Book design – already looking to evolve within the digital landscape – is also seeing a renaissance at a time when physical objects mean more than ever. Here, Creative Director at Faber & Faber and the Jury President for Book Design, talks to Donal Keenan, Director of Awards & Operations at D&AD, about what has changed in book design this year.

“Last year it was very much about art books and high production values, it felt very serious. It was nice to see how much humour came through and some of the concepts in the work this year,” says Payne of the judging process. “It felt more international and pushed the boundaries conceptually and it was just a real pleasure.”

Work that stood out this time was the re-issue of John le Carré’s early works by Penguin Books and the Yellow Pencil-winning history of botanical illustration Jia Hui by Nanjing Han Qing Tang Design and Phoenix Science Press. “Every turn of the page was a delight and it took what could have been a dry, serious subject, which was the history of botanical art, and turned it into something fresh and original,” says Payne.

It was The Gun Violence History Book by FCB Chicago for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence however, that won the first Black Pencil in book design in 40 years. The ‘book that stopped a bullet’ is huge, weighty and shot through with a bullet, and as a document of gun violence in America it carries a powerful message.

“It’s literally called the “book that stopped a bullet”, and even though the content was very strong on that title there was definitely something about the physicality of it. It couldn’t have been anything other than a book and that made it quite outstanding in its category,” says Payne.

The conversation also covers digital-only publishing in a pandemic and how that will inform the future of the category and the future of book design.