7-8

THE AUSTRALIAN BOOK PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION

BOOK DESIGN AWARDS 1967-8 JUDGES

L. F. Fitzhardinge Reader in Australian History, Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University

Professor J. A. La Nauze Professor of History, Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University

John Pitson, M.B. E. Director, Design Branch Commonwealth Government Printing 0 ffice

Professor A. D. Trendall, C.M.G., K.C.S.G Master of University H ouse Australian National University DIRECTIONS TO JUDGES

The objects of the competition are : (a) to focus the attention of pub! ishers, printers and the public on the importance of having well-made Australian books; (b) to improve the standard of book design in Australia; and (c) to improve the standard of craftsmanship in all stages of book manufacture in Australia. This year the Committee has attempted to increase and widen the interest of publishers and book manufacturing craftsmen in the competition. To this end, the number of categories in which books may be submitted has been increased and the method of judging has been altered to avoid the judging of necessarily low-cost books alongside more de luxe editions where cost is of much less importance. Categories : 1. Paper-back and paper-bound books 2. Children's books 3. School textbooks 4. General and popular books (fiction and non-fiction) 5. Technical, scientific and tertiary educational books 6. Belles lettres, poetry 7. Art books, de luxe and limited editions Each category will be judged separately and apart from other categories and in the above order, but the object of the competition is to select the best designed books, irrespective of category. The judges are not required to select books from each and every category if, in their opinion, the books in those categories do not measure up to the required standard. However, it should be borne in mind by judges that, all other things being equal, a well designed and pro­ duced cheap book should be considered more meritorious than a highly-priced de luxe edition, no matter how well designed or produced the latter may be. It is not the object of the competition necessarily to encourage the production of special editions (although these will naturally be considered on their own merits and within their own special category) but to improve the overall standard of design and production in the Australian published book generally. The special attention of judges is drawn to school text and technical, scientific and tertiary educational books in which an improved stan­ dard is not only very much to be desired but also correspondingly difficult to achieve, and therefore the more meritorious when it is achieved. Before examining each book in its category, the publishers' entry form should be read. This will show the approximate number of copies printed, its retail price and any special comments made by the publisher that should, perhaps, be taken into consideration. The entry form also shows the method of printing, etc. The judges are not responsible for vetting the entries, the eligibility or correct category classification as this will be performed by the Committee. The design, production and suitability of the following are to be considered in assessing the individual books: dust jacket, case, binding, preliminaries, text, illustrations, materials. At the conclusion of judging, the judges are requested to submit a written report, naming their selection of the best books, together with any comments they wish to make about the chosen books, the books not selected and the competition in general.

Frank Eyre Sam Ure Smith Patricia Croft Book Design Awards Committee The Australian Book Publishers Association

2 THE JUD GES' REPORT

This year 102 books were submitted; of these we selected 19 and commended 5. Last year out of 88 entries 18 were selected and 6 commended. This proportion is probably a fair reflection of the general standard of the entries in the two years. Our impression was that this was not a vintage year. Although the general standard of design and craftsmanship was reasonably high, we felt that no more than half a dozen of the entries would hold their place against ri gorous international competition. Even among the selected books, minor faults of design or workmanship in too many cases prevented the attainment of the highest standard. The five books commended were in most respects fully equal to those selected, but in each, particular faults either of design or of execut:on led to their exclusion from the final choice. The following table shows the number of books submitted in each category and the result of the judging:

Category Submitted Selected Commended Rejected 1. Paper-back 15 13 2. Children's books 5 2 3 3. Textbooks 19 2 1 16 4. General 30 7 3 20 5. Academic'-' 23 5 18 6. Poetry, etc. 7 2 5 7. Art 3 3 * The great majority of the books submitted in this section were not technical - 'academic' seems to us the best word to cover them.

The improvement in Paper-backs noted last year was not sustained. In the cheaper range, though the materials were adequate, too little attention had been paid to design, and especially to the margins. In the more expensive class, otherwise well designed books were marred by faults in design or material of the covers or by not opening well. On the other hand, Children's books, we are glad to say, showed an improvement on last year. The two books selected were notable for lively and imaginative design, for harmony of text and illustra­ tion, and for appropriateness to their purpose. Textbooks continue to be, as a class, disappointing, mathematical expressions being cluttered and unattractive and diagrams in some 3 cases badly drawn. The exceptions, where some thought and imagin­ ation have been employed, stand out in refreshing contrast. School books should open easily and lie flat, and their materials must stand up to classroom wear. Mathematical texts offer special problems and despite the difficulties it would seem that greater efforts should be made here, especially to use space effectively. Among the General and Academic books the average standard was high, in spite of some poor entries, and the best were very good, but many otherwise good books were marred by carelessness in spacing and make-up, uneven printing or the use of worn matrices. In some cases the colour of art and text papers did not match well. High temperature at the time of judging caused a number of the bindings to warp. This revealed that in some instances the grain of the board ran across, rather than up and down, the cover. Dirty blocking and loose binding were also common, and the excessive use of bold sanserif on the spine often clashed with the typography of the rest of the book. It may be significant that far more books were rejected for workmanship than for design. Some faults of design however were noted, especially in the academic books, in both sections: for example, lack of runn:ng heads to facilitate reference, and failure to distinguish sufficiently between text, quoted matter, and footnotes. The convention followed in one book of setting quotations out into the margin instead of indenting was not approved. The treatment of the verso of the title very often betrayed uncertainty. In Poetry a sound convention produced a uniformly high standard in the volumes of pure poetry; the two volumes outside this category were less successful. The Art and Special Books section was poor, though a different classification might have produced a better result. This is discussed below. In general, we found the effect of the classification somewhat confusing, and suggest that the definitions of the categories might perhaps be reconsidered for future years. Where a book was sub­ mitted in paper-back and in cloth it was not judged in both classes, but only in that to which it seemed most appropriate. In the Art and Special category, the only book not eliminated did not, we agreed, meet the standard expected of a 'special' book, but measured up favourably against comparable books in the academic section, in which it was therefore judged. At the same time, some of the picture books classed as General might from the design and technical point of view have been more naturally judged with the art books, and this would have strengthened that section. 4 Both the General and the Technical and Tertiary classes were miscellaneous, the distinction between them being apparently by the type of reader rather than the type of book, and even so it was not always clear. On one side, Technical shaded into Text books, on the other into General, which in turn ranged from fine picture books, through the sound library editions typographically undistinguishable from Tertiary, to the frankly popular. In Poetry and Belles Lettres there was a clear line between the volumes of pure poetry, designed as such, and volumes intended as texts or works of criticism, which would have come more appropriately in Tertiary. The absence of fiction from the General class was noticeable. In spite of the g reat advances in Australian papermaking in recent years the range of good papers is still limited and we noted that publishers need to use imported papers to achieve special effects. There apparently continues to be a wide difference in colour between different makings, and this was sometimes apparent in the same book. Partly as a result of this competition, nearly all the books submitted were the work of trained and responsible designers and fewer Australian books are now left to the anonymom chances of the compos ing r oom. There were, as last year, a number of cases where division of responsibility resulted in an excellent jacket, and some­ times cover, being let down by a commonplace text or, more rarely, vice ·z•ersa. A separate competition for dust-jackets might be interest­ ing, but we would repeat the verdict of our predecessors that the bes t results are likely to be obtained where a single hand is respon­ sible for the whole design. We noted too, that even when the basic design was good, it was ofter not followed through into the work­ shop, resulting in poor execution of detail such as make-up and spacing. While this report may seem to suggest that faults predominate, we would not wish to leave this impression. We would repeat that the general level was high compared with that of some years ago, and that only a narrow gap separated the books selected from many of those excluded (though the submission of a few of the entries made us wonder about the standards of their publishers) . Many books missed excellence only by a small margin; in most of these, a little more care would have made the difference.

L.F.F. }.A. LAN. J.P. A.D.T.

THE JUDGES' SELECTION

OWLS DO CRY PAPER-BACK S Janet Frame Sun Books Pty Ltd T yp ography: G . M . Smith Cover D esign: Brian Sad grove Printed a nd bound by Halst ead Press

T hi s b ook sets a good standard fo r l ow-priced paper-backs. It is one of the few titl es submi tted in its class which h as well propo rtioned p age di mensions and marg in s. 9 ONE HUNDRED POEMS CHOSEN FOR CHILDRE CHILDREN'S Joyce Saxby BOOKS Angus & Robertson Ltd T ypography: L. F. R. Apthorp Illustrations and jacket design: Astra Lacis-Dick Binding case de.rign: Andrew Halford Half-tone blocks made by Hartland & Hyde Pty Ltd Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Type set by Craftsmen Typesetters Printed and bound by Halstead Press

A very a ttractive children's book. The illustrations are exceptionally good and very appropriate to the text. Minor fau lts are wide word spacing of display type and uneven presswork. The choice of Pilgri m as a t ext-face is happy, although some of the c haracter of the fa ce is lost in the offset production. 10 LOOK, YOU CAN COOK CHILDREN'S Rosemary Hemphill BOOKS Angus & Robertson Ltd Typography, endpaper and bi11ding case design: Andrew Halford Illustrations and jacket design: Claire Simpson Line blocks made by Bacon & Co. and H a rtland and Hyde Pty Ltd Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by Halstead Press

This charming a nd practical book is well illustrated, designed, printed and bound. The judges have some doubts as to the sui tability of the material and co lou r of the binding; the case might quickly become soiled in use. 11 SOURCE BOOK FOR ENGLISH SCHOOL L. M. Hannan, W . Ha nnan, A. A. Allinson TEXTBOOKS F. W. Cheshire Publishing Pty Ltd Design and illustrations : Weatherhead and Stitt Type set by Dudley King Lithographic plates made by Litho Colour Printed and bound by Wilke & Co. Ltd

Illustrations, type and colour have been used with a great deal of imaginati on and to good effect. The cover, w hi ch is dull by comparison with the t ext pages, is not appropriate to the contents. A lively p roduction. 12 K. GIDDf~GS . B A· D1p Ed .

1714-1851

BRITAIN: YEARS OF REVOLUTION 1714-1851 SCHOOL Keith Giddings TEXTBOOKS Rigby Ltd Typography and case design: Rigby Ltd Lithographic plates made by Litho Platemakers Printed and bound by the Griffin Press

Although there is a lack of cohesion between the typographical elements, particularly in the preliminaries, the free treatment of the text and the placing and scaling of the illustrations make for a far more interesting and inviting page layout than that of sim il ar textbooks examined . 13 SAMOA MO SAMOA GENERAL J. W . Davidson BOOKS Oxford University Press Typography, binding case and jacket design: Muriel Eyre Endpaper design: Joyce Wood Printed a nd bound by Halstead Press

Veq' competentl y designed, printed and bound. 14 AUSTRALIA : WORLD OF DIFFERENCE GENERAL John Bechervais e BOOKS Rigby Ltd Design: Rigby Ltd Half-tone bl ocks made by Adelaide Art Engravers Ltd Printed and bound by the Griffin Press

The book comes to ha nd nicely. T he general layout, the endpapers, and the treatment and placing of photographs are excell ent. The details on the reverse of the title page are set too large, and the quoted matter would have been better one size small er instead of in the text size set solid. 15 AUSTRALIAN OCEAN RACING GENERAL Murray D avis BOOKS Angus & Robertson Ltd Typography and binding case design : Andrew Ha lford Jacket design: Marj ory Ma tthews Ha lf-tone blocks made by H a rtland & Hyde Pty Ltd Line blocks made by Standard Engraving Pty Ltd Lithographic plates made by H a lstead Press Printed and bound by H alst ead Press

An attractive book: it has an effective jacket and the type face and layout produce a very pleasant double-page spread. It is a pity that the printing of the half-tones and the binding are not quite up to the same high standard. 16 Black 511'• 111

WATERFOWL IN AUSTRALIA GENERAL H. J. Frith BOOKS Angus & R obertson Ltd Typography, endpaper a11d binding design: Andrew Halford Jacket design : Linda Turner Half-tone and line blocks made by Hartland and Hyde Pty Ltd Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by Halstead Press

A good sta ndard of design and production through out. The placing of the type on the page and its relation to the half-tones is particu larly pleasant. 17 THE LAND THAT WAITED GE NERAL Max Harris and Alison Forbes BOOKS Lansdowne Pres.r Ply Ltd D esign: Alison Forbes Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by Halstead Press

This is a very good production in all respects. The unjustifi ed setting contributes to the freedom of the page layout, though the principl es on whi ch the Jines are broken eluded the judges. The printed binding case is particul arl y attractive. 18 MELBOURNE SKETCHBOOK GENERAL W . H . Newnham and Unk White BOOKS Rigby Ltd T ypogrctphy, binding case and jacket design : Ri gby Ltd Iflttsfrations and endpaper design: Unk White Line blocks made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by H als tead Press

A ve ry a ttracti ve little sketchbook. This is one of a series, all printed in the same style bLit with variations in the co lour of the cover, and with d i ffe rent artists. More care could h ave been taken with the binding: crease marks are evident, a nd the book does not readily open fl at. 19 THE HIGH COUNTRY GENERAL Helmut Gritscher and Craig McGregor BOOKS Angus & Robertson Ltd Typography: N . MacArthur and Andrew Halford lll!IStl"atjons: Helmut Gritscher Binding case design: Andrew Halford Jacket design : Linda Turner and Marjory Matthews Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by Halstead Press

An impressive publication. This was clearly the best picture b ook submitted. By using an asymmetrica l page layo ut, unjustified typesetting and generous leading the typ ographers have found an excellent sol uti on to the problem of placing a small amount of text on a very large page. 20 M-.,_. OO« t>~_q llt Tit• ,._.,,.,

:;!: !~~~:;"'"" m •>l "" .,,.,.. ''~"",.."""d ;g~lii~ii

THE CONTROL OF THE OVARIAN CYCLE IN THE SHEEP ACADEMIC T. J. Robinson (editor) BOOKS Sydney Univer.rity Press D esign : David New Illustrations: Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Sydney Half-tone and line blocks made by A. A. Lawson Pty Ltd Pri nted, fo lded and co ll ated by W a ite & Bull Pty Ltd

The onl y b ook posing special problems because of its technical c haracter which has come near to a satisfactory solution. The des igner and printer clearly appreciate the n eed for ca reful make-up and the use of white space. The half-titles should all have been printed on ri ght-hand pages. 21 )OANNBS-- AMOS CO!.!EIU!O:I' lt !J

ORBIS SENSUALIUM PICTUS ACADEMIC James Bowen (editor) BOOKS Sydney Univer.rity Press Typography: David New and Andrew Halford Binding case and jacket design: David New Lithographic plates made by Litho Platemakers Printed and bound by the Griffin Press Jacket printed by Waite & Bull Pty Ltd

The des igner has succeeded ;n producing a setting completely in harmony with the facsimil es which form the greater part of the book. The choice of paper and other materials is most appropriate; the printing and binding are excell ent. Altogether a most attractive little book. 22 20th Century Australian Literary Criticism

CLEMENT SEMMLER

TWENTIETH CENTURY AUSTRALIAN LITERARY ACADEMIC CRITICISM BOOKS Clement Semmler (editor) Oxford University Press Design: Muriel Eyre Printed and bound by Halstead Press

This book has a most effective jacket and in general a pleasant design, but the repetition of the small black fl ower ornament in the chapter headings and elsewhere is irritating. A lighter leaf pattern would have been more accept­ abl e and would have echoed the decoration used on the jacket, spine and title page. The linotype matrices were worn, resulting in hair lines appearing between the le tters throughout the book. 23 RUSSELL J..:> GRJM\.,_. \OE

J. R. Poynta

"tEUOUit"'£ UN1Vi.MITY PIUS\ 4T TH( MII:(;UNYAH PRESS

RUSSELL GRIMW ADE ACADEMIC J. R. Poynter BOOKS Melbourne Unit;ersity Press D esign: N. Quaintance Half-tone and line blocks made by Patterson Shugg Pty Ltd Text, illustrations and jacket printed by Melbourne University Press Endpapers printed by A. E. Keating Pty Ltd Folded, collated and sewn by Melbourne University Press Bound by Wilke & Co. Ltd

A very good production in all respects; the co lour plates are particularly pleasant. One-point leading of the text and the indentation of quotations would have improved the legibility. 24 Charles Perry Bishop of Melbourne

CHARLES PERRY, BISHOP OF MELBOURNE ACADEMIC A. de Q. Robin BOOKS University of If/estern Amlralia Press D esign: University of \'V'es tern Australi a Press Ha lf-tones, line blocks and lithographic plates made by J. Gibbney & Son Pty Ltd Printed by Frank Da niels Pty Ltd Bound by Stanley Owen & Sons Pty Ltd

A straightforward design making for easy reading and appropriate to the subject. The craftsmans hip generall y is sati sfactory, but the small type is not in th e b est condition. 25 BIRDS POETRY Judith Wright Angus & Robertson Ltd Illustrations, endpaper and jacket design: Annette Macarthur-Onslow Printed and bound by H alstead Press Binding case design: Andrew Halford Lithographic plates made by Halstead Press Printed and bound by H alstead Press

Illustrations and typography are well matched, and the second co lour printing is used discreetl y and effectively. It is a pity that the book does not lie fl at on every opening, and that crease marks appear on some pages. The 'show­ through' is a little disconcerting. 26 UNDERSTANDINGS POETRY Evan Jones Melbo11rne University Pres.r De.rign: N . Quaintance Text printed by Melbourne University Press Endpapers printed by W . Lan e, Ingpen & Son Pty Ltd Jacket printed by A. E. Keati ng Pty Ltd Folded, collated and sewn by Me lbourne U ni versity Press Bound by W . Flattely & Son Pty Ltd

The judges consider th!s to be the most completely satisfying book in the competition. The one slightl y disappo inting el ement is the sanserif blocking on the spine.

COMMENDED BOOKS

THE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL P. J.McK eown a nd B. W . H one (editors) Oxford Unit.•ersity Press

FUNDAMENTALS OF MODERN AGRICULTURE C. D . Bl ake (editor) Sydney University Press

SOUTHERN EXPOSURE David Beal and Dona ld H o rne Collim

HERE MY HOME Lucill e M. Quinlan Oxford University Press

IF I RE MEMBER RIGHTLY W . S. Robinson. E dited by Geoffrey Bl ai ney F. IV Cheshire

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