Cover Stories: 50 Books/50 Covers 2011 Winners

50 Books / 50 Covers

50 Books | 50 Covers

Designers & Books has partnered with AIGA and Design Observer to continue the “50 Books/50 Covers” competition honoring excellence in book design. As described on Design Observer, “Tracing its roots back over close to 90 years to 1924, this survey of the best in book design represents perhaps the longest-standing legacy in American graphic design.”

Among the 2011 competition winners, announced in October 2012, are an anthology of works by new American writers adorned with only a pencil; a service and prayer book for the Church of England, in which typography takes the place of expected graphics; Stefan G. Bucher’s richly illustrated DIY guide for creatives; a book called Bed for which the title’s letters are mattresses; a reimagining of Jack Kerouac’s collection of works; and a bold interpretation of David Foster Wallace’s posthumously published unfinished novel.

See all 50 book selections and 50 cover selections below.

Several of the winners took part in panel discussions on book design at Designers & Books Fair 2012. Abbott Miller, Paula Scher and DJ Stout were featured in the spirited roundtable “Book Design at Pentagram,” held on October 27 and moderated by Michael Bierut. Pentagram partners Emily Oberman and Eddie Opara also participated. Irma Boom, John Gall, and Peter Mendelsund took part in a lively panel discussion on book cover design, entitled “Cover Stories,” on October 28. The panel, which also included Jennifer Daniel, was moderated by Print magazine’s editor in chief, Michael Silverberg.

Information on entering the 2012 “50 Books/50 Covers” competition is available here.

 

 

50 Books 2011 Winners

Book Cover   

344 Questions: The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment
Stefan G. Bucher

Designer: Stefan G. Bucher

Publisher: Peachpit / New Riders

Art Director: Stefan G. Bucher

Design Firm: 344 Design, LLC

Book Cover   

A Chicken in Every Yard: The Urban Farm Store’s Guide to Chicken Keeping
Robert and Hannah Litt

Designer: Katy Brown

Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Art Director: Betsy Stromberg

Book Cover   

A Meditation in Rome
Paul Gehl

Designer: Russell Maret

Publisher: Swan & Hoop / Russell Maret

Art Director: Russell Maret

Book Cover   

Allora & Calzadilla: Gloria
Lisa Freiman

Designer: Abbott Miller and Kimberly Walker

Designer: Prestel

Design Firm: Pentagram

Book Cover   

American Odysseys: Writings by New Americans
The Vilcek Foundation

Designer: Joe Shouldice

Publisher: The Vilcek Foundation Press

Art Director: Joe Shouldice

Design Firm: YesYesYes Design

Book Cover   

Ashley Bickerton
Kara Vander Weg

Designer: Philipp Hubert

Publisher: Other Criteria, London

Art Director: Stefan Sagmeister

Design Firm: Sagmeister & Walsh

Graphic Artist: Ignacio Noé

Book Cover   

Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention
Zoë Ryan

Designer: Chrissi Cowhey, Eleanor Kung, Silja Hillmann

Publisher: The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press

Art Director: Cheryl Towler Weese

Design Firm: Studio Blue

Book Cover   

CODE(X) + 1: Monograph Series 1-6
Robert Bringurst, Peter Koch, Alan Loney, Ulrike Stoltz and Uta Schneider, Russel Maret, and Diidier Mutel

Designer: Peter Koch

Publisher: The Codex Foundation

Art Director: Peter Koch

Book Cover   

Columbia Abstract 2010/2011
Scott Marble

Designer: Philipp Hubert

Designer: Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning

Art Director: Stefan Sagmeister

Design Firm: Sagmeister & Walsh

Book Cover   

Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England, President’s Edition
Church of England

Designer: Derek Birdsall and John Morgan

Publisher: Church of England

Art Director: Derek Birdsall and John Morgan

Design Firm: John Morgan Studio

Book Cover   

Dot
Patricia Intriago

Designer: Patricia Intriago

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)/Margaret Ferguson Books

Art Director: Anne Diebel

Book Cover   

Drawing Restraint Vol. VI
Matthew Barney

Designer: Jerry Kelly

Publisher: Schaulager

Art Director: Jerry Kelly

Book Cover   

Explorations in Typography
Carolina de Bartolo with Erik Spiekermann

Designer: Carolina de Bartolo

Publisher: 101 Editions

Art Director: Carolina de Bartolo

Book Cover   

From Uncertain to Blue
Keith Carter

Designer: Barrett Fry

Publisher: UT Press

Art Director: DJ Stout

Design Firm: Pentagram

Book Cover   

Gordon Monahan—Seeing Sound: Sound Art, Performance and Music 1978-2011
Linda Jansma and Carsten Seiffarth

Designer: Robert Tombs and Gordon Monahan

Publisher: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario Canada

Art Director: Robert Tombs

Design Firm: Robert Tombs Studio

Book Cover   

Graphic Design: Now in Production
Andrew Blauvelt and Ellen Lupton

Designer: Michael Aberman

Publisher: Walker Art Center

Art Director: Emmet Byrne

Book Cover   

Hokusai Manga
Kazuya Takaoka

Designer: Ito Nobukazu, Matsuda

Publisher: PIE International

Art Director: Takaoka Kazuya

Book Cover   

Jac Leirner in Conversation with Adele Nelson
Adele Nelson, Jac Leirner

Design Firm: Marquand Books

Publisher: Fundación Cisneros/Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros

Book Cover   

Knoll Textiles, 1945–2010
Earl Martin, Angela Volker, Paul Makovsky, Susan Ward, Bobbye Tigerman

Designer: Irma Boom

Publisher: Yale University Press

Book Cover   

Landform Building—Architecture's New Terrain
Stan Allen, Marc McQuade

Design Firm: Thumb, New York

Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers

Book Cover   

Let’s Make Some Great Art
Marion Deuchars

Designer: Marion Deuchars

Publisher: Laurence King Publishing

Book Cover   

Mutants and Mystics
Jeffrey J. Kripal

Designer: Michael Brehm

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

Pantone: The Twentieth Century in Color
Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker

Designer: Brooke Johnson

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Art Director: Brooke Johnson

Design Firm: Chronicle Books

Typesetting: David Van Ness

Book Cover   

MAPS
Paula Scher

Designer: Paula Scher, Drea

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Art Director: Paula Scher

Design Firm: Pentagram

Book Cover   

Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography
Verna Curtis

Designer: Adam Michaels

Publisher: Aperture and Library of Congress

Design Firm: Project Projects

Book Cover   

Portrait of Murdock Pemberton: The New Yorker’s First Art Critic
Sally Pemberton

Designer: Sam Silvio

Publisher: Picture Book Press

Design Firm: Silvio Design Inc.

Book Cover   

Power
Platon

Designer: Scott Dadich

Art Director: Scott Dadich

Book Cover   

Richard Serra Drawing: A Retrospective
Edited by Gary Garrels, Bernice Rose, and Michelle White

Designer: Mark Nelson

Publisher: The Menil Collection, Houston

Design Firm: McCall Associates

Book Cover   

Sanja Ivekovic: Sweet Violence
Roxana Marcoci

Design Firm: Mevis & Van Deursen, Amsterdam

Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art

Book Cover   

Seeing Is Believing: Rebecca Campbell + Angela Ellsworth
Sara Cochran

Designer: Brad Jones

Publisher: Phoenix Art Museum

Art Director: Brad Jones

Design Firm: P.S. Studios, Inc.

Book Cover   

SVA Undergraduate Catalog 2012/2013
School of Visual Arts

Designer: E. Patrick Tobin

Art Director: Michael J. Walsh

Design Firm: Visual Arts Press, Ltd.

Book Cover   

Swarm
Lukas Felzmann

Designer: Lukas Felzmann with Lars Müller

Art Director: Lars Müller

Design Firm: Integral Lars Müller

Book Cover   

Tartine: The Boxed Set
Elisabeth Pruiett and Chad Robertson

Designer: Vanessa Dina

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Design Firm: Chronicle Books

Book Cover   

The Atlas of Economic Complexity
Ricardo Hausmann, Cesar Hidalgo et all

Designer: Beltran Garcia

Publisher: Center for International Development at Harvard University, Harvard Kennedy School + MIT Media Labs, MIT MacroConnections

Design Firm: Chronicle Books

Book Cover   

The Buell Hypothesis
Reinhold Martin, Anna Kenoff, Leah Meisterlin

Designer: Aliza Dzik, Michael Greenblatt, Daniel Koppich, Jessica Wexler

Publisher: The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture

Art Director: Glen Cummings

Design Firm: MTWTF + Greenblatt-Wexler

Book Cover   

The Doogwood Theives
John Currin

Designer: Amy S. Wilkens and Robin Brunelle

Publisher: Acadia Summer Arts Program

Design Firm: Matsumoto Inc.

Book Cover   

The Language of Less (Then and Now)
Michael Darling

Designer: Alfredo Ruiz

Publisher: Museum of Contermporary Art Chicago

Art Director: James Goggin

Book Cover   

The MAD Fold-In Collection
Al Jaffee

Designer: Michael Morris

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Art Director: Michael Morris

Design Firm: Chronicle Books

Book Cover   

The Story of Paper-cut
Zhao Xigang

Designer: Jingren Lu

Publisher: People’s Fine Arts Publishing House

Art Director: Xu Jie

Design Firm: Jingren Art Design

Book Cover   

The Toaster Project
Thomas Thwaites

Designer: Paul Wagner

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Art Director: Paul Wagner

Book Cover   

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
John Le Carre

Designer: Paul Smith

Publisher: Hatchette

Book Cover   

Twenty-Six Characters, An Alphabetical Book about Nokia Pure
Aapo Bovellan, Chris Merrick

Designer: Hugh Miller, Bradley Zimber

Publisher: Gestalten

Art Director: Iván Mato, Lisbet Tonner

Design Firm: Nokia Design

Book Cover   

Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1980
Paul Schimmel and Lisa Gabrielle Mark

Designer: Tracey Schiffman, Alex Kohnke, Deanne Oi

Publisher: DelMonico Books—Prestel—MOCA

Design Firm: Shiffman & Kohnke

Book Cover   

Utilité
Ellen Korth

Designer: Leo Sterrenburg

Publisher: Ellen Korth, Deventer, 2011

Book Cover   

Victor Halfwit: A Winter’s Tale
Thomas Bernhard

Designer: Sunandini Banerjee

Publisher: Seagull Books

Book Cover   

Visual Complexity
Manuel Lima

Designer: Jan Haux

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press

Art Director: Deb Wood

Book Cover   

Waterlife
Rambharos Jha

Designer: Jonathan Yamakami

Publisher: Tara Books

Art Director: Rathna Ramanathan

Design Firm: Tara Books

Book Cover   

Whole Beast Butchery
Ryan Farr with Brigit Binns

Designer: Vanessa Dina

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Art Director: Vanessa Dina

Design Firm: Chronicle Books

Book Cover   

Windows on the War: Soviet TASS Posters at Home and Abroad 1941–1945
Peter Kort Zegers and Douglas Druick

Designer: Chrissi Cowhey, Megan Deal, Silja Hillmann

Publisher: The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press

Art Director: Cheryl Towler Weese

Design Firm: Studio Blue

Book Cover   

Wonderstruck
Brian Selznick

Designer: Brian Selznick

Publisher: Scholastic Press

50 Covers 2011 Winners

Book Cover   

3001: A Lunar Odyssey
Mike Uphoff

Designer: Mikey Uphff

Publisher: Lulu

Art Director: Mikey Uphoff

Book Cover   

A Man of Parts
David Lodge

Designer: Jaya Miceli

Publisher: Viking

Art Director: Paul Buckley

Book Cover   

A Relíquia (Relic); A Queda de um Anjo (The Fall of an Angel); De Profundis (De Profundis); Coração (Heart)
Célia Pessegueiro

Designer: Rita Marquito

Publisher: Nova Delphi

Art Director: João Bicker

Design Firm: FBA. – Ferrand, Bicker & Associados

Book Cover   

Adam and Evelyn
Ingo Schulze

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf

Art Director: Carol Carson

Book Cover   

Adventures in the Orgasmatron
Christopher Turner

Designer: Marina Drukman

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Art Director: Marina Drukman

Design Firm: Marina Drukman

Book Cover   

Bed
David Whitehouse

Designer: Rex Bonomelli and Philip Heckman

Publisher: Scribner

Art Director: Rex Bonomelli

Book Cover   

Better By Mistake
Alina Tugend

Designer: Alex Merto

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Art Director: Helen Yentus

Book Cover   

Black Boy White School
Brian F. Walker

Designer: Erin Fitzsimmons

Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

Art Director: Hilary Zarycky

Book Cover   

C
Tom McCarthy

Designer: John Gall

Publisher: Vintage Books

Book Cover   

Checking In/Checking Out
Chris Schaberg/Mark Yakich

Designer: Nancy Bernardo

Publisher: NO Books

Art Director: Nancy Bernardo

Design Firm: decorative debris

Book Cover   

Contradance
John Peck

Designer: Natalie F. Smith

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

Darwin’s Finches
Kathleen Donohue

Designer: Matt Avery

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

Death and the Penguin
Andrey Kurkov

Designer: Christopher King

Publisher: Melville House

Book Cover   

Debt
David Graeber

Designer: Carol Hayes

Publisher: Melville House

Book Cover   

Do the Movies Have a Future?
David Denby

Designer: Thomas Ng

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Art Director: Jackie Seow

Book Cover   

Fever
Sonia Shah

Designer: LeeAnn Falciani

Publisher: Picador

Art Director: Henry Sene Yee

Design Firm: Picador

Book Cover   

He Died with His Eyes Open
Derek Raymond

Designer: Christopher King

Publisher: Melville House

Book Cover   

I Belong to This Band, Hallelujah!
Laura Clawson

Designer: Natalie F. Smith

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

I Know I Am But What Are You?
Samantha Bee

Designer: Joel Holland

Publisher: Gallery Books

Art Director: Michael Nagin

Book Cover   

In Trouble
Ellen Levine

Design Firm: Amelia LeBarron

Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Publishing group

Book Cover   

Influencing Machine
Brooke Gladstone / Tom Mayer

Designer: Mark Melnick

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Art Director: Ingsu Liu

Book Cover   

IQ84
Haruki Murakami

Designer: Chip Kidd

Publisher: Random House

Art Director: Chip Kidd

Book Cover   

Kerouac Series (2011 repackage)
Jack Kerouac

Designer: Paul Buckley

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

Art Director: Paul Buckley

Cover Art: Vivienne Flesher

Book Cover   

Kwadraat Bladen: A Series of Graphic Experiments 1955–74
Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook

Designer: Claudia Klat

Publisher: Unit Editions

Art Director: Tony Brook

Design Firm: Spin

Book Cover   

Linguagem e Comunicação (Language and Communication) from the series Celga
Paula Valente

Designer: Ana Boavida

Publisher: Almedina

Art Director: João Bicker

Design Firm: FBA. – Ferrand, Bicker & Associados

Book Cover   

Londoners
Craig Taylor

Designer: Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell

Publisher: Granta

Design Firm: Murray & Sorrell FUEL

Book Cover   

Mensagem de Fernando Pessoa (The Message of Fernando Pessoa)
Paula Valente

Designer: Scott Dadich

Publisher: Almedina

Art Director: João Bicker

Design Firm: FBA. – Ferrand, Bicker & Associados

Book Cover   

My Dyslexia
Philip Schultz

Designer: Mark Melnick

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Book Cover   

Nom de Plume
Carmela Ciuraru

Designer: Jarrod Taylor

Publisher: HarperCollins

Art Director: Archie Ferguson

Book Cover   

Oliver Sacks paperback repackage (Migrane; Awakenings; The Island of the Colorblind; Uncle Tugnsten; An Anthropologist on Mars; Seeing Voices)
Oliver Sacks

Designer: Cardon Webb

Publisher: Vintage

Art Director: John Gall

Design Firm: Vintage/Anchor

Book Cover   

Operation Bonnet: A Novel
Kimberly Stuart

Designer: Tim Green

Publisher: David C. Cook

Art Director: Amy Kiechlin

Book Cover   

Orientation and Other Stories
Daniel Orozco

Designer: Charlotte Strick

Art Director: Charlotte Strick

Faber and Faber

Book Cover   

Poetry After 9/11
Dennis Loy Johnson and Valerie Merians

Designer: Christopher King

Publisher: Melville House

Book Cover   

Red Autobiographies
Igal Halfin

Designer: Thomas Eykemans

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Design Firm: University of Washington Press

Book Cover   

Seeing Double
Françoise Meltzer

Designer: Matt Avery

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

Snowdrops
A.D. Miller

Designer: Emily Mahon

Publisher: Doubleday

Art Director: Emily Mahon

Book Cover   

Tell the Wolves I’m Home
Carol Rifka Brunt

Designer: Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

Publisher: Random House

Art Director: Tom Stvan

Design Firm: de Vicq design

Book Cover   

The Bauhaus Group
Nicholas Fox Weber

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

Publisher: Yale University Press

Book Cover   

The Enigma of the Aerofoil
David Bloor

Designer: Andrea Guinn

Publisher: The University of Chicago Press

Art Director: Jill Shimabukuro

Design Firm: The University of Chicago Press

Book Cover   

The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood
James Gleick

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

Publisher: Pantheon

Book Cover   

The Meaning of Disgust
Colin McGinn

Designer: Thomas Ng

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Art Director: Rachel Perkins

Design Firm: Oxford University Pres

Book Cover   

The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050
Joel Kotkin

Designer: Tal Goretsky

Publisher: Penguin

Art Director: Darren Haggar

Book Cover   

The Old Romantic
Louise Dean

Designer: Alex Merto

Publisher: Riverhead Books

Art Director: Helen Yentus

Book Cover   

The Pale King
David Foster Wallace

Designer: Gray318

Publisher: Hamish Hamilton

Art Director: John Hamilton

Book Cover   

The Pint Man
Steve Rushin

Designer: Jamie Keenan

Publisher: Vintage Books

Art Director: John Gall

Book Cover   

The Real Holden Caulfield
Michael Moats

Designer: Matt Tanner

Publisher: Fiction Advocate

Art Director: Matt Tanner

Design Firm: Fiction Advocate

Book Cover   

The Works of Franz Kafka
F. Kafka

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

Publisher: Schocken Books

Art Director: Peter Mendelsund

Book Cover   

Tourquai
Tim Davys

Designer: Jarrod Taylor

Publisher: HarperCollins

Book Cover   

Vault
David Rose

Designer: David Pearson

Publisher: Salt Publishing

Book Cover   

Works of Clarice Lispector
Clarice Lispector

Designer: Paul Sahre, Erik Carter
Publisher: New Directions

 

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