Work portfolio by communication designer Carolin Rauen

“Ziegel”, the Hamburg yearbook for literature, offers fifty authors from Hamburg a stage to present their works – whether prose, poetry or comics – in all their diversity. The shape, color and not least the weight of the book are inspired by a real brick. However, the design is anything but rough: a shiny metallic embossed title, an exciting mix of fonts, an unconventional type area – and of course the illustrations by Moritz Wienert.

“Der unendliche Gipfel” (The Infinite Peak) is the breathtaking story of mountaineering friends Lenny and Walter, who pursue their dreams in the Alps and the Himalayas, sealing their fate in the process. They carry with them the stories of the great alpinists and together they seek a way to make history. A novel about freedom and friendship, storms and avalanches, and the consequences of radical choices.

In 24 absurd and entertaining couple conversations, Jochen Schmidt (text) and Line Hoven (illustration) find out what it means to be a couple and still love each other between daycare, taking down the trash, home office and shopping. We learn about non-violent communication from Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, Jeanne-Claude and Christo show us how best to wrap presents, and Moneypenny and James Bond explain why men should also seek parental leave. And the notes and thank-you notes that follow are at least as fun. The perfect gift for Valentine’s Day, a wedding – or, better yet, a divorce.

Dorval is a small town in Canada near Montreal. In April 2020, almost the entire staff of Herron Residence had stopped showing up to work for fear of catching Covid-19. Residents had been left to fend for themselves for days. For thirty-one of them, help came too late. This powerful and award winning short story by Frank Schliedermann is transformed into a special edition book made of finest paper and finishing. But the dynamic font on the cover already points to the dramatic emotional journey inside.

The second edition of the re-designed Hamburg yearbook of literature welcomes readers with a shiny field of metallic blue hot foil with a scene from space – two astronauts who landed on the lettering “Ziegel” (brick), an illustration by Sascha Hammer. It invites you on a journey into the unknown, into the inner part, where fifty authors present their texts – from poetry to graphic novels to fiction.