Zumtobel Group’s latest annual report designed by the prominent British architect David Chipperfield and John Morgan studio graphic designers

Dornbirn, Austria, 30-7-2013 — /EuropaWire/ — The latest edition of the Zumtobel Group’s artistic annual report has been designed by the prominent British architect David Chipperfield in collaboration with graphic designers from John Morgan studio. The report, which was presented at the Zumtobel AG Annual Shareholders’ Meeting last Friday, forms the latest addition to what has become an impressive collection of art books. Every year since 1992, the Zumtobel Group has commissioned a different art director for its annual reports. Drawn from the fields of art, architecture or graphic design, each has been tasked with giving artistic expression in the report to their perception of the Group’s central area of activity: professional lighting.

David Chipperfield opens a window on lighting 
The topic at the core of this year’s report is the window. David Chipperfield chose this concept because, for him, the window is a key element of architectural design, forging the link between light, space and the individual. “As the deliverer of the gift of daylight, we are pulled towards the window,” writes Chipperfield in his foreword to the report. “Like the door, the window is scaled to us and becomes (or at can become) the connection between the individual, the building and the world outside. The images we have selected show this most special relationship between the individual and architecture.”

The annual report comprises two books presented in a slipcase. Both of these hardcover volumes in a classic art book format (17.5 x 24.5 cm) are finished in rough linen, which in the corporate volume calls to mind a curtain and in the art volume features a window-like section – an element introduced by the graphic designers at John Morgan studio, which lends both structure and transparency, as well as introducing the central leitmotif of the window.

Chipperfield uses a selection of poems in German and English to introduce the reader to the subject of the window and its impact on people. At the heart of the art volume is a series of 100 motifs from the various periods in the history of art and architecture. Each of these artworks shows a facet of the window as an element of art and/or architecture over the years and its interaction with the artist, subject or observer. Rounding off the book there is an essay by Rik Nys for David Chipperfield Architects that draws on a selection of examples to describe the evolving role of the window as a design element in art and architecture. The corporate volume comprises extracts from the Group Management Report and Consolidated Financial Statements of the Zumtobel Group for the 2012/13 financial year, as well as insights into the activities of the Zumtobel, Tridonic and Thorn brands in the reporting year. It is completed by an essay – “Beyond windows” – on the potential of artificial lighting.

Zumtobel Group has published artistic annual reports since 1992 
This is the 22nd year in which the Zumtobel Group’s annual report has been published as an artwork. The first in the series was designed by the Russian architect and designer Mikhail Anikst in 1992. The original initiative stemmed from Jürg Zumtobel, then CEO and today Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Zumtobel AG. To this day, the idea behind this series of art books is to create a language of design that reaches out beyond the corporate design guidelines of the individual Zumtobel Group brands. With this in mind, over the years a wide range of leading figures from the Group’s network of contacts have been invited to come up with their own designs for the annual report. Initially it was mainly graphic designers such as Italo Lupi, Neville Brody, Per Arnoldi or Stefan Sagmeister who were commissioned with creating these works. Later, the designers were joined by an increasing proportion of artists such as Gerhard Merz, Siegrun Appelt, Olafur Eliasson and – most recently – Anish Kapoor, as well as by architects including Dominique Perrault, Hani Rashid, Francois Roche and SANAA.

Profile of David Chipperfield Architects 
David Chipperfield Architects was founded in 1985 and has offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai. Their built portfolio includes museums and galleries, libraries, apartments, private houses, hotels, offices and retail facilities. David Chipperfield Architects has won more than 50 national and international awards and prizes. Major recent works are the renewed Neues Museum in Berlin, the City of Justice in Barcelona, The Hepworth Wakefield in the UK and the Kaufhaus Tyrol department store in Innsbruck. Current projects include the Saint Louis Art Musem in the US, a new residence and office building on Joachimstrasse in Berlin, the Museo Jumex in Mexico City, and a new building for the Kunsthaus Zurich. David Chipperfield has developed a spotlight for museums, called Arcos, for the Zumtobel Brand which won the IF Design Award in 2008.

Media contact
Astrid Kühn-Ulrich
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel. +43-(0)5572 509-1570
astrid.kuehn@zumtobel.com

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David Chipperfield (© Ingrid von Kruse)