Reuben Crossman was awarded the Lamb Print Best Designed Book of the Year award for Movida (Frank Camorra & Richard Cornish, Murdoch Books) at the 2008 Australian Publishers Association's (APA) Book Design Awards in Sydney on Thursday.

Crossman was also named the Hachette Livre Australia Young Designer of the Year, and took home the Kinokuniya prize for Best Designed Cookbook for Movida.

Another young designer making multiple trips to the podium was Daniel New, who won both the McPherson's Printing Group Best Designed Cover and the Better Read Than Dead Bookshop Best Designed Nonfiction Book for Gravity Sucks (Maggie Alderson, Penguin), as well as the Murdoch Books Best Designed General Illustrated Book for Maggie's Harvest (Maggie Beer, Lantern).

UQP publisher Madonna Duffy also made three trips to the stage to collect awards, two on behalf of Stella Danalis, who won the Hardie Grant Egmont Best Designed Children's Book Cover and Bloomin' Book Best Designed Children's Fiction Book for Bronco, Fi, Maddie & Me (Pauline Luke, UQP), and once for Robert Klinkhamer, who won the HarperCollins Best Designed Reference & Scholarly Book for Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia (Paul Memmott, UQP).

In educational publishing design Cengage took a trifecta, having published the winning books in the Best Designed Primary Education Book category (Finding a Place: Italian Migration to Australia, Carmel Reilly); the Best Designed Secondary Education Book category (Esplora! 1, Margherita Chezzi); and Best Designed Tertiary and Further Education Book category (Communicating as Professionals, Terry Mohan et al).

The awards were presented by comedian, television presenter and sometime author Tony Squires, who kept the audience amused until attendees retired upstairs to celebrate with drinks, canapés and a showbag including the best designed book of the year.

For the full list of winners visit the APA website.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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