Best Book Design 2024

The Contest identity: Anna Harnaha

In 2024, the International Book Arsenal Festival in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Ukraine held the Best Book Design Contest for the ninth year in a row. The project partners are the Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Foundation Buchkunst.

A total of 242 applications were submitted to the contest. Books that were published between December 2023 and November 2024 and had not been previously submitted to the Contest were accepted.

JURY

NOMINATIONS

Grand Prix of the contest and victory in the category Utilitarian Book—the publication Pomizh (first issue).  Editors—Alina Stamenova, Dinara Khalilova, Olia Vasylets.  Visual concept, design, layout—Sasha Bychenko, Kultura studio.  Production technologist—Ruslan Fokin, Publish Pro.  Color correction—Volodymyr Havrysh.  Publishing house—Kultura Medialna.

The winner in the category Word Book is the publicationStrength Has Grown on the Fracture. Author of the publication concept, the book architectonics—Tetiana Kostina.  Cover design, layout—Daria Stetsenko.  Publishing house—punkt publishing.

The publication Kotsiubynskyi: Between Cinema and Literature won in the nomination Art Book. Authors of the publication—Aliona Penzii, Stanislav Bytiutskyi, Oleh Olifer.  Book artistic design, layout—Butsia bureau, Halia Verheles.  Publishing house—Dovzhenko Centre.

The book The Path of Grain won in the nomination Visual Storytelling.  Artistic design—Postmen, Yaroslav Vedmid, Oleh Hryshchenko, Oleksii Chekal.  Font design—Oleksii Chekal (title lettering), Fixel font.  Self-published, at the initiative of KERNEL.

There is no absolute winner in the nomination Experiment this year. The jury collectively decided not to choose a winner in this category.

Finalists of the Best Book Design — 2024 Contest:

Nomination Word Book:

• May I Have One Onion? Author of the publication—Oksana Lemishka.  Publication concept, book architectonics—Tetiana Kostina.
  Design, layout—Hanna Zatsarynska.  Illustrations—Danyl Shtanheiev.  Publishing house—punkt publishing.
• Culture under Pressure from OOO/OOOO Author of the publication—Borys Filonenko.  Artistic design—Volodymyr Havrysh.  Publishing house—ist publishing.

Nomination Art Book:

• Alla Horska  Compiled by: Anastasiia Yatskovska.  Artistic design, layout—Dasha Podoltseva. Publishing house—RODOVID in collaboration with the Dukat Art Foundation.
• Before the Future  Authors—Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov, Borys Filonenko.  Artistic design—Ostap Yashchuk.  Publishing house—ist publishing.

Nomination Utilitarian Book:

• TimeLine  Author of the publication—Valentyna Merzhyievska.  Artistic design—Dmytro Shkolnyi.  Self-published.
• Periodical printed publication Chronicle of Ukrainian Design  Author of the publication—Spiilka design bureau.  Artistic design—Volodymyr Smyrnov. Publishing house—ist publishing.

Nomination Visual Storytelling:

• My Plast  Author of the publication—Yuliia Smal.  Publication concept, book architectonics—Nataliia Mospan.  Illustrations, cover design—Valeriia Kryzhanovska.  Layout—Uliana Reshetukha.  Publishing house—LLC My Bookshelf Publishing House.
• The Secret Life of Wonder Beasts by Mariia Prymachenko  Author of the publication—Maryna Makushchenko.  Artistic design—Dariia Filippova.  Layout—Yana Plaskonis.  Publishing house—The Old Lion Publishing House.
• A Fairytale from Granny Nastia “About a Peasant, His Daughter, a Gentleman and a Foaling Mare” Authors—Maryna Shchehelska, Anastasiia Chmunevych.  Artistic solution—Maryna Shchehelska.  Self-published.

Nomination Experiment:

• Dream Dictionary  Author of the idea and artistic solution—Maryna Shchehelska. Self-published.
• A Dream in a Warm Bed on the Granny’s Soft Embroidered Pillow  Author of the idea and artistic solution—Yuliia Pokydko.
  Self-published.

Special Honors The Best Book Design — 2024:

• The jury’s Special Honor  for sinful design of excellent quality goes to the publication Hrishnytsia.  Founder and creative director—Julie Poly.  Art director—Snizhana Chernetska.  Self-published, Ukraine.
• The jury’s Special Honor  for a successful solution for the series — The Series of Foreign Classics The Red Room, I’m Not Stiller, Strait is the Gate.  Art editor—Anna Havryliuk.  Technical editor—Nataliia Koval.  Illustrator of The Red Room—Anna Ivanenko, illustrator of I’m Not Stiller—Bohdana Rudenko, illustrator of Strait is the Gate—Kseniia Stepas.  Publisher—Another Page.
• The jury’s Special Honor  for cover design — The Richynski Sisters (in 3 volumes) Cover design—Volodymyr Havrysh. Art editor—Viktoriia Shelest.  Layout—Nataliia Koval.  Publisher—Vikhola.
• The jury’s Special Honor  for the design of a museum publication (the tailor-made design) was received by the album The Mykolaiv Regional Museum of Local History. Selected Objects, the Platfor.ma team and the team of the Mykolaiv Regional Museum of Local History.  Artistic solution—Valeriia Horodchanina.  Publisher—LLC Blank-Press.
• The jury’s Special Honor   for the feeling of the material — Behind Blue Eyes.  Curation, editing, translation—the Charity Project Behind Blue Eyes in collaboration with Readellion Publishing (Mariia Diakova, Heorhii Vyhranovskyi).  Art team, design, layout—Havhav bureau (Mariia Havrysh, Volodymyr Havrysh).  The photos taken by children with film cameras within their participation in the Behind Blue Eyes project, as well as by the project team, are used in the publication.  Publisher—KOLO Printing House.
• The jury’s Special Honor  for pioneering insights and transformative contributions to artificial intelligence* was given to the journal Synthetics No.1. AI: Friend or Foe. Authors of the publication—Denys Prystai, Dmytro Moro, Sofiia Pravdyvets, Oleksandr Tartachnyi and others.  Artistic solution—Hlib Kaporikov, Anastasiia Shyshenok, Projector Publishing.  *wording generated by ChatGPT
• The jury’s Special Honor for poetry in a design form — Imagination Guide II: How to Make Rockets Disappear Author of the project—Darja Lukjanenko. The book architectonics was developed in collaboration of Darja Lukjanenko, Iva Naidenko and Nadiia Koval.  Illustrations—Polina Bakanova.  Editors—Iva Naidenko and Nadiia Koval.  Printing, design and layout—Wydawnictwo Stopka.

All photos on this page are by Oleksandr Popenko.

The winner of the Grand Prix will receive the main prize of the Contest—the iconic statuette of the Contest. All finalists, winners and holders of special honors of the Contest will receive honorary diplomas, book prizes from the Mystetskyi Arsenal and will represent Ukrainian book design in the international competition The Most Beautiful Books of the World, organized by the German Foundation Buchkunst. The collection of the winning books will be exhibited at the international book fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt in 2025.

The author of the biggest contribution to the design of the Grand Prix-winning book will be invited by the Foundation Buchkunst on a professional trip to Germany in 2025.

All publications submitted to the Contest that did not receive awards and special honors will be donated to libraries in cooperation with PEN Ukraine.

The team of the International Book Arsenal Festival and the Goethe-Institut Ukraine would like to express gratitude for the support and cooperation in holding the Contest to the Frankfurter Buchmesse, the Foundation Buchkunst, as well as to the project’s media partners:

CASES and The Village Ukraine.