For the 27th annual Pub Comp, AAM asked the museum community to shoot for the moon, and we received a constellation of more than 1,000 entries. Our judges spent a long, exhilarating day combing through designs in 15 categories—from books to posters to marketing materials.

Here are the results of the sometimes heated debates, including the best-in-show and first-prize winners, along with judges’ comments. For the full list of winners, visit www.aam-us.org—and check out the website again next January for information on the 2008 competition.

The 2007 Pub Comp judges were:

Bennett DeOlazo, creative director, Studio B, Alexandria, Va.

W. Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.

Jane Lusaka, editor, Freer Gallery and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
Washington, D.C.

Judy Metro, editor-in-chief, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Rodney Williams, president, RCW Communications Design, Alexandria, Va.

Robert Wiser, art director, Archetype Press, Silver Spring, Md.

Jane Lusaka

Readers who believe all Pub Comp judges adhere to the same design philosophy should have heard this year’s discussion about the Franny winner. Yes, things got a little heated toward the end of judging day. What was more worthy of reward? The classically designed book, with beautiful images and flawless construction but few surprises, or the risk-taker, the catalogue with a groundbreaking design whose construction left a little to be desired? Two teams of judges, two sides of an argument, one decision to make. “That book will fall apart,” noted one of the judges about the risk-taker. Ah, but look at the rich black color of the pages, the crisp white captions, the vibrant photographs, the way the curves on the cover are repeated within the text in the interior. (Can you tell which one I liked?)

The judges decided to reward the risk taker, the Guggenheim exhibition catalogue Zaha Hadid, which beautifully represents the architect’s work. The decision was the right one, for if there was one unfortunate trend this year it was opting for the safe over the innovative. Time and time again, judges said, “If only this museum had done just a little bit more.”

On these pages, you’ll see work from other museums that decided to take a chance. Beautiful Suffering features photographs of people in pain—not an easy topic for designer or reader. Yet the catalogue is stunning in its stillness. Dario Robleto: Chrysanthemum Anthems invites readers to lift tabs to see the artwork underneath—an interactive option in a print format. And it wasn’t just those with large budgets—Just Above Water: Michael Platt experimented brilliantly with textured paper on a smaller budget.

Some considerations for 2008: The winning press kits included all press materials, not just folders; judges should see everything a reporter would. We saw catalogues with wonderful covers but uninspiring interiors and vice versa. How many readers are likely to read a book if the cover pushes them away? A consistent look throughout should be the goal—yes, even among the risk takers.

Judy Metro

Even though the winners are chosen in the Span of one day, I find it can take weeks to sort out the lingering questions that are raised in the course of this process. The day begins with judging posters and concludes with the best-in-show award, the Franny; these are the only two events that involve the jurors as a group, typically in good-natured debate (even merriment) over the posters and in serious debate (even testiness) over the Franny. Most of the day is spent one-on-one with a lot of printed matter. During this time, I tell myself, it’s only natural that I’ll fall in love with some entries and run a temperature over others. Multiply this by six, and that’s what makes the end-of-the-day Franny debate so interesting and useful.

This year my personal favorites are the books from the University of New Mexico Museum, designed by David Skolkin. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the consistently impressive work turned out by the National Museum of African Art, which garnered top prizes in several categories.

I was fascinated by an apparent decline in the “poster-size” poster in favor of much smaller posters designed for close encounters, to judge by the amount and point size of the information, and posters that only the side of a bus can display. We actually reassigned some of the largest to the marketing category for this reason. I’m curious whether these extreme formats signal a sea change in poster design—and if so, even more curious as to why.

A challenge for all of us is fund-raising with effective print campaigns that remain true to the museum’s image. While the fund-raising prizewinners were well earned, only two of the hefty number of entries in each division merited awards (as compared to first and second prizes and awards of merit in most other categories). In one case, the same wonderful design of a museum’s educational resources, posters and exhibition catalogue was so revved up in the fund-raising materials that it went plain slick.

Some would argue that this is necessary—how else to attract money? I think museums have enough panache to attract potential donors without wholesale adoption of corporate techniques—but then, I’m not a fund-raiser.

The Franny went to a gorgeously seductive book, but one marred, some of us thought, by a perfect rather than smyth-sewn binding. In a lingering debate with myself, I felt the binding issue was a red herring for a deeper concern, one also at the heart of the fund-raising materials: To what extent does the museum shine through and maintain a recognizable presence in a publication? To what extent is it truly a museum publication; to what extent is its appeal dictated by the museum rather than for it? At least for this competition, I favor that being a prime consideration.

 Rodney C. Williams

A well-designed book, annual report, catalogue or mailer can be very powerful. The designer uses colors, typography, images and paper stock to convey the power of design. This power was displayed in many of the items we judges reviewed.

I was very impressed with the poster series “African Visions.” The choice of image, background color, minimal typography and varying vertical and horizontal format made a unique series. The cropping and placement of the images added to the success of the posters. Another powerful poster, “The Masters Series: Jules Feiffer,” is elegant, and the content dances off it.

Often people take press kits for granted, but they cast an impression and house important information about events, people, etc. With “Botanical Wonders: The Story of the Harvard Glass Flowers,” the designer made great use of the artwork on the covers, carefully chose the interior paper stock and strategically placed the CD in an obvious location.

The power of design diminished with the press kit in the lower budget category; there were only two entries. This was very disappointing. Remember: Press kits are very important to your museum and its overall branding.

In the exhibition catalogues category, Beautiful Suffering rose to the top with its strong use of color and black-and-white photography, unique mood of typography and respect for the content.

This year’s Franny, the Guggenheim’s Zaha Hadid, is a piece of art. From the cover to the interior pages, the design concepts, pacing, layouts, treatment of photographs and unique type grids that mirror the architectural shapes make this catalogue an experience. The power of design is fully executed.

Designers, fight the powers that be. Keep pursuing your true power of design regardless of your budgets or time restraints.

 Bennett DeOlazo

The quality and standard of the submissions was impressive across all categories and budgets. Overall, the pieces seemed to be thoughtfully organized and respectful of the content. The designs were largely uncluttered and somewhat traditional in their formats.

But whether they were exhibition catalogues or collateral pieces, the submissions that clearly differentiated themselves were those that were works of art themselves—where designers carefully balanced a sensitivity to content and function with imaginative approaches to design, layout and typography. This was particularly evident in pieces where designers successfully handled difficult or unusual subject matter in approachable ways.

I was encouraged to see several standout collateral pieces produced with fairly modest production and printing budgets. Sometimes the most subtle design detail or production choice—such as a tactile paper, a judicious use of a spot color, an innovative layout grid or a slightly unusual size—produced the most memorable pieces worthy of any museum.

Ralph Eubanks

All too often, museum publication professionals allow financial limitations to impede creativity. Although having a limited budget can feel like a damper on a project, the trick is learning to make the most of your budget. Many of the successful publications in this year’s Pub Comp made the most of a limited budget. Conversely, publications with visibly larger budgets were successful by demonstrating restraint in their designs and relying on concise, clean layouts rather than pushing to the outer limits of where their budgets could take them.

Caution and restraint are important watchwords, no matter what your budget. Still, as always, I do like to see institutions take design risks by doing bold designs that fall outside of the traditional grid often seen in museum publications. Contemporary or modern art is often not well served by a traditional approach. Also, traditional art or artifacts often need a fresh approach so that we can see them in a new way. That’s why this year I was particularly taken by the books submitted by the Museum of New Mexico Press. Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures provides a fresh look at an object from Native American culture that we think we know. Stone: A Substantial Witness presents photographs of an iconic medium for art and in turn makes the photographs art.

It was also great to see a book like The Eames Lounge Chair: An Icon of Modern Design from the Grand Rapids Art Museum take a fresh approach to a subject that has been covered in other books. As with many other pieces in the competition, I was attracted to it because it demonstrated invention and restraint. And invention and restraint can make a big difference in the execution of a design, no matter what your budget.

Robert Wiser

This year’s Pub Comp submissions seem a little less lavish and perhaps a little less adventurous than their predecessors of the last few years. Whether this is symptomatic of changes in the museum climate or popular culture in general is difficult to tell. Some exceptional examples do stand out, however, and deserve special recognition.

The “African Vision” series of posters and support materials for the National Museum of African Art exhibition are simple, direct and strikingly effective. A broadside promoting education programs, for instance, opens to a beautiful photograph of an ivory hunting horn, shown in both full view and eight details, some in full-value color and others ghosted as backgrounds behind type, thus making maximal use out of minimal means.

The Guggenheim catalogue of the avant-garde Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid is quite clever. An innovative cover featuring exposed binder boards envelops a design that literally integrates type and image, with text margins following the undulating and sinuous forms of the architectural imagery.

The Museum of New Mexico Press makes a strong showing with its books Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures and Stone. The typography is spare and poetic, stripped down to understated classical essentials. The photography is brilliant and lush.

The offerings of the Yale Center for British Art are even, elegant and classy. I am particularly impressed by their beautiful calendar of events and superlative gallery guides.

And, finally, the Lux Art Institute produces work of a very high caliber that is competitive with wealthier institutions. The type treatment, photography and printing of their marketing materials are all excellent. The publications of this museum maintain a consistently high design standard that is worthy of emulation.

View a list of the winners and their winning submissions.