Member of International Jury:
Sanja Rocco, Jianping He, Rick Poynor, Radovan Jenko i Vaughan Oliver.
Member of Zgraf Wellcome award Jury:
Sanja Rocco, Jianping He, Rick Poynor, Radovan Jenko i Vaughan Oliver.
Member of AICA Jury:
Marko Golub, Boris Greiner, Sandra Križić Roban
Zgraf 12 Grand Prix
Đurek Nikola & Juza Marija ‘Balkan’ (Hrvatska / Croatia, 2012)
Description:
Balkan type system is a series of fonts deciphering both the Latin and the Cyrillic alphabet; it demystifies, depoliticises and reconciles them for the sake of education, tolerance and primarily communication. Although it is the Balkan ‘font’ in the usual sense, it can be used for automatic translation of Croatian Latin to Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and vice versa. Therefore, it could be seen as educational software as well. Like all OpenType fonts, Balkan can be expanded to include Russian, Macedonian and Bulgarian alphabets.
Explation by International Jury:
The Balkan type system is not only notable for the rigour and depth of its research into dual-literacy and the elegance of the outcome. It is also informed by an inspiring educational belief in the ideal of harmonious communication between peoples.
Zgraf 1
Hamper studio (Vučić Ivana, Kaćunić J. Tomislav) ‘Refleksije vremena 1945 – 1955. / Reflections of Time 1945 – 1955’ (Hrvatska / Croatia, 2012)
Description:
Visual identity of the exhibition focusing on the decade between the ending of World War II and the first TV signal broadcast, in the postwar Yugoslavia. The socialist-realist iconography is accompanied by a ‘revolutionary’ logo of the exhibition, the use of Yugoslav trademark three-colour to differentiate between three central chapters (history-art-society) or bookmarks, the slogan-like treatment of the title complete with a rich photo database from the era and a series of ‘shock worker’ posters.
Explation by International Jury:
The book is visual history making of an exemplary standard and the designers have edited the images into narratives with great sensitivity to their impact and value as documents. The incisive posters perfectly reflect the project’s identity and interest.
Zgraf 2
Žvokelj Robert, DAK ‘ Slovensko industrijsko oblikovanje (serija—(a)ETA 80, (b) K67, (c) Tomos 4, (d) ESK PRO) / Slovenian Industrial Design (series—(a)ETA 80, (b) K67, (c) Tomos 4, (d) ESK PRO); Slovenija / Slovenia, 2012 – 2015)
Description:
It is hard to imagine the visual identity of a series unless the content of the entire series is known. So far (this year the sixth series proposal was selected) we have managed to present two components of industrial design—form and function—for very different products, both use, form and size. We are very pleased with the 10 stamp sheets, in which the continuous pattern forecasts the third component of industrial design—serial mass production. The first prize winner at the open call for postage stamps from the Slovenian industrial design series.
Explation by International Jury:
It is quite common for postage stamps to celebrate the publicly familiar achievements of a nation’s industrial design. This series cleverly marries the multiple nature of mass production to the modular format of the sheet of stamps.
Zgraf 2
Placement ⁄ Aubert Danielle, Cavar Lana, Chandani Natasha ‘ Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies’ (SAD, Hrvatska / USA, Croatia, 2012)
Description:
It took the designers almost two years to fully explore the life of Lafayette Park inhabitants, living is a neighbourhood designed in the late 1950s by Mies Van Der Rohe. The gathered material turned into a book they edited and designed and offered to the publisher. All the associates on the project lived in the neighbourhood. The book also includes a mixture of original and amateur photographs, memorabilia, and interviews with the citizens. Lana and Natasha temporarily resided in Lafayette park and Danielle still lives there.
Explation by International Jury:
The designers lived in Lafayette Park in Detroit and this personal commitment and first-hand knowledge shows in every page of their remarkably thorough visual taxonomy of the area, from the inhabitants’ apartments to the local birdlife.
Zgraf Welcome
Peranović Martin ‘MINE / MINES’ (Hrvatska / Croatia, 2014.)
Description:
The aim of the mobile application is to warn of the high risk of moving around the areas possibily infected by mines, to notify through clear and easily accessible information about the suspicion of mines and the enable movement based on these information.
Explation by International Jury:
Not many graphic design initiatives can claim to save lives. This mobile app’s clarity of purpose is expressed in a lucid interface that looks easy to use and the whole project has been presented and explained with a high degree of professionalism.
ICO-D Excellence Award
Schmidt Buckwheat ‘series for bilježnica Povše tiskaru / series of notebooks for Povše printery’ (Slovenia / Slovenia, 2015/2016)
Description:
The purpose of these notebooks was to present a traditional corporate gift both as an actually useful object and a portfolio of their versatile craft and technical capabilities. They include papers of different colours, weights, textures and motifs, sheets with perforation along the binding and an inner pocket at the back with a 16-sheet stack of personalized stationery with clients’ names.
Explation by International Jury:
In these loud times, promotional materials for Povše printery are an example of a carefully thought through, unassuming and elegant design, that whispers rather than screams. Images and graphic interventions take it in turns at a harmonious pace, and a sophisticated choice of materials complements the product, which is not only useful but also aesthetically appealing.
AICA / Nagrada Hrvatske sekcije Međunarodnog udruženja likovnih kritičara AICA
Dražić Rafaela ‘ Nova umjetnost za novo društvo: traži se vaša nazočnost / New art for new society: your presence is requested’ (Hrvatska / Croatia, 2015)
Description:
The works presented at the large exhibition in the Wroclaw Museum of Contemporary Art include parts of the collection of the Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art related to two important publishing initiatives between 1968 and 1978—magazines BIT International and SPOT—means of exchange and dissemination of ideas and visual explorations. The catalogue features copies of each issue, a selection of exhibited works and materials from the Museum of Contemporary Art’s documentation collections.
Explation by International Jury:
The work we hereby honour is part of Zgraf’s selection whose quality has for years been on an extremely high level. The judging criteria are in that respect expectedly strict. Examining the exhibition, it seems important to point out that it is publishing – books and publications – that proves to be the field where graphic designers demonstrate their knowledge, prowess, sense of composition, image and text dichotomy, printing media materiality, sense of understanding and visual interpretation of the given content to the most powerful and effective degree. Finally, the sense of the one whom the books, as an unusually intimate design artefact, are intended for – the reader. Among such a powerful production, with such high stakes, such strict standards and such harsh competition, it is hard to choose just one object. The main reason why selected the book/catalogue New art for new society: Your presence is requested, designed by Rafaela Dražić, is subtlety and wisdom behind each individual decision in her design. More so since the task the designer had to face in this case was quite challenging – the book speaks about printing publications (magazines Bit International and Spot) as important media in the dissemination of ideas in the art context. Rafaela Dražić approaches the subject matter and diverse reproduced material (magazines, artworks, documentation) with enormous care and respect, acknowledging its character and characteristic visual language, and creating a subtle, unimposing and at the same time contemporary frame for its new reading. The designer does it with only a minimum of means – choice of different types of paper and colour, variations in the treatment of text and other simple interventions providing subtle but clear landmarks for the reader and respecting the material without becoming its mere stylistic interpretation.