The Lyon-based illustrator and typographer Karl Nawrot has been announced as the winner of the INFORM prize 2016: “The jury unanimously awards Karl Nawrot the INFORM prize for conceptual design 2016 for his powerful and consistent work in the fields of illustration and typography. Nawrot’s drawings stand for unique artistic excellence. By creating bold and humorous imagery and inventive typographic toolsets, the awardee’s work exemplifies spatial relations and aesthetic concepts.”
The presentation by the typographer and illustrator Karl Nawrot consists of two parts. Firstly, he created a replica of his studio space in Lyon, where he shows black and white photographs of drawing templates and spatial models that are an integral part of the design process. The actual size and materiality of the displayed objects remain unclear, whilst their shape and organisational structure play a central role. The second part shows a wall paper with photographed pages of a sketchbook featuring spatial designs and the tools he uses to create abstract illustrations and typographies. Fascinated by the exhibits in natural history museums, particularly the skeletons he saw there as a child, Nawrot is also interested in the effect of spaces. In the booklet that was made to accompany the exhibition, Nawrot’s thoughts are perpetuated in the form of a narrative.
Karl Nawrot, born in 1976 in Villeurbanne, lives and works in Lyon. Nawrot studied illustration at the École Émile Cohl, Lyon and graphic design at the Werkplaats Typograpfie in Arnhem. He has participated in exhibitions at institutions such as SOMArts, San Francisco, the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, the Museum für Gestaltung Zurich and the Pitti immagine, Florence. His solo exhibition Mind Walk (I, II, III) was presented at Eastside Projects, Birmingham in 2013; other solo shows have taken place at the Gallery Factory Seoul in 2014 and the Bel Ordinaire, Billère in 2015. He has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, and was a visiting professor at the University of Seoul. He was awarded first prize at the International Poster and Graphic Design Festival of Chaumont in 2015.
The INFORM Prize for conceptual design is annually awarded since 2007 and has its basis in the interface of graphic design and art. The prize worth 5.000 Euro is donated by Dr. Arend Oetker, Berlin. The Prize is associated with an exhibition in the GfZK.
