Regional Focus of Ukrainian Book Design Formation

Abstract

The purposeof the article is to study specific regional features in Ukrainian book design and determine the degree of their mutual influence. The research methodology is based on art analysis in the context of historical-chronological, iconographic, inductive, deductive, and comparative methods. The scientific novelty is represented by theses on the differences of conventionally defined Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and Odesa graphic schools, which had an impact on the development of local book design, and, consequently, on the formation of the artistic image of the modern Ukrainian book. The conclusions are conditioned by significant phenomena and trends in regional graphic art, which caused the corresponding processes in the formation of the image of the book publishing industries of Kyiv region, Lviv region, Kharkiv region, and Odesa region. In particular, the Kyiv school of graphic design in the all-Ukrainian cultural and artistic context is distinguished by a bold desire to master the latest technologies, active consumption of the experience of specialists from other collaborations, high genre elasticity, and a tendency to multivariate interpretations of traditional forms, which was accordingly reflected in local book design. On the other hand, the Lviv art book, which is a bright and heterogeneous phenomenon from the point of view of design due to the irregularity of its own development, today is an original product, formed after a long search for an individual image against the background of gravitation to European trends, which was manifested by the diversity of creative methods and author's approaches in its design. The artistic design of the Kharkiv book looks relatively more restrained and constructive, due to the dominance of the infographic approach in the design of multi-genre publications and the production of the classical tradition of Ukrainian bookmaking. In addition, the printing of books from this region deserves high praise. The Odesa graphic school, which from the middle of the 20th century had a solid foundation of realism with a flavour of social art, is characterised by the interpenetration of various regional features of book design due to the active migration of book artists between publishing houses and the multinationality of the creative center.

Key words: book design, book graphics, Kyiv graphic school, Lviv graphic school, Kharkiv graphic school, Odesa graphic school, book art, regional features.