Along the Streets of Cartagena is a book under development that examines the historical district of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. Architecture is a particular focus of the book. The entrance doors to buildings are one of the most distinctive aspects of architecture within the walled city of Cartagena. Hence, for the cover of this book we decided to utilize a photograph of an actual door in Cartagena.

We’ve also created an alternate cover below with the image of a different door.

Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam received an Honorary Appreciation at this year’s Stiftung Buchkunst Best Book Design from All Over the World.

Design by Richard Niessen, Esther de Vries.

From the Stiftung Buchkunst award citation:

This book retrospectively presents the activities of the Amsterdam city museum in an annual report for 2005. Through the use of various papers and colours the chapters are respectively divided into clearly defined sections. The thin paper and the soft cover give the book a sleek exterior. Geometric patterns pervade the book creating a cross-cultural impression indebted to the Arabic world, to which the Japanese binding also contributes. In this way the museum’s cultural activities underline its function as an institution promoting cultural dialogue.

CABK 2006 received an Honorary Appreciation at this year’s Stiftung Buchkunst Best Book Design from All Over the World.

Design by DesignArbeid, whose site describes the book this way:

Catalogue containing the work of the gratuation students 2006 of the artschool CABK/Artez. To open the book you have to tear off the side. It’s a portrait-book: The students are presented in alphabetical order, every student was asked to make a self-portrait which reflects the person and the mentality as an artist. The students work is hidden behind the portrait by using a japanese binding method: you have to tear open the pages to see it. THE INVITATION TO THE EXHIBITION ALSO HAS TO BE TORN.

From the Stiftung Buchkunst award citation:

The final year of the Academies of Visual Arts initially presents itself as an impervious, enclosed group. A perforated strip on the front edging which has to be torn off serves subsequently as a bookmark and reveals the edging in all of its colour. Each final-exam candidate has four pages to play with, although two of them – the book is bound in Japanese fashion – become apparent only after again undoing a perforation. At the end the book can be split up into its separate pages rather akin to the graduating students all going their separate ways. A very convincingly designed book.

Czech 100 Design Icons by Tereza Bruthansová, Jan Králíček received an Honorary Appreciation at this year’s Stiftung Buchkunst Best Book Design from All Over the World.

From the Stiftung Buchkunst award citation:

Content ideally matches design in this book. The jacket shows variations of the Czech flag modified in a range of different colours. The use of the national flag as a pictorial motif is testimony to Czech design’s sense of its own identity, whilst the altering of its colours simultaneously shows openness to the wider world. The book’s interior is divided into eight chapters, each being designated in a different colour. These colours return where the pages come together in the guise of narrow strips, creating a sort of illumination. The book is a magnificent reflection of the spirit of Czech design.

Holzspektrum by Josef Fellner, Alfred Teischinger, Walter Zschokke received an Honorary Appreciation at this year’s Stiftung Buchkunst Best Book Design from All Over the World.

Design by Reinhard Gassner, Marcel Bachmann, Stefan Gassner.

From the Stiftung Buchkunst award citation:

A publication on the subject of wood, clearly conveying a wealth of technical information. The various broad columns and the entire typographical composition make for a high degree of lucidity with regard to this specialist subject. A brief introduction to the different types of trees and the shapes of their leaves by means of line drawings, alongside descriptive texts as well as wonderful reproductions of the structure of each wood, one per double-page, present the reader with a comprehensive view of the wood in question.