Design Observer announces the winners of its 50 Books | 50 Covers competition

Date
23 June 2016

In association with AIGA, Design Observer has announced the winners of the 2015 50 Books | 50 Covers competition. The initiative dates back to a 93-year-old tradition from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, which held an exhibition called The Fifty Books of 1923 to celebrate the design and production of books.

A total of over 700 entries were received this year from over a dozen countries, and just 7% made the cut. Judges included Michael Beirut, Jessica Helfand and Barbara Glauber, who felt the books this year “demonstrated astonishing attention to craft as well as startling ambitions to disrupt expectations about what constitutes a ‘traditional’ book.”

Winning entries include; Fraser Muggeridge’s book design for Visual Edition’s reimagining of Don Quixote and Justine Anweiler’s cover design for Picador’s A Manual for Cleaning Women. The 50 winning books can be viewed here and the 50 winning covers can be viewed here.

Above
Left

Chris Ferrante: One Day in the Life of the English Language: A Microcosmic Usage Handbook

Right

Spencer Kimble: The Asylum

Above

Spencer Kimble: The Asylum

Above

Fraser Muggeridge: Don Quixote

Above

Harry Pearce: Eating with the eyes

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About the Author

Rebecca Fulleylove

Rebecca Fulleylove is a freelance writer and editor specialising in art, design and culture. She is also senior writer at Creative Review, having previously worked at Elephant, Google Arts & Culture, and It’s Nice That.

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