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Judging


We are pleased to announce Andrew Satake Blauvelt, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum, will serve as the chair of this year's competition! Jurors include, Ramon Tejada, Rob Giampietro, Renata Graw, and Xiaoqing Wang.

Despite the challenges facing the publishing industry, book design itself has been flourishing. As the 50 Books | 50 Covers competition approaches its centennial anniversary, the competition remains an important barometer for the field—gauging both the inventiveness and responsiveness of designers. —Andrew Satake Blauvelt

Jurors for this competition will evaluate each work’s integrated design approach, including concept, innovation and visual elements such as typography, illustration, and/or information design. To learn more about how the judges approach the competition, listen to Jessica Helfand on an episode of Monocle Weekly.

In recent decades, jurors have included Antonio Alcalá, Michael Bierut, Andrew Blauvelt, Michael Carabetta, Arthur Cherry, Laura Coombs, Richard Eckersley, Vanessa Eckstein, Barbara Glauber, Carin Goldberg, Hilary Greenbaum, Jessica Helfand, Maricris Herrera, Jerry Herring, David High, Yasuyo Iguchi, Brian Johnson, Chip Kidd, Lisa Lucas, Eric Madsen, Peter Mendelsund, Jennifer Morla, Lars Müller, Silas Munro, Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo, Molly Renda, Jill Shimabukuro, Lucille Tenazas, Kimberly Varella, Kelly Walters, Cheryl Towler Weese, Jack Woody, and many more.

Read what Michael Bierut had to say in the Design Week article, “‘Books remain stubbornly, thrillingly relevant’: the enduring value of book design” (January 2020), and The New Yorker, “Who Isn’t a Sucker for a Foldout?” (October 2020).

    Meet the Jurors!
     

    Andrew Satake Blauvelt, Director, Cranbrook Art Museum

    Andrew Satake Blauvelt is a designer, curator, historian, critic, and educator whose practice spans the fields of art and culture. Since 2015, he has served as Director of Cranbrook Art Museum in metropolitan Detroit leading the institution’s transformation into a vibrant and diverse cultural destination and community partner. Having studied and practiced graphic design, Blauvelt has expanded his practice to also include authoring historical research; curating major exhibitions on art, architecture, and design; editorial design for both print and online publishing; conceiving and managing strategic design initiatives; and writing theory and criticism about the field. Prior to Cranbrook, Blauvelt served in a variety of curatorial and administrative roles at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for 17 years, including as Design Director of its innovative design studio and as Chief of Audience Engagement and Communications overseeing pioneering experiments in community and civic engagement. In 2009, the Walker was the recipient of a National Design Award for Institutional and Corporate Achievement, the first museum and non-profit organization to receive the honor previously bestowed on such companies as Target, Nike, and Apple. And in 2022, Blauvelt was recognized by AIGA with the AIGA Medal for his vast work in the field of art and design in service of the public.

     

     

    Rob Giampietro, Creative Director

    Rob Giampietro is an independent Creative Director in New York. Until 2023, he worked at Google, where he co-founded Insight+Innovation, an multidisciplinary design team focused on long-term research for Google’s consumer ecosystem of products. Previous teams at Google included Material Design, Google AI/RMI, and Search & Assistant UX. Key projects included the first SPAN Design & Technology global conferences, an overhaul of the Google Fonts directory, and a Google-branded customization of Material Design system components. From 2018–2020, Rob was Director of Design at MoMA, re-imagining a holistic design system and visitor experience with in-house and agency creative teams across environmental, digital, and retail channels in support of the museum’s historic 2019 reopening. He has taught at RISD’s MFA Graphic Design program, served as VP of AIGA/NY, and worked as Advisor to the Aspen Ideas Festival. A graduate of Yale, Rob’s work has received recognition from MacDowell, the American Academy in Rome, and the National Design Awards for his work at Project Projects.

     

     

    Renata Graw, Founder, Normal

    Renata Graw is the founder and lead designer at Normal, a design studio in Chicago. Graw founded Normal with the belief that thoughtfully designed experiences can have a profound impact on how we interpret the world. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she received her BFA from the Pontifícia Universidade Catolica in Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RIO) and her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

     

     

    Ramon Tejada, Designer and Assistant Professor, Graphic Design Department, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

    Ramon Tejada (EDR) is a DominicanYork (of Dominican-America, Afro-Caribbean, and Latinx descent) designer and educator based in Providence, Rhode Island, and occasionally in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California*. He works in a hybrid design/teaching practice focusing on collaboration, inclusion, unearthing, and the responsible expansion of design, a practice he has named “puncturing.” His design practice focuses on elevating BIPOC voices. Ramon is an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Department at RISD.

    *Providence is the unceded lands of the Narragansett and Wampanoag peoples; Los Angeles is the unceded lands of the Tongva peoples and Palm Springs is the unceded lands of the Cahuilla peoples.

     

     

    Xiaoqing Wang, Art Director, Green Dragon Office

    Xiaoqing Wang is the Art Director at Green Dragon Office, where over the last 15 years, she and Lorraine Wild have collaborated on the design of nearly 70 publications as well as identity and exhibition designs for numerous cultural institutions. Past and current collaborators include Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Rice Architecture, Claremont McKenna College, Art Institute of Chicago, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Marian Goodman Gallery, among others. Their work has been recognized by AIGA, Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Museum Scholarship, and STA 100. Xiaoqing holds an MFA from CalArts in graphic design and teaches typography at Otis College of Art and Design.

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