Young Illustrators Award 2010

The Swatch Young Illustrators Award is an unique competition awarding creativity and innovation in personal contemporary illustration and graphics. The award encourages and supports designers in their artistic practice and offers an international and worldwide recognized platform for them. In three categories,
illustrative art works, art projects with graphic influences, animations, installations and book art objects qualify for submission. A jury, consisting of international art directors, well-known illustrators and publishers, will nominate artists in each category in October 2010. At Direktorenhaus in Berlin, the “Illustrators Night” will take place on November 5th, where the nominations will be celebrated with an exhibition and a party.

The Swatch Young Illustrators Award offers the winners not only the opportunity to be part of Illustrative in May 2011 in Berlin. Also, there are prizes waiting worth 6.000 Euros, publications and agency agreements as well as the one-time opportunity to design a limited edition for Swatch.

Background information

Illustrative is the leading international forum for contemporary illustration and graphic arts. The exhibition displays an inspiring collection of fresh illustration and graphic art showcasing over 600 works from more than 60 artists. Over the course of two weeks, the festival celebrates the illustrative arts, presents new talents and trends, exchanges ideas, marvels at progressive technologies, and rediscovers forgotten styles. Furthermore Illustrative yearly assigns awards for excellent illustration and animation projects. With international exhibitions in museums and galleries, Illustrative gives visibility to unconventional and innovative art projects that go beyond the mainstream. Illustrative does not only show the latest graphic arts’ quality and imagination, but also how visual influences of graphic arts, illustration, book arts, comic, concept art or animated graphics are breaking into and have an impact on the field of art.
Since its inception in 2006, Illustrative has been taking place once in Paris (2007), once in Zurich (2008), and three times in Berlin (2006/2007/2009). In order to ensure that the exhibition meets the contemporary pulse, all art works are reviewed by a curatorial committee under the direction of Berlin based curator Pascal Johanssen. As an independent non-profit organization, Illustrative is also the publisher of the art magazine “Objects: Journal of Applied Arts”, which analyzes innovations in the area of applied arts. Since spring 2010, Illustrative has moved to its headquarters in “Direktorenhaus”, a new art space in Berlin.

Our latest project is called “Direktorenhaus”. It’s a beautiful old building, next to the river Spree, which has been developed into an exhibition space for design and applied art. Formerly the building housed the state museum’s treasures behind its thick walls (to guard them from bomb damage.) Nowadays, we are not hiding the artworks; we are displaying them in exhibitions and workshops, showcasing experimental design and art from various disciplines, while establishing a place for exchanging ideas and productive interdisciplinary collaboration.

http://www.direktorenhaus.com/

Illustrative 2011

The next Illustrative, the festival for contemporary illustration and graphic arts, will take place again in May 2011 in Berlin. The exhibition will display selected art works from the most current and contemporary illustration artists, a satellite exhibition of the Young Illustrators Awards, degrees shows from world renowned art colleges, and much more… Please find more information and current updates on the festival here:

http://www.illustrative.de