We are excited to share the selected entries for the 2024 Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show with you. This year’s show features 81 entries as selected by George Kirkpatrick, Victor Mingovits, and Michel Vrana. Judging for this year’s Book, Jacket, and Journal Show took place at the AUPresses Central Office in New York City in January 2024. You can browse selections in each category below or read the full press release.
Books from the 2024 show were donated to the Book Cellar in New York City. Proceeds from the Book Cellar support the New York Public Library.
The 2024 AUPresses Traveling Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
The 2024 AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show has hit the road, traveling to the presses requesting that the show visit their campus, from September 2024 to June 2025. View the schedule.
2024 Selections by Category
Scholarly Typographic | 6 selections
Scholarly Illustrated | 8
Trade Typographic | 5
Trade Illustrated | 7
Poetry and Literature | 2
Journals | 0
Reference | 2
Jackets and Covers | 51
Member presses submitted 507 publications:
Scholarly Typographic | 36 entries
Scholarly Illustrated | 39
Trade Typographic | 31
Trade Illustrated | 50
Poetry and Literature | 13
Journals | 2
Reference | 7
Jackets and Covers | 329
The Jurors
George Kirkpatrick
books and journals. George Kirkpatrick is a book designer based on Isle Madame in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. During a decades-long freelance career he has designed hundreds of covers and interiors for university presses and academic publishers in Canada and the United States. A graduate of Trent University he studied publication design at the Banff Publishing Workshop and photography at Toronto Metropolitan University. While much of his practice is taken up with book cover design, he has always returned to text design and composition.
Victor Mingovits
books and journals. jackets and covers. Victor Mingovits is a book designer based in New York City, creating book covers and interiors for a wide variety of projects—from traditional trade titles to limited edition publications for cultural institutions. Victor received his Design MFA from University of Gothenburg. He worked at Mucca, art directing books for various publishing clients, including HarperCollins, Penguin Random, and Simon & Schuster. He also served as Senior Art Director for Motivate Books in Dubai. 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 the Association of University Presses.
Michel Vrana
jackets and covers. Michel Vrana’s love for publication design sparked during his studies in photography and printmaking at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto. His creative journey unfolded steadily: from crafting comics, graphic novels, and magazines to leading a successful design studio in Montreal for a decade. In 2009, Vrana charted a solo path focusing on book cover design, creating covers for numerous Canadian and American trade publishers and academic presses. His designs have garnered acclaim, earning a place in the prestigious Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show over several years. Continuing to push boundaries, in 2019, Vrana revitalized his comic book micro press, Black Eye Books, showcasing his unwavering dedication to the art of visual storytelling.
About the Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
The Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show honors excellence in design produced by its member presses. The show recognizes meritorious achievement in the design, production, and manufacture of books, jackets, covers, journals, and digital publications by members of the university press community. 2024 marks the 59th anniversary of this book show.
What you may notice first about the publications by AUPresses members is the wide variety of subjects, forms, and approaches to disseminating scholarship. This variety reflects the diversity of the members themselves. Some members are among the very largest scholarly publishers in the world while other presses are offices with small staffs and limited resources. It also reflects the variety of new forms and formats available to publishers including digital and print-on-demand technologies in addition to offset printing. The budgets for the publications themselves reflect the market needs of the individual project, the press’s resources at hand, and decisions a press makes about physical aspects of the publication. What unites these books, however, is something you cannot see. It is the fact that these publications have been subject to the rigorous standards of peer review.
The design and production aspects of these publications are also integral to the very mission of the Association. Excellent design contributes to a book or journal’s reception and its impact in the larger world.
In addition to recognizing excellent work, the AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show provides an evaluation of members’ work and serves as a focus of discussion and a source of ideas for intelligent, creative, and resourceful bookmaking. The 2024 show will include books published by AUPresses members in 2023 and jackets and covers of books published that year. Books may have been manufactured anywhere in the world, but imports, and copublications designed and produced by a with a foreign publisher, are not eligible.
Through the show, and its acclaimed annual catalog, the Association seeks to expand the conversation about the essential importance of good design in scholarly publishing.
Special thanks to the 2023–2024 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show Committee
David Zielonka, Stanford, Chair
Ashley Bernicky, Toronto
Alison Cobra, Calgary
Mark Lerner, Fordham
Lori Lynch, Alabama
Wendy McMillen, Notre Dame
Michelle van der Merwe, British Columbia
Isaac Morris, New Mexico
Lydia Osborne, Liverpool
Peter Perez, North Carolina
Kate Kolendo, Communications Program Manager, AUPresses
Trevor Nau, Administrative Coordinator, AUPresses