Edition Unik
Edition Unik is a cultural project initiated by Heller Enterprises, Zurich and implemented with several partners. It is geared towards people in the second half of their lives, who would like to write down their personal history and make a book out of these recollections. Edition Unik offers various means of support for this and brings two components together that are normally separated from each other into a joint experience: a writing course setting and a self-publishing platform. This enables the participants to write their life stories in a unique way and design a book from their memories – an individually moving experience. An individual writing programme and a strict timetable support the participants from the first sentence to the finished product. People write their texts in Edition Unik without specifications regarding content. The books created on this basis are considered to be for personal requirements and not for sale on the book market. The enjoyment of the high-quality book that has been drafted with an automated layout is in the foreground.
Comments of the nominators
This wide-ranging and exciting non-profit project impresses with its sophisticated, well thought-out basic concept, social relevance, practice-related approach, strong social components and appropriate design implementation.
Comments of the jury
The need to bring one’s own life story into book form is obviously something important to a lot of older people – also those, who tend to stay away from established cultural life. This is the target group of Edition Unik with a carefully developed, facet-rich service, which boils down to an encouragement to write. The framework created here for the production of a book offers a practical aid. It’s not solely the final product that takes centre stage – a cleanly designed, high quality book. The focus of Edition Unik, which also impresses with its comparably low costs, is far more geared to the actual process of book production and the experience associated with this. An all-round successful project, which gains its strength from combining social and design concerns.
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