Six Great Book Covers and the Stories Behind Them

Insights from the winners of this year’s 50 Books 50 Covers competition.
Curiousbrand Team
April 19, 2023

A book cover has a challenging job. Not only must it represent the depth of knowledge between its pages, but it must also stand on its own as a form of storytelling. Though a book is certainly more than its cover, the best covers can draw readers in with images and text alone. They can pique interest, hint at what’s to come, and communicate, at a glance, whether a book is worth picking up. The books chosen as the winners of the year’s 50 Books 50 Covers competition accomplish all of that, but no two look the same. We asked six of the winners to tell us the story behind their cover designs—here’s what they had to say.

Jon Key and Wael Morcos, Morcos Key | Black Futures

Insights from the winners of this year’s 50 Books 50 Covers competition

“This goes back three years ago now, when Kimberly Drew reached out to me. She called me and she was a big fan of The Tenth magazine, which was one of our big editorial projects at the time. And she said, ‘This is very cool; it’s like art or an object, and we want our book to be an object that will beautiful, but also of the culture, of the time, and something that people can read and enjoy...

Read more: @eyeondesign