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BONBON

Awarded

BONBON: Valeria Bonin / Diego Bontognali

Nine publications

Graphic Design

Jury report

Design for Things Theoretical and Exotic
How can de­sign be used to make a the­o­ret­i­cal mag­a­zine at­trac­tive? Va­le­ria Bonin and Diego Bon­tog­nali, both grad­u­ates of the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), work to­gether under the name Bon­bon. Their sig­na­ture is seen on mag­a­zines like '31', a pe­ri­od­i­cal of ZHdK's In­si­tutue for Crit­i­cal The­ory. Their cov­ers typ­i­cally fea­ture large type­faces, some­times in colour, with the strik­ing at­tribute of serv­ing both as the cover and the table of con­tents. The mag­a­zine is printed on grey­ish card­board-like paper, not par­tic­u­larly at­trac­tive in it­self, but Bon­bon have in­vested the mag­a­zine with an inim­itable, slightly clunky ap­pear­ance that em­i­nently suits an art school's the­o­ret­i­cal re­search in­sti­tute. Al­ways look­ing for new so­lu­tions, the two de­sign­ers clearly have a flair for highly so­phis­ti­cated de­tails. They have de­signed sev­eral photo books from archival ma­te­r­ial, in­clud­ing a book about the Let­zi­graben baths. The cover shows a cu­ri­ously faded pho­to­graph, like an old fam­ily pho­to­graph, in po­etic evo­ca­tion of the in­sti­tu­tion's early days. Bon­bon also de­sign artists' books like 'Por­to­bello' by Hilde­gard Spiel­hofer. The largely white cover is un­usual since Bonin and Bon­tog­nali or­di­nar­ily have no qualms about 'all over' de­sign and, in fact, cul­ti­vate a cer­tain elab­o­rate ex­u­ber­ane. Based in Zürich, the duo also teach – Va­le­ria Bonin at the Zürich F+F, Diego Bon­tog­nali at the Ecole can­tonale d'art de Lau­sanne. From 2007 to 2009, the Fed­eral Of­fice of Cul­ture com­mis­sioned them to de­sign the pub­li­ca­tions for the Swiss Fed­eral De­sign Awards.
Peter Stohler

Biography

Valeria Bonin
Geboren Né/Née en Nato/Nata in Born in
1978
Education
Designerin FH, Studienbereich Visuelle Kommunikation
Group name
Bonbon

also in

2003

Diego Bontognali
Born in
1977
Ausbildung Formation Education
Designer FH, Studienbereich Visuelle Kommunikation
Group name
Bonbon

also in

2003

Web

www.bonbon.li

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