Best Book Covers of 2022 Announced

"a sense of foreboding for this darkly comic novel"- 2 A.M. in Little America

The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)¹ has announced the results of the AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers of 2022 competition. With 487 book and cover design entries from 27 countries, this year’s competition recognizes and showcases excellence in book design from around the world.²

_2am in Litte America_ designed by Mary Austin Speaker is 2022 winner

I wanted to create a sense of foreboding for this darkly comic novel, so I turned to Kramer O'Neill's super-granular black-and-white photography, and created a collage with vectors—featuring part of the Target logo— a key plot point is that something terrible happened at a Target in the US, and that's why the young people fled. I offered some texture to the composition with a vintage stippling example from the turn of the century and positioned the building at a severe perspective and low in the frame in a nod to Ed Ruscha's Standard Station silkscreen print from 1966.—Mary Austin Speaker.

50 Books 50 Covers Gallery

Click here to see the Gallery of the 50 covers.

AIGA Collection at the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library at Columbia’s Butler Library

The 2022 winning selections will become part of the AIGA collection at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University’s Butler Library in the city of New York.

1. The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity.

2. Press Release, July 5, 2023. Since its inception in 1923 as the Fifty Books of the Year competition, this annual event highlights AIGA’s continued commitment to uplifting powerful and compelling design in a familiar format we know and love. As book jackets became more prevalent, the competition evolved with the field to acknowledge excellence in cover design. Beginning in 1995, the competition became known as 50 Books | 50 Covers.