SAN LUIS OBISPO – Five Cal Poly Graphic Communication students took first, second and third place in the recent 2013 Publishing Professionals Network (PPN) book design competition. 

The five top award winners received scholarships totaling $3,250. Two other Cal Poly students won honorable mentions and took home certificates of merit. 

Seventeen books and book covers were entered in the competition, all from Cal Poly and all from a Book Design Technology course taught by graphic communication professor Brian Lawler.

“I am exceptionally proud of the work done by all the students who took the class,” Lawler said. “This was an incredible process. The students were immersed in book typography, book design and bookbinding. I remember a classroom full of students hovered over their books, needle-and-thread in-hand as they sewed signatures together, and I thought how amazing this was – literary works of art in progress.”

Melissa Hicks and Megan Racine both won first-place book design awards. Mason Field won second place for book jacket design, and Katherine Johnson won second for book design. Roseanne Bubb won third place for her book jacket design.

Gregory Givens and Jeanie Mordukhay both earned honorable mentions for book design.

For the competition, five judges spent five hours going over the entries, which came from

Harvey Levenson, head of the Graphic Communication Department, said, “At Cal Poly, we continue to realize and teach the power of the book, not only in content but in design as well. While the reader has many choices of media, we believe that the book carries the story and message with detail and information unlike any other medium. These attributes are reflected in the winning book entries.”

The students will receive their scholarships at the annual PPN reception in San Francisco.

Founded as Bookbuilders West in 1969 and re-chartered as Publishing Professionals Network in 2012, PPN is a nonprofit association providing educational resources and opportunities for individuals involved in book and book-related publishing.