%.” (Raises hand on the latter.)

    The other title is the always-awesome A Wrinkle in Time. Take a look.

    Post of goodness

    While we’re on the subject of awesome: “Print and design studio Risotto is marking 100 months of artist postcards, all printed by hand and posted worldwide, with an exhibition that puts the beauty and breadth of Risograph on show,” It’s Nice That writes.

    A sample of Risotto postcards, oddly with envelopes.

    “For the Glasgow-based print and design studio Risotto, a connection to slower publishing in a fast world has been part of its fabric since its beginnings. Risotto’s Riso Club has been a constant print project running in the background at the press for the past decade: A monthly not-for-profit postcard subscription that directly supports independent artists by sending their colourful work to a community of print enthusiasts around the world,” the article continues.

    More of the fantastic artists’ postcards.

    “It’s a bit of an antidote to the speed of the doom scroll or just the amount of content that’s out there,” studio owner Gabriella Marcella says. I couldn’t agree more — in fact, if I had even a smidgen of display space available, I’d subscribe (and may anyway).

    Read more at It’s Nice That or CreativeBoom.

    That’s the ticket

    Kottke, while bringing us a quick snippet with a brand designer’s “compendium of transit tickets” from around the world, also reached back into his archives to bring us these absolute gems:

    Golden Tickets, Milwaukee, week 7, 1949.

    A collection of weekly bus passes from Milwaukee, WI. Years covered are 1930-1979.

    Golden Tickets, Milwaukee, week “53,” 1952-3.

    Originally posted at the not-cited-enough Present & Correct.

    Special bonus #2: Extra large Pan Am ticket recreations as art, framed, for your wall:

    Flight of fancy by Ella Freire. 

    These are perfect for an Air BNB or other travel/hospitality locale — as mentioned above, my walls are full — but no matter what, looking through the destinations is fun. Check it out. (Via Daring Fireball, citing another not-cited-enough item, SimpleBits by Dan Cederholm.)

    Special bonus #3: Speaking of travel and hospitality, “Letterform Archive has turned a century of vintage hotel luggage labels into 330 gorgeous stickers: a new sticker book from the San Francisco-based design archive revives the golden age of travel through the vibrant graphic art of hotel luggage labels.” Awesomeness at CreativeBoom.

    April’s typography greats
    Mark Simonson’s start in type

    …actually has a great story attached:

    Hand lettering for Mark Simonson’s 1975 yearbook.

    “Fifty years ago this month, March 1976, at 20 years old, is when my interest in type design began,” he writes. I’m not going to spoil it — just go read instead.

    CreativeBoom‘s April selections

    Nineteen in all, but as usual, I’m only going to mention a few faves:

    Boundt (not cake), by Ahmadi Hasan.

    “Boundt arrives from Drizy Font with a clear visual proposition: bold, architectural geometry at display scale, informed by mechanical bolt-and-nut structures and the graphic language of vintage broadcast design. The mechanical metaphor gives the letterforms a coherence that purely decorative display faces often lack: a sense that the same underlying system generated them all.” See more.

    MWT Sheller Stencil by Jesse R. Ewing. (Who was not shot for their efforts.)

    “Sheller Stencil originates in the stencilled lettering found on agricultural machinery from Tiffin, Ohio, in the late 19th century: anonymous commercial graphics that, on close examination, turn out to be genuinely inventive. Some characters split at right angles; others follow curvilinear breaks that track the Art Nouveau-inflected letterforms rather than cutting across them mechanically. The result reads as antique but carries enough formal authority for contemporary packaging, editorial work and heritage-positioned branding.” See more.

    Herald News by Kevin Foley.

    “The story behind Herald News is a personal one. Kevin Foley grew up with the Fall River Herald News (delivered it as a paperboy, absorbed its typography over years of handling), and later found himself scanning its pages to find his daughter’s name in the results after track meets. That very human relationship with a newspaper’s visual character is precisely the kind of deep familiarity from which good type design grows.”

    This is a serif family was built for editorial work — and I like so much, it’s been bookmarked for when the right project comes along. See more.

    Boxal by The Northern Block.

    “Boxal is The Northern Block’s newest typeface – a meticulously crafted, retro-inspired pixel font that captures the nostalgic charm of classic arcade gaming while delivering modern precision and versatility. With the personal design history of founder and type designer Jonathan Hill very much in mind, Boxal draws on the pixel artistry of iconic titles like Zelda, Shinobi, and Cops and Robbers, and represents a cultural homecoming for the studio.”

    Fantastically retro yet proportionally spaced, best at large sizes, preferably slowly scrolling up a screen. Awesome. See more.

    Zed, for when Z just isn’t enough
    Zed’s icon family by Typotheque.

    “Zed is extremely practical, both in terms of its extraordinarily broad language support and the stylistic variations available via its adjustable width, weight, roundness, and slant. It even offers Braille characters and an icon font. But Zed is also simply beautiful. It’s a font family and type system that exemplifies the belief that rich accessibility and pure aesthetic appeal are not at odds,” Daring Fireball writes. (In, admittedly, a sponsored spot — but his sponsors are so highly curated that I actually read the posts … and, occasionally, pass them along.)

    Zed used in a display at the V&A, London.

    See more.

    HVD Bodedo
    Hand cut, not fried.

    No, your eyes are not deceiving you: those are potatoes, carefully carved in the service of Bodoni. Mostly. But it’s got tasty ink content — and is free. Check it out. (Via Kottke.)

    Special bonus #4: ChatGPT can now think … about type, traditionally one of AI’s weak points:

    Generated. (“Create everything at once,” Open AI claims.) We’re all going to be out of a job!
    April’s Photography Round-up
    Artemis II (#1)

    Only a few items this time — but that partially because, at least in my mind, one event more or less dominated photography during April: the Artemis mission.

    “Room with a View.” A view from the window of the Orion spacecraft approximately 9 minutes before Earthset during the Artemis II lunar flyby on April 6, 2026. Photograph courtesy of NASA. (No specific astronaut credited.)

    “I like perspective. As much as I enjoy the wide, sweeping shots of our Moon and Earth set against each other (and I do very, very much enjoy those), my favorite photos remind me that there were people there,” Jason Schneider writes at PetaPixel. I couldn’t agree more: the shot above, for instance, is both spare and overwhelmingly expansive. Awesome.

    See also: NASA’s official photo page, the Planetary Society’s favorites, Scientific American‘s twelve favorites, and Space.com’s sweet sixteen.

    Artemis II (#2)
    Artemis II launch. Photograph by Steven Madow.

    How did that image get created — I mean, it’s practically right on the pad? “Photographer Steven Madow has been photographing rocket launches for over a decade, but arguably no rocket launch he has photographed has been as big of a deal. […] Madow set up 14 different Panasonic Lumix cameras to cover the monumental event, including seven remote cameras at the launch site. His outstanding photos are the result of years of practice and planning,” PetaPixelwrites.

    For Artemis II, Madow partnered with Space Explored, a website dedicated to sharing all the inspiring stories surrounding spaceflight and exploration. Read the whole story.

    Patterns: the book
    “Big Diatom Stack, Edit 2.” Photograph by Jon McCormack.

    “In the words of Georgia O’Keefe, to see takes time,” says photographer Jon McCormack. His new monograph, “Patterns: Art of the Natural World,” is a “beautiful visual love letter to nature and all its intricate patterns, from microscopic and rarely-seen to vast and majestic,” writes PetaPixel. 

    Patterns cover.

    McCormack’s photographic journey, which started with a hand-me-down film camera in the rugged, rural Australian Outback and has taken him all over the world to — get this — the iPhone camera software lead at Apple. (The man has a clue, ladies and gentlemen.)

    The book is something after my own heart. Read the entire piece. (You can also see the book at This is Colossal.)

    Hans Hansen’s explosions
    1988 Volkswagen advertisement. Photograph by Hans Hansen.

    …aren’t quite what you might expect — but might be something you remember, like the above VW spot from the ’80s (which triggered a memory of the awe experience upon first seeing that collection of, well, parts).

    “Hans Hansen is not necessarily well known to anyone but the most studious of photographic historians. Throughout a long career, the self-taught German photographer has quietly carved a niche as a master of still life and commercial image-making. His work explores colour and composition, as well as drawing lessons from modern artistic movements, resulting in some of the most striking and memorable product images of the 1970s, 1980s and beyond,” Wallpaper*writes. 

    See more great examples.

    Finally: X-ray *this*
    X-Ray Microbus. (Don’t ask how.) Photograph by Nick Veasey.

    Over at The Autopian, Jason Torchinsky writes: “Seriously! Full-scale X-rays! Of cars! Using five X-ray machines and/or a massive German-sourced X-ray machine, in a studio that features 30-inch-thick walls, British artist Nick Veasey took X-ray images of so many cars, and they’re stunning.”

    Have a great rest of your Spring, everyone!

    • 1
      Entrants had to have no more than one year of paid creative experience, and 60% of those on this year’s shortlist were students. ↩︎
  • Beautifully Briefed 26.3: The Ides of Equal Madness

    Beautifully Briefed 26.3: The Ides of Equal Madness

    This month, some optimism, some interesting books, some creative fonts, and some fantastic photos, and somepositivity — plus a smidgen of pessimism — in the form of Adobe.

    On the whole, it’s mostly optimism, promise. And there’s butter. And a sleeping fox. And duck.

    This month’s Spine
    Rutgers University Press. Cover design by Ashley Muehlbauer; production editor, Vincent Nordhaus.

    “Our initial direction for [the designer] was to create a clean, simple text design that conveyed crisis, dread, or the element of threat,” this title’s production editor said in response to my request for information.

    “To say that someone lit a fire under those directions is an understatement,” I wrote in this title’s commentary. “In today’s American academic reality, where every day could indeed be … shall we say, fraught, this cover takes the brief and runs straight onto the dean’s list.”

    See the rest of this month’s University Press Coverage at Spine.

    Why she’s an optimist 

    Joan Westenberg (previously) has another great essay up about the AI doom loop — why it’s easy to believe that the downward spiral is tightening, to roughly paraphrase — and why she believes it just isn’t true:

    In 1810, 81% of the American workforce was employed in agriculture. Two hundred years later, it’s about 1%. If you had shown someone in 1810 a chart of agricultural employment decline and asked them to model the economic consequences, the only rational projection would have been apocalypse. Where would 80% of the population find work? What would they do? How would anyone eat if the farmers were all displaced by machines?

    The answer, of course, is that entirely new categories of work were created that no one in 1810 could have conceived of, and these new jobs paid dramatically more than subsistence farming. Factory work, office work, services, knowledge work, the entire apparatus of modernity: none of it was visible from the vantage point of the pre-industrial economy.

    — Joan Westenberg, “Everything is Awesome”

    “The transition was brutal and uneven. [People] suffered,” she writes. “But the trajectory was real, and the people projecting permanent immiseration […] were, in the fullest sense, catastrophically wrong.”

    The essay isn’t perfect; it’s too long, and the editor failed to catch a few typos (he said, hypocritically). But … it scales. Zoomed out, it applies to more than AI.

    “The doomers may have the best stories. I believe the optimists have the best evidence,” she concludes. I agree. Or, at least, I’d like to. 

    Go read it and see whether you do.

    Great web moments, x2
    Kottke.org 

    Kottke Turns 28. There are few websites I nod along with as often as this gem from the late ’90s, still going strong.

    Kottke.org: 47,300 posts and counting.
    Scripting.com

    Dave Winer shoots for the stars:

    We’re going to try to reboot the web.
    Doing what the social networks do, but only using the web.
    Every part replaceable. 

    — Dave Winer, scripting.com, “Mission Statement”

    Scripting News has been around since ’94 and if you’re even a little interested in a free web, his site is a fine place to start learning how you can contribute to keeping it free.

    Note: scripting.com is, famously, still non-https — which means that if you click on either of the above links you’re likely to get a warning that the site isn’t secure. It’s very much a safe link.

    Book notes, x3
    Oliver Munday, Head of Household
    Somehow, I expected someone older. (Courtesy of Debutful.)

    Nearly every one of his book cover designs could be called an instant favorite. He has a wry, brief expression that often delights.

    So, when he wrote a book, did he do the cover? Well … no, as it turns out — and he preferred it that way.

    Cover design by Chris Brand.

    Munday’s collection of stories has an interesting cover by industry veteran Chris Brand, and I like it — although some of the alternatives seem to me like better fits for Munday’s take on life. 

    But, of course, that’s the point: it’s not about him, it’s about his book.

    See the other book cover design drafts Brand designed for Head of Household at LitHub. (And a short Q&A.) Enjoy also this interview with the author/designer at Debutful.

    The Butter Book
    Book design by Lizzie Vaughan.

    No, it doesn’t soften when left out — or spread any larger meaning. It’s just a great book cover (and jacket).

    Chronicle gets a kick out of “things that look like other things.” We made a notepad called Pad of Butter that has been selling steadily since 2015. So, imaginations did not need to stretch when a butter-focused cookbook with a vellum jacket was proposed. It’s our “bread and butter,” so to speak.

    — Q&A with author Anna Stockwell and designer Lizzie Vaughan, PRINT

    “It’s important to find joy wherever you can these days and it’s hard to hate on butter,” the article says. Read the rest at PRINT.

    “Naïve” design
    Image courtesy of the LA Times.

    The LA Times examines the latest book design trend: naïve design. (Yes, I pretentiously style that like the New Yorker does. The LA Times does not.) It’s where serious subjects wear … nostalgic cover designs, to use a phrase. Find out why.

    Parenthetically, of the covers mentioned in that article, only one — by design legend Na Kim — has found its way into my 2026 Favorite Covers folder. It’ll be a minute, but stay tuned to find out which.

    Special bonus #1: “You’ll need a magnifying glass to read these,” says This is Colossal:

    Courtesy of the V&A Museum.

    Special bonus #2: A favorite collectible (and slight tangent), these books “keep a lost design legacy alight,” says It’s Nice That:

    A sample from The Matchbook Book by CentreCentre. 

    Update, 1 April: CreativeBoom has a nice feature on this title as well, with additional images. Check the slipcover:

    Awesomeness courtesy of CreativeBoom.
    Fonts March Foreword
    CreativeBoom’s March faves

    CreativeBoom‘s regular feature contains sixteen choices this month — awesome! — but I’d like to just highlight my three favorites: 

    Archibrazo by Rubén Fontana.

    “Rubén Fontana is one of the most respected figures in Latin American type design, and Archibrazo, released through TypeTogether earlier this year, represents a characteristically considered piece of work. The typeface brings together two traditions that might seem at odds: the fluidity of calligraphic practice and the hardness of sculptural form. The result is a serif family that wears its sources with confidence, without collapsing into historicism or affectation.”

    See more at TypeTogether.

    Djaggety by Alessia Mazzaarella.

    “Djaggety began in a classroom. Alessia Mazzarella of Typeland, who teaches type design to BA Graphic Design students, uses an 8×8 grid exercise as a standard introduction to letterform construction. The constraint, she explains, strips away the paralysis of infinite choice and forces students to focus on what makes a character recognisable within a tightly defined system. During one iteration of the exercise, she found herself drawn into the process rather than simply demonstrating it. […] Overall, it’s a good lesson in how constraint can generate, rather than foreclose, creative possibilities.”

    See more at Typeland.

    Musikal by Fred’s Fonts.

    “After three years in development on Future Fonts, Fred Wiltshire’s Musikal has reached v1.0: a significant milestone for a typeface that began with a conscious act of divergence. Herman Ihlenburg’s Obelisk (1880s) served as the starting point: a high-contrast, ornamental display face of considerable geometric rigour and decorative confidence. Rather than reviving Obelisk directly, Wiltshire took its ‘playful nature’ as a conceptual springboard and built something clearly of the present.”

    See more at Future Fonts.

    Letterform Archives’ new celebration of hand-painted type
    One example — I mean, who can argue with “Lettres Riches Fantaisie“?

    “A new book published by Letterform Archive, Lettres Décoratives: A Century of French Sign Painters’ Alphabets, celebrates the vivacity and timelessness of French sign painting from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Compiled from lithograph portfolios, which range from 1875 to around 1932, the volume includes more than 150 full-color reproductions of these bold lettering samples. These portfolios once served as catalogue-like albums, providing inspiration for styles and motifs that could be translated onto large billboards and small signage alike.”

    Read more about this great new book at This is Colossal or PRINT.

    Cambridge’s old Baskerville ounches

    Heavy metal for the type crowd:

    Image courtesy of Cambridge University.

    “John Baskerville was an influential 18th-century printer and type designer; you’ve probably used (or at least heard of) the Baskerville typeface. Cambridge University has the original punches used to create his signature typeface and has made high-res digital photos of them available online,” Kottke writes. “[S]eeing close-ups of the actual cut & shaped metal from 1757 is something else.”

    In case you’re not familiar:

    The typographic punch is the initial design for the letterform and one of the first of three stages in the manufacturing of metal type: short lengths of steel onto which his letters were cut in reverse and in relief. The punch was ‘tempered’ to increase its toughness and enable its use as a tool. Secondly, the punch was struck into the surface of a softer piece of metal (copper), leaving an impression of the ‘right-reading’ character to be cast. This was called the matrix. Finally, type was manufactured when the matrix was passed to the type-caster and inserted into a mould, into which molten lead-alloy was poured. This produced a cast of the type in relief and in reverse which were then arranged to create a text block and once inked, paper could be pressed against it.

    Not just hi-res photos of punches for various sizes of type, either: some have 3D versions. Very cool.

    Special bonus #3: The menu that never was:

    World Class Female Singers.

    Okay, okay, that’s not actually an unused menu from before Apple’s Macintosh was released in 1984, but how it came about isn’t something I’m going to quote. Instead, I’m just going to ask you to read it in full — it’s fantastic.

    Courtesy of Unsung, Marcin Wichary’s awesome blog. (Yes, he of Shift Happens fame.)

    Great graphic items, x2
    The Tenth Muse
    Screenshot of the Tenth Muse home page.

    “The Tenth Muse is an art discovery engine. Over 120,000 artworks from museums and institutions — searchable by feeling, mood, atmosphere, era, and medium.”

    (Via Kottke.)

    AIGA NY: 50 years of posters
    Just one example of the many posters now available for your persual.

    “A 50-year goldmine of design: AIGA New York unveils its poster archive to the public,” It’s Nice That reports. “A newly opened window into its design archive, this unique visual library provides the public with an inside view of the design, art and activism that’s emerged from the city’s recent history. AIGA NY has ambitions for the collection to become physically accessible with an accompanying book that will showcase the posters in more depth.”

    Adobe, yet again
    DNG now standard

    Let’s start with the positive:

    “In March 2004, Australian photographer Robert Edwards asked a simple but meaningful question on Rob Galbraith’s now-defunct photography forums: ‘Could Adobe make a RAW format?’ The answer was very much ‘yes,’ and Adobe announced the DNG format, or Digital Negative, later that same year. Now, more than two decades later, DNG is now the official standard under the International Organization for Standardization (ISO),” PetaPixel writes.

    From back in the day.

    I remember lurking on Rob Galbraith site. Such were the importance of his forums — and, for that matter, the overall size and condition of the ’net in the early Aughties — that Thomas Knoll himself, one of the creators of Photoshop, would post there.

    In case you’re not familiar, a camera’s RAW file is what the sensor sees at the moment of exposure, stored in a format for later editing. It’s completely different from a JPG file, which has all the camera’s choices baked in to the final image. Sports or journalism photographers usually shoot JPG, due to the need to post immediately; social media photography is, of course, its own animal.

    Most fine photographers — that is, folks who shoot for art or pleasure, including your author — only shoot RAW, because it gives you maximum flexibility in “look.”

    I’m honestly not sure how much of a difference this will make, but it’s nice to see DNG accepted as a standard — and it’s an example of Adobe meaningfully contributing to the bigger picture. 

    Train Adobe’s AI on your style

    From the “mixed” department:

    It’s not tin foil.

    Adobe has launched Firefly Custom Models, “allowing artists to generate image variations that ‘more consistently reflect’ their own style, subject, or characters. 

    Adobe’s Deepa Subramaniam says, “Today, we’re expanding access to Firefly custom models, which let you turn your creative style into a reusable model trained on your own images. In this public beta release, custom models are optimized for ideation in character, illustration and photographic style.” 

    The goal of Custom Models, according to PetaPixel, is to “allow artists to train Adobe’s Firefly AI specifically to unique workflows so that when it generates content, it is more aligned with their specific style.”

    Hmmm. How ’bout practical effects? Seriously, this might turn out to be useful. Time will tell. Helmet of tin flowers and all.

    CEO retires. Stock … down?

    Here’s where the attitude sneaks in: most of us, present company included, are sick of Adobe’s attitude towards its customers.

    “Adobe’s longtime CEO, Shantanu Narayen, announced this week that he is stepping down after 18 years as CEO and nearly 30 years at the company. If you ask shareholders, Narayen was, for a long time, among the very best in the biz. If you ask Adobe’s core customers, the artists who were once indispensable to the company’s success, it’s a different story,” writes Jeremy Gray in an opinion piece for PetaPixel.

    Adobe made more than $7 billion in net profit last year, a clear win for shareholders. This is due to their choice to treat creatives as a profit center. But their stock is down because their AI efforts have fallen flat — Firefly is way behind Midjourney or Gemini — and the planned additional profit center has failed to materialize. 

    And by “down,” I mean significantly. During Narayen’s tenure, Adobe’s share price increased from around $40 in late 2007 when he took over to an all-time high of $688.37 in 2021. But as of this writing, it’s $243. “Although Adobe and Narayen are painting his departure as entirely the outgoing CEO’s decision,” Gray continues, “it’s easy to wonder whether tumbling share prices had something to do with the transition, or at least sped up existing plans.

    “I respect the sheer scale of what he achieved. I admire that he grew Adobe so that it could hire more great workers to build better software. But for me, Narayen’s legacy is ultimately one of treating [creatives] like an afterthought […] using our passion and love for art to boost his brand.”

    I understand that Adobe has become one the Internet’s favorite punching bags of late, and I try to distance myself from that sport (no matter the subject). But I can’t help but agree with many of the things expressed in that piece.

    Let’s hope that the future bring change, one way or another. For many professionals, Adobe essentially holds a monopoly. 

    But then, so did Microsoft.

    Special bonus #4: Unsung asks, “Why wouldn’t everyone deserve the gift of focus?” He’s talking about the tragically-short-lived focus mode in Photoshop, wherein the user isn’t automatically shown pop-ups or blaring (bleating?) buttons regarding new features.

    I mention this because I just uninstalled Acrobat, Adobe’s PDF management program, because I couldn’t turn off the pop-ups, sharing invitations, or requests to add comments. All I wanted was to proof documents, but what I was gifted with was frustration — even anger, on days where a deadline was involved. 

    Special bonus #5: “A slap on the wrist” is understatement writ large:

    “Canceling a software subscription is supposed to be easy — that’s what US law dictates. Adobe, however, has played fast and loose with its Creative Cloud subscriptions in the past. The company was sued by the Department of Justice in 2024 due to its practice of hiding hefty termination fees when customers signed up. The case has now been settled, with Adobe agreeing to a $75 million fine and matching free services to users of its products,” Ars Technica writes.

    The company doesn’t admit to violating the law. “While we disagree ⁠with the government’s claims and deny any wrongdoing, we are pleased to resolve this matter,” Adobe said in a statement.

    March photo round-up

    Okay, let’s switch gear and end with inspiration — even happiness.

    International Garden Photographer of the Year 2026

    Yes, you read that right: there’s an international contest for the best garden photograph. (If you want hard-hitting stuff, see Sony’s awards. There’s enough “news” in the world, so….)

    Grange Fell Last Light. Overall Winner. Photograph by Mark Hetherington.

    Soothing. The image also earned first place in the Breathing Spaces — more soothing —category, and was captured in Borrowdale in England’s Lake District; the “photograph shows heather, silver birch trees, and the warm light of sunset viewed from Grange Fell,” PetaPixel writes.

    See all the winning photographs at the contest website.

    British wildlife
    Asleep at the Wheel. Winner, Urban Wildlife. Photograph by Simon Withyman.

    It’s a shame these are still photographs. Hearing a red fox bark in a British accent would be a hoot.

    Standing Tall. Winner, Animal Portrait. Photograph by Alastair Marsh.

    Proof that excellence in photography extends to all parts of the realm. See all twenty-one winners at This is Colossal or PetaPixel.

    London Camera Exchange Photographer of the Year 2026

    Last of the items originating in the UK this month, although the excellent photographs within aren’t limited to just those countries. Some examples:

    Crossing the Curves. Winner, Street. Photograph by Helen Trust.

    “A lone cyclist moves through sweeping arcs of light and shadow at the City of Arts and Sciences. Reflections echo the architecture’s rhythm, momentarily aligning human motion with structure, symmetry, and space.”

    Saving Lives at Sea. Winner, Action. Photograph by David Lyon.

    “Captured from the shore, during a regular Newhaven training exercise.”

    Magical Uphill Lincoln. Winner, People’s Choice. Photograph by Andrew Scott.

    “This image was taken during golden hour in Lincoln. The image captures the historic streets and architecture of Lincoln as a golden sunset sets in. […] The golden glow of the sky, cobbles and light from the window add that extra dimension in terms of how the overall image works as a result.” (The description somehow missed “soothing.”)

    See all the winners at the London Camera Exchange website. Via Macfilos.

    Andrew Moore: Theater

    “Known for his atmospheric photographs of landscapes, interiors, and urban centers that feel mysteriously locked in a not-so-distant past, Andrew Moore’s enigmatic images invite us into a slippage of time,” This is Colossal writes.

    Grand Luncheonette, New York, 1996. Photograph by Andrew Moore.

    Not only great, but currently on display: Moore has a solo show running at Atlanta’s Jackson Fine Art. (Update: The show ended March 21st, darned it. I’d have gone if I’d read that properly.)

    Cinematic plastic

    No, not current events — something better:

    Jurassic Pit. Photograph by Chuck Eiler.

    “Chicago-based photographer Chuck Eiler transforms action figures into cinematic, story-driven miniature worlds that blur the line between toy photography and film. Through meticulously crafted sets, practical effects, and careful lighting, he creates immersive scenes that bring nostalgia and storytelling to life,” PetaPixel writes.

    Apex Predators. Photograph by Chuck Eiler.

    Awesome. (And available as prints, in case you want for your sandbox walls.)

    Finally: duck this

    Last month saw the incredible fresh pasta camera. Well, in case you think I only recommend a vegetarian lifestyle, there’s…:

    Four Minutes in London.

    Martin Cheung’s Chinese roast duckcam. 

    Presumably, he throws a fresh camera into the oven every time he needs one: “I will continue making Duckcam while I travel, so next time when you see a person with a roasted duck on a tripod, please say hello to me.”

    Enjoy your spring, everyone!

  • My Favorite Book Covers of 2025

    My Favorite Book Covers of 2025

    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 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.

    Cover design by Jaya Miceli.

    From Spine‘s University Press Week special coverage, November 10–14, brought to you in honor of the event help by the Association of University Presses:

    “‘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.)

    2023’s Sublunar was a interesting design, too.

    Cover design by Grace Han.

    Open the window to yeokmasal: awesomeness awaits.

    Cover design by Thomas Colligan.

    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. ↩︎
  • Beautifully Briefed 25.12: Old and New

    Beautifully Briefed 25.12: Old and New

    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.

    December 25th: designer holiday cards
    Charles and Ray Eames, 1940s. (Image credit: © 2025 Eames Office, LLC. All rights reserved. Via Wallpaper*.)

    “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.

    — Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, Duke Law

    The annual list is, in every manner of speaking, a gift to society. (Via Pluralistic.)

    Has judging a book by its cover gone too far?
    Cover design by David Pearson.

    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.”

    Smokey the Bear stamps from 1967.

    Zara’s illustrations are in a cut-paper style and awesome; link via SimpleBits Studio Notes #60. (The entire series of Notebook entries is cool when you have a few extra minutes.)

    Creative Review‘s movie posters of 2025
    Poster by Empire Design.

    Begonia was mentioned in October. A couple are by Empire Design, including the above — which is a master class in nested photographs. (“Claustrophobic,” CR says.) Great stuff.

    Typefaces, pt. 1: notes for December
    Snowee

    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.

    Gotham

    From Tobias Frere-Jones, the story of how Gotham came to be:

    Tobias Frere-Jones‘ inspiration for Gotham.

    “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 #4: 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.)

    Special Bonus #5: Who doesn’t love a Pilcrow?

    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.)

    John Gruber was all over it, and argued thus:

    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:

    Lucas de Groot, font designer.

    His comments, directly quoted (from HackerNews — sorry — but also via DF):

    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.

    — Lucan de Groot, LucasFonts

    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.

    — Matthew Butterick, “Typography in Ten Minutes”

    In case all you encountered were the headlines, now you know there was more to the story.

    See also: The Scourge of Arial, A Brief History of Times New Roman, and Typefaces for Dyslexia, all from Daring Fireball, and The Guardian‘s fun Calibri: Is this Really the World’s Wokest Font?

    While I’m at it: word of the year
    Getty stock image, made awesome with brown.

    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.

    — Benj Edwards, Ars Technica

    I’d like to suggest an alternative: “brown.”

    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.

    “Are we seeing the back of Jaguar?” Wallpaper* asks.

    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 #6: 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.

    See the winners of the Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition 2025, ten images that showcase “the best scientific photography worldwide across multiple categories, celebrating the overlap between compelling art and influential science.” (Via PetaPixel.)

    Nature’s best science photos of 2025
    “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.

    The competition’s website is unfortunately offline as of this writing (Dec 31st), but see more at PetaPixel or This is Colossal.

    Northern Lights Photographer of the Year 2025
    “Arctic Rain,” Tromso, Norway. Photograph by Vincent Beudez.

    “Capture the Atlas has unveiled the winners of its eighth annual Northern Lights Photographer of the Year contest, and the 15 award-winning photos […] are as beautiful as they are inspiring,” PetaPixel writes.

    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.

    Have yourself a smile.

    The “AI-inside” camera

    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!

    Wishing you a safe and happy New Year.