British Book Design awards

05.11.13 | Joshua Farrington - The Bookseller

The Purple Book from Laurence King Publishing has been named Book of the Year at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2013. The book also won the Trade Illustrated category.

Written by Angus Hyland and Angharad Lewis, the book is a study of symbolism and sensuality in contemporary art and illustration. Judges praised The Purple Book for its "combination of materials, attention to finish, the production, concept and design".

Laurence King also won the Lifestyle Illustrated category for for its book Vintage Menswear.
Skinny Weeks & Weekend Feasts by Gizzi Erskine (Quadrille) won the prize for Best Jacket or Cover Design category.

Best British Book went to From the Land Comes the Cloth (Berforts Butler Tanner & Dennis).
Winner in the Brand/Series Identity category was Hello Baby Play and Learn Playtime (Priddy Books); David Bowie is Inside (V&A Publishing) won in the Limited Edition and Fine Binding category; St Saviour's House (DG3) won in Digitally Printed Books; and iSolar System (Carlton) won in Best Use of Cross Media.

In Photographic Books, Art Architecture and Monographs, the winner was Yarrow Fine Art (Connekt Colour); in Literature, 26 Treasures (Unbound); in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education, Plays to Read (Pearson); and in Scholarly, Academic and Reference Books, The Plant Hunters (Kew Publishing).
In Children's Trade, the winner was Get into Art: Animals (Pan Macmillan).
In Exhibition Catalogues, the winner was From Death to Death and Other Small Tales (National Galleries of Scotland).

The slogan of this year's awards, given out at a ceremony in London yesterday (4th November), was "always judge a book by its cover".

The judges were MC Offer, Andy Cork, Anna Goddard, Bernie Muir, Sarah Nicholson and Rod Teasdale.