THE INTERNATIONAL BOOK ARSENAL FESTIVAL IN COOPERATION WITH GOETHE-INSTITUT UKRAINE, SUPPORTED BY THE FRANKFURT BOOK FAIR AND THE BUCHKUNST FOUNDATION, HAVE CHOSEN THE WINNERS OF THE ANNUAL BEST BOOK DESIGN CONTEST.

In view of the difficult circumstances of the Russia’s war in Ukraine, this year’s Contest was a special war edition, aiming at supporting the sustainability of the Ukrainian book industry creative community. 14 winners of the Best Book Design Contest 2022 were chosen in five categories: text book, visual book, kids book, utility book, and experiment.

While discussing the winners, the jury members and the organizers of the Contest emphasized that the winning books of the Best Book Design Contest 2022 show that despite the extremely difficult work conditions of the book publishing industry in Ukraine this year, among the books on the market we do have competitive products of truly European quality that are worth of honours, promotion, and presentation at the the Best Book Design from All over the World competition. All these examples are the result of careful and painstaking work of talented professionals both on the book as a whole and on microdetails in the design. In different ways, the winners try to thoroughly explore and develop the book apparatus, play with it, and offer original non-standard creative solutions.

“MUHi 2009-2021” received a jury’s special award for a design that reveals the value of young art. 

The winning books and the books with these two special awards will represent Ukraine in the Best Book Design from All over the World competition organized by the German Buchkunst Foundation; they will also be exhibited at international book fairs in Vilnius, Leipzig, and Frankfurt in 2023.

In view of the unequal work conditions that some of the Ukrainian publishers and designers/illustrators have experienced due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, it was decided not to award the Grand Prix of the Contest.

Reviewing the publications submitted to the Contest this year, the jury members often stopped to discuss periodicals as the publications that drive the book design market, create opportunities for experiments, finding new tools and forms, and the emergence of new names. This time, the jury decided to review the periodicals within the existing categories to which they were submitted, drawing the attention of the organizers to the fact that perhaps it is time to single out another category in the Contest — Periodicals.

With the support of the Ukrainian PEN, the books submitted to the Contest that were not included in the list of winners will be transferred to libraries affected by the war.

This year’s jury members: Olha Balashova, Sasha Bychenko, Maria Vainshtein, Oleg Gryshchenko, Zhenia Polosina, Nonna Starushchenko, Olena Turianska.

The partners of the Best Book Design Contest 2022: Goethe-Institut Ukraine, the Kolo Publishing House and Printing House, and the Depositphotos photo bank.
Information partners — Chytomo, Telegraf.Design, and Projector.

A total of 142 books were submitted by the Ukrainian publishers to the seventh annual Best Book Design Contest. Books that were published from June 2021 to December 2022 were submitted to participate in the Contest. The submitted books are created by Ukrainian designers/illustrators or commissioned by a Ukrainian publisher.

The Best Book Design Contest was launched in 2016. It is organized by the International Book Arsenal Festival and Goethe-Institut Ukraine, supported by the Frankfurt Book Fair and the Buchkunst Foundation. The winners of the Contest represent Ukrainian book design in the Best Book Design from All over the World competition organized by the German Buchkunst Foundation; the winning books are also exhibited at international book fairs.

Source: Book Arsenal