VANCOUVER—Sometimes it's OK to judge a book by its cover... or its pages.

The Alcuin Society has announced the winners of its 30th annual Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada.

The full list of winners is below.


Here are the winners in respective categories:

CHILDREN

• First prize: Michael Solomon, designer of A Few Blocks, by Cybèle Young (Groundwood Books)
• Second prize: Marie-Ève Boisvert, designer of Billy Stuart, by Alain M. Bergeron & Sampar (Samuel Parent) (Éditions Michel Quintin)
• Third prize: Teresa Bubela, designer of Wellington's Rainy Day, by Carolyn Beck & Brooke Kerrigan (Orca Book Publishers)
• Honourable mention: Michael Solomon, designer of City Numbers, by Joanne Schwartz & Matt Beam (Groundwood Books).

LIMITED EDITIONS

• First prize (tie): Michael Torosian, designer of Steichen: Eduard et Voulangis, by Michael Torosian & Howard Greenberg (Howard Greenberg Gallery / Lumiere Press)
• First prize (tie): Nicolas Menard, designer of Colorimétrie, by Nicolas Ménard (Nicolas Ménard)
• First prize (tie): Elizabeth Beaudoin, designer of Book of Poetry, ou, Recueil de poésie, by Elizabeth Beaudoin (self published)
• Honourable mentions: George Walker, designer of The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, by George A. Walker (George A. Walker), and Emanuel Cohen, designer of PTTx Archive & Correspondance, by Emanuel Cohen (self published).

PICTORIAL

• First prize: Jessica Sullivan, designer of Kesu' : the Art and Life of Doug Cranmer, by Jennifer Kramer (Douglas & McIntyre  / Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia / University of Washington Press)
• Second prize: Peter Cocking, designer of Fred Herzog Photographs, by Claudia Gochmann, Sarah Milroy, Jeff Wall & Douglas Coupland (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Third prize: Nicole LaFond, designer of Richard-Max Tremblay: Portrait, by André Lamarre (les éditions du passage)
• Honourable mention: Jennifer Lum, designer of Two Generals, by Scott Chantler (McClelland & Stewart).

POETRY

• First prize: Andrew Steeves, designer of Curious Masonry, by Christopher Patton (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers)
• Second prize: Leah Springate, designer of Folk, by Jacob McArthur Mooney (McClelland & Stewart)
• Third prize: Mark Goldstein, designer of Killdeer, by Phil Hall (BookThug)
• Honourable mentions: Marvin Harder, designer of Wild Horses, by Rob McLennan, and Andrew Steeves, designer of Incitements, by Sean Howard (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers).

PROSE FICTION

• First prize: Peter Cocking, designer of The Man Who Killed, by Fraser Nixon (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Second prize: CS Richardson, designer of Natural Order, by Brian Francis (Doubleday Canada)
• Third prize (tie): CS Richardson, designer of Various Positions, by Martha Schabas (Doubleday Canada)
• Third prize (tie): Leigh-Anne Mullock, designer of Tubers, by Mark Jowett (Read Leaf)
• Honourable mentions: Marike Paradis, designer of À toi, by Kim Thúy & Pascal Janovjak (Libre Expression), and Peter Cocking, designer of The Return, by Dany Laferrière (Douglas & McIntyre).

PROSE NON-FICTION

• First prize: UNDERLINE STUDIO, designers of Blast/Counterblast, edited by Anthony Elms & Steve Reinke (Mercer Union/Whitewalls)
• Second prize: JESSICA SULLIVAN, designer of King, by Allan Levine (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Third prize: ALAN BROWNOFF, designer of The Sasquatch at Home, by Eden Robinson (The University of Alberta Press / Canadian Literature Centre)
• Honourable mention: ANDREW STEEVES, designer of The Shell of the Tortoise by Don McKay (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers).

PROSE NON-FICTION ILLUSTRATED

• First prize: Roberto Dosil, designer of Selling Canada, by Daniel Francis (Stanton Atkins & Dosil)
• Second prize: Jessica Sullivan, designer of Undesirables, by Ali Kazimi (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Third prize: Naomi MacDougall, designer of Prairie, a Natural History, by Candace Savage (Greystone Books)
• Honourable mention: Derek Barnett, designer of Vancouver Anthology, edited by Stan Douglas (Talonbooks / OR Gallery).

REFERENCE

• First prize: Diane (Yee) Robertson, designer of Hoopla, the Art of Unexpected Embroidery, by Leanne Prain (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Second prize: Jeff Kulak, designer of The Learn to Speak Series, by John Crossingham & Ann-Marie Williams (Owlkids Books)
• Third prize: Mike Mouland, designer of Republic of Doyle, by Kerri MacDonald (Flanker Press).

This year's judges, Stan Bevington, Ingrid Paulson, and Bonne Zabolotney, selected 35 winning titles from 252 entries, from nine provinces and 103 publishers, according to Alcuin, which noted the winning books will also be entered in the international book design competition in Leipzig, Germany in February 2013.

Meanwhile, The Stiftung Buchkunst, based in Frankfurt, Germany, curators of the international exhibition Best Book Design From All Over The World at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, selected the 2012 award winners (from books published in 2010) during an international competition on February 3-4, 2012, noted Alcuin. Alcuin noted that of 540 books submitted by 31 countries, 14 prizes were selected and five books by Canadian designers were shortlisted.

Those designers and publishers include:
 

• Marvin Harder, designer (Montreal, QC) of Relations on Southeastern Hudson Bay by Toby Morantz (Avataq Cultural Institute)
• Emmelyne Pornillos (1218A) & Laurie Castilloux-Bouchard, designers (Montreal, QC) of The Conservation, Restoration and Repair of Stringed Instruments and Their Bows edited by Tom Wilder & Aurèle Parisien (IPCI-Canada)
• Jessica Sullivan & Naomi Macdougall, designers (Vancouver, BC) of The Little Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas.

The 37 Canadian books on exhibit were submitted by The Alcuin Society to the Stiftung and were winners of the 2010 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada held in March 2011, noted the society, which added that the collection has been donated to the German Book and Type Museum in Leipzig.
 
The Alcuin Society is a Vancouver-based non-profit society for the "support and appreciation of fine books."

More images of the books can be found at Jason Vanderhill's Flickr page.