AIGA, the professional association for design, announced the winners earlier this month. Out of nearly 800 entries from 32 countries, the jury selected the year’s 50 best-designed books and book covers. According to AIGA, “This survey of book design represents perhaps the longest-standing legacy in American graphic design. Beginning in 1923, the Fifty Books of the Year competition was a yearly mainstay of AIGA… This time-honored competition aims to identify the 50 best-designed books and book covers of 2019. The juror-selections from the 50 Books | 50 Covers competition exemplify the best current work in book and book cover design.”
The Whitman exhibition and catalogue invited dozens of contemporary artists to create work based on recurrent themes in the poet’s work.
All winning books will become part of a permanent collection in the AIGA Design Archives at Columbia University’s Butler Library. A full list of 2019 winners can be viewed here.
