Secret History: State Surveillance in New Zealand 1900–1956 is the first volume in a history of spies and spying in New Zealand, published by Auckland University Press. The written style of this book is detailed and academic, it discusses police and state spying in early New Zealand history and was to appeal to specialists in New Zealand history.
A ‘swaggering detective’ and police on Parliament grounds during the 1951 waterfront confrontation feature on the cover. A dense black background and the dark and silvered historic image are used to evoke the heaviness of being observed by the the police state. Beneath the book jacket the black buckram case is blind debossed with the words ‘Secret History’ in morse code, it gives little away, a secret to be deciphered.
The cover text and title styles of of this history book design are inspired by Police internal communications. They are set in Gill Sans, a typeface popular from the late 1920s, capitalised, bold and sans-serif. The impression it gives is no-nonsense, authoritative and utilitarian. The copy of this weighty volume is set in Freight text pro, a humanist serif that pairs well with humanist sans-serif Gill Sans. Sitting at over 400 pages, well-set type with attention to detail was critical to the reader’s experience.
It was important that this title look like a history book design, so layouts are clean and classic. The challenge of the image sections was to create naturally flowing and balanced layouts with images of various shapes and sizes that needed to appear in a specific order.
Secret History: State Surveillance in New Zealand 1900–1956
Richard Hill and Steven Loveridge
Published by Auckland University Press, 2023