Stichting De Best Verzorgde Boeken is establishing a new annual prize for a highly distinguished contribution in Dutch book design: De Kapitaal.
Dutch book design is of high quality and highly regarded internationally. A competitive market creates great challenges in the graphic-cultural profession. At the same time, the sector shows great creativity and innovation. We celebrate this resilience of the profession with De Kapitaal: a new Dutch prize in which a person, institution or initiative is awarded for its distinctive contribution to Dutch book care.
Book designer Joost Grootens, known for his atlases, dictionaries and bibles, is the first to receive the award because in our digital age, he knows how to masterfully translate visual information into book form. In doing so, he always considers technical aspects and has intensive contact with producers and clients. He himself says: ‘You never make a book on your own. A designer must realise that we are always part of a bigger picture.’
The prize is established by De Best Verzorgde Boeken, which annually celebrates the best that the graphic arts sector produces in a year by awarding 33 book awards by a professional and student jury. The announcement takes place today (18 October), at the opening of the exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
De Best Verzorgde Boeken asked Team Thursday (Loes van Esch and Simone Trum) to come up with a format for this award, they opted for a sculpture. The designer duo drew inspiration from very early printing techniques such as the brick stamp from Iraq (2200 BC), the first Chinese printing technique where individual letters made of porcelain were placed in a printing mould (c. 1000 AD) as well as the Western technique of using lead letters (15th century).
Team Thursday enlisted the help of an amazing ceramist, Marieke van Heesbeen. She made five porcelain ‘capitals’, each with a different colour glaze.
Joost Grootens
Joost Grootens (1971) originally trained as an architect. His oeuvre of now 250 books expresses an immense love for books. Over time, 26 of his books were awarded Best Book. He won the Golden Letter and two Gold Medals in the international competition The Best Book Design from all over the World. His work shows his vitality and his skill of the book trade. For decades, he has been passing on professional knowledge to younger generations. He currently teaches at the Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation in Copenhagen and at the Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche in Urbino. With his creativity and individuality, he makes an extremely valuable contribution to the development of Dutch bookmaking.
Portrait photo Joost Grootens: Boudewijn Bollmann
