Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand
Award for Best Typography 2024
Finalist
Designer: Duncan Munro
Title: ‘A Bloody Difficult Subject’: Ruth Ross, te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Making of History
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Format: 240 x 170mm, 320pp, jacketed hardback with text on Yulong Pure creamy paper and a 16pp 4c matt art image section. Two Pantone colours – the orange on the jacket and endpapers, and the grey printed onto a white Wibalin Natural case, with matt varnishing, 1c black lettering and debossing.
Typography: Freight
- Title: FreightBig Pro
- Body: FreightText Pro
- Headers/footers: FreightMicro Pro
- Captions: FreightSans Pro
“The book was briefed as a classic history/biography format, and from the start we knew the image we wanted on the cover – the photograph of Ruth Ross at her desk with typewriter, cigarette in hand. It also came with quite a playful title – so the key was to work this into the image in a way that felt bold enough but also allowed the wonderfully busy office scene to shine through.”
Judges’ comments A delicious grey on the page. The exemplary craft applied to honing the type across these justified pages is remarkable. The designer has pushed and pushed the freight font family to create a considered, subtle, impeccably presented body of work. This book has an earnestness to the type design, not unlike the subject it is illustrating. This book will help you fall in love with typesetting all over again.
