Book Design in the Age of Slop

The threat of generative AI presents only the most recent of a slew of challenges to the book designer in the digital age. It has been almost 2 decades since the first Kindle was released, and despite initial promises that the book was "dead" as we know it, the publishing industry has survived, adapted and even thrived through technological change. So what role does the book designer have to play in this new landscape of algorithms, automation and robot “art”?

Join award-winning book designers Kevin Barrett Kane and Emma Christine Hall of Benson & Benson and the Contemporary Book Design Workshop for an earnest discussion about the role of book design in the age of algorithms. Looking back to another such cataclysmic technological revolution from the 16th century and the over 400 years of book design history since, this talk provides a hopeful perspective on the importance of specialization in the face of mass generalization in design and an urgent call for the education of future designers in analog-informed methodology. The imperative for working designers to weigh both past and future when solving design problems has never been more urgent.

About Kevin Barrett Kane & Emma Christine Hall

Kevin Barrett Kane is an award-winning designer and educator. He is the cofounder of Benson & Benson, a book design and branding studio dedicated to the craft of print media.  He has designed books and typography for the University of California Press, Chronicle Books, Penguin Random House, Haymarket Books, and many more. He teaches design practice, theory, and philosophy at Letterform Archive, Stanford University, the San Francisco Center for the Book, and more. In 2025, he launched Contemporary Book Design, an online book design education platform for the next generation of bookmakers.

Emma Christine Hall is a book designer, art director, and design educator. She is the cofounder of Benson & Benson and is a senior designer at Penguin Random House. She specializes in high-complexity layouts and photo and illustration programs. She lives in Colorado with her husband and fellow book designer Kevin Barrett Kane. Together they teach the Contemporary Book Design Workshop.