What draws a reader to a book? Good reviews, a catchy synopsis on the dust jacket -- and eye-catching design. The latter was the focus of the recent "China's Most Beautiful Book 2005" competition, organized by the Shanghai Press and Publication Administration.

Winners of this beauty contest for books featured designs that were often visual metaphors for the works within. Tian Chong (Heavenly Worm), a book about silkworms published by Shanghai People's Publishing House, features a cover with the Chinese characters for "tian" and "chong" placed vertically to form a new character, "chan" (silkworm). Silver lines shuttle across the cover.

"The simple but meaningful placement of the title reflects the book's theme," explains designer Chen Nan of the Shanghai People's Publishing House. "The silver lines imply the fine lustrous fiber produced by silkworms. The lines shuttling across the paper is meant to evoke the production of silk fabric by tatting."

As the only book design competition in China, the three-year-old event attracted more than 600 types of books from publishing houses across the country, 20 of which were awarded the title of  "China's Most Beautiful Book 2005" and will go on to compete for the "World's Most Beautiful Book" title next March in Leipzig, Germany.

China has performed well at this competition in the past: In 2003, Mei Lanfang Quan Zhuan (Biography of Mei Lanfang), published by China Youth Press and designed by Lu Jingren, won Leipzig's top award.

"Good book design requires that all parts of the book, including the jacket, title page, index, format, illustration, font, covers and even quality of the paper, achieve the best fit and reflect the book's content," says Wang Shijun, vice director of the Publication Department of Shanghai Press and Publication Administration that launched the competition in 2003. "A book with exquisite covers but poor interior design cannot be viewed as beautiful."

Designer Chen explains the designing process for Shanghai Fashion, (published by Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House), a 2005 winner. Chen uses the contrast between bright and pale colors to define Shanghai then and now. Soft lines and small details like a girl's handkerchief are added to imply Shanghai's unique tenderness and the comforts of city life. The paper selected for the book was an average one, to reflect the fact that the book is about the lives of common people and is written for ordinary readers.

"Fashion designers make clothes fit a person's distinctive style and taste. We do the same for books," Chen says. "Inspiration is important. Then we must find proper ways to express ideas."

Yuan Yinchang, another top book designer in Shanghai, considers book design a process of artistic creation. Yuan's books Han Ye (Cold Nights), written by Ba Jin (1904-2005) and published by Shanghai General Literature and Art Publishing House, and Jin Xiu Wen Zhang (Beautiful Scrap -- Chinese Traditional Brocade and Embroidery Patterns), published by Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, were also winners at this year's competition.

"The designers read the book at first, digest the information, and then use the absorbed nutrients to produce their own artworks," says Yuan, who is chief art director of the Shanghai General Literature and Art Publishing House. "Our mission is to transcend the book's literary value.

"When readers hold a book in their hands, they can feel its weight, smell its scent, listen to the sounds when flipping its pages, and even see through textures of the paper and breaks between each character."

Yuan chose cold gray for the covers of Han Ye. The cover material is a fine cloth-like paper from Holland, while the inner pages are made of high-quality "Japanese paper."

"Gray perfectly expresses the feeling of a 'cold night.' The elegant materials and simple design, meanwhile, are an expression of Ba's plain and graceful writing style and his unpretentious character," he explains. "When readers see the book, they feel the soul of the author."

In 1999, Yuan was invited to design the book Shen Congwen He Ta De Xiangxi (Shen Congwen and His West Hunan Province), published by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House in 2000, a collection of photographs by Zhuo Yao, whose works illustrate the landscapes and people of west Hunan described by the renowned writer Shen (1902-88).

West Hunan Province is home to both the writer and the photographer. Inspired by Shen's limpid descriptions about lives of the countrymen in that region, Zhuo spent 10 years traveling in the towns, counties and villages there.

"Zhuo was no longer young. She was unmarried. The winter was cold, but she was dressed simply. Carrying her heavy equipment, she marched alone on the vast snow field," Yuan imagined vivid scenes when viewing Zhuo's pictures. "I saw clearly her wish to revive through her lens those touching moments experienced by Shen, and her persistence in realizing it. I was deeply moved. That was the source of my inspiration."

His design for this book won this year's Benjamin Franklin Award organized by the US Publishers Marketing Association (interior design, three or more colors).

Winning international book design awards is something new for China's publishing industry, where book design was crude and mostly overlooked even as recently as the early 1990s.

"Simplicity, decency, high quality and convenience for readers are characteristic of book design in foreign countries," Wang says. "Today, many Chinese designers are aware of these international standards, but there is still a considerable gap."

Part of that gap is an understanding that sometimes higher printing costs are well worthwhile to achieve international standard quality. Wang points out that one of the key reasons that Lu won the "World's Most Beautiful Book" competition for his Mei Lanfang Quan Zhuan is "actually the superb printing quality."

"Frequently in China, we draw up promising blueprints but later the material providers and printing companies ruin everything. Few businessmen are bothered to listen to the designers," he says. "Team spirit is probably our most urgent need."

(Shanghai Daily December 19, 2005)