I wish there were a bit more to work with here. The author doesn't include so much as a sentence on what they like about each cover (though they did track down all the designers/illustrators and...
I wish there were a bit more to work with here. The author doesn't include so much as a sentence on what they like about each cover (though they did track down all the designers/illustrators and linked to their work).
Some from this list which stand out to me:
Tokyo Ueno Station: Minor gripe that the "U" in Ueno reads like a "V" to me, but I've seen this several times in bookstores now and it always immediately jumps out to me. The colors are vibrant and the illustration is intriguing. It's actually a little reminiscent of the illustration on an alternate cover of Interior Chinatown (not the version on the list).
Aphasia by Mauro Javier Cárdenas. I was actually drawn to this book by its cover in a bookstore today. The cartoonish simplicity and simple palette are really charming.
Some of these are very good, and check a lot of my own personal design interests. I especially love those that look closer to their own art piece and those that are, like "You Had Me at Hola" as...
Some of these are very good, and check a lot of my own personal design interests. I especially love those that look closer to their own art piece and those that are, like "You Had Me at Hola" as an example. I will say a few of them struck me as rather plain or not really that interesting. If we're going on cover ALONE, and NOT the contents then "The Glass House" and "Knockout Queen" seem pretty mundane compared to a lot of the ones there.
The tag line is "So nice you'll want to frame them", but some definitely don't tick that box. I'm also curious as to if there's a genre skew at all. I've read maybe one book from the list and while the covers are definitely intriguing, I'm curious who put the list together and how much that alone affected the list.
The cover of Sad Janet is cracking me up! I used to own a whippet who would give me a similar look. Also, interesting to see that Rebecca Watson wrote a novel. I might check that out.
The cover of Sad Janet is cracking me up! I used to own a whippet who would give me a similar look.
Also, interesting to see that Rebecca Watson wrote a novel. I might check that out.
I wish there were a bit more to work with here. The author doesn't include so much as a sentence on what they like about each cover (though they did track down all the designers/illustrators and linked to their work).
Some from this list which stand out to me:
Tokyo Ueno Station: Minor gripe that the "U" in Ueno reads like a "V" to me, but I've seen this several times in bookstores now and it always immediately jumps out to me. The colors are vibrant and the illustration is intriguing. It's actually a little reminiscent of the illustration on an alternate cover of Interior Chinatown (not the version on the list).
Aphasia by Mauro Javier Cárdenas. I was actually drawn to this book by its cover in a bookstore today. The cartoonish simplicity and simple palette are really charming.
The Great Indoors by Emily Anthes. Mostly I'm a sucker for ITC Avant Garde bold. The colors are lovely too. (I think it's on The Sprawl by Jason Diamond too.)
A lot of books this year seemed to have used the Lydian typeface:
Between Two Fires by Joshua Yaffa (not on this list)Actually I don't think this is Lydian.True Love by Sarah GerardWhoops, not this one either, but close.It's a good looking font, but I feel like MacMillan built a strong brand out of it with James Wood's books already.
If you're looking for more book covers from 2020, NPR's Best Books page works quite well. Some more I found here:
There was also a book about book covers published this year: The Look of the Book by Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth.
Some of these are very good, and check a lot of my own personal design interests. I especially love those that look closer to their own art piece and those that are, like "You Had Me at Hola" as an example. I will say a few of them struck me as rather plain or not really that interesting. If we're going on cover ALONE, and NOT the contents then "The Glass House" and "Knockout Queen" seem pretty mundane compared to a lot of the ones there.
The tag line is "So nice you'll want to frame them", but some definitely don't tick that box. I'm also curious as to if there's a genre skew at all. I've read maybe one book from the list and while the covers are definitely intriguing, I'm curious who put the list together and how much that alone affected the list.
The cover of Sad Janet is cracking me up! I used to own a whippet who would give me a similar look.
Also, interesting to see that Rebecca Watson wrote a novel. I might check that out.