The subscription model did not take hold, and later editions in the series were published in more traditional form and sold as individual works to the general public.

These reprints included such works as Exiles and Stephen Hero by James Joyce and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[5] After the time of World War II, New Directions developed a close relationship with the artist Alvin Lustig, who designed modernist abstract book jackets.

Lustig was ultimately responsible for developing a distinctive style of dust jacket that served as a New Directions hallmark for many years.

The company's colophon is a figure of a centaur based upon a sculpture by Heinz Henghes, and usually appears on the spine of New Directions books.

[6] New Directions also publishes a selection of academic reading guides to accompany a number of their books, including Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha and The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams.