Time to celebrate: Book Award Ceremony in Frankfurt

Sep 6th 2019, Frankfurt, Museum of Applied Arts. Together with 24 other books Atlas of the Copenhagens by Deane Simpson, Kathrin Susanna Gimmel, Anders Lonka, Marc Jay, Joost Grootens was awarded one of the most beautiful German books by the Stiftung Buchkunst.

The jury report reads as follows: “Copenhagen is considered one of the most sustainable, livable and bicycle-friendly cities in the world. In critical essays, quotations and more than 400 maps, graphics, diagrams and photos, this volume searches for the basis for the repeatedly positive ranking.  And it shows that it very much depends on how one defines the boundaries of a city – hence the plural in the title of the book. A four-colour, frequency-modulated screened print, in which two of the standard colours were exchanged for ink blue and neon red, is responsible for the beguiling colouring of the entire book. These two colours become leading colours, and they also lend the photo pages a very peculiar charm. Further book design findings on this urbanist research: Asymmetric type area with extra-large indents and wide marginal columns. Strong font size differences: the statements in very large, ink blue font, two types of annotations in miniature font. Filigree isometric bird’s-eye views of various urban areas on double pages. Highly complex, crystal-clear graphics and maps from simple, systematic means, dots, circles, squares, lines. Even the open, glued spine of the book is perceived as a typographic medium: Here instead of the flutter marks the spines of the layers show the complete title with publisher and subtitle in neon red microprint. In short, the density of information in each data visualization is inversely proportional to its minimalism.”

It was a pleasure to see so many wonderful books, to meet their designers and publishers. And congratulations to the team that was awarded the main prize of the jury: Felix Holler, Jaroslaw Kubiak, and Daniel Wittner for their book Name Waffe Stern. Das Emblem der Roten Armee Fraktion. The winning book was the result of their diploma thesis submitted at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig.

Check out the Stiftung Buchkunst for more on the ceremony, the books and the winners