The 13th Annual Academy of British Cover Design awards took place last night (March 5th) at Gigi‘s in Hoxton and was attended by the best and brightest in the design community. Jamie Keenan was there too.
As usual, it was loud, hot and chaotic but it was wonderful to see so many creatives gathered together in one place for a night dedicated to the art of book cover design.
Welcome to our University Press Coverage — known as the Uni-Press Round-Up on the right side of the Pond — a monthly feature in which we highlight a selection of just-published university and academic cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
The selections are in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions (often with links to the designers’ other work), and each cover includes a link to the university’s official page for that title.
For this dark, literary thriller about a K-pop idol who consumes the thoughts of four wildly different women, Stephen Brayda, an art director whose work I have long admired, asked me to lean into the hyper-tactile miscellany of fan culture, so I assembled K-pop trading cards in using photo sleeves, stickers, and letter beads (some raided from my daughter’s stash).
Book cover design and its changing form over the years is always a great reflection of the ever-evolving tastes of readers, the technological innovations shaping visual arts, and cultural shifts in society at large. Today, book covers aren’t just about looking good — they’re designed to stop the scroll, signal identity, and make a statement both in print and on digital screens.
So what worked in 2025 that may be on the way out as we storm ahead into 2026? What other trends seem to be here to stay? In this post, we’ll break down the standout book cover design trends of 2025 and make some predictions about what lies in our near future.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
October 2025 turned out to be a transformative month for me in the best possible way when I participated in the annual Lettering Style Challenge on Instagram, hosted by lettering artist, Aurelie Maron.
Each year, Aurelie releases a list of 31 lettering style prompts for October, encouraging artists to explore a new style every day. It’s meant to push your lettering skills further—but I decided to take it in a slightly different direction.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
The Modern Library Torchbearers Series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity and a spirit of resistance.
Modern Library AD Rachel Ake and the editorial team were interested in refreshing the existing Torchbearers series look by utilizing modern photography, while still having a system of design rules that any designer, from seasoned professional to a first-timer in publishing, could step in and put their own spin on. Rachel, along with Anna Kochman and Caroline Teagle Johnson, developed the system in the hopes that “by freeing up the brain from some of the design decisions, people could truly play and therefore experiment more.”
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
“Brimming with dark humour, empathy and a sharp eye for the uncanny, The Slip is an electrifying debut by an utterly original voice.”
The Slip by Miriam Webster is the first book to published by Aniko Press, the ten stories in this collection are dark, feral and completely unforgettable, full of strange encounters and big feelings. They are about the things we can’t hold onto: a marriage drifting out with the tide, a family collapsing like a wave, a young woman’s affair that dissolves as quickly as it ignites. You’ll find a whale watching trip going spectacularly awry, a potty-mouthed eel writhing its way to the sea and a grieving gardener seeking solace in the dirt beneath his nails.
Well done — you’ve written your book, and the product of your hard work is complete. Now, it just needs a spectacular cover.
Naturally, as a website promoting book cover designers, Spine would encourage you to hire a professional whose job revolves around making your books look amazing. However, if you’d prefer to do it yourself, read on for tips and tricks for creating a consistent and attractive series design that will grab readers’ attention.
The Uni Press round-up is back! We welcome you to our ongoing feature, now penned by designer and photographer Giles Hoover, in which we periodically highlight a selection of recent university press cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
This list is in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions.
From book covers in the late 1800s with simple text and bindings to today's vibrant looks, book design is part of a story's spirit. The way your book appears has an impact on how readers receive it. A cover design can tell people what to expect and grab their attention, encouraging them to pull it off a bookshelf or digital product page.
‘Sprawling cities. Lawless rural landscapes. A long and unforgiving history. Here is where the winds blow cold and the nights are long.’
The publishers Dead Ink have earned a reputation for commissioning some fantastic covers, so I was pleased to get the opportunity to add to their catalogue with the cover for their Northern crime anthology Motives Unknown. Anthologies are some of my favourite books, particularly for a train or bus journey, devouring a story between stops. The brief for this collection was clear: the cover should evoke a sense of crime and the North.
The 12th Annual Academy of British Cover Design awards took place last night (Thursday 6th March); although they very nearly didn’t. A dodgy cable had event organiser Jon Gray sprinting off into the night like a bearded Batman to find a replacement. Luckily he did and the show could go on!
Emcee extraordinaire Jack Smyth was back in his rightful place, announcing the categories and urging us all to keep the noise down. Turns out that 100ish inebriated designers in one room can cause quite the ruckus.
Photography as part of book cover design is a relatively recent addition to book cover designers’ and marketers’ toolboxes. It was not until the late 20th century—as camera equipment became more accessible—that photographic book covers began to gain popularity for their ability to convey realism, emotion and immediacy to the audience.
In today’s attention economy, authors and publishers are competing not only with each other, but also with the many distractions of life 一 from streaming platforms to social feeds. Book covers have long played a vital role in driving sales by appealing to the book’s target audience. Yet now more than ever, they’re an author and publisher’s best chance to compel people to stop what they’re doing and find out more about their book. The question is how to create a cover that will achieve this.
The original title for Dorothy Parker in Hollywood was Out There.
Out There came to me a full 12 months ago through John Vairo, a real gem of a guy and an Associate Art Director at Gallery Books (S&S). With a title like ‘Out There’ for a book about the incredible Dorothy Parker, the original vision for this jacket was colorful and a bit wild. John envisioned a classic portrait of Dorothy that was enhanced with “Jean Cocteau-inspired drawings.” When I looked up Jean Cocteau, I immediately thought of the branding for British DJs Disclosure. Rad.
