Coralie Bickford Smith
Coralie Bickford Smith is an internationally renowned book cover designer who currently works in house for Penguin Books. She is recognised for her work with Penguin Classics in which she produced a series of cloth bound books with striking repeat patterns using iconography from each of the classics featured. Pattern design is a feature of many of her book covers.
cb-smith.com
Allison Colpoys
Allison Colpoys is a freelance book designer and illustrator Featuring hand rendered type, playful illustrations and a strong use of colour, Colpoy’s work is always beautiful, striking and considered. Before becoming a freelance designer, she had worked at Penguin Australia.
jackywinter.com/artists/allisoncolpoys
Atelier Dyakova
Atelier Dyakova is an independent multi disciplinary studio based in London and was founded by Sonya Dyakova. She has previously worked with Phaidon Press as design director, where she worked on art direction and design for a number of arts, culture and style publications. Her strength lies in her use of typography, and often Dyakova has produced bespoke typefaces for books. Her work is always innovative, contemporary and considered.
atelierdyakova.com
John Gall
John Gall is a book cover designer and art director for Vintage and Anchor Books (both imprints of Random House). His designs demonstrate his impressive skills in image making, typography and layout, and each cover manages to successfully capture its own unique tone. His work is an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary, hand rendered and digital.
johngalldesign.com
Peter Mendelsund
Peter Mendelsund is an internationally celebrated talent in the publishing industry. He has created covers for some of the contemporary literary greats, including Stieg Larsson, Peter Carey, Martin Amis and Tom McCarthy. His work is always beautifully crafted, intelligent and original. He is currently associate art director at Knopf and art director at Pantheon Books.
jacketmechanical.blogspot.com
Oliver Munday
Oliver Munday is a graphic designer with a talent for designing and illustrating both publications and book covers. His cover designs are playful, innovative and incredibly well crafted. He employs illustration where necessary but is not limited in his skill set, creating successful designs using a variety of media. He works in his own studio in New York as well as being part of a collective.
olivermunday.com
David Pearson
David Pearson is an award winning cover designer. He works with type, image and pattern to create strong, refined covers that have an immediate and engaging impact. He has worked on a number of projects with renowned publishers Penguin, creating fresh and contemporary designs for classic and iconic pieces of literature.
typeasimage.com
Jonathon Pelham
Jonathon Pelham is a book cover designer and in house designer for Pan Macmillan UK. He creates covers with a strong focus on bold and playful typography and illustration. He has a very clear understanding of his audience, which is demonstrated through his varied and confidently executed portfolio of covers for both fiction and non fiction titles.
jpelham.co.uk
Isabel Urbina
Isabel Urbina is a cover designer at Random House NY. Her cover designs often contain beautifully executed pieces of hand rendered type and illustration which immediately engage the reader, providing something that is unique and covetable.
isabelurbinapena.com
Jenny Volvovski
Jenny Volvovski is a member of design studio ALSO, as well designing book covers as part of an ongoing personal project. Despite imposing several design restictions upon this project, her creativity within this area has not been hindered, and she continuously creates simple, intelligent and impactful covers.
from-cover-to-cover.com
Folio Society
The Folio Society is a small British publishers with a focus on providing its readers with beautiful and well crafted books to enhance the reader’s experience of literature. They place an emphasis on the importance of traditional design and crafting processes within publishing, in an effort to combat the declining standards of production present in many modern day publishing houses. Each book is produced to the highest standard in every sense: the typography, illustrations, stock, printing and binding all being carefully considered. The result is a book which can treasured forever.
foliosociety.com
From left to right: Designer Unknown Neil Webb Sara Ogilvie Alice Tait
Four Corners Books
Four Corners Books is a small London based publishing house with a focus on producing a small number of high quality publications each year. The publications produced and published are contemorary and alternative in style, with a focus on the finish to enhance the reader’s experience of the book. Part of their collection includes the series Four Corners Familiars, which features artists’ responses to classic novels and short stories.
fourcornersbooks.co.uk
From left to right: James Pyman Donald Urquhart Selection of Artists
Penguin
Penguin is a world renowned, international brand, and is responsible for publishing an extensive amount of both classic and contemporary literature across numerous genres. Penguin Paperbacks was founded in 1935, in an effort by Allen Lane to provide the public with books that combined quality and value. Since then, the company has grown into an iconic brand, one that has produced a vast amount of high quality cover designs that reflect the caliber of the stories they represent.
penguin.co.uk
From left to right: Ben Wiseman Joe Montgomery Isabel De Cat Jamie Keenan Oliver Munday John Fulbrook Third Heads of State Helen Yentus
Phaidon Press
Phaidon Press is a world renowned publisher of visual arts and lifestyle books. The company was originally founded in Vienna in 1923. They have a focus on producing beautifully designed and finished publications that reflect and complement the quality of the authors and subjects of their books. Phaidon work with world renowned artists, architects, photographers and chefs, creating engaging visual products with a strong conceptual vision. The results are brilliantly executed and finished books that become treasured keepsakes and coveted artifacts.
uk.phaidon.com
(All Desigmers Unknown)
Pushkin Press
Pushkin Press was founded in 1997, and are publishers of both classic and contemporary fiction, memoirs, essays and children’s books, with a particular focus on providing readers with quality literature from all over the world. This unique focus is reflected in the visual quality of the publications, which are culturally informed as well as being beautiful in their design and finish.
pushkinpress.com
From left to right: Clare Skeats David Pearson Clare Skeats
Random House
Random House are an international and renowned publishers, founded in 1855. They are the largest English language trade publishers and have and continue to provide readers with the best in fiction, non fiction and children’s books. The designs produced by Random House reflect the diversity of the content, but there is always an emphasis on high quality, intelligent design with a strong consideration for audience.
randomhouse.co.uk
From left to right: Designer Unknown Rodrigo Corral Allison Saltzman Brian Rea
Cookery
Cookery books combine two of my biggest loves: food and design. The books present on these pages are not an exhaustive list: this is a fraction of the cook books that I covet. Food being a universal language, cook books are an easy in into exploring a different culture or even becoming more acquainted with your own. This is what makes them so popular and interesting to me. The way that this is translated visually, through gorgeous food illustrations, typography, pattern and colour is what makes them so desirable.
From left to right: Eat: Designer Unknown Food DIY: Designer Unknown
Cookery
From left to right: Designer Unknown Kobi Benezri Studio Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Here Design Designer Unknown Studio Frith Designer Unknown Here Design Designer Unknown Praline Atelier Dyakova
Non Fiction
Non fiction books, for me (but perhaps not for the masses), are a less obvious choice in the book shop. This means that I find the cover designs to be even more important in persauding me to choose something I normally wouldn’t. Within this area, and particularly in the covers I have chosen, there is a strong focus on conceptual designs that have an immediate impact and a sense of humour (where appropriate). All of the covers I have shown here (again, not an exhaustive list by any stretch) demonstrate these qualities.
From left to right: Jason Booher Oliver Munday Jason Ramirez Jason Ramirez Isaac Tobin Isaac Tobin Allison Saltzman Tal Goretsky
Non Fiction
From left to right: Matt Dorfman Oliver Munday Jeff Miller Jason Ramirez Keenan Amen Project Jason Ramirez Isaac Tobin
Fiction
Fiction, at its best, is capable of transporting the reader into another world. It can absorb you, change you and shape who you are and who you might become. The importance of creating covers that reflect the quality of the written word shouldn’t be underestimated. Despite their protestations, everyone judges books by the covers that adorn them. Each cover shown here combines intelligence and wit with a beautifully crafted and executed design.
From left to right: Number 17 Emily Sutton Ben Wiseman Designer Unknown Designer Unknown David A Gee Ben Wiseman Jim Tierney
Fiction
From left to right: Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Oliver Munday Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Jim Tierney Paige Vickers
Art, Design & Style
When it comes to books about lifestyle and the arts, it’s agiven that their covers will be beautiful in both finish and design. The covers displayed here are perfect examples of this: most employ the use of striking typography and interesting, luxe finishes to create a sumptuous and covetable publication.
From left to right: Xavier Encinas Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Atelier Dyakova Designer Unknown
Art, Design & Style
From left to right: Designer Unknown Buro International Designer Unknown
Childrens
The best children’s book cover designs can be appreciated by children and adults alike. Use of vibrant colours and playful illustrations are recurring features of the cover designs on display here, and yet none of the designs feel tired or cloned. Each conveys the most crucial aspect of childhood: fun.
From left to right: Rachell Sumpter Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Designer Unknown Designer Unknow Tove Jansson Herve Tullet Designer Unknown