June 15, 2016 – San Diego, CA – This month PubWest, an esteemed trade association of small- and medium-sized businesses in the field of book design, announced their annual PubWest Book Design Award winners, including a gold medal for Sunbelt Publications’ Old Magic: Lives of the Desert Shamans, authored by Nicholas Clapp and designed by Lydia D’moch with production management by Deborah Young, in the category of Historical or Biographical Book.

Announced June 8, 2016 the PubWest Design Awards winners were judged on typography, jacket and cover design, interior design, format, selection of materials used, and printing and binding production quality. Medals were awarded in twenty-two categories.

Old Magic draws on the lore of a dozen western Native American tribes to conjure the year-to-year lives of the desert shamans—the men who sought order in the stars and in the grand, if unforgiving landscape.  The men who doctored the stricken and conjured rains, sometimes taking leave of reality, riding whirlwinds and soaring in magical flight.

The book is rich in voice, story, and appreciation for native tradition. Every image is captivating; the design choices by Lydia D’moch and production expertise of Deborah Young make flipping through the pages a rewarding visual and tactile experience.  As PubWest president, Zoe Katherine Burke put it in a June 8 press release, “Through appropriate binding and paper choices, graceful layout, and elegant, appropriate typography, words and images impact the reader in subtle but significant ways. Reading becomes pleasurable to the eye as well as the mind; photographs and artworks become places for sustained reflection.”

Needless to say, this special announcement stirred up excitement for all those involved in the book’s production.  “All of us who worked on Old Magic are honored by the award — with a special thanks to Lydia D’Moch for bringing alive the look and world of the shamans of our far western deserts,” said author Nicholas Clapp.

Publications manager, Deborah Young added, “I am very honored to have worked on this project with such a talented author and book designer. It was a pleasure selecting the best materials for this project, and acting as Nick’s “traffic cop” throughout the production process.”