De Best Verzorgde Boeken Studentenselectie
Five students participated in the jury process to finally reach a selection of 30 books. They dived into all the submitted books, had fierce discussions and came up with this interesting selection. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Noa Wassink (HKU, University of the Arts, Utrecht), Lucas Mainieri Franco (KABK, the Hague), Cate Sanvitale-Simone (ArtEZ, Arnhem), Anna Lebedieva (Minerva Art Academy/Hanze, Groningen) and Jeanne Gironde (Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam) for their work and effort. And I want to thank Jeanne Gironde for her job of designing this year’s student catalogue: I love the result!
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 267 books were submitted, the student panel choose 30 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
The student jury of 2023 selected, after four days of fierce debates, 30 books over 262.
Some choices were obvious, others subject of fight, interrogations, curiosity and turnarounds.
As a group we specifically wanted to state our young designer’s point of view: what excites us? attracts us? surprises us whether technically, visually or thematically?
What would we like to see more of?
Starting from different backgrounds and opinions, we managed to agree on this selection which was not done without ups and downs and was a lot of fun.
This catalogue follows our process and thoughts. It contains the jury report of the selected books as well as extracts from recordings of the conversations of the student jury.
with love,
Anna Lebedieva, Minerva Art Academy, Groningen
Lucas Mainieri Franco, Kabk, The Hague
Cate Sanvitale-Simonetta, ArtEZ University of the Arts, Arnhem
Noa Wassink, HKU, University of the Arts, Utrecht
Jeanne Gironde, Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
