The 18th Golden Butterfly Award’s Taiwan Publishing Design Award—which is organized by the Taipei Book Fair Foundation in cooperation with the National Taiwan Normal University Library—is the most important domestic award for book design. A total of 283 entries were submitted this year. Thirteen winning entries were selected for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards, as well as Honorable Mentions.

This year’s group of five judges is composed of leaders in the domestic design industry, including godfather-level designer Ming-dao “Akibo” Li, National Taiwan Normal University’s Design Department professor He-jie Xu, YEN Design director Bo-jun Yan, Oval-Graphic Studio director Zhong-yi Ye, and Pinmo Pure Store’s founder Wang Qing-fu (a previous winner of the Golden Butterfly Award’s Gold Award). All of them have rich experience in crossover design, providing a new perspective for this year’s book design trends. The judges believe that the overall book design of this year’s submissions have reached a certain level. In addition to making good use of paper materials changes, the content is also richer than in previous years. In particular, many designers have taken samples from Taiwan’s local culture and applied them to a new design vocabulary. Elements of Taiwanese folk culture have become prominent. Traditional materials are boldly mixed with modern binding techniques to create a “hybrid culture.” Taiwanese book design has begun to rediscover the context of local culture, allowing designs to become more rich and exciting.

In addition to the transformation of Taiwanese folk culture elements, the pandemic has prompted people to settle and reflect, which is also reflected in this year’s works. There are many works on pandemic-related issues, such as family, faith, love, or focusing on one’s land, natural ecology, etc. These seemingly personal, inconspicuous, and often ignored issues can be seen today. In addition to relying on a creator’s perseverance, the overall book design is also heartwarming.

The judges pointed out that different materials in book design have begun to be boldly used in the past few years—even some non-traditional industrial materials have been utilized, such as stitching, plastic cloth and other plastic materials, as well as various bronzing and printing inks. In fact, Taiwan is a very good environment for experimentation. No matter a designer or a publisher, one might as well be more daring to play and experiment.