Book Hub People’s Choice Award 2025
Joint Winners
Designers: Janson Chau, Alt Group
Title: Fenoga Tāoga Niue I Aoteraoa Niue Heritage Journey in Aotearoa
Publisher: Mafola Press
Format: 254 x 300 mm, 500pp, fully-cased, section-sewn
Typography: Signifier.
The book is set entirely both in Vagahau Niue and English. Each member of the group, guests and contributors are all given the chance to speak –the setting of the type is used to lend character and voice to each person, as well as visual rhythm and variety over the 500 pages.
Judges’ Comments This book is a treasure-trove, both a family album and an archive of precious objects. The design, including the rigorous typography and use of Klim’s signifier, complements the vibrancy of the artwork. The bright pink strips along the text sections help guide the reader, leaving a pattern on the page edges reminiscent of the weaving in the book, and the editorial structure mirrors the order of a Niuean gathering.
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Designers: Duncan Munro
Title: worm, root, wort… & bane
Publisher: Alice Austen House Press
Format: 203 x 127mm, 312pp, flexibind with rose-pink foil for the cover type. Extensive wet-proofing to achieve the best presentation of the 500+ images on the uncoated paper stock.
Typography: Cover, Headings and Quotes: Cortese
Text: Tiempos Text, and, in places, Mikadan, and Akaya Kanadaka
Notes: Founders Grotesk Text.
Judges’ Comments Energetic and eclectic, this book packs a punch. There is so much ‘design’ here that the marrying of the form, function and content in lesser hands could very well have tipped over into the uncontrolled, but here it walks that line. The mosaic of Shelton’s impressive collection of text, historic images, and art, holistically captures the artist in a way that any standalone piece never could.
