HarperCollins Publishers Award for Best Cover 2025
Finalist
Designer: Sarah Elworthy
Title: Old Black Cloud: A cultural history of mental depression in Aotearoa New Zealand
Publisher: Massey University Press
Format: 230 x 163mm, 312pp, limpbound printed on uncoated creamy stock. Cover printed 5 colour (Pantone 396C), matt lamination with spot gloss on the title/subtitle/author on the front cover and spine
Typography:
Cover: Calluna (regular and semibold)
Chapter headings Calluna regular
Body text Karmina regular
Captions Karmina regular
Publisher’s Brief
“This book by a university academic is the first social history of depression in Aotearoa New Zealand, analysing medical, cultural and social contexts through an historical lens. The brief was to create a cover that was not depressing but still spoke of melancholy. The publisher also did not want to see a cover that used the design tropes often common to academic book covers.
The evocative E. Mervyn Taylor woodcut led the cover design. I used Calluna with its classic serif feel and subtle chunkiness as the display font, nestling it into the image so as not to overwhelm it. The lime green spot colour added a ping of brightness.
The cover set the tone for the internal text pages, including a substantial endmatter section that needed to be accessible, and images were grouped together.”
