Awards

List of Brno Biennial 2012 Awards

International Jury
Andrew Blauvelt / Curator of Architecture and Design at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, U.S.A.
Zak Kyes / Graphic designer, United Kingdom
Robert V. Novák / Graphic designer, Czech Republic
Sulki & MinChoi / Graphic designers, Republic of Korea
Jan van Toorn / Graphic designer, The Netherlands


Grand Prix of the Brno Biennial 2012 - The Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic Award
Mevis and van Deursen
Awarded for a specific project, the Temporary Stedelijk, an identity program for a museum of modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam. Characterized by a strong, simple concept that is at once both universal - the cruciform T shape - and particular as it adapts to each surface on which it is applied. The transparency of the T combined with its use of monochromatic images and bold but restrained colors gives the design a strong contemporary sensibility.



The Mayor of the City of Brno Award
Manuel Raeder
Awarded for a body of work in the exhibition. There is a consistency in the designers approach across posters, books, and other printed materiáls that reflects an interest in occupying other spaces-for instance the insertion of BLESS fashion into non-fashion magazines or in his use of the book jacket format in the work, Never Odd or Even. A strong gesture or interest is in retaining the discrete originál appearance of elements used in his heterogenous creations: nothing is smoothed over.



The Czech Centres Award
Jan Novak
Awarded for his design of the typeface Falster Grotesk. A mature approach to type design is evident in this series of fonts. The use of counter directional strokes in this font is sparing but nevertheless creates a distinctive appearance. Its setting in running text or copy demonstrates this quality.



The International Jury Award
Linked by Air
Awarded for a body of work, in this instance for a video and two related websites for the Whitney Museum of Art in New York City. The Whitney site acknowledges its lokality by shifting its background color from white - daytime-to black-nighttime. A welcome gesture in the timeless space of the Internet. Linked by Air creates both the front end design and the back end tools with a sense of openness, a quality also reflected in their designs.



The Brno Biennial Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Graphic Design
Zdeněk Ziegler, Czech Republic