Årets vakreste bøker (National Book Design Awards, Norway). Hosted by The National Library of Norway and Grafill. Gold in the category art/photography books for the book Pieces of energy. From the StatoilHydro art collection. Design by Martin Kvamme & Halvor Bodin, editors: Jens R. Jenssen & Bjarne Våga. Pieces of energy was also among the five nominated books (out of 325) for the main award Book of The Year (årets vakreste bok).
Silver in the category educational books for children for the book Gay Kids – Kule barn som også finnes. Design by Halvor Bodin, illustration by Emma Olsen, editors: Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty, Bera Ulstein Moseng and Rolf Angeltvedt. Published by Helseutvalget and Abstrakt.
Read about all the winners in all categories at the GRAFILL website.
The book-exhibition at The National Library of Norway is open from April 2 to April 30.
Monday–Friday 9–7 PM, Saturday 9–2 PM.
Some 325 books in 14 different categories were submitted this year and the competition was tough.
Book designers Martin Kvamme and Halvor Bodin received the award at Norway’s elegant National Library before a large audience brimming with Scandinavia’s best authors, publishers, graphic designers and illustrators. The awards are sponsored and hosted by The National Library of Norway, The Norwegian Publishers Association and GRAFILL (Norwegian Association for Visual Communication).
”We are very humble and grateful for this recognition by the professional community. A high performing and very creative team worked on the book – and these two designers really deserve the prize,” says senior vice president of corporate human resources in StatoilHydro, Jens R. Jenssen. He and art historian Bjarne Våga edited the book and were responsible for the concept and production of Pieces of energy.
A jury of noted graphic designers and illustrators described Pieces of energy as a book that should “spark interest in all of us outside the company. There is a definitive contrast between the box and the book’s cover. The box is ‘haute couture’ while the cover is ‘pop art’. Lovely! We’re crossing our fingers that this book gets a larger audience.”
“This is strong recognition of the quality of StatoilHydro’s art programme and a source of inspiration,” says curator Wenche Falkenhaug, who attended the award ceremony together with Mr Våga.
Mr Våga is quick to credit other members of the Pieces of energy team, Visual Design StatoilHydro, Kai Hansen Trykkeri (printers); Gabi Letzner, colour consultant; and Bengt Persson, book binding.
“There are no short cuts. Producing an art book is a very demanding process, requiring constant attention to detail and hands on cooperation with all involved. Photography, colour reproduction, translation, proof reading, design, layout, binding, printing – all these elements, and more, must possess quality and merge together in order to produce an excellent result.”
Online excerpts from the StatoilHydro art collection.