Five students participated in the jury process to finally reach a selection of 32 books. They gave all their best. So I want to express my sincere gratitude to Chris Boender (HKU), Patrick Hutchinson (KABK), Polina Slavova (ArtEZ), Michiel Teeuw (Minerva) and Martina Vanini (Rietveld). I am impressed by your efforts!
I always notice eagerness and commitment when I receive the students who have been nominated by their academies to participate in the Student Panel of The Best Dutch Book Designs. These traits are desperately needed in the book trade. After all, there is great concern about the future in the graphic industry. Especially because so few young people are interested in getting trained in the technical parts of the profession. Fortunately, things are going well in the design department and students are more and more interested in arts and crafts. The relevance or need to select a book as the main form to publish content is also subject of debate at the graphic design departments of the Dutch art academies.
The Student Jury follows the same procedures as the professional panel, examining the books on a number of days and later spending two days arriving at their own final selection. This year 328 books were submitted, the student panel choose 32 books (33 books is the max). 13 books overlap with the professional jury. The student panel too presents a report of their decisions. Both the selection and the judges’ report are being made available here online and in a catalogue.
– Esther Scholten
director De Best Verzorgde Boeken | The Best Dutch Book Designs
info@debestverzorgdeboeken.nl
Getting deep into a book set in front of you is exciting; but like with all, before taking a ride comes proper inspection.
Each year, a student jury, representing 5 different art academies in the Netherlands, gets invited by Stichting Boekkunst to share their thoughts on the current state of Dutch book design.
In it’s 7th edition, a student each of the:
ArtEZ University of the Arts
Gerrit Rietveld Academy
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
Minerva Art Academy
Royal Academy of Art The Hague
came together at Zwaan Lenoir to form a jury and, in this particular year, dug through a submission-list of over 300 books, magazines, newspapers and brochures of all dimensions, shapes and weights, all narrowed down to a tight selection of 32 during a judging process taking place over two weeks.
Bolting through a submission list of such weight in as little as four days, naturally, raised questions. How to find your way through works that could not be more different? what justifies further discussion? what’s best? Sometimes, it was the display of masterpieces. Sometimes, the important issues. Sometimes, it was the crisp, crisp details, sometimes the quirkiness. Some chaos, also.
Discussing these, we sometimes caught ourselves slipping into judging the books on remarkabilities and some sort of immediate impressiveness — for better or worse. Immaculately bound high-budget book or hot-glued crowdsourced book? Artistic showpiece or imageless novel? We figured to judge within the limits of what there was to work with, and so, this selection comes with all of the above.
While judging, we lift up the book, smell it; how does it open? How does it close? We bend it, twist it—if the book allows to be twisted, fold it, if need be, caress it, tame it, push and pull it, and look for the love and attention the makers and editors left behind.
Find here some subjective ramblings compiled out of our initial live discussions. To give some context and share some thoughts, three of the five jury members wrote out some details and gathered information on the books, that the images could not do justice.
Read through some initial reactions, some getting carried away over perfect craft, here and there, some critical questions for good measure.
– Patrick Hutchinson
Members of the jury were:
Chris Boender
HKU University of the Arts Utrecht
Patrick Hutchinson
Royal Academy of Art The Hague
Polina Slavova
ArtEZ University of the Arts
Michiel Teeuw
Minerva Art Academy
Martina Vanini
Gerrit Rietveld Academie