About Us
Mission Statement
ABDA exists to support Australian book designers – to promote their work to, and connect with, the broader publishing community. In addition, we aim to discover and foster emerging talent. Through our public talks and workshops, digital showcases and the national annual Book Design Awards, ABDA provides a dynamic network for industry professionals.
This website, launched in October 2015, provides an online hub for the community. Offering news, forums, educational events and a searchable archive of each year’s award categories, it is an invaluable resource for present and future Australian designers.
ABDA exists to serve its members. We encourage feedback and suggestions, please email us with ideas and feedback about events, blog posts or anything else you’d like to see more or less of.
Committee Members
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George Saad
PresidentDesigner
George is a freelance book designer and the recipient of the Emerging Designer’s Award, 2022. He loves type, and gets inspiration from film and other media. He is interested in blending the traditional world of books with more modern media.
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Josh Durham
Vice-PresidentDesign by Committee
Josh worked in magazine design before setting up his company Design by Committee under the mentorship of Australian book design luminary W.H. Chong. He draws upon a broad skill base to offer both illustrative and concept driven solutions to literary…
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Susan Le
SecretaryDesigner, Art director & Illustrator.
Susan Le is a designer, & illustrator specialising in publication design. She was previously art director at Evi-O.studio. Books have always been her passion. She studied Visual Communications Design at UTS and has been designing and illustrating books since 2018.
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Elysia Clapin
TreasurerBook designer and illustrator
Elysia is a book designer and illustrator based in Sydney. She has worked in publishing for over a decade at Pantera Press, and loves all the parts of her job - from creating covers to scribbling bespoke dinkuses. In 2020,…
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Maya Abraham
Committee MemberMarketing Designer at HarperCollins ANZ
Maya is a Sydney-based graphic designer having joined HarperCollins Design Studio in 2021, and specialising in crafting compelling marketing materials for book releases. As a Marketing Designer, Maya takes pride in her diverse design skills working with digital ads to…
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Casey Schuurman
Committee Member
Book Designer, Lettering Artist & Illustrator
Based in Castlemaine, Victoria, Casey is a
freelance designer with a love for all things print.
Her background is in hand-lettering/illustration
as well as magazine design at Frankie Press.
She is however, most passionate about the
book design space and over the last few years
has begun working more predominantly on
illustrated books — cookbooks, lifestyle and
craft books — where she can best use her
visual expertise. -
Emi Chiba
Committee Member
Book Designer
Emi Chiba is a Sydney-based designer whose curiosity has been piqued by the wondrous world of publishing. In 2021, Emi graduated from University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) with a BA Design in Visual Communications and a BA in International Studies. Now a Midweight Designer, Emi has found a design calling in blurring the beauty and the accessibility–a golden touch in commercial publishing. She believes that books can be objects of art, and that this philosophy is integral to the future of publishing design. -
Kait Polkinghorne
Committee Member
Book Designer
Kait is a designer and illustrator based on
Gadigal land (Sydney, Australia) who specialises
in fully-illustrated books. She started her career
at Evi-O.Studio, where she learnt the craft of
book design & illustration and working on over
thirty titles during her time there. In 2024 she was runner up for the Deb Brash Emerging Designer of the Year Award. -
Zara Olifent
Committee Member
Production Coordinator, Text Publishing
Zara currently works as Text Publishing’s
production coordinator in Melbourne. She was
an editorial and publishing assistant at Te Papa
Press of New Zealand’s national museum. She
has over six years experience in communitybased
exhibition and coordination experience and
is a keen printmaker, photographer, and amateur
letterpress printer. -
Eloise Myatt
Committee Member
Designer, Evi-O Studio
Eloise is a designer and illustrator from Gadigal land in Sydney. After working as a brand designer at Re, for the past ten months she has been at Evi-O.Studio working on cookbooks and lifestyle books. While she is new to the industry, she isn’t new to books—she was a bookseller at Kinokuniya where she developed a love for publication design. -
Thomas Deverall
Committee Member
Manager, Graphic Design Projects, NGV
Thomas has been a graphic designer – with an emphasis on publication and editorial design – for almost two decades and most recently as Manager, Graphic Design Projects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He works alongside artists, curators, illustrators, typographers, designers and printers to create the beautiful books that the NGV is well known for. Prior to working at the NGV, he was the inhouse designer at Black Inc. where he designed covers and internals for a wide range of trade titles including memoir, poetry, fiction and non-fiction. -
Anja Clausius
Committee Member (Student)
Anja Clausius is an emerging designer working, studying, and creating in Sydney / on Gadigal Land. Fascinated by the complexities and delights that come with typography, publication design, artistic direction, motion, and coding, I seek to evolve forms of communication through digital and physical means. Much of my work is informed by my love for knitting, the cinema, and natural landscapes. Connection between art, environment, and the individual is central in my life, and my creations.