To summarize a decade’s worth of brilliant design with 20 covers is little more than an exercise in futility. We can all agree, however, that the best part of passing into a new digit bracket is the lists that come with it. This collection is little more than a representation of my own tastes, but I tried to choose works which were representative of their respective years.
I beat myself up quite a bit when putting this together, but there are still a handful of notables worth mentioning:
- Any of gray318‘s covers for Safran Foer.
- Any of Kidd or Gall’s covers for Murakami
- Anything from Henry Sene Yee
- Anything from Paul Buckley or Darren Haggar over at Penguin US.
The Abomination, Chip Kidd
Art Direction by Carol Devine Carson
Runner-up
Faster, Jamie Keenan
Art Direction by John Gall
A General Theory of Love, John Gall
Photographer, Boris Schmalenberger
Runner-Up
The Darkness and The Light, Chip Kidd
The Egg Code, Evan Gaffney
Art Direction by Carol Devine Carson
Runner-up
Lullaby, Rodrigo Corral
Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware
Runner-up
Oryx And Crake, John Gall
A Shortcut Through Time, Peter Buchanan-Smith
Runner-up
Killing the Buddha, Paul Sahre
Photograph by Jason Fulford
Murder, gray318
Representative of the Penguin 70th anniversary box set.
Runner-up
Book One, Mark Melnick
Art Direction by Chip Kidd
The Prisoner of Guantanamo, John Gall
Runner-up
Race Riots, David Drummond
Exile and the Kingdom, Helen Yentus
Art Direction by John Gall
Representative of the Camus Series
Runner-up
One Perfect Day, Evan Gaffney
Art direction by Darren Haggar
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, David Pearson
Representative of the Penguin Great Ideas series.
Runner-up
Obsession, Isaac Tobin
Illustration by Lauren Nassef
The Way Through Doors, Helen Yentus, Jason Booher
Art Direction by John Gall
Runner-up
The Original of Laura, Chip Kidd
- – - – - – - –
Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments.
[...] blog at the Book Cover Archive names its best cover design (and a runner-up) for every year of the first decade of the 21st century. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Best [...]
The Original of Laura has no design at all. IMHO
‘The Original of Laura’ is not published until tomorrow – judging a book cover by a cover jpeg!
Remember the recent Stephen King? It looked awesome as a book cover jpeg, not so awesome as a book cover. IMHO.
[...] The Book Cover Archive – Top Ten Covers 2000s [...]
regardless of whether or not one finds the cover design for the Original of Laura effective, it does *have* a design. even the most minimalistic covers have designs. choices have to be made for typeface, placement of text, etc. and in this case the fadeout was clearly done intentionally. so it most definitely has a design.
I personally think the design is very fitting though I don’t think I would’ve put it in the top two of the year.
also, I’m basing my opinion on the book itself. I work in a bookstore and I’ve seen it in person.
[...] end this news round-up with some book lovers’ porn. The Book Cover Archive put together the 10 best book covers of the decade and the list is a beaut. Share and [...]
[...] If you’re into book cover design: top 10 book covers of the ’00s. [...]
The best designs often look like they are not designed.
The cover for “A Shortcut Through Time” is fabulous.
[...] – To summarize a decade’s worth of brilliant design with 20 covers is little more than an exercise in futility. We can all agree, however, that the best part of passing into a new digit bracket is the lists that come with it. This collection is little more than a representation of my own tastes, but I tried to choose works which were representative of their respective years. — Book Covers in Book Cover Archive [...]
[...] The end of the year is nearing fast – heck, Christmas Eve is exactly one month away! – and ‘t is the time of the season for the customary lists. What’s more, as this is 2009 we’re bound to find some “Best of The Decade” overviews as well. Normally I am not so hot about lists and overviews, but if I can use it as an excuse to spotlight our friends at The Book Cover Archive I’ll gladly take it. Last week they published their Top Ten of Covers of the ’00s. [...]
love that darkness and the light cover, now that’s balance/contrast at it’s finest
my vote goes to Chris Ware. You can see that the man loves what it does. All his covers are full of small details and each seems to have a story to tell. Full of american influence his books are a tribute to the history of graphic design in america. Fonts and magic colours together to tell stories.
[...] A continuación comparto tres de las portadas que más me gustaron, la lista completa la pueden ver en el blog. [...]
The cover of Chabon’s Yiddish Policemen’s Union: http://www.firstshowing.net/img/yiddish-policemen-book.jpg
[...] ++++ Faz um splash: top 10 covers of the 00’s [...]
[...] Cover Archive Blog has released their list of the best book covers of the past ten years. Killing the Buddha is our fave, but you should take a look to make up your own [...]
[...] of top lists of the first decade of the millenium are springing up. One of my favorites comes from The Book Cover Archive and it deals with book covers! “To summarize a decade’s worth of brilliant design with 20 [...]
I really love the cover for “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” super smart, index-y and I’m sure Benjamin himself would approve. I’m curious to check out Pearson’s other work.
[...] _http://blog.bookcoverarchive.com/2009/11/1504/ [...]
[...] Καταπληκτικά εξώφυλλα [...]
[...] first decade of the millenium are springing up. and this is probably one of the better ones. Click here to see ten of the best book covers designed during this almost finished decade. No TweetBacks yet. [...]
[...] de elegir las obras más representativas de cada año…” Las cubiertas aparecen en The Book Cover Archive Blog, un sitio que trabaja para el Book Cover Archive, un lugar imposible de olvidar por el diseñador y [...]
It’s not surprising that many of these covers are from reprinted works written in many cases decades before the cover in question. It strikes me there’s a very good reason for that, which is that these are books with no need to prove themselves. This brings with it a much greater artistic freedom than that afforded to new books.
I wonder whether first time writers have even less freedom, because they need to slot into an existing market quickly, or more freedom because they have much less to lose. I hope that the growth of self-publishers and collectives that bring a certain freedom to the author will see a new wave of daring, original cover art.
[...] Siguiendo con la fiebre de las listas, y con los balances que ahora todos se apuran en elaborar sobre la década que comienza a cerrarse, un interesante catálogo de las mejores tapas de libros en inglés, seleccionadas en un blog. [...]
[...] The Book Cover Archive summarized the decade by choosing Top Ten of Covers. You can check it here. Below my choice of designes that I particulary like. Świetna strona, The Book Cover Archive [...]
No house of leaves? For shame. Every edition of that that’s come out has had a better cover than the last.
It seems the captions under the book cover images are offset – making the author information for each incorrect.
[...] Μια ενδιαφέρουσα λίστα με επιλογές από το Book Cover Archive. [...]
[...] And, as you’ve no doubt seen, Ben has chosen his top 10 covers of the decade at the Book Cover Archive Blog. [...]
[...] 블로그도 운영하고 있다. 위 사진은 Top Ten of Covers of the ’00s라는 기사에서 발견 [...]
[...] faves. And here’s Part II. 2 picture books here, but no YA. The Book Cover Archive has the Top Ten Covers of the ’00s (one for each year, including 2009) And how about this one: Suburban Vampire is asking for [...]
[...] lists that I’ve come across is the one put together by one of my favorite sites right now, the Book Cover Archive. It is, quite predictably, a list of the best book covers of the [...]
[...] scale and formulas for organizing my entire project and then began to follow them. Second, I designed the cover to be bright and appealing to the eye. I thought about people referring to my book and I wanted [...]
[...] Top 10 Covers of the Past 10 Years (One Cover Per [...]
[...] Shared Top Ten of Covers of the ’00s « Book Cover Archive blog. [...]
[...] Link: Las mejores portadas de libros de la década 2000 [...]
[...] lists everywhere these days. I’ll try not to overload the blog with them, but I did enjoy this one by the Book Cover Archive and thought I’d pass it along. My favorite is the winner for [...]
[...] Heights by Emily Brontë. Readers can vote for their own favorite design in the on-line polls. The Book Cover Archive takes the list one step further with their Top Ten of Covers of the ’00s post. Two covers were [...]
[...] Top 10 book covers of the 00’s from The Book Cover Archive blog [...]
“Columbine” was the best book cover I saw in 2008.
Gaffney’s covers kick ass!!
[...] 9. Book Cover Archive’s Top 10 covers of the 2000s, is here. [...]
[...] e foarte bun pe anul 2009. E mai pe gustul meu. Acesta e un sit excelent in domeniu si propune un top al anilor OO. Un excelent bloger roman, Madrizen, propune un Top 10 romanesc pe 2009. E un top subiectiv, fara [...]
[...] En el blog han escogido las 10 mejores cubiertas de la década pasada: [...]
Hi,
I tweeted about this months ago, but wanted to include your list on my new book blog as well. This is just to let you know that I m doing that.
Thanks for this great list, and also the art you do
I don’t know yet how to leave a trackback url, so the wordy note will have to do!
Thanks again.