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Alison Forbes

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Alison Forbes (born 1933) is an Australian book designer and illustrator. Over a period of five decades she has worked as Australia's "first full-time independent book designer",[1] and produced many prize-winning book designs of Australian titles, beginning with Alan Marshall's I Can Jump Puddles (1955).[2][3][4]

Career

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Forbes was born in Melbourne in 1933[2] and attended Camberwell Grammar School.[3]

She studied design at the Melbourne Technical College (now Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). After graduation in 1953[3] she worked at the Melbourne Herald while undertaking freelance illustration and book design in her free hours.[3] At the age of 23 she was appointed as the first staff designer at the Melbourne University Press.[2]

In 1963 she travelled to London and during the next three years and in order to gain book trade experience, she worked for two British publishers, the Associated Book Publishers (a conglomerate of Methuen, Eyre & Spottiswoode, and others) and the smaller Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd.[3]

Returning to Australia in 1967, she worked for five decades as a full-time book designer, until her retirement from full time design in "about 2005".[2] Over the years she worked alongside such major figures in the Australian publishing world as Frank Eyre (Oxford University Press, Melbourne), Andrew Fabinyi (F. W. Cheshire), Max Harris (Sun Books), Gwyn James (Melbourne University Press), Lloyd O’Neil, Sam Ure Smith (Sydney Ure Smith) and Ken Wilder (William Collins, Melbourne).

She has devoted herself to book design work, her focus being to create an "enduring body of work unique in its quality, and quantity"[2] and was not tempted by the higher financial rewards on offer in "commercial graphic design or advertising"[2] with the inevitable compromises demanded in those fields. The poet and critic Max Harris, who had worked with her on several projects, stated: "The meticulous Alison Forbes hasn’t lost her advanced and distinctive sense of the highest design principles".[2]

Awards

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Bibliography

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In addition to those mentioned in the Awards section above, the hundreds[6] of books designed or illustrated by Alison Forbes, many of which "occupy a most significant position within the development of Australian culture",[6] have included:

References

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  1. ^ a b c Jane Sullivan, "Turning Pages: The brilliant career of Alison Forbes, designer". The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alison Forbes 2016, agda.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Recollection | Alison Forbes, recollection.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  4. ^ Forbes inducted into ABDA hall of fame, booksandpublishing.com.au, 22 May 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  5. ^ Hall of Fame – Australian Book Designers Association, abda.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  6. ^ a b c DIA – Hall of Fame 2022 inductees announced, archipro.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.
  7. ^ Picnic At Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay 1967 – F. W. Cheshire, rarebooksaustralia.com. Retrieved 18 June 2023.

Further reading

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  • Pamela Ruskin, "She makes sure her book world is good looking. Alison Forbes: artist behind many authors", The Age, "The Designers" (series), 26 June 1976, p. 16.
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