Upstart Press Award for Best Non-Illustrated Book 2023
Finalist
Designer: Katie Kerr, Studio Katie Kerr, cover artwork: Richard McWhannell, photography by Stephen Goodenough
Title: Actions & Travels: How Poetry Works
Publisher: Auckland University Press
Format: 198 x 130mm, 312pp, paperback. Cover printed 5c + waterbase matt varnish x 1c on a textured 300gsm FSC Hyacinth Super White. Text on 80 gsm Ivoprint Creamy paper FSC.
Typography: Variations of the typeface Janson.
“The vision for the book was a readable, pretty paperback with a touch of adventure and humour like many of the poems within. A cover with a slightly busy image or painting (reflecting actions and travels), suggesting the whole thing should be a bit fun. Something that told its own story, much in the way a poem does.”
Judges’ comments This is a small book that packs real design punch. The highly textured cover stock lends a tapestry-like feel to the intriguing cover illustration. The reversed typography is elegant and unusually, but perfectly scaled and placed. Turning the cover to reveal the rotated title type on the half-title page is the first sign of the thoughtful and inventive design and typography that follows.
