Welcome back to Covers We Love II. Adrian from our Dubray Blackrock shop is back with a new selection of titles. Read on to explore more.
This is a selection of the most exciting, innovative, interesting, quirky and beautiful book covers of the past few months, giving credit to the artists, designers and illustrators who make our books look lovely…
The list includes book covers from across the genres and from a wide variety of publishers. Here are the highlights, be sure to visit the web page to see the full list.
First up is the Best of Granta series, a beautiful set of covers designed by Tom Etherington. He’s also worked his magic on the picture research, with a sophisticated selection of images, which range from a beautiful illustration by Yuwa Kato to an excellent painting by artist Petra Borner. Each image adds meaning to the books. The design is subtle, nuanced, with a lovely use of type and the colour palette is innovative.
Suzanne Dean is creative director at Vintage books and she has two books on the list: firstly, Dogs and Monsters by Mark Haddon with illustration by Neue Gestaltung. This cover just zings with its exciting and distinctive shapes and colours. The second book is The Collected Short Stories of Roberto Bolano, with beautiful, lively illustration by Diego Becas. The cover has strong South American energy, it really adds something special to Bolano’s writing.
Nico’s Taylor’s design for A Cage Went In Search of a Bird, published by Abacus, is superb. This anthology which pays homage to Franz Kafka’s short stories, has a deceptively minimal cover, using just two colours. The effect is a striking design, with an excellent use of illustration.
Jack Smyth is an Irish designer who won this year’s designer of the year at the British Book awards. He’s well known for making the cover for Paul Lynch’s novel Prophet Song, which won the Booker prize last year. I’ve included his cover for Paloma Faith’s autobiography MILF, published by Ebury Spotlight. This cover reeks humor, from the title, to the use of a lollypop in place of the letter “I”. It really shows an understanding of who Paloma Faith is and what she has achieved.
Luke Bird appears once again on our list, this time for a cookery book called Steak by Tim Hayward, published by Quadrille. The cover features a magnified steak, rendered in red with a cool marbling effect achieved. It’s a simple but effective use of simplicity in design.
Greg Heinmann has produced a beautiful cover for Alan Murrin’s accomplished debut novel ‘The Coast Road’, published by Bloomsbury. The cover has strong ‘Irish’ vibes, specifically coastal Donegal. The typography rests beautifully on the rolling waves, and a little cottage sits wonderfully on the coastline edge. Greg also designed the cover for the excellent novel by Benjamin Myers. ‘Rare Singles’ has a retro cover reminiscent of English seaside towns, which is just as well as the novel is set in Scarborough. It’s a cheeky cover full of humour.
By the River, published by Daunt Books, is an anthology of writing by authors about rivers. Previous titles in the series have included anthologies about ponds, kitchens, gardens and dogs. Each book has a lovely illustration on the front cover which I just l love, making them very collectable.
The cover for Birding by Rose Ruane, published by Hachette, is designed by Charlotte Stroomer. The cover has strong 1950’s seaside vibes, with a woman wearing a green dress holding an ice-cream cone. The cover is enigmatic, like a still from a movie. It is complimented by quirky typography, which is bird-like, with a subtle use of colour.
Finally, a classic, available for the first time in a Penguin Clothbound edition: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Coralie Bickford-Smith is the designer behind these beautifully made clothbound editions. This edition was made to celebrate the centenary of Baldwin’s birth, and it’s delicious and a must for your collection.
Ok, that’s all for now, we’ll be taking a break until next year, when we will return with more beautiful covers for your eyes.
Adrian
You can view more titles about Covers We Love Vol II. on dubraybooks.ie!
