YAAY wins international information design competition

“Out of Balance-Critique of the Present. Information Design after Otto Neurath”, the international competition put up by the magazine ARCH+ and the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau in 2012, has been decided. The jury decided to award six first prizes à 2000 €, six second prizes à 1000 €, and five commendations à 400 €. The pleasingly high number of competitors from 18 countries demonstrates the broad international interest not only in Information Design but also in the burning questions of today such as the pollution of the environment and the ecological footprint of the affluent societies or the social division of society which was picked out as a central theme in many of the entries

One of the winners of a first prize is YAAY. The submission of YAAY is dealing with the growing discrepancy between the incomes of individual professional groups – here: workers, car mechanics, teachers, engineers and financial analysts – based on twenty cities in different countries. This is a theme that stands at the heart of the discussion about social equality and adequacy. On the first placard, the (German) manifestation of the income gap in the chosen cities is illustrated; the second placard shows, according to city/country, the purchasing power for utility goods and services of the income of the individual professional groups; finally, the third placard shows the purchasing power for food of the lowest income group for the respective cities compared with the purchasing power the income of a worker in Zurich would have in that city.

The jury comments: “The submission presents a well-thought out graphic transformation of a large amount of data; the core statements are clear. The limitation to one theme per placard, a reference to Neurath’s atlas Society and Economy, is refreshing to the eye.”

YAAY was founded in 2012 and is based at Stellwerk Basel.