What does Australia’s best designed book look like? According to The Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing jury… ‘a humble brown paperback’ – complete with drilled holes!

We’re talking about To Note: Notation Across Disciplines, which was last night awarded top honours (and a $15,000 prize!) at the Melbourne Design Week announcement event. Congrats to local legends  Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen, along with publisher Perimeter Editions!

Summarised as ‘notes on notetaking’, the exemplary book was created during a five-day workshop at RMIT where 25 dancers, designers, artists, and architects came together explore the significance of notation in their creative fields.

‘What really interested us in To Note: Notation Across Disciplines was the theme – notation in contemporary practice – and its creative translation into the book form,’ says publisher Dan Rule of Perimeter Editions. ‘It’s a theme that hasn’t been explored very widely, nor translated into such a succinct, economical and cohesive book-object.’

To Note: Notation Across Disciplines impressed judges with its unique, inclusive design. Notably, for its manuscript, only the front (recto) pages were typeset, leaving back (verso) pages blank for a series of new notations that authors added throughout the workshop – keeping the themes and ideas discussed alive!

‘Perimeter Editions really tries to involve itself from the ground up in every project it publishes. We’re very much interested in developing a book as a collaborative, cohesive work,’ added Dan. ‘All parties need to be on the same page’ (no pun intended!)

Stuart Geddes and Žiga Testen have just opened up a new studio in Carlton, which will house a permanent exhibition space during Melbourne Design Week for publishing and graphic design exhibitions, as well as a coffee shop and store selling Perimeter books.

Book-, Coffee-, Print-, Work- Shop,
225 Queensbury Street
Carlton, Victoria

Perimeter Books
48 High Street
Thornbury, Victoria

The prize announcement ties in with Melbourne Art Book Fair. View the full Melbourne Design Week program at Ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week.