Upstart Press Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book 2021
Finalist
Designers: Jo Bailey, Ngā Pae Māhutonga / Wellington School of Design, Massey University. Typesetting by Tina Deceg, Cover image artist: Sarah Langdon
Title: This Pākehā Life
Publisher: Bridget Williams Books
Format: 152 x 228mm, 240pp plus 2 x 8-page image insert. Perfect bound soft cover, UV overprint on cover text
Cover:
Title: Rufina Stencil (Bold, 50pt on 47 leading) (foundry: Tipo Type)
Author: Domaine Text (Bold, all caps, 22pt with 150 tracking) (foundry: Klim)
Spine and title on back: Rufina Stencil (Bold, 24pt on 26 leading)
Back body: Domaine Text (9pt on 13 leading)
Internals:
Headings: Rufina Stencil (Bold, 24pt on 26 leading)
Body: Domaine Text (Regular, 9.75pt on 16 leading)
Lower case Rufina was selected as a nod towards a settler vernacular – on the cover it was stacked in an unsettled terracing. Domaine text was used as it has an unflashy elegance (and it was made here in Aotearoa). In caps it has a solemnity and gravitas about it, and in lower case it has terminals that on occasion seem to look like sharp, curved flax leaves or the flick of a koru.
Judges’ comments A beautiful cover with the subtle tension of the title made manifest in an ostensibly serene view of Auckland parkland, with trees in front of a hill with a walled path on what we know might also be a pre-European Māori pā. Illustration, design and stencilled serif type add layers to a deceptively simple design that continues throughout the text pages.
