The jury for Swedish Book Design consists of professionals working in graphic design, publishing, printing, bookbinding, illustration, and photography. The assessment is based on criteria such as design, typographic execution, functionality, sustainability, degree of innovation, and communicative ability. Both the well-crafted everyday book and the innovative, experimental expression are recognised.
A total of 240 books were submitted to this year’s competition. Among the entries, a clear book-specific post-digitality emerged—a form of bookness that could not have existed without the digital, yet allows digital and analogue techniques to coexist on equal terms. This year’s productions were also marked by a contemporary search for new visions through reconstruction and reuse. Several books displayed hyperlocal qualities, such as being printed locally, featuring hand-sewn bindings, or using materials sourced from discarded books and recycled paper.
This year, the lavish large-format volumes were absent, as were the extremely small formats that stood out the previous year. Instead, a clear formal trend could be identified: the square book format. Many of these books had dimensions corresponding to the classic LP sleeve, 330 × 325 mm. Box formats appeared more sparingly than before, but are still represented among the 25 selected titles. Open spines, which are often common, were this year more frequently covered by dust jackets. Swiss binding, highlighted last year, was even more prevalent in 2024, as was OTA binding (“lay-flat binding”)—a technique patented by the Finnish company Otava in 1981, enabling flat openings and great flexibility in the spine.
In terms of content, family narratives and memories dominate, often connected to specific places in nature. The forest recurs as both setting and motif, alongside holiday stories and human-shaped nature—cultivations, parks, and gardens. Climate awareness is consistently present. Taken together, these themes can be read as an ambition to re-enchant the world through nature, craftsmanship, memory, and community—where linear time dissolves and new narratives take shape in the meeting between city and nature.