At the com­pe­ti­tion 'The Most Beau­ti­ful Swiss Books' of the Swiss Fed­eral Of­fice of Cul­ture, the in­de­pen­dent jury chose a total of 19 books as the most beau­ti­ful Swiss books of 2010. Sub­se­quently, the awarded books were en­tered in the in­ter­na­tional com­pe­ti­tion of the Stiftung Buchkunst in Leipzig, Ger­many, where they were ap­praised by an in­ter­na­tional jury. A total of three Swiss books were ranked among the most beau­ti­ful: A silver medal for 'TITLE' (Ramaya Tegegne, Geneva), a bronze medal for 'Christian Waldvogel. Earth Extremes' (Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess, Zürich) and an hon­orary ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the series 'Teaching Architecture' (Kaleidoscope Press / gta Verlag). 

391 books were en­tered into this year's com­pe­ti­tion. The five-mem­ber jury, chaired by graphic de­signer Cor­nel Windlin, ex­am­ined each entry and con­ferred the title of most beau­ti­ful Swiss book of 2010 on a total of 19 books. The Fed­eral Of­fice of Cul­ture thereby rec­og­nizes ex­cel­lence in the field of book de­sign and pro­duc­tion, as well draw­ing at­ten­tion to re­mark­able and con­tem­po­rary books by Swiss de­sign­ers, print­ers and pub­lish­ers. 

The jury takes into ac­count each book's over­all con­cept, graphic de­sign and ty­pog­ra­phy, and pays par­tic­u­lar at­ten­tion to in­no­va­tion and orig­i­nal­ity. Fur­ther cri­te­ria in­clude the qual­ity of the print­ing and the cover, the bind­ing and the ma­te­ri­als used.

From 24th to 26th June 2011, the The Most Beau­ti­ful Swiss Books will be exhibited at the Helmhaus Zürich, along­side the si­mul­ta­ne­ous pub­li­ca­tion of the cat­a­logue show­cas­ing the com­pe­ti­tion. The new catalogue will be designed by Aude Lehmann. On the occasion of the exhibition opening, the Jan Tschichold Award winner will receive her award. The exhibition will then travel to Lavin/Engadin, St. Gallen, Bienne and Geneva. As in the pre­vi­ous year, all the sub­mit­ted books en­tered into the com­pe­ti­tion will be dis­played along­side the award-win­ning ti­tles.

Photographies:

Scheltens & Abbenes, Amsterdam

Downloads

• Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2010
• Laudatio Jan-Tschichold Award 2011
• Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2010 : exhibitions program

Conférences :
Mardi, 25 octobre 2011 à 18.30 h
Ludovic Balland, graphiste et typographe, présentera sa trilogie Teaching Architecture, primée au concours Les plus beaux livres suisses 2010

Mardi, 1er novembre 2011 à 18.30 h
Christoph Schifferli, Jurymitglied der schönsten Schweizer Bücher und Buchsammler spricht über seine langjährige Sammlungstätigkeit

Genève
Forde, Espace d'art contemporain
9 au 12 novembre 2011

Vernissage :
mercredi, 9 novembre 2011, 18 h
www.fordesite.com

Every year the jury bestows, independently of the books submitted for the competition, the Jan Tschichold Award in memory of the typographer Jan Tschichold, on whose initiative the Swiss book design competition was conceived in 1944. The Federal Department of Home Affairs entrusted the jury 1997 with the task of annually awarding this honour to an individual, a group or an institution for outstanding book design achievement. This year, the Jan Tschichold Award, which is endowed with 15,000 Swiss francs, was awarded to Julia Born, a Swiss graphic designer living and working in Amsterdam. Since years, Julia Born's books have been represented in the selection of the Most Beautiful Swiss Books with impressive regularity. Her publications almost invariably end up in the final selection, which is all the more surprising given that Julia Born breaks with conventional models and frequently explores new ground. Often, her books are the result of a close collaboration with the respective authors. Time and again, she manages to deliver persuasive and surprising results for complex subject matter, and does so with admirable effortlessness, precision and extraordinary production-related judgement.