Winner’s book designs are displayed everywhere in the world

April Condon, an instructor in Graphic Design at Holland College, talks about how important book design. Miwa Takahashi photo    

Miwa Takahashi

Sept. 20, 2018

The works of the Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada 2017 are exhibited at Holland College until near the library Sept. 28.

This exhibition celebrates the impressive work of Canadian book designers in nine categories: children, limited edition, pictorial, poetry, prose fiction, prose illustrated, prose non-fiction, reference and comics.

April Condon, an instructor in Graphic Design at Holland College, said book design is very important.

 “It is the first reaction to the book. And it is the first impression that really can inspire someone to pick up the book and read it. Or they make up their mind to leave it if it is not appealing to them.”

A designer has to be a smart, she said.

“You have to read the content and then visually interpret the story in a way that will entice the reader to pick up the book. So you have to have a great understanding of the material that you try to sell to readers.”

Condonpointed ut some key points in book designs.

“I like this movement, Remembering an India, and Dear Ghost, that’s beautiful.”

But she finds it difficult to say this book would be better than the one.

“They could serve different purpose for the content of the book. So those are the best designs for those books.”  

Her friend, Frank Viva is one of judges.

He is best known for his covers for the New Yorker magazine, and his internationally acclaimed children’s books.

Miwa Hirata, a freelance designer, designed the cover fore mystery novel.

She has read the book again and again to understand it. A designer has to tell the story to customers with its cover when they pick up, Hirata said.

“ An artist is a person who makes things that they want to make and show, but a designer is a person who makes things for clients. So although I am satisfied with works I did, I have to change it if my client is not satisfied with.”

The book design award was started in 1981, when the federal government stopped holding a similar competition it had held for about three years, said Leah Gordon, director of the Alcuin Society Chair.

“The original purpose was to encourage Canadian publishers to pay attention to the quality of their book production, specifically their design, by hiring talented and under-appreciated Canadian designers.”

The present competition has that goal as well, but the purpose has expanded.

“We want to raise the profile of some of our excellent book designers, both with the general public and with the rest of the book design community.

“And also to promote these books both nationally and internationally and to help Canadian publishers at a difficult time for them,” Gordon said.

The winning books are usually exhibited in all 10 provinces, but this year, only in nine.

They are also exhibited at the Leipzig and Frankfurt book fairs, and participate in the major international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany.

They are shown at the E.H. Norman Library in Tokyo.