BOOK DESIGN IN UKRAINE IN THE LATE 20th CENTURY

Abstract

In Ukraine, the breakthrough of the 1980s and 1990s was characterized by book design development as a multi-faceted and indicative phenomenon, since at all times the art immediately reacted to any historical changes and reflected the socio-cultural processes. The purpose of this article is to define and compare special artistic features of the book design in Ukraine in the period of 1980s and 1990s. The article considers special aspects of book design development in the territory of modern Ukraine at the close of the 20th century, examines isolated and correlated artistic features of the Ukrainian book editions of the 1980s and 1990s as two qualitatively different periods, and describes the main characteristics of the relevant book products. Moreover, the leading book masters, whose work reflected specifics of this period and became trademarks of the abovementioned age, are determined. Consequently, book design development in Ukraine in the late 20th century looks rather ambiguous from an artistic point of view. The radical structural and political state reorganization in the early 1990s divided its history in two separate stages and influenced all art spheres without exclusion, including the book art. One of the main significant changes in the book design sphere was a transition from classical forms, which depended on the outdated production technologies in the Soviet era, to the electronic design and active computerization of all operations in the sphere of book production. This new environment influenced the worldview of artists and book designers. Put in other words, the mentioned circumstances influenced the restructuring and reformatting of the entire industry, and strengthened the role of a designer as a co-author of a book. This ensured access to new printing standards and contributed to the development of book publishing industry in Ukraine.