BRITISH BOOK DESIGN AND PRODUCTION AWARDS 2008

Once again, the panel made its way to Oxford
Brookes University for two days of judging
frenzy. Our thanks, as ever, are extended to
Adrian Bullock and his team for all their hard work in
administering the Awards. Thanks should also be extended
to Heena Bulsara and her colleagues at the BPIF who have
orchestrated the Awards event.
As far as the judging process is concerned, a few
changes were made over previous years. It was felt that
the category including both Photographic Books and
Exhibition Catalogues attracted an extremely high number
of entries, so this year they were separated into two.
This did not make the judging any easier, however, as the
standard of entries in both categories was incredibly high.
The judging panel included specialists from print,
production and design companies as well as from the retail
sector, ensuring input from widely differing ends of the
industry. It should be noted that a judge who had active
participation in the production of an entry was obliged not
to comment on that book. Any subsequent shortlisting
of a title connected to any member of the panel was as
6
INTRODUCTION
the result of the judging process by the remaining panel
members only.
As in previous years competition was fierce and
challenging with a record number of entries, especially in
the Best Jacket / Cover Design section. Publishers are very
aware that their covers need to work extremely hard in a
challenging retail environment and they are committing
ever-increasing resources to ensure that cover designs
are distinctive and eye-catching. It is pleasing to see that
in many cases spines are also receiving the attention they
deserve – for the vast majority of books the spine is the
only portion visible to the browsing public.
The panel was excited to see that finally strides are
being made in the field of digital print enabled book
production. Here digital print technology is being used to
great effect to offer new, old, niche and even personalised
titles to the consumer. Overall this enriches and in some
instances revolutionises the supply and production of books.
The digital revolution can only increase as the years pass.
A new category added this year was the Environmental
Award. Here judges were looking for publications that