50 Books | 50 Covers Winners Announced

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 50 Books | 50 Covers competition, organized by Design Observer in association with AIGA. The fifty winning books can be viewed here; the fifty winning covers can be viewed here.

This competition continues a tradition that dates back over ninety years, when American Institute of Graphic Arts, mounted the show The Fifty Books of 1923. The exhibition went right to the heart of what the then-fledgling profession held dear: the design and production of books. In an age where reading increasingly happens on screens, it is clear from the winning entries that designers and publishers are not just resigned to the new world but are actively challenging it. We received book submissions from over a dozen countries again this year, including the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Brazil, France, Holland, and Finland. We had over 700 entries; only seven percent made the cut. These are the best of the best.

Our judges, Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand, and Barbara Glauber, felt the books this year demonstrated astonishing attention to craft, as well as startling ambitions to disrupt expectations about what constitutes a “traditional” book in the first place. Covers as well do double and triple duty, functioning not just as alluring packaging on the bookstore shelf, but as telegraphic icons in the realm of online marketing and sortable rubrics in online libraries.

We are happy to continue our commitment to books and book design, and feel honored to get to sit in a room with all the amazing entries.