4 September 2009

Cakes and lamingtons take out PANZ Book Design Awards 2009

The baking bible Ladies, A Platecontinued its success when it picked up the supreme Nielsen Award for Best Book at last night’s PANZ Book Design Awards. Designed by Alan Deare from Inhouse Design, it also won the Best Illustrated category of the awards. ‘It isn’t particularly flashy, nor particularly “designer”. It is just right, and a deserved winner,’ said Peter Gilderdale, the 2009 Convenor of Judges. He described Ladies, A Plateas a beautiful cookbook that also invites easy and continual use, and stressed that ‘the cover is a superb evocation of the tradition of home baking, yet . it turns the nostalgia crisp and contemporary’.

Also announced last night was the inaugural Awa Press Young Designer of the Year for a designer showing tremendous promise in the field of book design. Wellington‐based designer Spencer Levine was commended for his ‘striking facility with space, type and concept’ with five cover designs, which included the architecture book Long Live the Modernedited by Julia Gatley and Book Selfby poet and critic C.K. Stead. Young designers Carolyn Lewis and Keely O’Shannessy were highly commended in this category, with their selection of work boding well for the future of book design.

The other new category for 2009, the G.A. Pindar & Son Award for Best Typography, was won by Sarah Maxey for her work on a new edition of How to Look at a Paintingby Justin Paton. The award judges commented on how crucial good typography is to a book’s readability, yet how it is often unnoticed. Maxey’s work showed ‘a series of wonderful decisions’ that became apparent after a closer look.

The judges of this year’s awards – Peter Gilderdale, Guy Somerset and Graham Beattie – highlighted the high‐quality design in New Zealand publishing. The categories were hotly contested, and the judging was difficult. It emphasised, Gilderdale said, that New Zealand publishing is a ‘confident and talented industry with huge potential, and one that is well served by its designers. Long may it continue’

2009 Judges PANZ Book Design Awards

Peter Gilderdale (Convenor of Judges) is the Head of Graphic Design at AUT University. Guy Somerset is the arts and books editor of the NZ Listener and a regular reviewer on TVNZ 6’s ‘The Good Word’ programme.

Graham Beattie is the creator of Beattie’s Book Blog, and works as a fulltime book reviewer and book blogger.

Young Designer of the Year 2009 Judges

Sharon Grace is a freelance designer who has had numerous award nominations, winning the PANZ Book Design Award Best Typography award in 1999 and being a finalist in the Best Illustrated book category in 2007.

Nick Turzynski spent several years as Art Director for Hodder Moa Beckett (now Hachette NZ) and started his own design company, redinc. Book Design, in 2003. He has also won several design awards for his work.

Award winners

Nielsen Award for Best Book

Alan Deare, Inhouse Design for Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Bakingby Alexa Johnston (Penguin Group (NZ)) 

HarperCollins Publishers Award for Best Cover

Catherine Griffiths for A Short History of Photographyby Harvey Benge with Gerry Badger (Random House (NZ) Ltd)

Awa Press Young Designer of the Year

Spencer Levine for Long Live the Modernedited by Julia Gatley, Book Selfby C.K. Stead,Going Bushby Kirstie Ross, Settlersby Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn, Mrkusichby Alan Wright and Edward Hanfling (Auckland University Press) 

G.A. Pindar & Son Award for Best Typography

Sarah Maxey for How to Look at a Painting by Justin Paton (Awa Press)

Random House New Zealand Award for Best Illustrated Book

Alan Deare, Inhouse Design for Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Bakingby Alexa Johnston (Penguin Group (NZ))

Hachette New Zealand Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book

Katy Yiakmis for Diggers, Hatters and Whores: The Story of the New Zealand Gold Rushesby Stevan Eldred‐Grigg (Random House (NZ) Ltd)

Pearson Award for Best Educational Book

Marie Low and Esther Chua (interior), Marie Low (cover) for Saying What You See: How to Talk and Write About Artby Alison Annals, Abby Cunnane and Sam Cunnane (Pearson) 

Scholastic New Zealand Award for Best Children’s Book

Sarah Elworthy and Gavin Bishop for Piano Rock: A 1950s Childhoodby Gavin Bishop (Random House (NZ) Ltd)

ENDS

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