University Press Coverage, January 2026
Welcome to our University Press Coverage — better known as the Uni-Press Round-Up on the right side of the Pond — a monthly feature in which we highlight a selection of just-published university and academic cover designs, with commentary. Please enjoy this celebration of amazing work.
The selections are in alphabetical order by press. Where possible, credits are listed in the captions (often with links to the designers’ other work), and each cover includes a link to the university’s official page for that title.
As with all cover designs we feature, we encourage you to head to your local library, college or university library, or bookstore to view the works in their full splendor.
The innovations the Portuguese brought to early Atlantic trade cannot be ignored — but those came with a huge price: an expansion of slavery heretofore unimagined.
The book is more about the exploration of the Atlantic, the blue-water sailing, and that’s reflected in the cover design; on the one hand, there’s the art and maps, while on the other, there’s the fact that “sails” and “shadows” are visually and literally intertwined.
Not an easy needle to thread, done here very well indeed.
“Graffiti on the hallowed halls” as a metaphor. Works for me.
Bonus points for the excellent border treatment here, with several elements just crossing that line.
“Infusing both joy and protest,” the description says. The cover agrees.
Also, third in a row with a prominent yellow, a trend that works even for the grouchy and anti-trendy among us. (Ahem.)
From the designer: “That photo was preferred by Frank X Walker, so it was great that it was chosen. I wanted to reference the past and visually draw the eye in to him—especially since his eyes are closed and he’s appearing to silence with his finger. Hence the mash-up of the type circling the old frame holding the image.”
Walker is the first Black person to be Poet Laureate of Kentucky and coined the term, “Affrilachia.”
University of Notre Dame Press.
A 2017 title of 1930s writings, now in paperback, argues that capitalism isn’t the only answer — that there’s something that can compliment, even flourish, alongside.
From a design perspective, the guy making the argument and its subject are shown with a flourish of their own; timeless arguments in favor of farming — providing — deserve something just as timeless. And get it.
The picture alone conveys the point, one could argue, but here cover as a whole shows an “understanding of value and visibility” using an historical, appropriate approach that’s both visually interesting and respectful.
New York University Press. Cover design and art direction by Rachel Perkins.
This works on several levels: the flag, askew; the “stars”; the “people of all stripes"; and, of course, the cross, creeping in and making itself known. Awesome.
Oxford University Press.
Retro in style and simultaneously completely current, drawing the potential reader’s attention in a compelling way.
It’s interesting to note that the crossed off structures, then tenements, probably today contain multi-million-dollar apartments — the complete opposite of “affordable" — a reflection, perhaps, of the diversion between Simkhovitch’s co-authorship of “the 1937 [...] legislation to establish the federal government's responsibility to help provide low-income families with housing” and current … priorities.
(Not that I editorialize or anything.)
Oxford University Press.
Fifteen men attempt to decide the fate of eleven million. Some road.
(Brilliant cover, by the way: stark, illustrative, rough and ripped yet composed, and appropriately black, white, and … red.)
Parenthetically, it’s difficult to get the correct publication dates for Oxford titles. Their website lists both a publication date and a shipping date. Then there’s Amazon (UK), who often lists a completely different date (often by months). To add confusion, their site knows I’m inquiring from the States, which may generate different dates.
For the purposes of this column, I’ve chosen to use the shipping date — arguing that if you can buy it, it’s been published. (If anybody in the know would like to share….)
It’s for this reason that Disco! only gets an honorable mention; it lost eligibility due to the listed date of October, 2025.
University of Regina Press.
Children and corporal punishment are difficult things to put together into a sentence, let alone a book cover design — here handled with exceptional grace and style.
(Continuing our “yellow” theme this month.)
A wonderful furtherance of Asakusa Kinryuzan Pagoda by Moonlight, inked in 1938 by Tsuchiya Kōitsu; the building pictured was destroyed during WWII but has since been rebuilt and, like the cover, speaks to the larger drive with eloquence, depth, and tranquility.
A fantastically simple illustration … or is it? A subject “bound to be messy,” bound together with brilliance. (And great lettering.)
More than a little reminiscent of Small States in a Shifting International Order, highlighted in November, in that it’s both black-and-white and anything but.
Read more about this title, or a Communication Arts article on the designer.
Yale University Press.
“Vesuvius Adornos Neapolitan Coast,” no actual thinker ever said.
Seriously, this 2024 title, now in paperback, does thinkers justice with artwork that’s both as porous as the landscape and erupting with style: Italian flair with just the right dose of Frankfurt.
Yale University Press.
“The Woman in the Other Mirror,” to deliberately mis-quote the song — yet not by too much. A marked departure from the other titles in this month’s round-up, yet deserving of every compliment.
Are you a book cover creative, art director, or publicist? If you want your work, or the work of your press, to be reviewed be sure to get in touch with us.
Please include the cover designer’s name, the art director’s name, any additional details like illustrator or photography credits, and the publication date. (Yet-to-be-published titles are welcome, with embargo dates if applicable.) Images should measure 1200-1500px on the long side, preferably in JPG format and the sRGB color space.
We look forward to featuring your work soon!
A freelance designer and photographer, Giles has been writing about book design for nearly thirty years. During his spare time, he walks, explores architecture, and enjoys music on a great stereo. He lives in Middle Georgia with a dog and cat.