Penguin Random House New Zealand
Award for Best Illustrated Book 2024
Finalist
Designers: Cover: Toby Curnow, Inhouse
Interior: Arch & Jane MacDonnell, Inhouse
Title: The Chair
Publisher: Objectspace
Format: 240 x 170mm, 272pp, exposed binding
Typography: The Future
The Future Mono (captions and footnotes)
“The premise of this exhibition and accompanying book is simple. One object type – the chair – explored from the earliest documented period of local production through to today. The book is to present all 107 chairs in chronological order along with an introductory essay and index of chairs.
Kris Sowerby’s The Future presented some delightful conceptual moments, featuring experimental alternates with flattened arches as the headline font. The lowercase ‘h’ served as a visual metaphor for a chair. The entire typeface family of The Future was used exclusively, with the mono variant reserved for captions and footnotes. The written chair entries were arranged on a flexible grid system that balanced variance and uniformity. These entries often subtly mirrored chair forms, with the first column sometimes taller than the second, and vice versa.”
Judges’ comments The common chair has been given royal treatment! This is anthropomorphism at its finest. This book’s design takes simplicity and transforms it into sophistication. With a warm palette of earthy tones and bold typography this book creates a striking balance between text and form. The exposed spine and textured cover reflect the raw, crafted nature of the chair, while the careful placement of titles and references adds a rhythmic elegance. Every detail is a thoughtful nod to the chair’s essence, making this book a masterful blend of form and content.
