Graphics is a winner

What a night in Auckland. The judges blew us away with comments like
The school graphics curriculum risks coming across as bone-chilling boring - but not in Year 9 Graphics. Logical, unfussy and economical, its layout and illustrations maintain an accessible feeling that is at once serious and stimulating. A student would not be put off the course when looking through this. It exemplifies the design qualities an educational book should have, being clear, informative and consistent, and is thus a worthy winner.
A huge thank you to Cengage for allowing us this opportunity and the author Paul Bourdot for creating such great material to work with - oh, and the judges. Fancy picking our book, thanks heaps.

The Wonky Donkey also gained a Highly Commended. Losing out for the big prize to another Scholastic title Old Hu Hu. Congrats to Michael Greenfield for designing such a wonderful book.
Here's what that judges had to say about the Wonky Donkey,  The Wonky Donkey, with words and music by Craig Smith and illustrations by Katz Cowley, has been something of a publishing phenomenon, with New Zealand sales already exceeding 30,000 copies and US and Australian editions about to be published. Reading the book, hearing the song and observing the hilarious illustrations supported by loud and quirky typography, it is easy to understand the title's commercial success.

Finally a blog post

My name is Trisha and I was employed at Book Design in April 2010 as Administration Manager. For the last 2 months I have managed to avoid completing my fortnightly blog - using excuses like, "I am not creative, sorry forgot, too busy, can't make administration a interesting subject to anyone except another administrator or just keeping quiet when nobody reminded me" but those excuses are no longer valid and you will be hearing from me every 2nd Friday (bosses orders)!

It has been a real change of environment for me working in a very small team, working from a home office and of course the whole field of book designing. One of my hobbies has always been reading with my favourite series at the moment "Titles" by J. D. Robb but like most people have not given alot of thought to how books are produced! Well that has changed now and am loving learning more about the industry - especially the children's books we help produce. As a grandmother of 3 girls aged between 2 and 10 am taking a stronger interest in purchasing books for them.

Well that's it for my 1st posting - hope it wasn't too painful for you. Am thinking that for my postings it might be fun to include a book review of anything that has taken my fancy.

A variety of cover choices

Here are some concepts Anita's come up with for a novel, none of them are the final one, but we'd love to hear what you like.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

Dr. Seuss

Presents!

Wow, its been a while since I've blogged... We've been quite busy here at Book Design but I couldn't miss this opportunity to show off the new screen and tablet I have been upgraded to!



I am flying out to Summery Chicago at the end of the week but Kim says she will look after my new tablet! I just hope she gives it back to me when I come back :)

It just keeps getting better

I know I sound like I'm pushing our own barrow a bit at the moment. But it's been a really amazing week and really as a Book Designer, things just don't get much better than this.

There's the two shortlisted titles in the PANZ Book Design Awards and now I've just read the Booksellers Bestsellers List for 01/05/2010 and we've designed 3 books of the 10 books listed in this weeks top sellers.

Go Wonky Donkey, Friends of Snake and Lizard and the redesigned Little Yellow Digger.

TWICE shortlisted for the PANZ Book Design awards

Oh it's so exciting ... Anita has made the shortlist with her fantastic design for Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith and illustrations by Katz Cowley, published by Scholastic. This is an example where good design is subtle and doesn't always get noticed. She spent hours putting in textured backgrounds behind Katz's wonderful drawings to capture the country/earthy feel. With emphasis on the right words within the text it all helps this story to romp along to the beat.

Peter was the designer for our second title.  Year 9 Graphics - A course of work by Paul Bourdot. Published by Nelson Cengage Learning and New House. It's in the educational section where we gained a High Commended Award last year for Excellence in Biology III (also published by Cengage). The colours in this title are very non-intrusive and the pencil character is from Peter's own hand - the A5 booklet ties in nicely with the A3 worksheet pad. Plus there's an interactive CD.

We're busily ordering the other shortlisted books from the library at the moment as this is such a win-win situation. It's great to sit down and appreciate other well designed books and to see other designers work. All the best to everyone shortlisted.

So now we get to sit tight and wait to see what happens at the awards ceremony in Auckland on the 22 July. 

You can check out more about the awards at http://bpanz.org.nz/?p=334

A goodbye to old friends

Now we're over the shock of Peter and Diane leaving it seems like a good time to post this tribute to their time with us.

By the sounds of things the new jobs are going well.

Anita, Maria and I wish you both all the best.

... and next. Well as they say a change is as good as a holiday. So we upturned the office and shifted it all around before our newbies joined the team.

Now I just need to get our newbies (Trisha and Julian) to stand still long enough to take photo. It will happen within the next week, (although that's a positive story for how well things are going!)