The European Design Awards are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field. The ED-Awards is a joint initiative of design magazines from across Europe and endorsed by the International Council of Graphic Design Associations.
We are very proud of a few designers in particular, being Dutch illustrator Jan Hamstra, Dutch creative studio Rob and Robin and Austrian designer Andreas Palfinger. All of whom created projects that were either commissioned by, part of or inspired by the 2019 edition of the Graphic Matters festival.
“Graphic Matters aims to challenge designers and to push their work to a higher level with co-productions. In addition to spin-offs of similar projects, these four European Design Awards are a sign that fellow design professionals acknowledge this. We are very proud of the designers and our collaborations.” – Dennis Elbers, creative director of Graphic Matters
This includes the following projects:
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Information Path by Jan Hamstra
BRONZE in the POSTER SERIES category
This poster series consists of 16 posters forming a 500m long timeline presented in the public space of Breda. Each poster shows a historical information graphics highlight. To create his designs, Jan used digital collages based on hundreds of linocuts, all cut by hand.
The research for this project was done by Sandra Rendgen, author of the book History of Information Graphics, published by Taschen in 2019.
Photo: Rob Lipsius
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Graphic Matters 2019 pre-campaign by Rob and Robin
SILVER in the POSTER SERIES category
We invited Rob and Robin to design a pre-campaign for the seventh edition of the Graphic Matters festival in 2019, which was all about information design.
Rob and Robin used elements of ‘boring’ graphs in a different way. Their designs have a powerful and simple aesthetic to them, making them fun to look at from different perspectives. Rob and Robin searched for (and found!) soul in those lifeless graphs. In order to connect the offline campaign to the online campaign, Rob and Robin also brought their illustrations to life by animating them.
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NO VISUAL IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS by Rob and Robin
SILVER in the BOOK & EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATION category
Rob and Robin created these manual-like illustrations to accompany a text about visual literacy by Sven Ehmann. Rob and Robin searched for visual metaphors that resonate with the content and audience. Using humour as a tool they open the discussion on a topic many people recognise but is hardly ever discussed in public. The illustrations were presented as 6 billboards in the public space of Breda as part of Graphic Matters 2019. Also, a set of postcards was published.
Photo: Joost van Asch
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A POPULIST’S GUIDE TO: SHAPING DEMOCRACY by Andreas Palfinger
GOLD in the STUDENT PROJECT category
This guide provides 7 steps on how to transform a democratic system into dictatorship. Reading the guide from back to front yields possible answers on how to restore democracy.
The guide was designed by Andreas Palfinger during the ‘Out of Balance project‘, a collaboration between Graphic Matters and Die Angewändte in Vienna. It was selected for the INFORMATION SUPERPOWER exhibition as part of Graphic Matters 2019.
