SPECTRUM PRINT BOOK DESIGN AWARDS 2007

The accolades and honours keep pouring in for Audrey Eagle and her monumental work Eagle's Complete Trees & Shrubs of New Zealand.

Here is the press release on these annual awards which as Michael Moynahan aptly says "continue to grow in stature and importance."

Warm congratulations to the winners who are listed below.

Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand, written and illustrated by
Audrey Eagle and published by Te Papa Press, swooped away with half of the
awards on offer in the 2007 Spectrum Print Book Design Awards, announced
last night. Please see full list of winners below.

Designers Neil Pardington (Base Two) and Robyn Sivewright (Afineline) won
Best Illustrated Book, Best Cover, and Best Book overall for their work on
this landmark publication. This is Pardington’s third consecutive win.

Audrey Eagle’s botanical drawings were first published in 1975 by William
Collins (New Zealand) Ltd; with a second volume following in 1983. As well
as all of the artwork from the previous two volumes, the new volumes contain
over 170 new paintings and drawings by Eagle, and showcase every presently
known tree and shrub in New Zealand.

The treatment of Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand by
Pardington (covers) and Sivewright (interiors) has also helped to earn
Audrey Eagle and Te Papa Press a nomination for Best Illustrated Book at the
Montana Book Awards.

‘The judges unanimously agreed that this magnificent two-volume set easily
met, and indeed surpassed, the criteria by which the entries had to be
judged.’ said Denis Welch, Deputy Editor of the New Zealand Listener and
convenor of judges. ‘Decades will pass and Eagle’s will stand on the shelf
as a monumental achievement of scholarship, art and design.’

Brief Lives (Auckland University Press) won designers Sarah Maxey and
Katrina Duncan, along with artist Brendan O’Brien, the Best Non-Illustrated
category of the awards.

The other winners were Cheryl Rowe, awarded Best Children’s Book for Legends
of Ngatoro-i-rangi (Reed Publishing), and Rose Miller, awarded Best
Educational Book for Te Kete Kupu (Huia Publishers) – the first children’s
dictionary completely in te reo Māori.

‘The high overall standard of the entries indicates a publishing industry in
remarkably good shape,’ said Welch, who was joined on the panel by
bookseller Beth Davies and William Chen, founding Art Director of Metro
magazine and Art Director of Cuisine.

The book design awards have been run annually since 1997 by the Book
Publishers Association of New Zealand.

BEST BOOK
Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand Author Audrey Eagle
Designer Covers by Neil Pardington (Base Two) interior by Robyn Sivewright
(Afineline) Publisher Te Papa Press

BEST COVER
Eagle’s Complete Trees and Shrubs of New Zealand Author Audrey Eagle
Designer Covers by Neil Pardington (Base Two) Publisher Te Papa Press

BEST NON-ILLUSTRATED BOOK
Brief Lives
Author Chris Price
Designer Cover by Sarah Maxey, interior by Katrina Duncan Publisher Auckland
University Press

BEST ILLUSTRATED BOOK
Eagle’s Complete Trees & Shrubs of New Zealand Author Audrey Eagle Designer
Covers by Neil Pardington (Base Two) interior by Robyn Sivewright
(Afineline) Publisher Te Papa Press

BEST EDUCATIONAL BOOK
Te Kete Kupu
Author Huia Publishers
Designer Ross Mills
Publisher Huia Publishers (NZ) Ltd

BEST CHILDREN’S BOOK
Legends of Ngatoro-i-rangi
Author Mervyn Taiaroa and Karen Taiaroa-Smithies Designer Cheryl Rowe
Publisher Reed Publishing (NZ) Ltd