Selected an AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers competition winner, Doug Barrett’s design, a mix of type and an illustration of the sun, is the cover for Department of Art and Art History colleague Douglas Pierre Baulos’ book “Things shouldn’t be so hard.”A design by University of Alabama at Birmingham Associate Professor Doug Barrett has been recognized as one of the 50 best book covers for 2022-2023 by AIGA, the professional association for design.
With 487 entries from 27 countries, this year’s AIGA 50 Books | 50 Covers competition recognizes and showcases excellence in book design from around the world. The winners will be added to the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University’s Butler Library.
Barrett designed the cover for colleague Douglas Pierre Baulos’ book “Things shouldn’t be so hard.” Barrett teaches graphic design in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History, where Baulos is an associate professor of drawing.
“Things shouldn’t be so hard” is both a workbook and a catalog and provides immersive prompts and creative opportunities to explore the reader’s relationship with the natural world. An AIGA juror wrote of the book’s winning design, “A seemingly simple and elegant typographic illustration of the sun becomes more complex and intriguing upon closer inspection.”
When approached to design the book, Barrett said Baulos “basically handed me a stack of papers, artwork and imagery and said, ‘Here you go. You are in charge of the design.’”
“It isn’t often that a graphic designer can just design something without input from the client, but I think that was the magic part,” Barrett said. “As an artist themselves, Baulos understood that, if you get out of the way and let people practice what they are good at, you get a better outcome. I think we were both surprised at how well we were able to collaborate and the quality of the final outcome.”
Baulos regularly teaches workshops and lectures on their research in drawing, installation and visual ecology. Their works and writings have been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally. Their current works are visual explorations and poetic meditations centering on their ideas of spirituality, love, death, shelter and hope. “Things shouldn’t be so hard” is funded by the Verdant Fund and the Andy Warhol Foundation.
“Baulos’ work is so rich and varied, making the design of the book much easier. I just took visual cues from Doug’s aesthetic, and it all came together,” Barrett said. “The cover is a mix of typography and a chart they created. Both the type and the chart feel very symbolic; I think that might be why the cover feels very authentic — certainly the judges at the AIGA felt the same.”
Founded in New York City in 1914 as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA has evolved into a nationwide network of professional designers, educators, students and design enthusiasts.
Since its inception in 1923 as the Fifty Books of the Year competition, this annual event highlights AIGA’s continued commitment to uplifting, powerful and compelling design in a familiar format everyone knows and loves. This collection of award-winning design marks the end of the first century of this time-honored competition.
It is exciting that two UAB faculty members will be added to the archive at one time, especially during this anniversary year, Barrett says.