ABCD crowns 10 winners at annual book design awards

The Academy of British Cover Design, better known as ABCD, hosted its annual awards last night on 23rd September in Hoxton, east London, with awards in 10 categories handed out to book designers.

Freelance designer David Pearson picked up two awards, for Series Design and Classics/Reissues. His winning titles were John le Carré's Smiley Collection (Penguin), for Series Design, and Aristotle's One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer, from Penguin's Great Ideas series, which won the Classics award.

Micaela Alcaino won the Young Adult award for her design for Jordan Ifueko's Raybearer (Hot Key), while Jack Smyth took the Sci-fi/Fantasy gong with his cover for Sarah Pinsker's A Song for a New Day (Head of Zeus). The Children's awards were won by Paula Burgess—her design for Pug Hug by Zehra Hicks, issued by Hodder Children's, took the 0-5 prize—and Holly Ovenden, whose The Acrobats of Agra by Robin Scott Elliot, published by Everything with Words, won the 6-12 category.

In fiction, there were wins for Jamie Keenan, Ben Prior and Anna Morrison, who won the Literary Fiction, Crime/Thriller and Mass-Market categories respectively. The winning designs were for: Joyce Carol Oates' Night Sleep Death (Fourth Estate); Sebastian Fitzek's The Package (Head of Zeus); and Margarita Montimore's The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart (Gollancz). Fourth Estate's Jo Thomson took the Non-fiction award for her work on Hallie Rubenhold's The Five (Black Swan).

The awards, run by freelance designers Keenan and Jon Gray, invited submissions from across the industry, inclduing self-published and digital-only titles. The designs were then adjudicated by a 10-strong committee, comprising: Orion art director Charlotte Abrams-Simpson; Faber & Faber senior designer Pete Adlington; Welbeck Publishing Group art director Alex Allden; SPCK senior designer Richard Augustus; Penguin senior designer Chris Bentham; freelance designer Luke Bird; Simon & Schuster senior art director Jane Buckley; Penguin Random House senior designer Ceara Elliot; Penguin Press designer Tom Etherington; and Nosy Crow head of design Nia Roberts. Each judge selected their favourite covers in 10 categories, creating the genres’ respective finalists, which were unveiled on the evening for attendees to choose the overall winners.

The shortlists, revealed on the night, were led in the design stakes by four freelance designers. Pearson claimed six nominations—including three in the Series Design field, for The Great Camus, series six of The Great Ideas (both Allen Lane) and The Smiley Collection (Penguin). Morrison was nominated across five separate categories, while Steve Leard received three nods, all in Non-fiction, alongside Ovenden. This year Ovenden was named as one of The Bookseller's Rising Stars alongside fellow winner Alcaino, as well as being shortlisted for Designer of the Year at the British Book Awards, alongside Pearson, Prior and Morrison. Lauren Wakefield, a designer at Penguin, also claimed three ABCD nominations.

There were two shortlistings apiece for Penguin's Bentham, Bloomsbury's Greg Heinimann, Pushkin Press' Jo Walker, Doubleday's Beci Kelly and Hachette Children's Group's Paula Burgess, as well as for freelances Keenan and Luke Bird.

Penguin's Jim Stoddart was credited with the art direction for seven of the shortlisted titles, and Fourth Estate's Julian Humphreys the art direction of four. This largely followed the rub for imprints: Penguin's Allen Lane list led the way with five shortlistings, followed by Fourth Estate with four. 

To see all shortlisted designs, visit abcoverd.co.uk.