Alison Forbes

'''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",<ref name="sullivan">Jane Sullivan, [https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/turning-pages-the-brilliant-career-of-alison-forbes-designer-20180510-h0zx0a.html "Turning Pages: The brilliant career of Alison Forbes, designer"]. ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 18 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.</ref> and produced many prize-winning book designs of Australian titles, beginning with Alan Marshall's ''I Can Jump Puddles'' (1955).<ref name="agda">[https://agda.com.au/hall-of-fame/alison-forbes Alison Forbes 2016], agda.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref><ref name="recollection">[https://recollection.com.au/biographies/alison-forbes Recollection | Alison Forbes], recollection.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref><ref name="bks-and-pubg">[https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2018/05/22/108012/forbes-inducted-into-abda-hall-of-fame/ Forbes inducted into ABDA hall of fame], booksandpublishing.com.au, 22 May 2018. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref>

==Career== Forbes was born in Melbourne in 1933<ref name="agda" /> and attended Camberwell Grammar School.<ref name="recollection" />

She studied design at the Melbourne Technical College (now Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). After graduation in 1953<ref name="recollection" /> she worked at the Melbourne ''Herald'' while undertaking freelance illustration and book design in her free hours.<ref name="recollection" /> At the age of 23 she was appointed as the first staff designer at the Melbourne University Press.<ref name="agda" />

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.<ref name="recollection" />

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".<ref name="agda" /> 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"<ref name="agda" /> and was not tempted by the higher financial rewards on offer in "commercial graphic design or advertising"<ref name="agda" /> 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".<ref name="agda" />

==Awards== * 1955: Australian Book Publishers Association (ABPA) Books of the Year award, for book design of Alan Marshall's ''[https://archive.org/details/icanjumppuddles0000unse/page/n7/mode/2up I Can Jump Puddles]'', Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1955;<ref name="agda" /> Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Company, 1956 * c. 1963: Australian Book Review – Transfield Book Production Award, for book design of Alexandra Hasluck's ''Remembered With Affection'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1963<ref name="recollection" /> * 1968: Transfield Book Production Award, for ''The Land that Waited'' by Max Harris and Alison Forbes, Melbourne: Lansdowne Press, 1968<ref name="recollection" /> * 1974–75: Australian Publishers Association's Book of the Year Award, for book design of Allan McEvey's ''John Cotton's Birds of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales 1843-1849'', Sydney: William Collins, 1974<ref name="recollection" /> * 1989: Australian Book Publishers Association's inaugural Award of Honour "for her continued and outstanding contribution to Australian book design and production"<ref name="agda" /> * 2018: Australian Book Designers Association Hall of Fame<ref>[https://abda.com.au/awards/hall-of-fame/ Hall of Fame – Australian Book Designers Association], abda.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref> * 2022: Design Institute of Australia – Hall of Fame<ref name="dia">[https://archipro.com.au/articles/misc/dia-hall-of-fame-2022-inductees-announced-design-institute-of-australia DIA – Hall of Fame 2022 inductees announced], archipro.com.au. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref>

==Bibliography== In addition to those mentioned in the Awards section above, the hundreds<ref name="dia" /> of books designed or illustrated by Alison Forbes, many of which "occupy a most significant position within the development of Australian culture",<ref name="dia" /> have included: * Robin Boyd, ''The Australian Ugliness'', Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1960.<ref name="sullivan" /> * Hume Dow and John Barnes, eds., ''World Unknown: An Anthology of Australian Prose''. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1964. * Michael Cannon, ''The Land Boomers'', Melbourne University Press, 1966. * Judith Wright, ''[https://archive.org/details/generationsofmen0000wrig_m8a3/page/n5/mode/2up The Generations of Men]''. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1967. * Joan Lindsay, ''Picnic at Hanging Rock'', Melbourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1967.<ref name="sullivan" /><ref>[http://rarebooksaustralia.com/product/picnic-at-hanging-rock-joan-lindsay/ Picnic At Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay 1967 – F. W. Cheshire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221101132006/http://rarebooksaustralia.com/product/picnic-at-hanging-rock-joan-lindsay/ |date=1 November 2022 }}, rarebooksaustralia.com. Retrieved 18 June 2023.</ref> * Ulli Beier and Albert Maori Kiki, ''Hohao: The Uneasy Survival of an Art Form in the Papuan Gulf'', Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, 1970. * Ronald M. Berndt and E. S. Phillips, ''The Australian Aboriginal Heritage: An Introduction through the Arts'', Sydney: Australian Society for Education Through the Arts in association with Ure Smith, Sydney, 1973. * Stanley Breeden and Kay Breeden, ''Australia's North'', Collins, 1975 (A Natural History of Australia, Volume Three). * Russel Ward, ''[https://archive.org/details/australianlegend0000ward/page/n5/mode/2up The Australian Legend]'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1978. * Bernard Smith and Alwyne C. Wheeler, eds., ''The Art of the First Fleet and Other Early Australian Drawings'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1988; New Haven: Yale University Press, in association with the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the British Museum (Natural History), 1988. * Geoffrey Serle, ''Robin Boyd: A Life'', Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995.

== References ==  {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * 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.

==External links== * [https://www.design.org.au/hall-of-fame/alison-forbes Gallery of Alison Forbes book cover designs] at design.org.au * [https://daao.library.unsw.edu.au/bio/alison-forbes/biography/ Alison Forbes (listing)] at Design & Art Australia Online * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/search/category/books?keyword=exact_creator%3A%22Forbes,%20Alison%22 Books with contributions by Alison Forbes] at Trove Australia

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forbes, Alison}} Category:1933 births Category:Book designers Category:20th-century Australian illustrators Category:21st-century Australian illustrators Category:Australian women illustrators Category:Australian women graphic designers Category:Artists from Melbourne Category:Possibly living people