Young Design­ers Short­l­is­ted for Award

Graphic design­ers Sarah Healey, Kalee Jack­son and Keely O’Shannessy make up this year’s Publisher's Asso­ci­ation of New Zea­l­and (PANZ) Awa Press Young Designer of the Year Award short­l­ist. To enter the awards, design­ers under 35 years of age present a port­fo­lio of book designs. These are judged on artistic merit, innov­a­tion of form and appro­pri­ate­ness to the inten­ded mar­ket. The judges par­tic­u­larly look for con­sist­ent design across a whole port­fo­lio, which all three short­l­is­ted design­ers demonstrated.

Sarah Healey is a freel­ance designer based in Auck­land. She enjoys present­ing inform­a­tion in an “access­ible and visu­ally excit­ing way”, often using innov­at­ive typo­graphy. Healey is par­tic­u­larly exper­i­enced in the area of children’s pub­lish­ing, and last year one of her designs was highly com­men­ded in the PANZ Book Design Awards Best Children’s Book category.

Kalee Jack­son is in-house designer for the Govett-Brewster Art Gal­lery in New Ply­mouth. Her work is in design­ing books to accom­pany exhib­i­tions for artists such as Fran­cis Upritchard and Len Lye. Jack­son exper­i­ments with bold col­our use and pack­aging techniques.

Keely O’Shannessy is a freel­ance graphic designer, also based in Auck­land. She has pre­vi­ously worked as a mul­ti­me­dia designer and video artist. In 2006 she began freel­ance design work and fell in love with design­ing books. Since then, pub­lish­ing work has become increas­ingly cent­ral to her practice.

The win­ner of the Awa Press Young Designer of the Year Award will be announced at the Publisher’s Asso­ci­ation of New Zea­l­and Book Design Awards cere­mony in Auck­land on 22 July. See a gal­lery of final­ists' designs here.

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