Competition

Zhar-Kniga (The Fire-Book) Russian National Book Design Competition is pleased to announce its International Student Book Design Competition.

The objective of the competition is to stimulate interest in the design of the printed book as an ample field for creativity and to foster the role of the printed book as an important part of contemporary communication and culture.

Design students worldwide are encouraged to submit innovative solutions that reinvent the structure of the book to make it more user-friendly, informative and relevant for today’s audience.

Regulations

1. Who Can Enter
Students of any design school as well as any art or design department of colleges or universities worldwide are eligible to enter the competition.
Entries can be submitted either by students directly or by their departments. Multiple entries are accepted. There is no entry fee.

2. Categories
2.1 Category V. Class Project

Video presentation of a school project of a multi-page publication that is suitable for printing as a book, not a one-off. Class assignments, term and degree projects are eligible.

3. Submission Guidelines
3.1 Category V. Class Project
3.1.1
School projects created as class assignments; term and degree projects are eligible.
3.1.2 Presentation Format: video presentation of the printed book design. Video has to contain titles with following information: project title, student and professor’s names, name of the school.
3.1.3 Objective: to provide a clear idea of the overall appearance of the book, of its exterior and interior design, structure, and components.
3.1.4 Creative brief: to demonstrate the interconnected relationship between the various graphic, compositional, typographic and constructive elements of the design, as well as the choice of the components, pre-press, press and binding techniques and their working together toward the intended intellectual and emotional impact of the project.
3.1.5 Specifications: size — from 1280×720 to 1920×1080 px; duration — not over 180 sec.; codec — H.264; file type — .mp4; bitrate for video—1200—200 Kbps, for sound — not less than 126 Kbps.
3.1.6 File format: mp4-file (saved with the name: category (V)_FirstNameInitial-FamilyName_number (in case of multiple entries).mp4; e.g.: V_J-Smith_1.mp4).

4. Awards
4.1 Category V
4.1.1
 No less than 20 projects will be selected for the shortlist. Final number is up to the discretion of the Jury.
4.1.2 Five Honorary Diplomas will be awarded.

5. Publicity
5.1
Full list of entries will be published on the web site of the competition www.zharkniga.ru.
5.2 Entries included in short-list will be published on web site of the competition www.zharkniga.ru following the decision of the jury.
5.3 Entries included in short-list will be shown at the Zhar-Kniga Book Design Festival www.zharkniga.ru.
5.4 Submitted projects can be reproduced partly or integrally in any publications about the competition.

Jury

Ivan Aleksandrov
Book designer, graphic artist, illustrator.
Member of Board on Book for Young People of Russia (RBBY) in International Board on Book for Young People (IBBY)&
Laureate of «Golden Apple» award at Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB), 2007.
Laureate of many national book design competitions (2008–2015), i.a. Russian National Book Design Competition «Zhar-Kniga», 2014, 2015.
Member of Jury of «Best Book Design from all over the World», 2015.

Maria Doreuli
Graphic designer, type designer (Contrast Foundry).
Maria’s projects were awarded the diplomas of prestigious international competitions: Letter.2 (2011), Granshan (2011, 2015), New Cyrillic (2013), Morisawa (2014) and the Type Directors Club Certificate of Excellence in Type Design.

Aleksandra Kuznetsova
Artist, graphic designer.
Works as designer more than 15 years. Member of Art Directors Club Russia. Teacher and academic curator of Design program at HSE (National Research University High School of Economics) Art & Design School.
Participates in exhibitions at Moscow Museum of Modern Art, State Center of Modern Art etc. since 2002.
Laureate of D&AD, ADCR and others design awards.

Submission

Entry forms can be downloaded from this page (see below). One entry form per each entry. Entry forms are filled digitally and each entry have to be saved with the name: category (V or B)_FirstNameInitial-FamilyName_number (for multiple entries)_z_.pdf; e.g.: V_J-Smith_1_z_.pdf).

Entry form for the Category V have to contain following information:
Section «School Info»:
— Full official name of the school and of the department;
— address (full mail address including postal or ZIP code and e-mail address);
— website.

Section «Project»:
— Student’s information: first name, family name, academic year, e-mail address;
— Professor’s information: first name, family name, title,
e-mail address;
— Project’s title;
— Brief description of Project’s concept;
— Specifications: page size, number of pages, components and techniques;
— link(s) to file-transfer servers where the entry is stored (the period of storage has to be not less than 10 days).

Entry form for the category V »

Filled entry forms for the category V have to be sent
to e-mail address: zharstudents@mail.ru

Deadline

Electronic entries must be received by midnight of September 06, 2016 (UTC+03:00).

Feedback
The competiton committee will notify every entrant when his entry is received via e-mail.
The same e-mail address will be used for further correspondence about the competition and other Zhar-Kniga events.