InterVarsity Press (IVP) is pleased to congratulate art director, David Fassett, for his cover design of Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric?, which was selected for the 2020 Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show.

“It is an honor, as a first-year affiliate member of AUP, to receive a cover award from among such a prestigious collection of university press designs,” said Lorraine Caulton, director of creative and customer engagement at IVP.

Jon Boyd, editorial director for IVP Academic, said, “Year after year, the show has consistently made our jaws drop in admiration for the beautiful and thoughtful work created by our counterparts at university presses around the world. Truly some of the coolest book design done anywhere in publishing happens among the academics. To be included in the 2020 show is definitely a ‘bucket list’ moment for IVP Academic.”

Now in its fifty-fifth year, the AUP show honors the university publishing community’s design and production professionals. It recognizes achievement in design, production, and manufacture of books, jackets, covers, and journals, and also serves as a focus of discussion and a source of ideas for intelligent, creative, and resourceful publishing. Open to AUPresses member publishers worldwide, this year’s competition attracted more than 650 submissions.

AUP judges selected the top forty jackets and covers from 419 entries. Boyd said, “The cover for Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric? happened to go through an unusually challenging design and review process. (Let's just say that some earlier alternatives featured quite a bit of blood.) One day after we got stuck as a team, David went back to the drawing board and came up with an entirely new concept, the basis of this final design. We loved it right away—and I'm glad the AUPresses design show team seems to have too.”

Fassett joined InterVarsity Press (IVP) as a marketing designer in 2009 and was promoted to senior graphic designer in 2014. He was appointed to the position of art director in May 2017. Fassett’s other award-winning book covers include: 

• Death Before the Fall: Biblical Literalism and the Problem of Animal Suffering
• The Decalogue: Living as the People of God
• Recapturing the Wonder: Transcendent Faith in a Disenchanted World
• Introduction to Political Science: A Christian Perspective
• Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering
• The Radical Pursuit of Rest: Escaping the Productivity Trap
• Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age
• After the Trip: Unpacking Your Crosscultural Experience
• Developing Clinicians of Character: A Christian Integrative Approach to Clinical Supervision

“The whole IVP team always works so hard on the insides of our books that we're extra pleased how our art director, David Fassett, and his team makes the outsides look so great too,” Boyd said. “Bill Webb and Gord Oeste, the authors of Bloody, Brutal and Barbaric?, poured themselves into this manuscript for years. I think it's fitting David designed so expressive and evocative a cover to complement their words. Our congrats not only to David as the designer but also to Ben McCoy and his production team who really delivered on this design.”

To see the complete collection of selected AUP jacket and cover selections visit design.up.hcommons.org.