Five top designers choose the books that wowed them

Sweet Affliction
(Invisible Publishing)
by Anna Leventhal
Designed by Megan Fildes

“Dark” is tricky to do on a cover, because it’s an inherently uninviting trait that tends to recede into the background on a shelf or a table full of flashier competitors. But in this case, the acid yellow demands attention, the handmade type is successfully skewed, and the raindrops provide an unexpected source of light. I was pulled in by the simple play of positive and negative space, and rewarded when I noticed the cityscape and sky had been flipped again on the back of the book. Extra credit is given when the design for a book of short fiction extends beyond the plot of the title story to represent the collection as a whole. – Natalie Olsen