UAP designers win an Alcuin…or four

The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada honours the best designed books in several categories: Children’s books; Limited Editions; Pictorial; Poetry; Prose Fiction; Illustrated Prose Fiction; Prose Non-fiction; Illustrated Prose Non-fiction; and Reference books. We are very proud to announce that our own Alan Brownoff and Marvin Harder placed in four of these categories for the following UAP titles.

Third Prize in Alcuin’s Reference category, Marvin Harder for The Freshwater Fishes of British Columbia by J.D. McPhail, illustrated by D.L. McPhail

First Prize in Alcuin’s Illustrated Prose Non-fiction, Alan Brownoff for Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park edited by I.S. MacLaren

Second Prize in Alcuin’s Prose Non-fiction, Alan Brownoff for Great Canadian Film Directors edited by George Melnyk

Third Prize in Alcuin’s Pictorial category, Alan Brownoff for Dressed to Rule by John E. Vollmer

This year’s judges were Sue Colberg, Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Art & Design at the University of Alberta); Jason Dewinetz (Greenboathouse Books, Vernon, BC), book designer, publisher, teacher; and, Tim Inkster (The Porcupine’s Quill, Erin, ON), book designer, typographer, and press printer. Their criteria were simple:

The fundamental principle of the judging process is that each book must be considered as a total entity. The judges examine every aspect of each book, including the dust jacket, binding, endpapers, half-title page, copyright page, title page, page layout, typography, integration of illustrations, chapter openings, running heads, reproduction of illustrations, clarity of printing, choice of paper, footnotes, and bibliographical references.

Winning books will be entered in the international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany, February 2009. For a full report of the Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, visit their website.

Congratulations Alan and Marvin!