The Zumtobel Group’s annual reports are consistently an example of courageous and extraordinary corporate publishing. Many of these “art books”, first published in 1992 on the initiative of Jürg Zumtobel, have long attained cult status. Renowned designers working in architecture, graphic design and art are always hired to make an artistic study of the subject of light and of Zumtobel. The first issue featured Russian architect and designer Mikhail Anikst. Then followed graphic designers such as Italo Lupi, Neville Brody, Per Arnoldi and Stefan Sagmeister; artists such as Gerhard Merz, Siegrun Appelt, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor and James Turrell; and architects such as Dominique Perrault, Hani Rashid (Asymptote), Kazuyo Sejima and Nishizawa Ryue (SANAA), David Chipperfield and Kjetil Thorsen (Snøhetta). The current annual report for 2019/20, the 29th edition, was conceived by Professor Werner Sobek, who puts the subject of sustainability at the centre of a constructively critical view of the future using 17 thesis statements. “The theses are an exhortation, education and perspective,” says Sobek. “They are intended to create awareness and spark a targeted discussion about our shared future together. Recent weeks and months during 2020 have shown that we must together design our future much more consciously and actively than before. Living, acting and doing business with a consistent orientation towards sustainability should – in fact must – be a guiding principle for all of society.”
