Cover design round-up: January 2018

Hello, and Happy New Year. Admittedly it is February, but between compiling our end-of-year Best of... list, writing a trends of the year piece, and battling numerous out-of-offices in an attempt to credit the following covers (we're still a little short, but figured we couldn't wait much longer), we're hideously late with the cover design round-up for January.

Better late than never, however, but I shall keep it brief here and let the covers do the talking. So, without further ado, here are our favourites from among January's publications. As ever, let us know your favourites and do share your favourites from our Instagram page, where these will be uploaded throughout the month.

 

     

4thEstate publication Essex Poison by Ian Sansom was designed by Jo Walker, while David Wardle created Herring in the Smoke by L C Tyler for Allison and Busby. That one was commissioned by Christina Griffiths.

 

     

Robin Sloan’s Sourdough (Atlantic) was designed by gray.318, with the art direction coming from Richard Evans; while The War on the Young by John Sutherland was designed and art-directed by Namkwan Cho for Biteback.

 

     

The Bloomsbury cover for Built on Bones by Brenna Hassett comes from across the Atlantic, and we’ve been unable to verify the design credits on this one – answers on a postcard. Or in the comments section below. We do know that The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch, a Canongate title, was art directed and designed by Rafi Romaya, with the illustration coming from Florian Schommer

 

     

A Hero for High Times by Ian Marchant was curated by Kris Potter for Jonathan Cape, and illustrated by Oliver Hibert. Helen Crawford-White conjured the cover for Guy Jones’ The Ice Garden for publisher Chicken House.

 

     

A nice curiosity here: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich was designed by her child, Aza Erdrich. It’s published by Corsair. We tried to confirm if Aza also stars on the cover, in utero, but that was unconfirmed at the time of green-buttoning this article. Lissa Evans’ Wed Wabbit (David Fickling Books) was illustrated by Sarah MacIntyre.

 

     

The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden, published by Del Rey Books, is another title we’ve been unable to locate the design credits for. Again, please do let us know. The first of two Faber titles, Lullaby by Leila Slimani, was designed by Donna Payne, based on the original US artwork created by Julianna Lee.

 

      

The second Faber title, Dunkirk by A D Divine, was adapted by the original design by Faber design doyen Berthold Wolpe; an exhibition of his covers is to open next month at the Lettering Arts Centre in Snape Maltings, Suffolk. It’s next to (the book, not the arts centre) Virgin and Other Stories by April Ayers Lawson, which was designed by James Jones for Granta.

 

     

Suzanne Dean designed The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar for publisher Harvill Secker, while unfortunately the Head of Zeus-published design and photography for Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon was also uncredited at this writing.

 

     

Neil Gower illustrated Levison Wood’s Walking the Americas, with the design coming from Ben Summers, for Hodder Books, while Kate Oakley, under the art direction of Louise McGrory, designed Neil Olson’s The Black Painting. That one is published by HQ, and uses imagery from iStock.

 

     

Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere (Little, Brown) uses a cover image by Arcangel, and lettering from Hannah Wood, who also designed the thing. James Nunn did so for Maclehose Press title The Time in Between by Marcello Fois.

 

     

Kintu by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, a Oneworld title, was designed by Nathan Burton, with art direction coming from James Jones. Laura Brett created the cover for The Night Market by Jonathan Moore, using Shutterstock imagery, for publisher Orion.

 

     

Two titles designed by Justine Anweiler of Pan Macmillan are next: Shriek: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer and The Reason You’re Alive by Matthew Quick. The latter is illustrated by Chris Wormell and is part of a broader and very nice series look.

 

     

Two further John Does here – again, please let us know who is responsible should you know. They are Constable title A Woman Lived Here by Allison Vale, and Thames & Hudson’s A Chronology of Art. We’re pretty sure that a little-known painter by the name of Salvador Dali came up with the weird imagery for that one.

 

     

The Cactus by Sarah Haywood was designed by Sarah Christie for Two Roads, using Shutterstock imagery, while Anna Morrison designed David Hargreaves’ Under the Table. That one is an Unbound book, and it was art directed by Mecob.

 

     

Finally, there is a hat-trick of titles from political list Verso. It begins with In the Flow by Boris Groys, designed by Everything Studio, and continues with Michael Oswell’s cover for Vertical by Stephen Graham.

 

And, lastly, that hat-trick concludes with Devin Washburn’s artwork for Anything by Mexican by Rodolfo F Acuna.

Until next month…