News & Developments

Cakes and lamingtons take out PANZ Book Design Awards 2009

10 Sep 2009

The baking bible Ladies, A Plate continued 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 Plate as 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 Modern edited by Julia
Gatley and Book Self by 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 Painting by 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.'
Award winners
Nielsen Award for Best Book
Alan Deare, Inhouse Design for Ladies, A Plate: Traditional Home Baking by Alexa Johnston
(Penguin Group (NZ))
HarperCollins Publishers Award for Best Cover
Catherine Griffiths for A Short History of Photography by Harvey Benge with Gerry Badger
(Random House (NZ) Ltd)
Awa Press Young Designer of the Year
Spencer Levine for Long Live the Modern edited by Julia Gatley, Book Self by C.K. Stead,
Going Bush by Kirstie Ross, Settlers by Jock Phillips and Terry Hearn, Mrkusich by 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 Baking by 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 Rushes by
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 Art by 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 Childhood by Gavin Bishop (Random
House (NZ) Ltd)

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.

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