Australian Book Design Awards 2020 longlists announced

The longlists for the 2020 Australian Book Design Awards have been announced.

Longlisted titles in some of the categories are:

Best Designed Commercial Fiction Cover

• Bruny (Heather Rose, A&U), designed by Sandy Cull
• Going Under (Sonia Henry, A&U), designed by Luke Causby, Blue Cork
• How to be Second Best (Jessica Dettmann, HarperCollins) designed by Hazel Lam
• Shepherd (Catherine Jinks, Text) designed by Jessica Horrocks
• The Nancys (R W R McDonald, A&U) designed by Alissa Dinallo
• The Sea and Us (Catherine de Saint Phalle, Transit Lounge) designed by Josh Durham, Design by Committee
• The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone (Felicity McLean, Fourth Estate) designed by Mark Campbell
• The White Girl (Tony Birch, UQP) designed by Josh Durham, Design by Committee
• Well-Behaved Women (Emily Paull, Margaret River Press) designed by Debra Billson
• White Horses (Rachael Treasure, HarperCollins) designed by Laura Thomas

Best Designed Literary Fiction Cover

• Damascus (Christos Tsiolkas, A&U) designed by Christa Moffitt, Christabella Designs
• Death of a Typographer (Nick Gadd, Arcadia) designed Stephen Banham
• Islands (Peggy Frew, A&U) designed by Sandy Cull
• Lucky Ticket (Joey Bui, Text) designed by Jessica Horrocks
• Make Me a City: A Novel of Chicago (Jonathan Carr, Scribe) designed by Jenny Grigg
• The Death of Murat Idrissi (Tommy Wieringa, Scribe) designed by Daniel New
• The Glad Shout (Alice Robinson, Affirm) designed by Jenny Grigg
• The Pillars (Peter Polites, Hachette) designed by Josh Durham, Design by Committee
• The Returns (Philip Salom, Transit Lounge) designed by Josh Durham, Design by Committee

Best Designed Nonfiction Book (inc. Scholarly and Reference)

• #MeToo: Stories from the Australian Movement (Ed by Natalie Kon-yu et al, Picador) designed by Debra Billson
• Capturing Nature: Early scientific photography at the Australian Museum 1857–1893 (Vanessa Finney, NewSouth) designed by Pfisterer + Freeman
• Curveballs (Emma Markezic, HarperCollins) designed by Darren Holt
• Guest House for Young Widows: Among the women of ISIS (Azadeh Moaveni, Scribe) designed by Laura Thomas
• Influence: Edmond & Corrigan + Peter Corrigan (ed by Vivian Mitsogianni and Patrick Macasaet, Uro) designed by Michael Bojkowski
• Less Stuff (Lindsay Miles, Hardie Grant) designed by Ngaio Parr
• Neuroscience of Mindfulness (Stan Rodski, HarperCollins) designed by Darren Holt
• Only in Tokyo (Michael, Ryan & Luke Burgess, Hardie Grant) designed by Vanessa Masci
• Songspirals (Gay’wu Group of Women, A&U) designed by Lisa White
• Waters of the World (Sarah Dry, Scribe) designed by Jessica Cruikshank

Best Designed Autobiography/Biography/Memoir Nonfiction Cover

• From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got compulsory voting (Judith Brett, Text) designed by W H Chong
• See What You Made Me Do: Power, control and domestic abuse (Jess Hill, Black Inc.) designed by Sandy Cull
• Shame On Me: An anatomy of race and belonging (Tessa McWatt, Scribe) designed by Allison Colpoys
• Stop Being Reasonable (Eleanor Gordon-Smith, NewSouth) designed by Josh Durham, Design by Committee
• The Prettiest Horse in the Glue Factory (Corey White, Hamish Hamilton) designed by Eltham
• The Thinking Woman (Julienne van Loon, NewSouth) designed by Sandy Cull
• Your Own Kind of Girl (Clare Bowditch, A&U) designed by Lisa White

Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book

• 52 Mondays (Anna Ciddor, A&U) designed by Sandra Nobes
• Ask Hercules Quick (Ursula Dubosarsky, A&U) designed by Romina Edwards
• Funny Bones (ed by Kate Temple et al, A&U) Julia Eim
• Lizard’s Tale (Weng Wai Chan, Text) designed by Imogen Stubbs
• Running with the Horses (Alison Lester, Puffin) designed by Tony Palmer
• The Brilliant Ideas of Lily Green (Lisa Silberry, Hardie Grant Egmont) designed by Pooja Desai
• The Days of in Between (Peter Valentine Fenton, Omnibus) designed by Nicole Stofberg
• The Dog Runner (Bren MacDibble, A&U) designed by Joanna Hunt
• The Sound of the Dark (Various, 100 Story Building) designed by Regine Abos

Best Designed Children’s Illustrated Book

• An ABC of Treasures (Marion Frith, Little Hare) designed by Pooja Desai and Hannah Janzen
• Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You! (Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost, A&U) designed by Julian Frost
• Cat and Dog (Jonathan Bentley, Little Hare) designed by Bruno Herfst and Kristy Lund-White
• I See, I See (Robert Henderson, A&U) designed by Robert Henderson
• Liarbird (Laura Bunting, illus by Philip Bunting, Omnibus) designed by Philip Bunting
• Lights Out, Leonard (Josh Pyke, illus by Chris Nixon, Puffin) designed by Marina Messiha
• Lottie and Walter (Anna Walker, Puffin) designed by Anna Walker and Bruno Herfst
• Paperboy (Danny Parker, illus by Bethany Macdonald, Dirt Lane Press) designed by Hannah Janzen
• Tilly (Jane Godwin & Anna Walker, Scholastic Press) designed by Klarissa Pftisterer, Pfisterer + Freeman
• You Might Find Yourself (Tai Snaith, Thames & Hudson) designed by Hope Lumsden-Barry

Emerging Designer of the Year

• Akiko Chan
• Louisa Maggio
• Vanessa Masci
• Sarah Mitchell.

Longlists were announced in 18 categories, including Best Designed Series (including Classics), Best Designed Fully-Illustrated Book Under $50, Best Designed Cookbook, and Best Designed Independent Book. Due to ‘exceptionally low entries’, the Best Designed Tertiary Education Book award will not be presented this year.

The Australian Book Design Awards ‘celebrate the bravest and brightest, the most original and beautiful books published in Australia each year’, and is administered by the Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA).

The shortlist will be announced in early April and the winners will be announced at the awards party on 22 May at the Craft & Co in Melbourne. The awards evening will also include the announcement of the designers’ choice awards, which ABDA members vote for on the night.

To learn more about the awards, and to see the longlists for all categories, see the ABDA website.

Category: Awards Local news