Please note: 2 copies of your book(s) have to be send to Drukkerij Zwaan Lenoir, Industrieweg 58, 1521 NE Wormerveer, with reference to The Best Dutch Book Designs. Sunday January 17 the registration will be closed.
Criteria
1 To be eligible for selection a book must fulfil at least two of the three following requirements.
The work, which need not be in Dutch, must have been:
- published by a publisher established in the Netherlands;
- designed by a person holding Dutch nationality or resident in the Netherlands;
- printed by a printing business and/or lithographed by a lithography business and/or bound by a binding business established in the Netherlands.
2 On registering for the selection the registrant must donate to the Foundation two copies of each work; five further copies must be provided if a work is selected as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs.
For more details see the Rules.
All books can be submitted
There are five categories from which a total maximum of 33 Best Dutch Book Designs can be selected. They are:
- Prose, poetry or graphic novels
- Informative nonfiction (from cookbook to history to doctoral thesis)
- Art, photo and architecture books
- Books for children and young people
- Others
So the selection is open to books of any genre, be it prose, poetry, cookery, history, art, bibles, philosophy, corporate publications, and so on.
Entry fee & payment
The registrant pays €75 for the first title and €50 for each further title.
You pay directly through Ideal. You can also pay later: after the registration period you will receive an invoice and you can pay by bank, but for this we will charge € 7,50 (administration costs).
Judging Panel
In each individual book the panel of expert judges looks for a combination of design, printing and binding skills and overall concept, in the last of these also taking into account differences in budgets and target group. This year’s panel consists of Yolanda Huntelaar (designer), Michaël Snitker (designer), Martijn Kicken (advisor drukkerij Tielen), Carine van Wijk (director Gottmer Uitgevers Groep) and Thomas Castro (curator of Graphic Design Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam).
Student panel
This year there will once again be a separate judging panel consisting of five students who will make their own selection of 33 books. The five all come from top Dutch art colleges (Werkplaats Typografie Arnhem, ArtEZ Hogeschool van de Kunsten Arnhem, Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten Den Haag (KABK), Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht and the Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam). Their selection will be placed on the website at www.bestverzorgdeboeken-studentenselectie.nl and will have its own catalogue.
The Best Dutch Book Designs 2020 will be submitted for the international judging in Leipzig. The Dutch selection will be announced on March 4, 2021, the international selection at the beginning of April.
Photograph: detail: Lynne Leegte, Study after Vincent van Gogh – La joie de vivre, 2016