C. S. Richardson interview on Quill and Quire, October 24, 2011
Thanks to Dan Wagstaff’s Casual Optimist for alerting us to this Quill and Quire podcast interview with book designer C. S. Richardson.

Farm Anatomy: Evolution of the Cover Design on Book By Its Cover, October 27, 2011
Illustrator Julia Rothman talks about the cover design process for her book. My wife and I wrote a review of Farm Anatomy on her blog.

30 Covers, 30 Days 2011 on The Office of Letters and Light, starting on November 1, 2011
Each day for thirty days a designer volunteers a book cover for National Novel Writing Month 2011. Jon Gall is organizing the event this year.

How Vanity Presses Can Use Good Design To Boost Business on Fast Company, November 3, 2011.
I don’t agree with using the term “vanity press” to describe a self-publishing service, but this is an interesting article. There’s a new British self-pub company, ubyu, that offers designer-friendly options like colored cloth, colored headbands, colored endpapers, and foil stamping. This level of production quality is rare within the self-pub world, but I wonder how the pricing compares to the same options offered by commercial book printers.

Book designers Jenny Carrow and Roberto de Vicq both have new portfolio sites up. November, 7, 2011.

Are Books As Sexy Without Their Covers?
on IndieReader.com,
September 20, 2011
The age-old discussion of the book cover’s effect on book sales, this time with the new possibility of eBooks with absolutely no cover design. Some teens were polled, and they said cover design had no influence on their book purchases. They might say that, but I would counter that design affects buying behavior in a subtle almost subconscious way.

50 Books / 50 Covers on AIGA.org
2010′s 50/50 bokk cover design winners are up.

Peter Mendelsund Talks With Chip Kidd on From the Desk Of,
September 26, 2011
Book designer chit-chat among photos of Kidd’s crowded desk.

The Pioneers of Digital Publishing | The Future of the book by ustwo
A London “digital design studio” muses on the future of eBook design. A couple of these guys say book sales are not an issue on their work. Huh? I’m guessing the studio is living off of bank loans and investors and doesn’t have the publisher’s worry of producing a product that actually sells.

Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover on
Nathan Bransford’s Blog, March 10, 2011
I read this article back in the spring and recently re-found it. It’s a good explanation of why eBooks do not cost nothing to produce.

Inspector Stamp  on Mikey Burton’s site.
This key chain rubber stamp designed by illustrator Burton can instantly turn anything into a business card. Awesome idea.

Will the E-Book Kill the Footnote? on The New York Times,
October 7, 2011
I’m a big reader of scholarly history books full of footnotes, so this was especially interesting for me.

Supertype!
A blog collects scans of comic book cover title treatments.

Book Designer Spotlight: Abbate Design on EditionBinding.com,
October 12, 2011
An interview with book designer  Judith Abbate.

The Innovator’s Cookbook on The Casual Optimist, Ocotber 18, 2011
A behind the scenes video on Helen Yentus’ brilliantly conceived and executed cover of The Innovator’s Cookbook.

An Open Letter to Graphic Design Students: Don’t Follow the Web, Follow Your Heart on imprint, September 19, 2011.
Timothy Goodman encourages students to follow their personal design calling, rather than submit to the pressure of the next big thing. I focus my work on the dinosaur that is print. Sometimes I feel like I’m not “with it,” because I don’t feel comfortable with web design. This piece makes me feel a little better about that.

Novelist who left banking because of sexism fires publisher for putting ‘fluffy and degrading’ covers on her books on MailOnline, September 15, 2011.
An author drops her publisher over the treatment of her novels’ book covers.

Battle of the Bookworms: Traditional Book Readers vs. E-Reader Users on GOOD. September 8, 2011.
An interesting infographic comparing the two types of readers. 

Heart of the City on …By Henry Sene Yee Design. September 8, 2011
It’s great to see all the comps that went into this design. I think any of the photograph/heart designs would have worked well.

Books on Typography on tdc.org
The Type Directos Club has a handy list of books on typography.

The Norton Book Design Archive on flickr.
Norton has been posting this year’s cover designs. A great reference for book designers.  

Fall 2011 Paperbacks, on Picador’s Facebook page.
Picador posted it’s approved covers for the fall 2011 season.

The Dark Art of Pricing on Jessica Hische’s blog, September, 2011
Lettering phenom Jessica Hische gets in to the imperfect science of freelance pricing. 

The Dog-Eared Paperback, Newly Endangered in an E-Book Age on
The New York Times, September 2, 2011
I’m a pro-print guy, but I won’t be sorry to see mass market paperbacks go extinct. All those author names set in giant embossed foil-stamped type, bah! Good riddance! 

The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time on
The Atlantic, September 1, 2011
My whole business is based on freelancing remotely with companies all over the country. This series of articles examines freelancing growing place in the national economy.

Nick Hornby on cover design on We Made This, August 31, 2011
An old favorite author of mine, Hornby talks about the cover designs of his books. 

How to Self-Publish a Typography Book Without Losing Your Letters on Imprint, August 31, 2011
An instructor at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University has self-published a text on typography.

Interview with Princeton University Press Director Peter Dougherty on The Huffington Post, August 28, 2011.
I’m enthused to see HuffPo is doing a series of interviews with these directors. I fancy myself a gentleman scholars, so I’m very fond of my university press book cover projects.

Another Day. Another Dropshadow on The Design Bureau of America, August 23, 2011
Not an article per se, but an entertaining retro-style graphic mocking the existence of we poor graphic designers.

Digital View on TheBookSeller. August, 30, 2011
This optimistic view of the publishing industry is a rebuttal to a depressing August 22nd article on the Guardian.

What can you do when your work is copied online? on AIGA,
August 24, 2011
Since joining Twitter I have observed a sickening amount of artwork-copying. It seems like every month one of the designers or illustrators I follow is complaining about theft of their design. 

How Much Do Book Designers Earn? on GalleyCat, August 23, 2001.
I was a little jealous of those Penguin book designers, but then I remembered about that NYC cost of living. 

2011 AIGA/Aquent Designer Salaries on AIGA, August 9, 2011
A survey of designer national salaries: print/web, in-house/solo. Incidentally, I’m really like ling the term “solo” designer, rather than “freelance.” 

The License to Shop: From Designer to Dealer On Imprint,
August 19, 2011.
A veteran graphic designer steps out of the design biz and opens a retail shop. Incidentally, his shop is in Millerton, NY, which is also the home of Oblong Books, my most recent indie bookstore drawing.

Original Jules Verne Book Covers, 1800s on Vintage Me Oh My,
July 18, 2011
Bookish eye candy: Gorgeous 19th century stamped cover designs for Jules Vernes books.

Quaint on Peter Mendelsund’s blog, August 2011.
Mendelsund scans in some pages from a 1968 AIGA 50 Books Catalog. It’s always fun to read past predictions of the future. 

Obama interrupts vacation to go book shopping on Los Angeles Times, August 19, 2011
President Obama supports an indie book store. 

Faber & Faber: The Romantic Poetry Collection on It’s Nice That, August 17, 2011
Miriam Rosenbloom art directed a lovely series of book covers for classic Romantic poetry. “I think also that as e-books become more prevalent and more aspects of our industry become digitised, people have become more appreciative of this kind of specially-commissioned artwork.” I totally agree with that. 

Where Did Those Naked Ladies Come From? on Slate, August 17, 2011
An author is confused by the odd cover design of his book’s Chinese edition. 

To E (read) or not to E (read) on A Rep Reading, August 17, 2011
A publishing sales rep proposes that publishes should more strongly consider their brand. Limiting the sales outlets lends prestige to their printed books. Interesting concept.

Maybe It’s Time for Plan C on The New York Times, August 12, 2011
This article interests me, because I myself left an in-house job to start my own small business. All the people interviewed in this story totally changed careers, jumping into work they had never done before. I’m doing the same type of work freelance as I was doing in-house, so my transition wasn’t nearly as difficult as it was for these guys. 

Time for book publishers to fight dirty on Chicago Tribune, August 04, 2011
The author suggests publishers should band together to create a pro-print book advertising campaign. 

HipsterIpsum
This isn’t an article, but check it out. It’s greeking with a hipster theme.

What’s in Your Toolbox: Dana Tanamachi on Design Sponge.
August 3, 2001.
Exceptional chalk letterer Dana Tanamachi talks about her tools and
her inspiration.

New Will Self Book Covers on Creative Review. August 3, 2011.
A really nice series of novel covers published by Bloombury. 

Humiliation: BIG IDEAS // small books on …By Henry Sene Yee Design. August 2, 2011.
Picador art director and book designer Henry Sene Yee details the design process for the Koestenbaum’s Humiliation. It’s illuminating to see the ideas which lead to the final cover. I like the concept of the violated diary and the full jacket’s complimentary black and silver color palette. Looks sharp. 

RIP Push Pop Press on Joe Zeff Design. August 2, 2011.
Push Pop Press had created an app that allowed users to create their own eBooks. Facebook recently bought out the company killing off the original publishing direction, using the technology for advertising. 

Matt Roeser Has an Innate Sense of Curiosity About Averything… on The Book Designers. August 2, 2001.
Ian Shimkoviak recently interviewed Matt Rosner about his break into book cover design.

She’s Not a Strong Reader on Publishers Weekly. August 2, 2011.
Ugh. Some parents!

Paperback Publishers Quicken Their Pace on The New York Times.
July 26, 2011
Historically the paperback has been published about a year after the hardcover. Ebooks are forcing a quicker release date. I wonder if this will mean fewer paperbacks with their own cover design. Less time to prepare a new design may mean these pbks will simply reuse the hardcover design.

Amazon.com, Infant No More, Should Be Charging Sales Tax on Bloomberg. June 14, 2011.
I like the simple illustration at the top of the article showing amazon’s tax payments.