Zygmunt Januszewski was awarded numerous prizes and distinctions, the majority of which came from outside his native Poland. Thanks to his impeccable knowledge of German culture and language, his work was highly regarded in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 1990, he provided illustrations for the book Die rote Spur, which was named 'most beautiful book of the year' by the Book Foundation in Frankfurt. In 1996, Januszewski picked up the Printer of the Year award in Edinburgh for his book Jeder ist ein Künstler. Zygmunt Januszewski. Kombinations-Kunst.
Of all the important distinctions Januszewski garnered throughout his career, perhaps the most notable is the prize he received for his cover illustration of Witness for The Guardian Review, and – for his illustrations in the same publication – an award from the Society of Publication Designers in New York.
Januszewski’s work can be found in the collections of many museums, both in Poland and abroad. Examples of his work are on display at the national museums in Warsaw and Poznań, the Poster Museum in Wilanów, Warsaw’s Museum of Caricature, the Museum of Modern Art in Toyama (Japan), and the Musée d’Histoire Contemporaine in Paris. In Germany, Januszewski became the only Pole to have his work exhibited at the prestigious Wilhelm-Busch-Museum in Hanover, alongside kings of satire such as Roland Topor, Saul Steinberg and André Francois.
Januszewski’s symbolic toolkit has been interpreted in many ways. The artist himself discusses this in his theoretical thesis entitled System, in which he writes about the question of codifying the imagination, and ways of driving this forward through the use of signs, shapes and symbols. The system he describes postulates a world constructed from a closed, definite group of signs which may be used to endlessly create a multitude of meanings and forms. However, in order to create, one needs to know the alphabet. Januszewski spent the first ten years of his illustration career developing this alphabet.
Dorota Folga-Januszewska in the Moje Kreski catalogue writes: