Penguin Random House New Zealand
Award for Best Illustrated Book 2025
Finalist
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.
The font choices evolved as the project progressed. The small dimensions required the body text be efficient and economical in its use of space and Tiempos and Founders worked outstandingly in their roles here. The other selections; Mikadan, Akaya Kanadaka, and especially Cortese were brought into the mix to supply an element of pagan wildness that the content required.
Publisher’s Brief
“The publisher required this book to be the same size as their other titles; 127 x 203mm. While these other titles had much smaller page counts, 48 to 64 pages, the ambition for worm, root, wort.. & bane required it run to 312 densely packed pages. In the early planning stages we had thought this book would have larger dimensions, and the relatively tiny size requirement was, at first, a bit frustrating. Ultimately though the small size worked for us, making all the disparate pieces of content bunch up, rub shoulders, and jostle for space with each other, giving the book an energy that reflected its spirit.”
