Allen & Unwin Award
for Best Commercial Book for Adults 2020
Finalist
Designer: Aaron Beehre
Title: Little Books of Art (series 2)
Publisher: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū
Format: 150 x 110mm, 104pp (Houses, Portraits), 112pp (Ōtautahi), 100pp (Sunlight). Binding: hard cover with marker ribbons and coloured page edges. The format of these Little Books is deliberately “bookish”, so we chose an uncoated paperstock to complement that. The materials for the different covers were chosen to match the cover artwork, and the title typefaces were selected to give a sense of personality and cohesion to the theme.
Judges’ comments These little books will surely be great sellers and highly commercial. Whilst the production values are high and the design and typography is slick the judges found them problematic. Are they delightful snapshots of an exhibition? Accessible entreés (in size and price) to art books for beginner art lovers? Or are they wasteful and unnecessary gallery mementos? The buyer decides!
