Awards Book Archive

Girt
  • Shortlisted

Designed by
Peter Long
Category
Best Designed Non-Fiction Book
Year
2014
Publisher
Black Inc.

About the Designer

Peter has been designing books for more than fifteen years, and until recently was Senior Designer at Black Inc.Books and the Art Director of The Monthly magazine. Before books he designed mostly for stage and film. He is also a filmmaker; the short film A Telephone Call for Genevieve Snow, which he wrote and directed, won the Silver Lion for the best short film at the Venice Film Festival.  …

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Design Rationale

Girt is a humorous history of the colonisation of Australia, which highlights the ineptitude of the early settlers. I have sometimes admired this portrait of Governor Phillip, with his vague gaze into the middle distance, so I thought I would modify it so that he stood, lost, girt by sea, and give him an avian companion. At the author’s request I allowed the seagull to sully his dignity even further. The page design was done in a mock-period style (the text has many footnotes).

Details
Dimensions
153 x 234 mm
No. pages
286
Credits
Internal Design
Peter Long
Author
David Hunt