We’ve Got
You
Covered
Geographic Distribiution of Participants
48 countries | 265 participants | 540 entries
31 - 40
Germany
21 - 30
Italy, Netherlands
11 - 20
Thailand, UK, USA, Portugal, France
5 - 10
Canada, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland
1-5
Austria, Russia, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway,
I
In early February Mark announced an
open competition for a cover design
to celebrate the magazine’s 50th issue.
Above all, we hoped the contest would
attract a raft of outstanding and unique
ideas. Participants were provided with a
cover template and photographic images
that would appear in the issue, and were
given the freedom to use or not use such aids as desired.
Much to our delight, the competition was met with great
enthusiasm. No fewer than 540 entries from 48 countries
made it anything but easy to single out the best proposal.
Having seen a legion of graphic works pass in
review over the years, we were thrilled to find a high level
of originality, ingenuity and wit in many of these entries.
In particular, the jury salutes the playfulness of the
‘handmade’ designs, which stood out from the crowd and
brought a sense of festivity to the table.
Although displaying a great deal of diversity, the
cover designs we received fell into a few major categories.
We observed, for example, a wide range of interpretations
of the number 50: a celebratory theme emphasized by
bright colours and grand gestures. Equally interesting was
work from participants who dug into Mark’s past and made
new creations based on the ‘blueprints’ of previous issues.
A Korean theme emerged in proposals that referenced the
photography we provided, and our stack of entries also
included more than a few inventive and often successful
‘logo experiments’.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel,
Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Peru, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam
060
Perspective
Cover Competition
Jury Report
061
Runners-up
Efisio Nicolò Sabiucciu
Winner
Efisio Nicolò Sabiucciu won our hearts with his original and
meticulously executed concept. He submitted a robust handmade object showing the ‘flesh and bones’ of a building, a
work created specifically for the competition. We reflected
on the reason for its strong appeal. Were we captured by the
material reference? The handcrafted physicality and deconstructed appearance? The anthropomorphic proportions of
a figure akin to Wall•E and R2-D2? We concluded that it was
probably a combination of all those things. Difficult though
it was to pinpoint the allure of Sabiucciu’s design, we were
unanimous in our response. Among the 540 entries, his stood
out for all the right reasons and was the obvious winner.
A concrete cover. We couldn’t have done it better.
The 28-year-old Italian lives in London and is completing an MA course in graphic arts at UWE Bristol.
Perhaps inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol,
Edoardo Milli and Rebecca Harris, as well as Leopoldo Tinazzi,
turned to the Ghost of Mark Past. They revisited previous
covers but, unlike Dickens, did not rouse fear but joyously
celebrated history. Milli and Harris reduced the colour scheme
of each cover to Mark’s logo; layered the logos; and built a
colourful, 50-storey-tall, skyscraping ‘wedding cake’. Tinazzi
used the shape and colour of issue numbers to reveal the
essence of past covers – a nice guessing game for those with a
photographic memory. Because both designs are mired in the
past, however, we missed the Ghost of Mark Present and the
Ghost of Mark Yet to Come.
Various entries featured a big ‘50’ on the cover and just
as many played with the Mark logo. One of the more successful designs combined the two ideas. Sgamysgamy whimsically
incorporated the Mark logo into a dynamic graphic design that
included gold foil, which may be why it reminded us of the
1968 Olympic Games in Mexico.
Francesco Innocenti’s cover also pictured a big ‘50’,
composed of the images we’d provided of projects lined up
for Mark 50. Architecture as typography or typography as
architecture – an example of what Venturi, Scott Brown and
Izenour described as a ‘duck’ in their 1972 manifesto, Learning from Las Vegas. Another reference that came to mind was
Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The medium is the message’. Applied to
the ‘big 50’ covers, the phrase can be interpreted as ‘Architecture [medium] is number 50 [message]’. And McLuhan
suggested we focus on the content and not, in this case, on a
random number.
Do you read Mark magazine?
EFISIO NICOLÒ SABIUCCIU: I do read Mark. Fortunately,
my university buys a copy of each issue. I think it’s a fantastic
magazine: nice format, with a wide range of topics.
Can you tell us a little bit about your cover design and
the creative process behind it?
I heard about the competition from an AIAP post on
Facebook, and I decided to engage the challenge and make a
piece for the occasion. I love to ‘translate’ materials into my
work, and thanks to my mould-making skills, the idea came
quickly. The use of familiar materials – concrete and metal bars
– refers to the nature of the magazine. My sculpture tells a story
about architecture.
I enjoy working in visual cultures and don’t really like to
call myself a graphic designer, because I like making stuff using
different materials and techniques, avoiding digital when I can.
The objects I make have different destinations. Some are readable and able to communicate information, while others are
closer to product design, reflecting my earlier degree in industrial design, which strongly influences my practice.
How long did it take to make the mould?
Making the mould took me a week, and I needed another
couple of days for shooting and editing.
Sgamysgamy
062
Perspective
Cover Competition
Leopoldo Tinazzi
Jury Report
063
drawing of the Seongdong Cultural Center against the flag
of South Korea. We were less smitten by the laurel wreath
around the number 50, which resembled the Fred Perry logo.
Alan Cheung and Sarah Mui’s proposal expressed
ambient energy resonating from the number 50, like a beating heart. The drawing evoked the work of cross-media artist
Joyce Hinterding, especially her Loops and Fields, Series 4. As
a cover design, it didn’t hit the mark, but it was one of the more
original entries.
Those who
simply h
ad fun
Edoardo Milli and Rebecca Harris
Alan Cheung and Sarah Mui
Henrik Axelsson
How could we not fall for a home-made birthday cake? In
fact, we had already asked some architects to come up with
the perfect cake for our party. (See page 68.) The one we got
from Henrik Axelsson was in the form of a house. Although
quite novel in approach, the archetypal architecture represented in Axelsson’s baked building was not what typically
appears in Mark, but . . . it looked delicious.
Artist and graphic-design student Serge Verpaelst
submitted six proposals, the strongest of which featured a
Francesco Innocenti
064
Serge Verpaelst
Perspective
Cover Competition
Sven Winkler, Simeon Brugger and Florian Smutny
A number of submissions left jury members scratching their
heads and/or grinning from ear to ear. With the adventurous
spirit of children, Sven Winkler, Simeon Brugger and Florian
Smutny conjured up what must be the coolest cereal box
to ever hit the breakfast table. Kevin Botchar and Charlotte
Ratel, on the other hand, seemed to have travelled an arduous
path in their countdown of the days leading to our 50th issue.
The Antonas entry deserves a mention, even though we didn’t
understand what the picturesque collage was trying to say.
Was it the outcome of sleepless nights or daydreams? I guess
we’ll never know.
Although a 50th issue is worth celebrating, and although
we don’t mind commemorating past achievements, Mark
keeps a keen eye on the present and future of architecture.
Or, as Italian artist, designer and inventor Bruno Munari once
put it: ‘You must always have something to look forward
to, because, if you have something in the pipeline, you stay
young.’
On behalf of the jury,
Barbara Iwanicka
Jury: Mariëlle van Genderen, François-Luc Giraldeau, Barbara
Iwanicka, David Keuning, Cathelijn Kruunenberg, Federica Ricci,
Robert Thiemann, and Arthur Wortmann
Kevin Botchar and Charlotte Ratel
Jury Report
Antonas (Aristide Antonas and Katerina Koutsogianni)
065
The other
entries that
made it to
our longlist
Agata Roszkowska
Johannes Nathow and Florian Geppert
Jorge Amador
Alina Hoyer and Boris Bonev
Marieke de Boer (Styleyes)
Mark Havasi and Charles Mannenc
Rizki Krisnadi
Sam Barcham
Olga Loy
Artemis Papachristou
Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop
Margarita Chechulina (Greta Berlin)
Chris Malcolm
That’s A Studio (Dieneke Schuffelers
and Marielle Schuurman)
Passakorn Chantanakorn
Alessio Vanin
Patipat Chaiwitesh
Patryk Ślusarski
Peter Bos (Houdbaar)
Jackkrit Anantakul (Design Reform
Council)
Paterne Bulcourt
Alex Chocron
Lana Hunjic
Lapo Ceccherelli
Peter Riedel
Ritty Tacsum
Verena Metz
Nejc Vasl
Sara Westermann
Toni Harzer, Lars Trautmann and
Claudia Scheer (Upstruct)
Lauren Rolwing
Veronika Salzseiler
Ximena Rios-Zertuche
Margarida Borges
Taweesak Tomongkol
Luca Banchelli
Luca Toniolo
Dmitriy Kovalenko
Aaron Beebe
066
Perspective
Cover Competition
Jury Report
067