Penguin Random House New Zealand
Award for Best Illustrated Book 2021
Finalist
Designers: Arch MacDonnell and Alexandra Turner, Inhouse Design
Title: Billy Apple®: Life/Work
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Format: 240 x 170mm, 400pp, hardback.
Case: PLC-wrapped 2mm box board, bookblock flush with case; French-folded jacket on gloss artpaper plus matt lamination; Internals printed 5c (4c + PMS spot red) on 120gsm IKPP Woodfree with overall machine varnishing.
Typography: Headings: Futura Demi 24pt, Futura Book 24pt
Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner and released in 1927. It is based on geometric shapes, especially the circle, similar in spirit to the Bauhaus design style of the period. An appropriate headline font for Billy as Futura Bold Condensed has featured in many Apple works and is a defining feature of his text-based works.
Body text, notes & captions: Untitled Sans
Untitled Sans is a plain, neo-grotesk sans-serif. It is intentionally ‘plain’ – devoid of character with an air of neutrality. It is very evenly weighted, giving large blocks of text a clear and crisp tone. Delightfully easy to read.
Judges’ comments An epic tome with a title that tells the truth, covering Billy Apple’s life to date and all the work he’s done. This book is proportioned perfectly to both hold in the hand for comfortable reading and to clearly and beautifully reproduce said work at a satisfactory scale. The design is deceptively simple, immediately engaging and navigable, but a lot of collaborative artistic, editorial and design work is evident, holding everything together. Small but crucial details gradually reveal themselves: green and red cover portraits from the 1960s are matched with go and stop endpapers and section dividers, splitting down the centre for Apple’s life of two halves. Reading and browsing is made all the more enjoyable with the exemplary (and surprisingly rare) flexible binding of the hardcover case, allowing the book to lay flat and stay open. A fantastic achievement overall, very well done.
