Awards Book Archive

Short Blacks
  • Shortlisted

Designed by
Peter Long
Category
Best Designed Series (including Classics)
Year
2016
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

The Short Blacks series (subtitled Classic Shots of Australian Writing) had a long design gestation. My first (obvious?) response was to do something black and minimal, but that was rejected because it was thought to be too cool and recessive. We tried images and no images, a lot of variations on pattern and colour with consistent type, and finally settled on a different typographical response to each piece on a consistent background. This allows each piece to have some individual character, and can be extended upon endlessly if more series are forthcoming. The twelve titles have also been packaged in a slipcase.

Details
Dimensions
111 x 181 mm
Credits
Internal Design
Peter Long
Typesetting
Tristan Main and Peter Long
Printing
Griffin Press
Author
Various