The winner of the Two Dogs Young Visual Designer Cover Competition 2010, to create the cover for the upcoming title Zuma’s Bastard by Azad Essa, is Saaleha Idrees Bamjee. Congratulations to Saaleha from Two Dogs and the judging team.
It was an incredibly tight race, with Saaleha’s submission just pipping one other entry. Ultimately it was decided that the winning design “epitomises Azad’s writing and all that the book is”.
The author, one of six judges to make the final decision, was particularly pleased with the decision. “When I first saw this entry, I thought, ‘Oh my crack, this cover is going to be hard to beat!’” he commented during the judging process. “It goes in with all guns – or is that USBs? – blazing. There is something special about it and my instinct tells me to roll with it. It is my first-choice, but at the same time there is the concern that it’s a dangerous-looking cover.”
Tim Richman, publishing manager of Two Dogs, notes that this was a closely considered factor: “On the one hand, we had a layered, technically excellent design from another designer that was well received, and then we had this edgy, funky, raw and very smart entry from Saaleha. The former was the safe option; this was the let’s-give-them-something-to-talk-about option. And ultimately we decided that this was more in keeping with the feel of the book and our whole approach to the project. Like Azad’s writing, we expect it to be divisive and intriguing, controversial and engaging.
“This is not a traditional book – it is a blog and a book and an attitude all rolled into one. Essentially it is the manifesto of a dynamic young South African with important things to say and it needs a striking and provocative cover to say as much. In Saaleha’s entry we have exactly that.”
The winner
On submission, designers were asked to provide a rationale for their entries. Explained Saaleha: “The concept behind this cover is to put the focus on the ‘desktop’ nature of the author’s activism, which is why the sub-title has been typeset in a font similar to the Twitter logo. Capping Azad’s gun with a USB drive speaks to the irreverence of his work, as well as further emphasising this idea of desktop activism/terrorism.”
Saaleha describes herself as a “freelance wordworker/print designer/idea girl who’s in to writing, rhyming, blogging, paper-crafting, cooking and peaktime-traffic-karaoke”. She blogs at www.saaleha.com.
The Runners-up
Other shortlisted entries were provided by Shubnum Khan, Fatima Cassim and Yusuf Dajee. The judges wish to thank them for the efforts. Shortlisted entries will be exhibited at the launch of the book, and these designers will all receive a signed copy of the book.
The competition details
The Two Dogs Young Visual Designer Cover Competition offers a cash prize of R2,500 and a trade cover credit for the designer who creates the winning cover, as well as media exposure for the winner and runners up.
For the competition, designers were asked to create the cover for the upcoming Zuma’s Bastard, the first collection of writing from Essa, which includes pieces from and inspired by his blog, the Accidental Academic, winner of South Africa’s Best Political Blog award 2009. A Facebook page was created for the title, where the public could vote for the shortlist. To encourage participation five voters stood the chance of winning signed copies of the book – winners are to be informed later this week. Currently, there are 2,156 members of the group. See www.facebook.com/Zumasbastard.
The final judges of the competition were: Azad Essa, author of Zuma’s Bastard; Tim Richman, publishing manager of Two Dogs books; Fathima Paruk, marketing manager on the project; Shay Heydenrych, head of sales at Jacana Media, the book’s distributor; Francois Pretorius, current pictures editor at House & Leisure magazine and previous Two Dogs cover designer; and Two Dogs designer Christoff van Wyk, who is designing the page layout on this project.
Please contact Fathima Paruk at fathaz@gmail.com for competition queries or to request information on the winning and shortlisted entries.
No comments:
Post a Comment