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The Thames & Hudson Award for Book Design: 2024 Winners
Posted on 20 Dec 2024The Thames & Hudson Award for Book Design celebrates not just our 75th anniversary, but the importance and value of all areas of book design, including covers and jackets, interior layouts and illustration style. Here are the winners of this year’s competition.
About the award
As part of our 75th birthday celebrations in 2024, we invited students of design or illustration to complete a book design brief in one of four categories: Art, History, Photography and Children’s Books.
Undergraduate and master’s degree students from a range of art and design colleges across the UK and Ireland submitted their work, which was judged by a panel composed of award-winning creative director Astrid Stavro, graphic designer Fraser Muggeridge, and design agency director and Professor of Communication at the Royal College of Art, Neville Brody.
The Jury President and Chair of Thames & Hudson Publishing, Johanna Neurath, said: ‘We’re thrilled to see this initiative take off, inspiring creative minds who share our passion for the printed book, beyond the cover design.’
The briefs came from books already published by Thames & Hudson and are similar to live briefs that the in-house design team work with. Final text and images (where appropriate) were provided for students to use in their designs.
The winning design by Sarah Goon, reimagining ‘If I had a dinosaur’ by Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow
The winners
The overall winner is Sarah Goon from the University of Lincoln for her charming design and illustration (above) for the picture book by Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow, If I Had a Dinosaur. Sarah’s work is described by the Jury as possessing ‘great energy, invention and constantly moving relation to the page itself.’
In second place is Camron Evans from Glasgow School of Art. Camron reimagines Stephen Ellcock’s The Cosmic Dance, in work (below) the Jury described as ‘strong, well-designed book design that balances image, word and graphic element in a dynamic editorial layout.’
The second place design by Cameron Evans, reimagining 'The Cosmic Dance’ by Stephen Ellcock
Two runners-up were also announced:
Sheffield Hallam University’s Jasmin Von Schreiber’s entry was remarked on for its ‘inventiveness with “the form of the book”’ in a submission that imagined a design for photography title The Unseen Saul Leiter.
Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts’ Siena Yi was praised for her designs for Gabby Dawnay and Alex Barrow’s If I Had a Dinosaur, which the judges described as ‘wonderfully fun and exuberant.’
The runner up designs: Jasmin Von Schreiber's design for 'The Unseen Saul Leiter' (Right) and Siena Yi's design for ‘If I had a dinosaur’ (Left)
The prize
The overall winner will receive a certificate, Pantone set and a voucher from Klim Type Foundry to the value of £500 (or Euro equivalent), and a monetary prize of £400 (or Euro equivalent).
The second-place winner will receive a certificate, as well as a monetary prize of £100 (or Euro equivalent), and £150 worth of Thames & Hudson Ltd books.
The highly commended students will each receive a certificate and a monetary prize of £50 (or Euro equivalent), and £100 worth of Thames & Hudson Ltd books.
The prize will be awarded at a welcome ceremony at our new London offices near King’s Cross, following our move into the former Gagosian Gallery space on Britannia Street in Spring 2025.