Controversially, the judges of the PANZ Book Design Awards 2016 decided not to nominate a shortlist for the Allen & Unwin Young Designer of the Year Award. Instead, Anna Egan-Reid was announced as the unequivocal winner at the awards ceremony.
Anna Egan-Reid
Egan-Reid works alongside her mother and sister in the family business, Mary Egan Publishing, after a number of years as an in-house and freelance graphic designer specialising in book design. Convening judge Odessa Owens, Programme Leader for the Whitireia Publishing Programme, comments that Egan-Reid “is steeped in book design and typography, and her experience is all too evident in her work.”
Owens and fellow judges Arch MacDonnell, Founder and Creative Director of Inhouse Design; and Rowan Sommerset, Illustrator and Book Designer for Dreamboat Books, were impressed by the broad range of books in the winning portfolio.
Owens notes the contrast “from the illustrated and information-heavy Living in Paradox to the hand-painted Death and Forgiveness, inviting reading with its clingy velvet lamination and embossed type. And let’s not forget the audience-appropriate, pink-accented, celebrity shocker They Let Me Write a Book!. Anna Egan-Reid demonstrates her skill in dealing with a wide range of texts, images and audiences.”
The Allen & Unwin Young Designer of the Year Award acknowledges and encourages young talent in book design. Allen & Unwin was a new sponsor of the PANZ Book Design Awards in 2016. Melanie Laville-Moore, NZ Director of Allen & Unwin comments “Allen & Unwin is delighted to be sponsoring the Young Designer category at this year’s PANZ Book Design Awards. It’s still very early days since making the decision to expand and enhance our own publishing programme, so to have the opportunity to support the work of new and emerging talent in our industry couldn’t be more appropriate”.
