The Best Book Design from all over the World goes to the publication Ornithology from the Netherlands, uitgeverij de HEF publishers.

Unique in his kind in the world, the annual book design competition ‘Best Book Design all over the World’ has been held in Leipzig since 1963. This year the great publication Ornithology from Anne Geene and Arjan de Nooy, and the designer Jeremy Jansen has won the highest prize: the Golden Letter. The international competition assesses books which have previously been judged and singled out for merit by specialist panels in their respective countries of origin. In 2017, again, an independent, international jury convened in Leipzig with the task of selecting fourteen outstandingly designed books. The highest prize is the “Goldene Letter”. Here are the 14 awarded publications from almost 600 of the best books from 32 countries: The best of the best!

Golden Letter

This year, the great Dutch publication »Ornithology« could win the highest prize, the GOLDENLETTER! Our international jury comments on the awardee:
»Paintings from old masters are scoured for birds; details are isolated and sorted. Variant forms of the white bird splotch are identified as an indicator of the flight speed. The black nuances of the crow and the white nuances of the wood pigeon’s egg are shown on exposure scales. The book bridges several gaps in avian research. These are mostly series whose general principle becomes recognisable as the motifs are structured in variants and specific relationships to one another. The astounding, entertaining richness of the overall design is not at all an obstacle to the self-descriptive overall effect. In decimal structuring, as is customary for academic texts, surprising aspects are arranged together which have been neglected by research, or which create entirely new coherences.«

Congratulations to the authors Anne Geene and Arjan de Nooy and the designer Jeremy Jansen!
Well done!