Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand
Award for Best Typography 2024
Finalist
Designers: Cover: Shaun Naufahu (Alt Group)
Interior: Shaun Naufahu (Alt Group) & Katrina Duncan
Title: Pacific Arts Aotearoa
Publisher: Penguin Random House NZ in association with Pacific Arts, Creative New Zealand|Toi Aotearoa
Format: 254 x 178mm, 544pp.
Section-sewn, case-bound (square-backed, with head & tail bands). Paper lined case over 3.5mm boards with 1mm overhang, blind debossing on front and back, block edges sprayed yellow, with French-folded bellyband.
Typography: Artist profiles: Agipo, 8/14.4pt
Essays: Signifier 10/13.125pt
Koloa Tuku, the typeface designed by Shaun Naufahu for the online Pacific Arts Legacy Project, has been used to create a pattern at the edge of all pages.
“An extension of the online Pacific Arts Legacy Project where Pacific artists write about their own legacy and influence. Archival photographs and ephemera illustrate the book alongside contemporary imagery of artists and artworks. The book should have a lively, vivid, energy – with diversity in colour, shape and form through the different pages, reflecting the unique array of Pacific people, islands, artworks. The reading experience should feel energising, playful, and be a vivid, memorable experience. It’s not a traditional academic art book, nor a textbook. Instead, a coherent, powerful, immersive reading-and-looking experience in chapters that build up to share a worldview.”
Judges’ comments This book is the whole package! And what a package! The distinctly Pacific design masterfully balances the rich diversity of the Pacific, while upholding the core principles of a Moana design language. With the striking visual motifs and abstracted glyphs, the patterns and colours come together to create a powerful book that elevates its content, celebrates Pacific arts in Aotearoa, and quite literally takes your breath away. The bold, unforgettable typographic pages, beautifully typeset in Signifier, are a true visual delight. Congratulations to the entire team for this extraordinary achievement!
