![]() It is hard to know if these are genuine trends, or if it is just the stuff I notice. You Have a Friend in 10Aby Maggie Shipstead design by Irene Martinez (Doubleday / May 2022) We Move by Gurnaik Johal design by Jack Smyth (Serpent’s Tail / April 2022) The Foghorn Echoes by Danny Ramadan design by Jennifer Griffiths (Viking Canada / August 2022) I suspect this is what happens when you ask designers to make things “pop” one too many times. The Instagram-ish combination of both pink and orange (sometimes with deep purple-ish blues too) seemed to be very much a thing this year. Collage, painting (contemporary, and historical - often tightly cropped), big skies, landscapes and seascapes, black and white photography (not just for LGBTQ+ trauma!), retro-ness, idiosyncratic display typefaces. Some of the trends I’ve talked about before spilled over into 2022. The Singularities by John Banville design by John Gall (Knopf / October 2022) Pure Colour by Sheila Heti design by Na Kim (Farrar, Straus & Giroux / February 2022) Last year we had book blobs this year we got more “ ominous blobs” just to add to everyone’s existential dread. Love and Other Puzzles by Kimberley Allsopp design by Mark Campbell (HarperCollins Australia / February 2022) No Hard Feelings by Genevieve Novak design by Mietta Yans (HarperCollins Australia / March 2022) Vladimir by Julia May Jonas design by Katie Tooke (Picador / May 2022) As designer Mietta Yans notes, the covers often reflect their books’ stylish and sad protagonists, so I’m not sure this one is on the art departments. A reminder, if one were needed, that nobody knows anything.Įarlier in the year, Australian reporter Rafqa Touma called out the trend of ‘well dressed and distressed’ young women on covers. No one captured the prevailing mood better than this Tom Gauld cartoon. For people employed in a theoretically creative pursuit, designers’ talents are often defined by how effortlessly they can make themselves disappear to serve the book. There is also the matter of adhering to any one publisher’s dos and don’ts, which can inform mandates about typography, color palettes and production flourishes like embossing or metallic inks. Most often, any personal stylistic expressions in their work are swallowed up in service to the multiple masters - editors, marketing directors, sales teams - who sign off on a book’s cover. ![]() I gather that Spine’s list is imminent.ĭesigner and art director Matt Dorfman chose the best book covers of 2022 for the New York Times, and empathized with the plight of the designers: Jason Kottke, back from sabbatical, posted his selections for 2022. I am an ancient desiccated husk.įast Company and the Washington Post asked slightly smaller groups of designers to write about their favourites covers. With a comprehensive 103 covers on the list, it tacitly poses the annual question “what do I have left to add to this conversation?” LitHub have been posting these lists for seven years apparently. Literary Hub posted the best covers of the year as chosen by 31 designers. I’m glad other people have already written about it.Īt Creative Review, writer and editor Mark Sinclair picked his favourite covers of 2022 and reflected on industry trends in the UK, including the Design Publishing & Inclusivity mentorship program for under-represented creatives launched this year by Ebyan Egal, Donna Payne, and Steve Panton. It’s been a year that’s simultaneously dragged on interminably and disappeared in a cognitive blur. Two thousand and twenty-two… “Where did it go?” Or, sobbing, “ are we done yet?” It feels like both.
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