DS+R designs Zumtobel Group annual report
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DS+R designs Zumtobel Group annual report

DS+R designs Zumtobel Group annual report
By Editorial Staff -

The natural light phenomenon of “the blue hour” is the topic of the Zumtobel Group’s artistic Annual Report 2015/16. This year the report was designed by New York design studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with founder and partner Elizabeth Diller in the role of creative director. It joins a remarkable collection of 25 art books as the silver jubilee edition. Ever since 1992, the Zumtobel Group has commissioned prominent creative minds from the fields of art, architecture and graphic design to provide an artistic interpretation of the topic of light and the Zumtobel Group’s business. The current annual report was published to coincide with the annual general meeting on 22 July 2016.
The overarching topic chosen by Elizabeth Diller and her creative team for the annual report was the impressive light effects of the blue hour – that brief twilight zone at the juncture of day and night. “In the ‘blue hour’ spectrum, colours intensify while shadows grow more diffuse, the light becomes more diffuse ... buildings look sexy during this time,” says architect Elizabeth Diller describing how she sees this natural light phenomenon. “It’s when the natural recedes and civilization begins to take over; the city lights come on, building lights go on. It defies the possibility of existence without artificial light. We are condemned to the unnatural.”
The outcome of this intensive encounter with light is an exceptional photographic project that Diller Scofidio + Renfro realized together with photographer Matthew Monteith. It comprises 45 photographs of a room, all taken from the same angle and over a 60-minute period. The light changes from one shot to the next, giving rise to a unique dynamic narrative. As the reader turns the pages, watching as it were through a keyhole, a mysterious plot appears to unfold, as the contents of the room change and an enigmatic occupant is captured in the magical interplay of artificial and natural light.
The keynote topic of the annual report is also reflected in its graphic concept, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The report comprises two books in a slipcase, each measuring 280 by 370 millimetres. The corporate volume shifts page by page from dark blue to light blue, as the lettering travels in the opposite direction from light blue to dark blue.
The corporate volume includes the Letter from the CEO, the brand reports from Zumtobel, Thorn and Tridonic, extracts from the Management Report, and the Consolidated Financial Statements. In the middle of the corporate volume there is a second, small book based on a roundtable meeting between Elizabeth Diller, Paul Marantz of Fisher Marantz & Stone, and Klaus Vamberszky, the Zumtobel Group’s Chief Technology Officer. Here, the architect, the lighting designer and the lighting engineer discuss the enigma of the blue hour, the definition of natural and artificial light, and the difference between conventional light sources and LEDs.
Matthew Monteith has been working closely with Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) for many years. Among the most prestigious architectural commissions to emerge from the design studio are the “High Line” and “Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts” in New York, and “The Broad” museum in Los Angeles. The studio’s founders, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, have both been awarded Fellowships by the MacArthur Foundation for their outstanding commiment to topics of social relevance.
It is now 25 years since Russian architect and designer Mikhail Anikst designed the Zumtobel Group’s first artistic annual report for the 1991/92 financial year. The project was initiated by Jürg Zumtobel, CEO at the time and today Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Zumtobel Group AG. The idea behind this series of art books remains unchanged to this day: to document the close links between the Group and the field of art and culture, and at the same time create a design language that goes beyond the corporate design guidelines of the individual brands. Thus, over the years, a wide range of leading figures from the Group’s network of contacts have been invited to design the annual report in line with their wishes and in the context of light and the Zumtobel Group’s business. Initially the Group commissioned mainly graphic designers, such as Italo Lupi, Neville Brody, Per Arnoldi and Stefan Sagmeister, to create the report. Later they were followed by a growing proportion of artists, such as Gerhard Merz, Siegrun Appelt, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor and James Turrell, and architects including Dominique Perrault, Hani Rashid / Asymptote, François Roche / Studio R&Sie(n), Sejima Kazuyo and Ryue Nishizawa / SANAA, David Chipperfield / DCA and Kjetil Thorsen / Snøhetta.

Photo: Blue Hour. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Matthew Monteith in Collaboration. Published by the Zumtobel Group. 

www.zumtobelgroup.com/en/annual_reports.htm

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