Within the variety of artistic expression, the art of book design is too often overlooked. From the 16th century well into the modern era, books were sold as unadorned objects with plain bound boards or simple leather, leaving wealthier purchasers to arrange their own permanent binding. Today, stepping into a bookshop means confronting a kaleidoscope of competing visual strategies: minimalist sans-serif shouts resting alongside maximalist illustrations, metallic foils catching light next to matte textures. From the times of custom-bound volumes to today’s market-driven designs, book cover creation has undergone a striking transformation. In 2025, that evolution surfaced in a wave of bold, experimental and truly brilliant designs. Here are seven book designers worth following as we step into the new year:
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Janet Hansen
Currently an art director at Alfred A. Knopf and Everyman’s Library, Janet Hansen-Brand discovered her love for design during her time at the School of Visual Arts. For Janet Hansen, one of the great pleasures of book design is the freedom to creatively engage with a wide spectrum of subjects and ideas. This is on display in the cover for Michael Clune’s Pan, in which a fragmented collage of classical-styled figures hover over a stark, black‑and‑white photograph of a face — a memorable blend of image and texture, testament to the designer’s passion for her craft.
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David Pearson
Specialising in print-based design, David Pearson captivates with his crisp, distinctive book covers. Pearson has been commissioned by a variety of clients, including Wes Anderson, The New York Times and the V&A, and is also the founder of The Book Cover Review. This year, one of his standout achievements is his work for Joe Brainard’s I Remember — a composition of repeated, staggered letters against a black backdrop, at once reminiscent of digital code and evocative of the fragmented, searching nature of memory.
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Linda Huang
Linda Huang is a book cover designer based in New York. Her work has attracted significant recognition: a cover she created during the Black Lives Matter movement for Printed Matter was acquired by The Whitney Museum. Currently, she serves as the art director at Pantheon Books, part of Penguin Random House. While in 2024 she was recognised for the arresting cover of Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!, last year saw her explore text as a central design element. Her cover of Vauhini Vara’s Searches, created in collaboration with Andrew LeClair, invites readers to wade into the story before they even open the book.
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Alicia Tatone
Based in New York, Alicia Tatone is a freelance illustrator, designer and art director. She has created collage and graphic designs for clients including The New York Times, The Atlantic, WIRED and Gay Magazine. Enjoying working across a variety of mediums, Tatone is interested in everything from painting to lettering. Her work for Robbie Arnott’s Dusk remains particularly memorable — the oversized yet elegant title lettering looming across a collage of misty greenery and canyon-like terrain expertly creates a sense of wild, intense drama.
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Math Monahan
Art director at Simon & Schuster and book designer Math Monahan is based in New York City. His design work and interviews have appeared in PRINT magazine as well as in Spine’s Book Covers We Love, The Casual Optimist, and LitHub’s Best Book Covers of the Month. For the cover of Rose Keating’s Oddbody, Monahan chose a vivid two‑toned palette. The interplay of bright red and striking royal blue lettering accentuates the central floral motif with brave contrast and elevated precision.
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Clay Smith
Currently a designer for Simon & Schuster, Clay Smith is renowned for her atmospheric and characterful book covers. You might recall her design for Rebecca K. Reilly’s Greta & Valdin, with its iconic lime motif — meanwhile, in 2025, one of her most charming works was the cover for Eliana Ramage’s To the Moon and Back. Here, Smith places luminous lettering over a starry sky, framing a bursting volcano in an unusually cosy yet spectacular manner.
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Jack Smyth
Based in Dublin, Jack Smyth works as a freelance graphic designer. Already highly regarded, Smyth’s work appears in Faber, Creative Review and It’s Nice That among others, and in 2024 he was celebrated as Designer of the Year by the British Book Awards. For Lucas Schaefer’s The Slip, Smyth balances newspaper‑like typography with a layered photograph and a vibrant orange panel that cuts through the composition. Here, the image and text expertly push in different directions to create a sense of motion and impact.
