On June 26, 2010, the Caves of the Ape-Men coffee-table book, by Professor Ron Clarke, the late Professor Tim Partridge and Dr Kathleen Kuman and published by S.E. Publications, was officially launched at the Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg.
From left, Dr Kathleen Kuman, Tara Turkington and Tiffany Turkington-Palmer from Flow Communications, and Professor Ron Clarke
The book is a seminal work, and is the first of its kind to explore in detail the fossil and archaeological wealth of the Unesco Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
Flow’s designers, led by Flow’s Managing Director Tiffany Turkington-Palmer, had the honour of designing this coffee-table book, and the text was proofread by Flow’s CEO, Tara Turkington.
Flow won the job to design the book partly due to our track record in writing about and designing for heritage organisations and projects in South Africa. Our clients in this sector include, for example, the Origins Centre, the South African Association of Professional Archaeologists, the PanAfrican Archaeological Association, the South African Archaeological Society (not yet live), the South African Rock Art Digital Archive (also not yet live), and, of course, Maropeng, the official visitor centre of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
Professor Rob Blumenschine of the Centre for Human Evolutionary Sciences at Rutgers University in the United States
Caves of the Ape-Men has been written primarily for the general public but will also be of interest to authorities in the field of palaeoanthropology, particularly given its thought-provoking commentary.
This profusely illustrated hardcover book was written by three experts who have all worked extensively on the sites covered – namely Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and their environs. The collaboration of these authors ensures a density and authenticity of information presented in an accessible style.
The guests in attendance of the launch of the Caves of the Ape-Men book
Flow’s Managing Director and the book’s lead designer, Tiffany Turkington-Palmer said, “This coffee-table book has been designed to create multiple layers of reading, so the reader can page through it at a glance or engage more in depth with the unsurpassed scientific knowledge of the authors.
“We developed an illustration style to complement the photos of fossils and tools. And we worked closely with the authors to ensure all the artwork was rendered accurately and to the exact sizes of the authors’ fossil descriptions,” Tiffany added.
Many of the drawings in the book were done by the head of Flow’s graphic design studio, Janet Berger, who has written about her experience of working on the book.
Professor Francis Thackeray, the director of the Institute of Human Evolution at Wits University
Caves of the Ape-Men is not only a scientific reference book, but also an informative account of almost a century of discovery in the Cradle of Humankind.
Said Clarke at the launch, “Thank you, especially, to Flow Communications. I want to thank Tiffany and Tara Turkington for their hard work in producing this book in a remarkably short space of time. It’s a good read, even if I do say so myself!”
The publisher, Susie Jordan-Partridge, who is based in Spain, said in an email, “I am grateful to Tara and Tiffany Turkington of Flow Communications. Without them to pull it all together, it certainly would not have happened – especially as they understood exactly what the design and look of the book was all about.”
This book is available for purchase at leading bookstores.