The Federal Office of Culture (FOC) has named the winners of the 2022 “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition on the recommendation of the jury. This year’s Jan Tschichold Prize is awarded to graphic designer and publisher Winfried Heininger while among the publications elected as the most beautiful Swiss books, four were also awarded in the international “World’s Most Beautiful Books” competition.

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books of 2022

Each year the FCO holds the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition, through which it recognizes outstanding achievements in book production and art and highlights works that reflect contemporary trends. Among the 400 volumes competing in the 2022 edition, the 20 award-winning books demonstrate great boldness and the highest standards, as emphasized by the jury, composed of Gina Bucher (author, publisher), Gregor Huber (graphic designer, publisher), Silas Munro (graphic designer, author), Kajsa Ståhl (graphic designer, publisher) and chaired by Sereina Rothenberger (graphic designer).

Jan Tschichold Award goes to Winfried Heininger

On the sidelines of the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition, the FCO has been awarding the Jan Tschichold Prize since 1997 to a personality, institution or group distinguished for outstanding achievements in book graphics. This year the award, worth 25,000 francs, is given to graphic designer and publisher Winfried Heininger.

Born in 1962, Winfried Heininger lives and works in Baden. A designer and publisher, in 2007 he founded the independent publishing house Kodoji Press, which focuses on contemporary art and photography. A teacher and lecturer at various art college conferences in Switzerland and abroad, Winfried Heininger also regularly leads publishing workshops. His work, which has won numerous national and international awards, is characterized by an independent and innovative vision that is particularly stimulating for the publishing scene.

Swiss distinctions at the “Most Beautiful Books in the World” competition in Leipzig

Switzerland managed to take home several prizes this year at the “World’s Most Beautiful Books” competition organized in February by the Leipzig Buchkunst Foundation. In fact, among the 560 volumes entered in the international competition and from 30 countries, four of Switzerland’s most beautiful books also received distinction:

• Susi + Ueli Berger. Kunst am Bau und im öffentlichen Raum 1968-2008, Ed. Scheidegger & Spiess (graphic design: Dan Solbach, Berlin/Basel; Fabian Harb, Porto/Basel; Maria Peskina, Zurich) was awarded the “golden letter,” highest honor;
• Matter, Ed. Spector Books (graphic design: Fabian Bremer, Hannes Drissner, Leipzig; Pascal Storz, Berlin / Basel) received a silver medal;
• Miriam Cahn. MEINEJUDEN, Ed. DISTANZ (graphic design: Julia Born, Zurich): and
• The Polyhedrists: Art and Geometry in the Long Sixteenth Century, Ed. MIT Press (graphic design: Studio Mathias Clottu, London/Lausanne) both received a bronze medal.

From April 27-30, 2023, Switzerland’s Most Beautiful Books of 2022 will be presented at the Leipzig Book Fair, Hall 2, Booth G600/F601. The award ceremony is scheduled for Friday, April 28.

Italian excellencies on exhibition in Zurich: what a success!

Presentation of the Jan Tschichold Prize and exhibition “The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, ” edition 2022

The Jan Tschichold Prize will be awarded on June 22, 2023, at the Helmhaus in Zurich, during the opening of the 2022 exhibition “The Most Beautiful Swiss Books,” in which all the volumes that participated in the competition will be displayed, with a layout designed by Damian Fopp.

The exhibition will make other stops in Switzerland and abroad, at book fairs, cultural institutions, art schools and libraries. The 2022 edition of “Switzerland’s Most Beautiful Books” catalog, created by Samuel Bänziger, Rosario Florio and Larissa Kasper of St. Gallen, will be presented at the varnishing.

Jan Tschichold Prize in Brief

Since 1997, the Federal Office of Culture has awarded the Jan Tschichold Prize to a personality, institution or group distinguished by outstanding achievements in book design. The award is given at the suggestion of the jury independently of the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition.

Jan Tschichold was born in Leipzig, Germany, on April 2, 1902, and was a typographer, writer, designer and teacher among the leading theorists of typography and book design in the twentieth century: among his works is the essay Die neue Typographie (1928). As he and his family were considered suspicious persons by the Nazis, he was arrested without any indictment, formal charge or trial, and got out after 3 weeks thanks to an amnesty at the end of which he decided to take refuge in Basel, Switzerland, where he arrived in 1933 with his wife Edith and son Peter. Thanks to his fame and connections he found work both as a professor and as a designer. He died in Locarno on August 11, 1974.

Source: Federal Office of Culture FOC