About
KEELY O’SHANNESSY is a book designer and cover artist based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Over the past 18 years, she has worked with many of the publishers in Aotearoa New Zealand and has created designs for numerous award-winning books.
AWARDS & RECOGNITION
2024 Blood & Dirt, finalist, Best Non-Illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2023 House & Contents, finalist, Best Non-Illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2022 A Clear Dawn, Best Non-Illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2022 Shifting Grounds, finalist, Best illustrated book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2019 Feverish, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2019 The New Ships, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2019 Whatever it Takes, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2019 Pasture & Flock, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2019 Pasture & Flock, finalist, Best Non-illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2018 Baby, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2018 Salt Picnic, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2018 Tears of Rangi, finalist, Best Non-Illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2018 Tears of Rangi, finalist, Best Typography, PANZ Book Design Awards
2017 Tiny Owl on the Ramshackle Farm, finalist, Best Children's Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2016 Pukeko Dancing on an Old Dirt Track, finalist, Best Children's Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2013 At the White Coast, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2012 A Micronaut in the Wide World, finalist, Best illustrated book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2011 No Fretful Sleeper, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2011 No Fretful Sleeper, finalist, Best Non-Illustrated Book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2010 Young Designer of the Year, PANZ Book Design Awards
2010 Mirabile Dictu, Best non-illustrated book, PANZ Book Design Awards
2010 As The Earth Turns Silver, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2009 Young Designer of the Year, finalist, PANZ Book Design Awards
2009 The Rehearsal, finalist, Best Cover, PANZ Book Design Awards
2004 CCP Nikon Summer Salon Award for Best video/multimedia work
2003 RMIT Union Arts Grant
1994 Auckland Society of Arts Scholarship
PRESS
2024 ‘Best books and how we choose them: Can you judge a book by its cover?’, Kim Knight, NZ Herald
2021 ‘Getting to Know Keely O’Shannessy’ Vic Books Journal (July 28)
2019 ‘5 Minutes with. . . Keely O’Shannessy’, Nicole Arnett Phillips, Design Assembly
2017 ‘Judging a book by its cover: Our favourites from the 2017 PANZ Book Design Awards finalists‘, Idealog
2013 ’Don't Judge a Book: What goes into the design of a book cover? Five finalists in the PANZ awards for Best Cover take you inside their pages’, Idealog #46 (July/Aug p. 39)
2011 The Good Word Show, series 2 episode 11, TVNZ (Interview with Finlay Macdonald)
2010 ‘Covers Up’, Stacey Anyan, North & South (Aug pg. 94-97)
2009 ‘Designing a Great Cover’, Booksellers News (Feb pg. 9)
2003 Through Alice's Looking Glass, Jeff Khan, RealTime (issue #58 Dec-Jan pg. 27)
RECENT CLIENTS
Allen & Unwin
Auckland Art Gallery
Auckland University Press
Awa Press
Bateman Books
Bridget Williams Books
Clay Press
Cloud Ink
Escalator Press
Gecko Press
Hachette
Harper Collins
Katherine Mansfield House & Garden
Little, Brown (UK)
Moa Press
New Holland Publishers
NZ Maritime Museum
Password Press
Pavlova Press
Penguin /
Random House
Te Herenga Waka University Press /
Victoria University Press
Ugly Hill Press
Whitireia Publishing
EDUCATION
2002-03 Advanced Diploma of Electronic Design and Interactive Media, RMIT
2000-01 Master of Art Curatorship, University of Melbourne
1994-97 Bachelor of Visual Arts, Auckland University of Technology
Info
Studio 1
65 Abel Smith Street
Te Aro
Wellington 6011
New Zealand
(+64) 027 440 6564