ABDA Awards shortlists announced

The Australian Book Designers Association (ABDA) has announced the shortlists for the 2020 Australian Book Design Awards.

Chosen from longlists announced in February, the shortlisted titles in each category are:

Best designed commercial fiction cover

• How to be Second Best (Jessica Dettmann, HarperCollins) designed by Hazel Lam
• 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
• Well-Behaved Women (Emily Paull, Margaret River Press) designed by Debra Billson

Best designed literary fiction cover

• Death of a Typographer (Nick Gadd, Arcadia) designed Stephen Banham
• 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

Best designed autobiography/biography/memoir nonfiction cover

• 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 Thinking Woman (Julienne van Loon, NewSouth) designed by Sandy Cull

Best designed general nonfiction book (including 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
• Less Stuff (Lindsay Miles, Hardie Grant) designed by Ngaio Parr
• Neuroscience of Mindfulness (Stan Rodski, HarperCollins) designed by Darren Holt

Best designed series (including classics)

• J M Coetzee backlist (Text) designed by W H Chong
• ‘Pocket Precincts’ (Hardie Grant Travel) designed by Michelle Mackintosh
• ‘The Local Series’ (Smith Street Books) designed by Evi O, Evi O Studio

Best designed fully-illustrated book under RRP $50

• Cornelia Parker (Musem of Contemporary Art Australia) designed by Claire Orrell
• Darren Sylvester: Carve a future, devour everything, become something (National Gallery of Victoria) designed by Dirk Hiscock
• Rosslynd Piggott: I sense you but I cannot see you (National Gallery of Victoria) designed by Dirk Hiscock
• The Centre: On art and urbanism in China (National Gallery of Victoria) designed by Stuart Geddes, Kim Mumm Hansen & Žiga Testen

Best designed fully-illustrated book over RRP $50

• Iconic: Modern Australian houses 1950–2000 (Karen McCartney, Murdoch Books) designed by Evi O, Evi O Studio
• Janet Laurence: After nature (Museum of Contemporary Art Australia) designed by Claire Orrell
• KAWS: Companionship in the age of loneliness (National Gallery of Victoria) designed by Dirk Hiscock
• Step into Paradise (Jenny Kee & Linda Jackson, Thames & Hudson) designed by Daniel New
• The Light Fades but the Gods Remain (Bill Henson, Thames & Hudson) designed by Daniel New

Best designed cookbook

• Baltic (Simon Bajada, Hardie Grant) designed by Andy Warren
• Islas: Food of the Spanish islands (Emma Warren, Smith Street Books) designed by Evi O, Susan Le & Rosie Whelan, Evi O Studio
• Street Food Vietnam (Jerry Mai, Smith Street Books) designed by Evi O, Evi O Studio
• The Whole Fish Cookbook (Josh Niland, Hardie Grant) designed by Daniel New

Best designed independent book

• An Unreliable Guidebook to Jewellery (Lisa Walker, ed by Kate Rhodes & Nella Themelios, RMIT Design Hub Gallery) designed by Ziga Testen & Kim Mumm Hansen
• I Was There (Ana Paula Estrada, self-published) designed by Ana Paula Estrada
• Mother (Camilla Australia) designed by Emily O’Neill
• On Bones (Broken Valley Arts) designed by Stuart Geddes

Best designed educational primary / secondary book

• Biology for Queensland (Lorraine Huxley, Margaret Walter & Robyn Flexman, OUP ANZ) designed by Nina Hervanto
• Pearson Humanities Victoria 7 (Pearson Australia) designed by Jennifer Johnston & Anne Donald
• Welcome to Country youth edition (Marcia Langton, Hardie Grant Travel) designed by Blak Douglas & Kerry Cooke

Best designed children’s illustrated book

• Argh! There’s a Skeleton Inside You! (Idan Ben-Barak & Julian Frost, A&U) designed by Julian Frost
• 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

Best designed children’s nonfiction illustrated book

• Explore Your World: Weird, wild, amazing! (Tim Flannery, illus by Sam Caldwell, Hardie Grant Egmont) designed by Pooja Desai & Kristy Lund-White
• Love Your Body (Jessica Summers, Five Mile) designed by Stephanie Spartels, Studio Spartels
• Summer Time (Hilary Bell, illus by Antonia Pesenti, NewSouth) designed by Antonia Pesenti
• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ugly Animals (Sami Bayly, Lothian) designed by Daniel New & Astred Hicks, Design Cherry
• Welcome to Your Period (Yumi Stynes & Melissa Kang, illus by Jennifer Latham) designed by Pooja Desai & Kristy Lund-White
• You Can Change the World (Lucy Bell, Pantera Press) designed by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry & Elysia Clapin

Best designed children’s fiction book

• 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 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 young adult cover

• How to Make Friends With the Dark (Kathleen Glasgow, HarperCollins) designed by Allison Colpoys
  
• It Sounded Better in my Head (Nina Kenwood, Text) designed by Imogen Stubbs
• The Man in the Water (David Burton, UQP) designed by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry
• The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling (Wai Chim, A&U) designed by Romina Edwards
• This is How we Change the Ending (Vikki Wakefield, Text) designed by Imogen Stubbs

Best designed children’s / YA series

• Hive and Rogue (A J Betts, Pan) designed by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry
• Lento and Fox: My Book (Not Yours) and Lento and Fox: My Pet (Not Yours) (Ben Sanders, Lothian) designed by Ben Sanders
• Shout Out to the Girls, High Five to the Boys and Stand Up for the Future (Puffin) designed by Astred Hicks, Design Cherry
• ‘Lift-the-Fact’ series (Five Mile) designed by Andy Warren & Niki Horin

Best student design award

• Howl’s Moving Castle (Shillington Education) designed by Rommey Watts
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (Shillington Education) designed by Laura Tournier
• Only Lovers Left Alive (Shillington Education) designed by Tara Cosgrave-Perry
• The Girls (Shillington Education) designed by Molly Keene

Emerging designer of the year

• Akiko Chan
• Vanessa Masci.

In addition to these awards, ABDA will also present the ‘designers’ choice’ award for best designed children’s YA cover. This is the first year that awards for children’s illustrated nonfiction and student design are to be presented, while the tertiary education book award will not be presented this year due to ‘exceptionally low entries’.

The winners of the awards were due to be announced at a ceremony on 22 May, but the awards night has been postponed due to Covid-19. They will now be announced at an awards celebration at a yet to be announced date.

This is the sixth year that the awards have been run by ABDA, which took over the responsibility of running the awards from the Australian Publishers Association. For more information, visit the ABDA website.

Category: Awards Local news