The Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, BIBIANA, the International House of Art for Children, the Slovak Design Centre and the Slovak Literary Centre announce the 32nd year of the successful nationwide competition with a long tradition – THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS OF SLOVAKIA. The main purpose of the NKS competition is to support the improvement of the level of book culture in Slovakia in terms of its visual processing, to map the book production and to promote the best quality titles at home and abroad. Publishers, graphic designers, cultural institutions, organisations or students can enter their books in the competition until 31 January 2024.
ABOUT THE PROCESS OF THE 32ND ANNUAL COMPETITION
The last, 31st edition of the NKS competition was the last one in which the books submitted were evaluated by an expert jury in 7 established categories: scientific and professional literature, beautiful literature, literature for children and youth, textbooks, books on fine arts and pictorial publications, bibliophilic prints, study works of students of art and printing schools. In an effort to respond to the significant changes in society, the considerable development of electronic technologies, new and more variable printing possibilities, as well as a more contemporary and diverse view of the term "beauty" in the book context and graphic design, the competition has been extensively innovated and transformed. The expert jury will responsibly respect the framework of genre categories and evaluation parameters, but will above all think in the spirit of blending their boundaries. Another major change is the partners of the competition – the Slovak Design Centre and the Slovak Literary Centre.
ABOUT THE COMPETITION AWARDS
Books that comprehensively meet all professional requirements will be awarded the "THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS OF SLOVAKIA" award by the jury – a collection of 10 winning book titles. The main award is inclusion in the collection.
The jury also has the right to decide to award special prizes – the "Jury Prize" - for an exceptional and innovative achievement in book production within the profession, genres or any other imaginative solution, to any of the 20 nominated books. The jury also has the right to decide not to award the "Jury Prize".
ABOUT ENTERING THE COMPETITION
The competition is announced by BIBIANA no later than 31 December and applies to books published in a given year from 1 January to 31 December. Entries and books for the competition must be submitted by 31 January of the following calendar year. The condition is that a perfect copy of the book is sent to the competition secretariat together with a fully completed entry form marked NKS 2023.
We hope that the NKS competition will bring you up-to-date inspiration. Maybe you will be convinced by its fresh visual, which we will publish in January. In the spirit of contemporary ideological and technological practices and on the initiative of BIBIANA, students of the Academy of Fine Arts under the guidance of graphic designer Peter Bálik from the Department of Visual Communication worked on it.
More information can be found in the ORGANISATIONAL REGULATIONS of the competition and the COMPETITION STATUS, the new version of which was defined by the members of the working group, experts in the field, and whose wording was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, as well as the new partners of the competition.
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOKS OF SLOVAKIA invite you to the competition!
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