Jack Smyth

I'm still recovering from the surprise of winning the award for Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards on Monday evening. The shortlist was full of brilliant designers, all of whom do work I really admire. I was certain that one of my peers would win, which led to zero speech prep until about 4 minutes before the award, so apologies to anyone who heard my shonky mumbling into the mic on the night. Huge thanks must go to Donna Payne and @gray.318 for making this award happen, and to Danny Arter for championing design at the Bookseller. Thanks to the @a.b.cover.d and @beckychilcott for building a thriving book cover design community. The awards were a reminder of how integral book cover design is within publishing, and its a good reminder to us to celebrate it whenever we can. Thanks to all the designers, art directors, editors and authors who work with me. x . . . #nibbies

Cover for My Lover, The Rabbi by @wayne.koestenbaum out today on @grantabooks . AD: @wasley.sarah Title type is the exquisite Caslon Ionic by @commercialtype

Cover for The Fountain by Casey Scieszka, out today on Harper (US). Art Direction by @joannemoneill

Last year I had the pleasure of designing the cover of the most recent LP ‘Spots’ by German duo Joasihno. I worked closely with band member @cicobeck to create the cover, which attempts to use typography to celebrate the physical medium and to prompt the viewer to experience the cover both up close and from further away. At close range, one might see an abstract array of 79 hand cut spots, some of which house a letter of the band name. When seen from a distance however, the spots reveal the album title but the smaller band name is likely to be unreadable from this far away. I wanted to play with the physical medium of the album cover, that it may give you one thing (the band name) if you’re holding it in your hands, but it may show you the album title if you were to see it with enough distance from across a record store. But you can never really focus on both pieces of typographic information, so you must physically move your vantage point in order to read one or the other. The cover invites the viewer to interact with the LP in physical space and to experience the different outcomes that may come doing so. It also reads from some angles! (see image 4). Huge thanks to Cico and @joasihno for working with me on this!

Belated but grateful. Thank you @matt.dorfman for including @aaknopf @marcybdermansky ’s 🥵 novel HOT AIR in the @nytimes best book covers of 2025! It’s quite an honor to be considered and in such great company.

Thanks to @matt.dorfman for including the cover for Harbour Doubts by @poempoet and published by @bansheepress on this @nytimes list! I'm honoured to be amongst such excellent company in this selection and thanks to Matt for his generous description of the cover. Thanks to @brianjcampion for the snaps.

Illustration for the cover and internal spread for The New York Times Book Review, online now and published on Sunday last. The article is 100 Notable Books of 2025, and was steered to completion including online animation by the amazing Art Directors Matt Dorfman and Tonya Douraghy. Huge thanks to them both for working with me on this! @nytbooks @nytimes @matt.dorfman @tonyadouraghy

Illustration for Ben Yagoda's piece in The New Yorker, entitled 'The Autocrat of English Usage's. In this week's print edition and online. Type is Pitch by Klim Type Foundry. Huge thanks to Art Director @supriyakalidas @newyorkermag @newyorkerart

New cover for Sound System by Dave Randall, out now on @plutopress Art Director: @melaniespatrick

I'm honoured to be one of 100 illustrators to contribute a '100' spot illustration to this poster, celebrating 100 years of The New Yorker. It is humbling to be featured amongst so many people whose work I admire, and it is still unbelievable to me that I get to work for such incredible people at The New Yorker, a publication that I have always loved. A huge thank you to @supriyakalidas @v.ctorguan @nblechman for commissioning me from time to time. It's always a surprise and a joy to receive an email from you! Swipe to see my little illo. @newyorkerart @newyorkermag

Thanks the Art Director @supriyakalidas for sending me the print edition of this one. Illustration for Adam Gopnik's essay 'Was the Renaissance Real?' for The New Yorker.

Cover for Swallows by Natsuo Kirino, out now on Canongate. Art Director: @rafiromaya @canongate_art @canongatebooks