The Alcuin Society is pleased to announce that this year, the presentation of our Annual Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada will be part of a special one day symposium dedicated to printed and electronic book.
Thursday October 18, 2012
Library Square, Vancouver Public Library
Conference starts 9 am, awards presentation ends 9 pm
Headlining our symposium is celebrated designer
Chip Kidd, who will be the featured presenter of The Alcuin Society 2011 Book Design Awards. Mr. Kidd lives in New York City and Stonington, Connecticut. He is the co-author and designer of the two-time Eisner award-winning book
Batman Animated. His book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he is associate art director, have helped spark a revolution in the art of American book packaging. His new book is
Batman: Death by Design.
In addition, we will have eight other speakers addressing the state of the art of the book.
- Marian Bantjes, is a designer, artist and writer working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of British Columbia, near Vancouver. Marian is known for her custom typography, detailed and lovingly precise vector art, her obsessive hand work, her patterning and ornament. She was an Alcuin judge in our competition for the year 2009, and she will speak on ornamentation in books.
- Peter Cocking will speak on the life of a book designer. He has since 2002 focused on book and typographic design as the art director of D&M Publishers, the publishers of Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone Books. Peter is the recipient of more than 40 awards for his design work, and as art director has led D&M to more design awards than any other Canadian publisher.
- Crispin Elsted of Barbarian Press, one of the finest private presses in Canada and perhaps all the world, will speak on the subject of private press printing. Barbarian Press was established in 1977 in Kent, England, where Jan & Crispin Elsted worked with Graham Williams at the Florin Press. They returned to their native Canada in 1978 and set up shop in Mission, British Columbia, about 50 miles east of Vancouver in the Fraser Valley.
- Selma Zafar is a senior user experience designer at OpenRoad Communications in Vancouver, with over 10 years experience in designing innovative and usable software and hardware. She will speak to the usability of the printed book.
- Eric Menninga has over 20 years of experience programming software for the Macintosh and PC. Currently a developer at Amazon, he was previously with Adobe Systems, Inc. for 19 years. He will speak on the technology of ebooks.
- Shelley Gruendler, a graphic designer, typographer, and a recent addition to the Alcuin Society board, is the founding director of Type Camp. Shelley holds a PhD and an MA in The History and Theory of Typography and Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, England and a Bachelor of Environmental Design in Graphic Design from North Carolina State University, USA. She will speak on typography in the historical book.
- Kevin Larson is Researcher Microsoft Advanced Reading Technologies. He received his PhD in cognitive psychology in 2000 from the University of Texas at Austin. His academic research was on word recognition and reading acquisition. Among other speaking engagements, he has spoken at ATypI 2003 in Vancouver, at ATypI 2007 in Brighton, and at ATypI 2009 in Mexico City. His presentation will discuss the science of reading ebooks.
This event will feature the live music of Paul Gregory.
The Alcuin Society Annual Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada is the only national competition of its kind that recognizes and celebrates the art of book design in Canada. The Society is very proud of its winners, who represent Canada at the international exhibits and competition at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs held annually in Germany, among other exhibition venues around the world.
The Alcuin Society invites you to join us in celebrating the 30th anniversary of its awards with this day-long symposium, THE { New / Old } BOOK. Extra special thanks go to Shelley Gruendler for her key role coordinating this event, the scope of which is without precedent in the history of our awards. This diverse gathering of minds is sure to be enlightening experience you won't want to miss!
Alcuin Society Members + Students: $100 / Public: $150
For those wishing to pay by cash or cheque, please email
info@alcuinsociety.com to make arrangements.
We recommend early registration, as spaces are limited.
Update! 25 new student tickets have been released for sale!
Click
here for a PDF Flyer.
For more information, contact
info@alcuinsociety.com
