“Schools of Departure” is one of the 25 recipients of the 2026 Best German Book Design award

In the category ‘Academic Books, Specialist Books, Textbooks and School Books’, the paperback series published under the title Schools of Departure in collaboration with the Zurich-based design studio Offshore (Isabel Seiffert and Christoph Miler) received an award in the ‘Best German Book Design’ competition organised by the Stiftung Buchkunst. Two juries selected 25 books from around 600 entries that are “exemplary in design, concept and craftsmanship”.

The ‘Schools of Departure’ series has been published since 2023 in conjunction with the online research platform of the same name, a digital atlas launched by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation to document experiments in art and design education beyond the Bauhaus. The annual publication series and the digital platform – both designed by Offshore Studio – bring together research on the global interrelationships between the historical Bauhaus and reform projects in design education during the 20th century. Rather than assuming the Bauhaus’s ‘influence’ or viewing the Bauhaus as a ‘centre’ from which a movement spread to the non-European ‘periphery’, Schools of Departure highlights the diverse interconnections and parallel developments.

Four issues of the journal series Schools of Departure have already been published as part of the English-language series by Spector Books in Leipzig. The award-winning issues 3 and 4 explore the relationship between design education and technology, and the transnational network of learning communities that sought to bring about a radical reform of the training of artists and designers.