Photographer and designer Neil Pardington scooped the pool in the Spectrum Design Awards announced today.

Neil won Best Book and Best Cover for his designs for Shane Cotton (written by Lara Strongman, published by City Gallery Wellington and Victoria University Press). In fact, he featured in every category of the awards, with commendations in Best Book and Best Typography categories for Icons (Te Papa Press) and in the Use of Illustration category for Shane Cotton.

The award for Best Typography went to Jacqui Colley for Clubs by Colley and Kate De Goldi, published by Trapeze (a fantastic book, especially for those of you with daughters that are NOT into Barbies). Best Use of Illustration went to Carl Bland and Margaret Cochran for The Night Kite, written by Peter Bland (Mallinson Rendel).

Another hugely featured book was Welcome to the South Seas by Greg O’Brien, which was highly commended in three categories – Best Book, Typography and Cover.

The three winners and five highly commended books were chosen from 146 entries. Huge congratulations from LeafSalon to all of you. It was extra exciting for us too, as Chris’s book Vantastic – A Pictorial History of Caravans in New Zealand has been designed by Neil P's Base Two design company. But again, more about that later …

The judging panel included Dorothy Vinicombe, book promotions manager for the Whitcoulls Group; Philip Mathews, arts and books editor and assistant editor for the New Zealand Listener; and Sean McGarry, Creative Director and a partner at Base Two design agency in Wellington. The awards are run by Book Publishers Association of New Zealand.