Judges — PANZ Book Design Awards 2024
The judges for the 2024 PANZ Book Design Awards are; Anna Brown (convenor), Professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts and Director of Toi Āria — Design for Public Good; Te Kani Price, Programme Manager and Creative Director at HUIA Publishers, Chloe Blades, artist and bookseller, social media manager and book club host at Unity Books Auckland; and Simon Waterfield Senior Designer at Lift Education E tu Limited.
Convening Judge Anna Brown
Anna Brown is a New Zealand-based designer and typographer. Working with visual artists, curators and musicians she investigates through form, materials and typography how the vehicle of the book can animate and amplify the content it contains. She is the Director of Toi Āria — Design for Public Good, a research unit harnessing design for positive social change. Anna is a Professor at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts and is the chair of Massey University Press. annabrown.nz
Te Kani Price
Te Kani Price (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Whakatōhea) is a Programme Manager and Creative Director at HUIA Publishers. Delivering daring book covers and interiors for the past decade that bring an authentically Aotearoa perspective. Te Kani designs together with the in-house team at HUIA with manaakitanga as its core value. Te Kani has spent the last decade creating glittery covers, silly characters and content across Te Ao Māori and Te Ao Pākehā for Te Whatu Ora, The Ministry of Education and Te Matatini. In 2022 Te Kani won Emerging Designer for the PANZ Book Design Awards.
Chloe Blades
Chloe Blades is a bookseller, social media manager and book club host at Unity Books in Auckland, which won Best Bookshop in the World at the 2020 London Book Fair. Alongside reviewing books on TVNZ’s Breakfast Show, she has written for The Spinoff, WOMAN magazine and Crane Brothers. Last year, Chloe received a RISE Booksellers scholarship to go to San Francisco and work at the Booksmith in Haight-Ashbury, enabling her to gain international experience in the industry. Alongside her work with books, Chloe is a mum to two small boys and is an artist with work displayed at both Te Uru and Upstairs Gallery in Titirangi, West Auckland. She also holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Loughborough University.
Simon Waterfield
Simon Waterfield is a designer at Lift Education, with expertise in educational and literacy design and children’s publishing. He works on a range of material, including the School Journal and Connected. These series allow him to collaborate with an expansive range of writers, designers, illustrators, and photographers. Simon holds a Bachelor of Design from Wellington Polytechnic/Victoria University and has previously worked at Wellington Media Collective, Base2, and Learning Media. Simon has twice previously been a judge for the PANZ book design awards, as well as being shortlisted. He has chaired sessions with children’s book creators Oliver Jeffers and Leo Timmers, and has been a judge for The Arts Foundation’s Mallinson Rendel Illustrators Award (2015 and 2017). Simon is deeply passionate about comics, children’s publishing, and the use of design to explain the world to young, curious minds. In his spare time he loves scribbling in his sketchbook, playing music in Hail, Meteor!, and gaming with his whanau.
PANZ employs a strict conflict of interest policy and no judge is permitted to have their book design work entered into the awards. Where a judge has a perceived conflict of interest with a book, publisher or designer they will recuse themselves from judging the relevant category. This process is closely monitored by PANZ.
