For Immediate Release – November 5, 2019

ECPA announces the best Christian book and Bible designs of 2019

A record number of 23 titles awarded the Top Shelf Award for design excellence

Winning designs include 19 books and four Bible projects

November 5, 2019, Nashville, Tenn. – ECPA announced the winners of the 2019 Top Shelf Book Cover Award today at Lipscomb University during the opening session of ECPA PubU, featuring Andrew Peterson who gave a keynote on “The Mystery of Making: Our Call to Creativity as Christian Publishers.” Nashville-based artist Wayne Brezinka helped announce the winning covers among 200 Christian publishing professionals gathered for the event — including industry designers and art directors attending the PubU design track.

From a record number of entries submitted by one of the broadest array of participating publishers, judges chose the highest number of winning covers — 19 books and four Bibles — to represent the year’s best designs. The 19 winning book designs included fiction, nonfiction, juvenile, Bible reference, a book series, devotional, and Christmas title. Each of the four winning Bibles were ESV projects produced by Crossway.

“The Top Shelf Book Cover Award program has become the industry standard for celebrating excellent cover designs that tell the stories of the books inside,” said ECPA president Stan Jantz. “ECPA is indebted to the publishers and their artists who design, produce and submit the covers to Top Shelf, as well as the expert judges who curate the industry’s best. Congratulations to all the winners!”

The 23 winners of the 2019 Top Shelf Book Cover Award are:

Title: 7 Myths About Singleness
Author: Sam Allberry
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Micah Lanier

Title: Bible Infographics for Kids, Volume 2
Author & Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Designers: Kyler & Nicole Doughtery, Art Directors
Illustrator: Brian Hurst

Title: Blindspots
Authors: Tim Riddle and Fil Anderson
Publisher: New Growth Press
Designer: Tim Green, Faceout Studio
Creative direction: New Growth Press

Title: Born to Wander
Author: Michelle Van Loon
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Designer: Connie Gabbert

Title: Confronting Christianity
Author: Rebecca McLaughlin
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Josh Dennis

Title: ESV Gospels, Reader’s Set
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Jordan Singer

Title: ESV Illuminated Scripture Journal: New Testament Set
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Dana Tanamachi

Title: ESV Prayer Bible
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Peter Voth

Title: ESV Story of Redemption Bible
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Peter Voth

Title: Eternity Is Now In Session
Author: John Ortberg
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Designer: Jen Phelps
Art Director: Dean Renninger

Title: Flourish
Author: Lydia Brownback
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Connie Gabbert

Title: Labor with Hope
Authors: Gloria Furman with Jesse Scheumann
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Crystal Courtney

Title: Love Came Down at Christmas
Author: Sinclair B. Ferguson
Publisher: The Good Book Company
Designer: André Parker

Title: MORE> Series
Authors:
MORE> Direction, Ayo and Ruth Afolabi
MORE> Distinct, Calvin Samuel
MORE> Real, Jon Brown
MORE> Truth, Kristi Mair
Publisher: IVP UK
Designer: Edward Bettison
Art Director: Mark Read

Title: Practicing the Present
Author: John Koessler
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Designer: Erik M. Peterson

Title: Remember Death
Author: Matthew McCullough
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Josh Dennis

Title: Romans Disarmed
Authors: Sylvia C. Keesmaat and Brian J. Walsh
Publisher: Brazos Press/ Baker Publishing Group
Designer: David Carlson, Studio Gearbox
Art Direction: Paula Gibson

Title: Running from Mercy
Author: Anthony J. Carter
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Designer: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studio
Art Direction: Susan Browne

Title: The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages
Authors: Marcus Warner and Chris M. Coursey
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Designer: Spencer Fuller, Faceout Studio

Title: The Inn at Hidden Run
Author: Olivia Newport
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Designer: Tim Green, Faceout Studio

Title: The Seamstress
Author: Allison Pittman
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Designer: Jen Phelps
Art Director: Dean Renninger
Illustrator: Jonathan Phelps

Title: Un Año en la Biblia
Author: B&H Español Editorial Staff
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Designer: Ligia Teodosiu
Art Direction: Heidi Smith

Title: Untangling Emotions
Authors: J. Alasdair Groves and Winston T. Smith
Publisher: Crossway
Designer: Micah Lanier

Each year, esteemed designers and creative directors in the publishing industry are invited to serve as judges. Judges volunteer their time and expertise to review and score each design without knowing the publisher or designer. (If a judge was involved in a book project, that title is removed from their review.) This year’s judges were:

Dana Tanamachi, lettering artist and designer
Jason Ramirez, award-winning designer and art director with Viking and Penguin Books
Richard Ljoenes, designer and art director based in New York City

Covers are featured at TopShelfAward.org/winners.html. Click on each cover to review comments made by judges and designers. Program information, including judge bios and future submission information, can be found at TopShelfAward.com.

Winning book covers, along with judge comments, are also featured in a four-color print Annual designed by Faceout Studio and printed by Color House Graphics for distribution to the industry. Contact ECPA for copies.

The submission period for the 2020 Top Shelf Award program opens January 1, 2020 and closes August 31, 2020 for books published June 2019 to August 2020.

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The ECPA Top Shelf Award program is managed by the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) in order to recognize design excellence in the Christian publishing industry. The membership of ECPA is made up of Christian publishers and companies providing services to the Christian publishing industry. Since 1974, ECPA has strengthened Christian publishing by building Networking, Information, and Advocacy opportunities within the industry and across multiple channels so that our members can more effectively produce and deliver transformational Christian content. Through programs, events, communications, recognition and research, ECPA strengthens publishing communities within the industry. The ECPA Design E-Community, PubU Design training sessions, and Top Shelf Awards are among several ECPA-driven opportunities that designers have to network, stay informed, and be recognized within the industry. For more information on ECPA programs and membership, visit ECPA.org or contact us at info@ecpa.org.

Media contact: Stan Jantz, President and CEO, ECPA, 480-966-3998 sjantz@ecpa.org

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