Book Design Awards Pindar Award for Best Typography: Art at Te Papa
Designers: Grant Sutherland, Mission Hall (interior), Robyn Sivewright, fineline (typesetting), Neil Pardington (cover)
Pindar Award for Best Typography: PANZ Book Design Awards 2010
JUDGES’ COMMENTS
The typography and non-illustrated book categories tend to overlap. However, since our choices in non-illustrated acknowledged several highly typographic books, we decided to look beyond these ‘pure’ books,and recognise the strongest type across all categories.
Wine Class is a book that would stereotypically be illustrated. In fact, apart from stylised wine spills,it achieves its effects through type and a clever use of two colours. With a slab typeface and generous leading, the text sits lightly on the page, and the wide outside margins allow for readings and extra information panels to break out of the grid and create a dynamic balance throughout. Its open, clean and modern design delivers a thoroughly stylish book.
A Treasury of New Zealand Baking also uses type effectively – in this case the combination of two serif typefaces is so perfectly fused that it almost makes cooking look easy. Generous leading and the beautiful weighting of the typographic elements allow the type to counterpoint the very rich photographs, and the purely typographic ‘essentials’ pages are elegant in the extreme.
This attention to the typographic details and balance in the ‘boring bits’, like notes and index pages, is particularly evident in the winning design, Art at Te Papa. The beautifully weighted serif typeface used throughout the headings and body text is both perfectly round and ... pointy. The captions are discreet and easy to read, while the flush-left columns are distinct and decorative on the white page. The sans serif cover type evokes the Te Papa identity, but is in keeping with the serif type in the rest of the book. Overall, the leading, weight, grid and type selection are perfect (and thus invisible). Readers will simply be aware of it being an enticing and elegant design, but it is also a consummate piece of typography.
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Kate Barraclough for A Traesury of New Zealand Baking edited by Lauraine Jacobs
Kate Barraclough for Wine Class by Jo Burzynska
DESIGNERS’ COMMENTS
We chose an elegant, well-weighted and legible serif font for the main body narrative, and contrasted this with a clean, simple sans serif for accompanying informational text. Setting up layout rules for text block position in relation to the wide range of spreads was the key to generating good visual balance and consistency. (Sutherland)
The making of this book was a balance between maintaining the integrity of the overall design, while incorporating the detail of the manuscript. (Sivewright)
TITLE Art at Te Papa edited by William McAloon
PUBLISHER Te Papa Press
FORMAT 315mm x 250mm, 440pp, flexibind with flaps
