Welcome to the Book Design Awards
Please contact Leah Gordon, Alcuin Society Design Competition Committee Chair, awards@alcuinsociety.com, 604.732-5403.
Press Releases
Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design
Posted April 11, 2008 - The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 26th annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. From 254 entries, 35 winning titles were selected entries. For more information, check out our press release.
Exhibit: Bookart International 2007
Dec. 8, 2007 | Press Release
The Society received a letter in December, 2007, from Friederike Ottnad of the Stiftung Buchkunst, in Frankfurt, Germany, with a final review of the 2007 Leipzig International Book Design Competition. 33 countries participated; the winners were selected from 577 books. Prof. W.D. von Lucius, member of the Board of the Stiftung, gave an address in Leipzig, on March 23, 2007, at the award ceremony/reception for winners.
Books which received awards at the Leipzig international competition for the last five years will be displayed at the Taipei International Book Exhibition: 13-18 February 2008. Next year's Leipzig international competition will take place on February 8-9, 2008, and the Book Fair will take place from March 13 to 16, 2008.
Exhibit: Munich Book Fair
Feb. 27 to March 7, 2008 | Press Release
The Alcuin Society will participate at the upcoming Book Fair, from February 27 to March 7, 2008, in Munich, Germany. The primary focus of this Fair will be Canadian books and publishers. The Society will supply the curator of the Fair's exhibition, Dr. Thomas Kraft, with copies of the winning books from both its 2005 and 2006 competitions, The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada.
Leipzig's Short List: Canadian designers honoured
Posted April 21, 2007 - The Stiftung has just released their short list of competitors for the awards. Of 545 books submitted by 34 countries, 63 titles were shortlisted,
and 14 prizes selected. For more information, check out our press release. In addition to the Canadian winner of a bronze medal, three additional Canadian designers were honoured:
- JESSICA SULLIVAN, designer of Crows : Encounters with the Wise Guys of the
Avian World by Candace Savage (Greystone Books, Vancouver, BC)
- APOLLONIA ELSTED, designer of Emily : Opposites Attract : Poems of Emily
Dickinson, by Emily Dickinson (Horse Whisper Press, Mission, BC)
- CRISPIN ELSTED, designer of Il Bosco dei tamarindi = The Tamarind Wood = Le
Bois des tamariniers by Carlo Toselli (Barbarian Press, Mission, BC).
Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design
Posted April 4, 2007 - The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 25th annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada. From 252 entries, 34 winning titles were selected entries. For more information, check out our press release.
BC Book Prizes
Posted March 16, 2007 - West Coast Book Prize Society announces the 2007 Shortlist with nominees in seven categories.
Leipzig's List of Award Winners
Posted March 3, 2007 - Here is a list of the selected 2006 award-winners of the international exhibition "Best Book Design From All Over the World". A Canadian book L'Appareil won a bronze medal (see below). For the library nearest you that has a copy of it, type in your postal code, province, or country in WorldCat's Find in a Library.
Canadian book wins award at Leipzig competition
February 20, 2007 - The Stiftung Buchkunst, based in Frankfurt, Germany, and curators of the international exhibition "BEST BOOK DESIGN FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD" at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, selected the 2006 award-winners in an international competition in Leipzig in February, 2007. These awards will be presented at the Leipzig Book Fair on March 23, 2007.
The Stiftung has just released the names of the winners. Of 545 books submitted by 33 countries, 14 titles received prizes (the "Goldene Letter", one gold medal, two silver medals, five bronze medals and five Honorary Appreciations). Two Canadian designers were honoured for their book L'Appareil (Les Éditions de la Pastèque) with a bronze medal:
- ANOUK PENNEL
- RAPHAËL DEAUDELIN (Feed)
The 35 Canadian books on exhibit, which were participants in the international competition, were submitted by The Alcuin Society to the Stiftung. These books were the winners of the 2005 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, held in March, 2006. This entire collection has now been donated to the German Book and Type Museum in Leipzig, where it will be available for consultation and exhibitions.
Book Design Awards 2007
Eligibility criteria
Books published in Canada during the year 2007 are eligible for
submission. Each title must represent the exclusive work of a
Canadian book designer(s).
Categories
- children’s
- limited editions
- pictorial
- poetry
- prose:fiction
- prose:fiction – illustrated
- prose:non-fiction
- prose:non-fiction – illustrated
- reference
Each book should be assigned to one of the above categories by
the publisher. However, either the Society’s Awards Committee
or the judges may move a title from one category to another if, in
their opinion, the book’s content and design warrant it.
General criteria
Judging is based on the suitability of design concept in relation
to the intellectual nature of the content and the intended audiences.
Use of colour, type, illustration and photographic styles
when applicable are also considered. The stock used in the text
block, as well as the jacket, binding, and overall finish are judged
in the context of the book’s purpose.
Conflict of interest
If a judge has participated in the production of a book, that book
should not be submitted as an entry in the current competition,
but instead may be entered in the following year. Otherwise
books, to be eligible, must have been published in the previous
calendar year. A distinctive award seal is available for sale to
publishers to highlight winning titles.
Awards
At the discretion of the judges, first, second, and third prizes may
be awarded in each category; ties are permitted; honourable mentions
may also be awarded. A book cited for honourable mention
exhibits some noteworthy feature(s) that place it, in the view of
the judges, above the rest. However, the book may, as a whole,
fail to sustain comparison with prize-winners in the category.
Winners will be notified as soon as possible after judging, by
telephone or email, and a list of winning books will be posted
on the Alcuin Society web site. Citations will be presented in the
summer of 2008 at appropriate awards ceremonies in Vancouver
and Toronto. Award winners will benefit from national and
international exposure through news media, exhibitions and
the Awards’ Catalogue of Winners, which may be viewed on the
Society’s web site.
Exhibitions
Various national locations have been scheduled for exhibitions of
the winning books; last year the books were exhibited in Victoria,
Vancouver, Burnaby, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto,
Ottawa, Montréal, Halifax and Wolfville. The news media, including
Quill & Quire, will announce the winning entries. Winning
books will be displayed in October 2008 at the Book Art International
Exhibit at the Frankfurt Bookfair and, in March 2009, at
the Leipzig Bookfair. The winning books will be Canada’s official
entries in the February 2009 international book design competition
in Leipzig: Best Book Design from all over the World, where,
in 2007, Montréal’s Anouk Pennel & Raphaël Deaudelin (Feed)
won a bronze medal for L’Appareil (Les Éditions de la Pastèque).
Publishers of winning entries will be requested to submit additional
copies to allow for exhibition commitments in Canada
and Germany.
After the exhibitions, the books will be contributed to two permanent
collections: the German Book and Type Museum (Leipzig,
Germany) and the Special Collections and Rare Books Division,
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, BC).
Judges
- Tim Inkster:
Printer, designer,
publisher
The Porcupine’s
Quill, Inc.
- Jason Dewinetz:
Writer, publisher, graphic
designer, typographer,
educator
Greenboathouse Books
- Susan Colberg, mva mgdc
Associate Professor
and Associate Chair
(Undergraduate Studies)
Department of Art & Design
University of Alberta in
Edmonton
Submission
Send one copy of each title, accompanied by its own completed
entry form. A cheque or money order for the total amount,
payable to the Alcuin Society, must be enclosed. Your cancelled
cheque will indicate receipt.
Fees
Publishers may submit as many books in as many categories as
they wish. An entry fee of $30.00 per book submitted (Alcuin
Society members: $25.00) must accompany all entries. Entry fees
are not refundable; books submitted are not returned, except
limited editions.
Limited editions
Fine press books in which the quality of craftsmanship, innovation
or experimentation is deemed noteworthy. All submissions
in the limited editions category will be returned to the publisher.
Deadline
All entries must be received by March 15, 2008.
For further information:
Leah Gordon
Telephone 604 732 5403
E-mail awards@alcuinsociety.com
www.alcuinsociety.com/awards
The Alcuin Society Awards for