The International Book Arsenal Festival in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Ukraine presents the winning publications of the annual Best Book Design Contest. This year, 242 books that were published between December 2023 and November 2024 and had not been previously submitted to the Contest competed for the victory.
The jury of the Best Book Design — 2024:
- Zakentiy Horobyov, graphic designer, typographer, illustrator;
- Valeriia Guievska, Art Director of the Mystetskyi Arsenal;
- Anna Ivanenko, Studio Seri/graph;
- Dasha Podoltseva, graphic designer, visual artist;
- Anatoly Popel, CEO of CASES founder and head of Creative Practice;
- Kuba Sowiński, graphic designer, lecturer (Poland);
- Olena Staranchuk, co-curator of Pictoric.
We have the Grand Prix winner who also won in the nomination Utilitarian Book: the publication Pomizh (first issue). Congratulations to Sasha Bychenko (Kultura studio), the author of the publication visual concept, its design and layout, and the publishing house Kultura Medialna.
The winner in the category Word Book is the publication Strength Has Grown on the Fracture. Publication concept, architectonics—Tetiana Kostina. Cover design, layout—Daria Stetsenko. Publishing house—punkt publishing.
The publication Kotsiubynskyi: Between Cinema and Literature, Aliona Penzii, Stanislav Bytiutskyi, Oleh Olifer, won in the nomination Art Book. Book artistic design, layout—Butsia bureau, Halia Verheles. Publishing house—Dovzhenko Centre.
The jury awarded the first place in the nomination Visual Storytelling to the book The Path of Grain. Artistic design—Postmen, Yaroslav Vedmid, Oleh Hryshchenko, Oleksii Chekal. Font design—Oleksii Chekal (title lettering), Fixel font. Self-published, at the initiative of KERNEL.
As for the nomination Experiment, there is no absolute winner in it this year. The jury collectively decided not to choose a winner in this category.
This year, the Contest jury distinguished seven publications with Special Honors. For more details, please follow the link.
Finalists of the Best Book Design — 2024 Contest:
Nomination Word Book:
- May I Have One Onion?, Oksana Lemishka. Concept, architectonics—Tetiana Kostina. Publishing house—punkt publishing.
- Culture under Pressure from OOO/OOOO, Borys Filonenko. Artistic design—Volodymyr Havrysh. Publishing house—ist publishing.
Nomination Art Book:
- Alla Horska, compiled by: Anastasiia Yatskovska. Publishing house—RODOVID in collaboration with the Dukat Art Foundation.
- Before the Future, authors: Iryna Miroshnykova, Oleksii Petrov, Borys Filonenko. Design—Ostap Yashchuk. Publishing house—ist publishing.
Nomination Utilitarian Book:
- TimeLine, Valentyna Merzhyievska. Artistic design—Dmytro Shkolnyi. Self-published.
- Periodical printed publication Chronicle of Ukrainian Design, Spiilka design bureau. Artistic design—Volodymyr Smyrnov. Publishing house—ist publishing.
Nomination Visual Storytelling:
- My Plast, 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, 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”, 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, book design—Yuliia Pokydko. Self-published.
It is with joy and pride that I would like to distinguish high competition for the victory in this year’s contest. Under the conditions of the full-scale war, our publishers, designers and printers create cool, worthy books, and it truly delights. This year, there were a lot of strong contenders, new names, unexpected finds and interesting trends. The jury members faced a difficult choice and, as a result of lively discussions, they did reach a consensus. And I hope that we will be able to talk about the emerging trends and reflections, the favorites from the long list that, unfortunately, did not make it to the final, and the future benchmarks within the special program for designers during the next Book Arsenal
— Yuliia Kozlovets, the Director of the International Book Arsenal Festival.
It is impressive how, under difficult conditions, the entire industry is able to create publications that delight with their aesthetics, innovation and quality. The contest maintains close ties to Germany: for many years, the Book Art Foundation (Stiftung Buchkunst) has been presenting the winners of the contest within the collection The Most Beautiful Books of the World. It means that this year, too, thousands of visitors to Germany’s largest book fairs, as well as readers of the libraries and students of the universities where these books will be exhibited, will see Ukrainian publications. Last year, the winner was given the opportunity to go on a professional trip to Germany, and we are sure that this year’s program will be no less effective and inspiring
— Fabian Mühlthaler, the Director of the Goethe-Institut Ukraine.
What will the winners of the Contest receive?
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 author of the Contest identity is designer Anna Harnaha.
All photos in the material are by Oleksandr Popenko.
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.