Mary Egan Publishing Award for
Best Typography 2015
Winner 2015
Designer Janson Chau (Alt Group)
Title Cardboard Cathedral by Andrew Barrie
Publisher Auckland University Press
Format 235 x 165mm, 252pp, section sewn, cased with jacket
Judges’ Comments Contemporary seems an obvious word when talking about Cardboard Cathedral but this possibly overused description is completely appropriate here. Dive beneath the high-gloss jacket to discover the bold de-bossed and foiled type on the case which sets the standard for the rest of the book. The type is bold and delicate at the same time, and never over-cooked. Images are delicately worked into the simple, mostly single column structure with captions and footnotes cleverly placed to provide compositional balance, sometimes flirting with the gutter but never getting lost there. Certainly the clever paper stock selection is the possible hero of the book, but every hero needs a side-kick and the typographic design of Cardboard Cathedral makes for a pretty dynamic duo. Outstanding.
