The illustration Untitled (X-Ray Vector Smart Object) for smart fortwo, received a Silver award at the European Design Awards 2009 in Zürich May 17. The category is Corporate Illustration. (No Gold in this category). The illustration was made for the book Sideways – A Smart Art Project and the 2009 Smart Calendar representing the month of May.

NO Magazine was invited as one of eleven international magazines to curate a part of the anthology Sideways – A Smart Art Project, published by Die Gestalten Verlag and smart. no’s contribution was curated by myself and Claudia C. Sandor. The 248-page book features work by one hundred international artists in an attempt to evaluate the way we think about the environment and mobility.

The following eleven international magazines curated this book: Dazed & Confused (UK), Tokion (USA), Drome (Italy), INDIE (Austria), Style 100 (Germany), +81 (Japan), Blend (The Netherlands), Baby Baby Baby Magazine (Mexico), Neo2 (Spain), WAD (France) and NO Magazine (Norway). Artists presented in the NO-section: Blunderbuss/Ida Gullhav, Justin Bartlett, Are Mokkelbost, Ane Graff, Benjamin Alexander Huseby, Marcel Leliënhof, Siri Hermansen/Claudia C. Sandor, Siren Lauvdal, mmv architects of norway and Halvor Bodin.

The release of the book Sideways – A Smart Art Project was at 7 World Trade Center. 52nd floor, overlooking Ground Zero in March 2008. The illustration was exhibited in a light box with the other 10 Smart pieces. The piece is used as advertisement in magazines and is published in the Smart Calendar for 2009 (for the month of May).

The two illustrations Rinspeed & Safe Lock Division for Kaba Group, Switzerland received a Silver at European Design Awards 2008 in Stockholm, Sweden (in the category for Corporate Illustration). In the European Design Awards 2007 in Athens, Greece the Oslo International Film Festival 2006 animated ident received a Silver in the category for Motion Graphics (Svein Kvamme, Halvor Bodin). NO Magazine (Claudia C. Sandor and Halvor Bodin) received a Bromze in the category for Editorial Design, Magazine Layout. Europan 8, the Norwegian and Cypriotic Catalogue (Halvor Bodin) received a Bronze in the category for Editorial Design, Artistic/Exhibition Catalogue.

Congratulations goes to all the other winners in 2009 including fellow Norwegians including Claudia C. Sandor, Are Kleivan and Bleed!

The Catalogue with the Winners and Finalists can be ordered form the ED-Awards website.

ED-Awards is endorsed by Icograda IDA (International Council of Graphic Design Associations). The jury is composed of representatives from prestigious communication design magazines from across Europe. Those are also media partners for the events and together form the European Design Media Network (EDMN). These magazines are: 2+3D, +design, Design Austria, Design Week, étapes, Grafik Tasarim, Graphic, IDPURE, KAK, novum, Progetto Grafico, TYPO, Visual.

Visuelt 2009 exhibition at DogA, the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture, Oslo, 9–24 May. Complete list of winners at visuelt.org. Congratulations to all! A printed catalogue is available at the exhibition.

Gold in the category Catalogues and brochures (Design) for  Pieces of energy. From the StatoilHydro art collection. Design by Martin Kvamme & Halvor Bodin, editors: Jens R. Jenssen & Bjarne Våga. Juryens kommentar: «Massiv og imponerende kunstkatalog. Deilig påkostet produksjon, som får katalogen til å fremstå som et kunstobjekt i seg selv. En generøs bok som byr på en fantastisk kunstsamling. Bokstavelig talt en gavepakke til oppdragsgiveren.»

Silver in the category for Poster (Illustration). Poster for Oslo International Film Festival 2008. Design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin. Juryens kommentar: «Teknikken som er brukt er så langt fra filmmediet det er mulig å komme. Plakaten understreker tegningens kraft. Det er modig gjort og fungerer veldig godt.»

Nominee (Diploma) in the category for Poster (Design). Poster for Oslo International Film Festival.
Juryens kommentar: «Tidkrevende kunstverk av en plakat. Det myldrer og bobler i detaljrikdom. Her finnes det meste innen filmens symbolverden.»

Silver in the category Moving image/identity. Ident for Oslo International Film Festival 2008. Animation/3D/direction: Svein Kvamme. Identity design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin. Juryens kommentar: «Tøff og vellykket videreføring av utrykket på trykk. Detaljert og gjennomgående kvalitetsbevisst. Spennende samspill mellom det analoge og digitale uttrykket.»

Nominee (Diploma) in the category Website small identity (Interactive). Website for Oslo International Film Festival 2008. Webdesign: Håvard Gjelseth. Code: Trond Sørli + Torgeir Holm/Simian. Identity design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin. Animation/3D: Svein Kvamme. Juryens kommentar: «Nettsiden har et sterkt særpreg, hvor illustrasjon er et bærende element hele veien gjennom. Annerledes.»

Read review/listing of design winners and comments at the Kjefta.

Årets vakreste bøker (National Book Design Awards, Norway). Hosted by The National Library of Norway and Grafill. Gold in the category art/photography books for the book Pieces of energy. From the StatoilHydro art collection. Design by Martin Kvamme & Halvor Bodin, editors: Jens R. Jenssen & Bjarne Våga. Pieces of energy was also among the five nominated books (out of 325) for the main award Book of The Year (årets vakreste bok).

Silver in the category educational books for children for the book Gay Kids – Kule barn som også finnes. Design by Halvor Bodin, illustration by Emma Olsen, editors: Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty, Bera Ulstein Moseng and Rolf Angeltvedt. Published by Helseutvalget and Abstrakt.

Read about all the winners in all categories at the GRAFILL website.

The book-exhibition at The National Library of Norway is open from April 2 to April 30.
Monday–Friday 9–7 PM, Saturday 9–2 PM.

Some 325 books in 14 different categories were submitted this year and the competition was tough.
Book designers Martin Kvamme and Halvor Bodin received the award at Norway’s elegant National Library before a large audience brimming with Scandinavia’s best authors, publishers, graphic designers and illustrators. The awards are sponsored and hosted by The National Library of Norway, The Norwegian Publishers Association and GRAFILL (Norwegian Association for Visual Communication).

”We are very humble and grateful for this recognition by the professional community. A high performing and very creative team worked on the book – and these two designers really deserve the prize,” says senior vice president of corporate human resources in StatoilHydro, Jens R. Jenssen. He and art historian Bjarne Våga edited the book and were responsible for the concept and production of Pieces of energy.

A jury of noted graphic designers and illustrators described Pieces of energy as a book that should “spark interest in all of us outside the company. There is a definitive contrast between the box and the book’s cover. The box is ‘haute couture’ while the cover is ‘pop art’. Lovely! We’re crossing our fingers that this book gets a larger audience.”

“This is strong recognition of the quality of StatoilHydro’s art programme and a source of inspiration,” says curator Wenche Falkenhaug, who attended the award ceremony together with Mr Våga.

Mr Våga is quick to credit other members of the Pieces of energy team, Visual Design StatoilHydro, Kai Hansen Trykkeri (printers); Gabi Letzner, colour consultant; and Bengt Persson, book binding.

“There are no short cuts. Producing an art book is a very demanding process, requiring constant attention to detail and hands on cooperation with all involved. Photography, colour reproduction, translation, proof reading, design, layout, binding, printing – all these elements, and more, must possess quality and merge together in order to produce an excellent result.”

Online excerpts from the StatoilHydro art collection.

The two illustrations Rinspeed & Safe Lock Division for Kaba Group, Switzerland received a Merit at European Design Awards in Stockholm May 18. The illustrations were made for the Kaba annual report and an exhibition at the corporate headquarters.

Illustration/Art Direction: Halvor Bodin, Norway
Design director for the project: Martin Meier/Dachcom, Winterthur, Switzerland.

Chosen artists/illustrators were asked to design pictures of Kaba Group technical products in an innovative way. The Kaba Group is a technology leader in the worldwide security industry. The principal topic was the highlights of the company of the last year. The illustrations were used in the annual report and as large format prints in the corporte headquarters. I selected the topics Rinspeed (Body Key) and New Safelock Division. The illustrations are strictly based on product imagery + pencil drawing. The recognizable forms are broken down and rebuilt in new forms in a coloristic explosive manner. The technique used is pencil drawing and Scriptographer vector rasterization using Adobe Illustrator Live Color tools. The finished output is digital print.

The Kaba illustrations received a Nominee (Diploma) at the Visuelt Awards 08 as well.

In the European Design Awards 2007 in Athens, Greece the Oslo International Film Festival 2006 animated ident received a Merit in the category for Motion Graphics (Svein Kvamme, Halvor Bodin). NO Magazine (Claudia C. Sandor and Halvor Bodin) was a Finalist in the category for Editorial Design, Magazine Layout. Europan 8, the Norwegian and Cypriotic Catalogue (Halvor Bodin) was a Finalist in the category for Editorial Design, Artistic/Exhibition Catalogue.

Congratulations goes to all the other winners in 2008 and especially my friends from SDG, Eirik Seu Stokkmo who won an Award in the Brand Application category and Diogo Valério who won a Merit in the CD/DVD-cover category. Lesley Moore from Amsterdam won an Award in the Magazine category for MARK. Lesley Moore is Karin van den Brandt (Dutch) and Alex Clay (Norwegian).

The 264 pages Catalogue with the Winners and Finalists can be ordered form the ED-Awards website.

ED-Awards is endorsed by Icograda IDA (International Council of Graphic Design Associations).

Visuelt Awards 08: 4 gold, 2 silver and 9 nominees to Oslo Collective.

Editorial Design (Design)
Gold
NO Magazine
Design/Art Direction: Claudia C. Sandor & Halvor Bodin
Design Assistant: Anders Gressli
Photographic Director: Marcel Leliënhof

Jury statement [N]: Et magasin som ligger på toppnivå i internasjonal sammenheng. Det fornyer seg stadig formmessig, men har samtidig sitt eget uttrykk i behold. Vekselvirkningen og samspillet mellom design, fotografi og redaksjonelt innhold skaper et helstøpt sluttprodukt, hvor hvert element får den plass til rådighet som det fortjener.

Self-promotion (Design)
Gold (No silver in this category)
Poster Mortem steel posters, 70 x 100 cm x 2 mm (6 pieces) for the exhibition HBodin Retroskeptic at Grafill Gallery.
Design: Halvor Bodin

Jury statement [N]: Arbeidene demonstrerer en enorm nysgjerrighet på å utforske nye teknikker og muligheter. Utøverens retroskeptiske utstilling viser en stor kjærlighet til faget. Dette står det stor respekt av!

Poster (Illustration)
Silver
Poster Mortem offset poster, 70 x 100 cm (printed on both sides in five colors) for the exhibition HBodin Retroskeptic at Grafill Gallery.
Illustration & design: Halvor Bodin

Jury statement [N]: Plakaten gir oss et bilde av et mentalt landskap. Illustratøren innbyr tilskueren til en intens, men samtidig lavmælt opplevelse. Plakaten er en musikalsk reise, og gir noe vi kan orientere oss etter – et slags visuelt kart eller et partitur.

Catalogues and brochures (Design)
Nominee (Diploma)
Sesong (editorial catalogue for the department store Steen & Strøm Magasin
Design/Art Direction: Claudia C. Sandor & Halvor Bodin
Design Assistant: Anders Gressli

Poster (Design)
Nominee (Diploma)
Poster for Oslo International Film Festival 2007
Design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin

Website small identity (Interactive)
Nominee (Diploma)
Website for Oslo International Film Festival 2007
Webdesign: Håvard Gjelseth
Code: Trond Sørli + Torgeir Holm/Simian
Identity design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin
Animation/3D: Svein Kvamme

Idents (Moving Image)
Nominee (Diploma)
Animated ident for Oslo International Film Festival 2007
Direction: Halvor Bodin & Svein Kvamme
Animation/3D/Compositing/design: Svein Kvamme
Identity design/Art Direction/illustration: Halvor Bodin
Music: Nils Ødegård

Open Category (Illustration)
Nominee (Diploma)
Two illustrations, Rinspeed & Safelock Division for annual report and exhibition at the Kaba Group corporate headquarters.
Illustration & Art Direction: Halvor Bodin
Art Direction for annual report and the whole project with 11 invited artists: Martin Meier at Dachcom

Poster (Illustration)
Gold
Ravner, a poster for the Borealis Festival 2007 (Mike Patton/Stian Carstensen + Mike Patton/Chirstian Fennesz)
Illustration: Martin Kvamme/Raymond Mozer
Graphic design: Martin Kvamme

Jury statement [N]: En dramatisk og monumental plakat for et samarbeid mellom to artister. den formidler sitt ærend uten omsvøp, men ikke uten distanse og humor. Samtidig er dette en ny sjanger – plakaten som objekt. Vi tenker på Hugin og Munin, men også på mørk sjokolade.

Cultural Packaging (Design)
Gold
CD sleeve for Dub Trio Another Sound is Dying on Ipecac Recordings
Graphic design/Illustration: Martin Kvamme

Jury statement [N]: Nyskapende bruk av illustrasjon, både teknisk og motivmessig. Her er det ikke behov for forførende trykktekniske hjelpemidler. Coverets sære motiv og sterke uttrykk får juryen til å spå at dette vil bli et nytt ikon innenfor platecovere.

Cultural Packaging (Design)
Silver
CD sleeve for The Ocean Precambrian on Metal Blade Records
Graphic design/Illustration: Martin Kvamme
Art Direction: Martin Kvamme/Robin Staps

Jury statement [N]: En visuell opplevelse! Dette er et cover man kan bruke lang tid på å betrakte. Da vi trodde vi hadde sett alt, var det bare begynnelsen. En rå bruk av trykktekniske detaljer. Overveldende, perfeksjonistisk og luksuriøs.

Poster (Design)
Nominee (Diploma)
Ravner, a poster for the Borealis Festival 2007 (Mike Patton/Stian Carstensen + Mike Patton/Chirstian Fennesz)
Illustration: Martin Kvamme/Raymond Mozer
Graphic design: Martin Kvamme

Open Category (Design)
Nominee (Diploma)
Blunderville
Illustration/design/photography/Art Direction: Blunderbuss

Self-promotion (Illustration)
Nominee (Diploma)
Eg liker å sjå på fuglar (T-shirt)
Illustration/design: Martin Kvamme

Cover (Illustration)
Nominee (Diploma)
CD sleeve Helge Iberg ReHumaniZing for Aurora
Illustration/Art Direction/design: Martin Kvamme

Complete list of winners at the Grafill website.
Picture slideshow of the metal winners at Dagbladet.
The exhibition at Grafill Gallery in Kongens gate 7, Oslo is open from 26 April to 23 May.
A digital version of the exhibition will be screened in Stockholm at various occations in May. European Design Awards is one of them.
The catalogue will be available here: Tronsmo, DogA, Tanum Nasjonalgalleriet, Los Lobos, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art.

A review of the Awards Ceremony at kjefta.org.

Every year The Norwegian Design Council acknowledges the very best of innovative solutions, developed by companies and designers, through the annual Award for Design Excellence.

Company: NO Media AS
Design and Art Direction: Claudia C. Sandor & Halvor Bodin
Award/year: Award for Design Excellence – 2008
Category: Visual communication

no is a Norwegian-language magazine for men and women interested in culture and fashion. A conscious focus on graphic design and editorial layout will help make the magazine a market leader in Norway. no also produces another edition for the international trend magazine market: no International.

THE JURY’S VERDICT
As a different magazine, for both women and men, no represents something new in Norway. Its design is advanced, unexpected and challenging. The designers have distanced themselves from the traditional way of dividing up typical magazines, moving instead more in the direction of the newspapers’ weekend magazines as regards content distribution. The expression inspired by fashion and design conceals a lot of interesting features which one does not expect to find in a magazine with such strong trend signals. This mixture challenges our notion of magazines and questions what type of packaging in-depth articles need if they are to be credible. no is undoubtedly a serious player and its playful design and layout set it off from other magazines in Norway.

More information and press images at the Norwegian Design Council.
Webversion of no Magazine. (Designed by Håvard Gjelseth).

The exhibition is 27 March to 27 April at DogA in Oslo. Free entrance.
The results catalogue can be ordered or downloaded.

no er et norskspråklig magasin for kultur- og moteinteresserte kvinner og menn. Bevisst satsing på grafisk design og redaksjonell layout, skal bidra til å gjøre magasinet ledende på dette markedet i Norge. no opererer også, med en annen utgave, i det internasjonale markedet for trendmagasiner: no International.

JURYKJENNELSE
Som et annerledes magasin for både kvinner og menn, representerer no noe nytt i Norge. Formspråket er avansert, uventet og utfordrende. Man tar avstand fra den tradisjonelle inndelingen i typiske magasiner, og beveger seg mer i retning av avisenes helgebilag når det gjelder oppbygging av innhold. Det mote- og designinspirerte uttrykket gjemmer en del interessant stoff, som man ikke forventer å finne i et blad som gir så sterke trendsignaler. Denne blandingen provoserer den oppfatningen vi har av magasiner og stiller blant annet spørsmålstegn ved hva slags innpakning dybdestoff skal ha for å være troverdig. no er utvilsomt en seriøs aktør, som gjennom leken design og layout skiller seg ut i Norge.