No surprises at the Spectrum Print Book Design Awards last night: the photo book Central, designed by Athena Sommerfeld for Penguin, won best Book, Best Cover and Best Typography.

The other key contender, New Home Cooking designed by by Peter Roband of pHd3 for Random House, failed to win a category.

There's no information to be found on Athena Sommerfeld, designer of Central. The book is a journey through Central Otago featuring the photographs of Arno Gasteiger, an Auckland-based freelance photographer specialising in location shots. Gasteiger moved to New Zealand from Austria in 1988, and soon became the main lensman for New Zealand Geographic magazine.

In 1995 Gasteiger won the Cathay Pacific Photographer of the Year award, and in 1997 the American Express Photographer of the Year award.

The Best Use of Illustrations gong was won by Oh Hogwash, Sweet Pea! This was illustrated by Ali Teo and Astrid Jensen for Huia Publishers. And it's not the first local award for Ngareta Gabel's book: in May this year, it won the Children's Choice Award at the New Zealand Post Book Awards.