Spirits in Bondage Wins 2020 Top Shelf Book Cover Award

Today, the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) announced the winners of the 2020 Top Shelf Book Awards. We’re proud to share that Spirits in Bondage was selected as a winner for design excellence! The cover was designed by Micah Ellis, with art direction by Brittany Schrock.

Here are the judges comments:

The vintage engraving of the skull mixed with the foliage was stunning. It felt appropriate for a C.S. Lewis book without being fussy or grandiose or faux historical. The color palette walked the tension of feeling somber but also beautiful and engaging; it almost is the color of a foggy morning. It has a mystery that drew each of us to it.

—Matt Lehman, specializing in branding, illustration, and art direction

And here are some comments about the design process from Ellis:

This was the first book C. S. Lewis published. He was not yet a Christian and was writing on the heels of World War I. In his poems, he sees life, with its beauty and sense of longing, always ending in death and decay. To depict that tension, I paired the beautiful florals with a skull. Later, as a follower of Christ, Lewis would write, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.

Spirits in Bondage is the second Lexham Press title to win a Top Shelf Book Cover Award. Finding God in the Margins won the award in 2018.

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. Covers are judged by top designers in the industry for their merits in appropriateness for the market, level of conceptual thinking, and quality of execution. See all the winners and other program information at TopShelfAward.com.