Submissions Deadline: EXTENDED to August 22
Materials must be received by August 26
Eligibility: Must have been published
between May 2023 and May 2024
About the PPN Book Awards
Since the early 1970s, outstanding book design, production, and manufacturing have been recognized at the annual Book Awards. This year the judges have reduced the categories to two simple ones: Covers and Books.
The judges choose four as Best in Show for each category, and five to ten Winners. Awarded entries are announced in October, and all award recipients are showcased in this online gallery.
Criteria
- Craft/Execution: How expertly has the typography been employed? Illustration? Photography? Are the design elements used expressively?
- Innovation/Originality: Is the design fresh? At the forefront of current design thinking? In pace with emerging trends in book design strategy?
- Positioning: How clearly does the design signal the book’s category/genre?
- Engagement/Delight: Is the design eye-catching? Is it engaging? Does it draw the reader in? Does it linger in the mind afterward?
- Impact: How successfully do all these factors work together to produce an impactful book cover?
Debbie Berne
Debbie Berne has been a professional book designer since 2002 and has designed hundreds of books in genres across the board and for everyone from the Big 5, independent and academic presses, and self-publishing authors. Her favorite books to design are children’s picture books and cookbooks. In 2024 a book she both designed and wrote—The Design of Books: An Explainer for Authors, Editors, Agents, and Other Curious Readers—was published by University of Chicago Press. She lives with her family in Oakland, CA.
John D. Berry
John D. Berry is an editor, typographer, book designer, and design writer in Seattle. He has been president of ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale), editor of the design magazine U&lc, book designer for Copper Canyon Press, and program manager for the Fonts team at Microsoft. His books include Language Culture Type (2002), U&lc: Influencing Design & Typography (2005), and Hanging by a serif (2013). After thirty years of book and editorial design, as well as writing extensively about type and design, he has become a passionate advocate for effective text typography, both onscreen and off.
Stephen Brayda
Stephen Brayda is the Art Director for the HarperOne Group: HarperOne, HarperVia, Amistad, HarperEspañol, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Library of HarperCollins Publishers.
Nicole Caputo
Nicole Caputo is an award-winning New York designer and artist. Her studio was founded in 2001 in NYC, and is now surrounded by the wild beauty of the Catskill Mountains. She is VP, Creative Director of Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press and is co-founder of She Designs Books, an organization that celebrates women in book design. Her former role was VP, Creative Director at Hachette Book Group. Select awards include an ADC Silver Cube as well as recognition from AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers, Type Directors Club, and Communication Arts. The studio is proud to work with inspiring local businesses and organizations, such as the Phoenicia Diner and Catskill Mountain Shakespeare, along with several large and small publishers and independent authors.
Archie Ferguson
Archie Ferguson is the Art Director at Heyday Books, and was Art Director at HarperCollins, Pantheon, and Schocken Books, and Senior Designer at Alfred A. Knopf. Archie received a BFA from the School of Visual Arts. His design work has been recognized by AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers, Communication Arts Design Annual, Graphis Design Annual, PRINT Regional Design Annual, Type Directors Club, and collected by the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Myungee Kwon
Myunghee Kwon is a South Korean-born graphic designer based in New York specializing in book cover design. She currently works as a senior designer at Bloomsbury Publishing, designing book covers and jackets and art directing illustrators. Her work creates compelling visual experiences for books through typography and illustration. Myunghee’s designs have been recognized by Communication Arts, American Illustration, and IDA Design Awards. Additionally, her work has been featured in industry publications such as Spine Magazine, The Casual Optimist, and Lithub, and showcased in the Here </> There Exhibition by SIA & Today Art Museum. Myunghee earned her BFA from The Cooper Union in 2019.