Design Month Graz

This year we had again the pleasure to be invited to the opening of Design Monat Graz (Design Month Graz), which takes place every year in the UNESCO City of Design Graz. It celebrates design and emphasizes its importance in the city, the region, in everyday life, and its relevance in making a change and an impact in the worlds and enviroments current state. It provides a space for innovative projects—be it experimental or commercial—and thus heightens the perception of the meaning of design. In 2023 the topic of Design Monat was REVOLUTION, asking in what way design could influence revolutionary processes and what designers would have to do with that—challenging activistic and revolutionary energy.

The opening weekend started with 8 Revolution speeches. You could wander around the city and listen to the 8 different speeches while discovering new places. After that, the Design Monat was officially opened with a ceremonial speech among others by Eberhard Schrempf, Managing director of Creative Industries Styria, who are the initiators and organizers of Design Monat Graz. 

Continuing the opening weekend, Saturday started with the Designer’s Breakfast, where you could exchange ideas with other guests and designers from Styria and all over the world—all while enjoying excellent food and coffee. The breakfast was followed by guided tours through the city, where partner stores and designers were visited, presenting their work and ideas as part of Design Monat. Later in the day, a Revolution Symposium took place in the beautiful Joanneumsviertel Auditorium, with intensive exchanges in breakout sessions on the following topics: “How to revolutionize through Circular Economy?” with Harald Gründl, “How to revolutionize the built environment?” with Daniel Fuhrhop, “What does Food Revolution need?” with Christina Hedin, and “How does revolution in Design and Craft succeed?” with Thomas Feichtner. The eventful and intensive day continued with two exhibition openings in the Designforum in Graz about “Wood Craft Design” and “Circular Economy,” showcasing product design with focus on sustainability, reusability, and circular design. The evening was then rounded off with great conversations, drinks, food, and speeches in the beautiful location Murinsel Graz.

The Sunday of the opening weekend continued in the tradition of last year with the visit of the stunning Schloss Hollenegg, where we were welcomed by curator and lady of the castle Alice Stori-Liechtenstein who introduced us to the current exhibition “Ashes & Sand.” The Sunday tour continued in the Austrian countryside in Trahütten with the visit of Casa Tondolo, hosted by the artist duo itshe+io who—in the middle of Styria—created a safe, queer, and welcoming creative space in their beautiful home. The day was rounded off with the traditional wine-tasting at Weinhof Krenn49, amazing Austrian food, and the traditional singing-round in the end of the day where each represented nation had the honor or challenge to perform a song.

The opening weekend was like last year a great inspiration and joy. The creative energy flowing through the city during these days and the whole month is intoxicating. The pursuit of new ideas and design that is more sustainable, clever, and relevant to today’s world is contagious. Big thanks again to Creative Industries Styria for the invitation to this great weekend and opportunity! You can still visit Design Monat Graz until June 4th—do not miss this opportunity if you are in the area!

Images: © Creative Industries Styra GmbH,GEOPHO, Miriam Raneburger,Harald Wawrzyniak, and Slanted Publishers.

28th Leipziger Typotage 2023

The 28th Leipziger Typotage 2023 celebrated the different facets of the pleasure of typography, from the desire for tactile experiences in the digital age through calligraphy and letterpress, to the pleasure of experimenting with new techniques and exploring new perspectives. We had the honor to take part in the event at the Museum for the Printing Arts in Leipzig on last Saturday, May 13th. It was a day full of various inspiring talks on typeface design, visual communication, and typography research.

The event began with a talk by Swiss designer and letterpress printer Dafi Kühne, who discussed his work and the question of the sense and nonsense of this time-intensive process. Christine Hartmann moderated the conference, and Petra Wöhrmann spoke about her journey from interfacedesigner to lettering artist, discussing the analog moment around the typeface.

Ann Bessemans talked about the contrasting views of designers, educationalists, and scientific legibility researchers concerning children’s typefaces and the need for collaboration between these parties. Furthermore, the conference included a presentation by Birgit Alabowitz from the Achilles Group, showcasing different techniques for enhancing print products for all senses, discussing the imitation of nature, different types of lamination films, screen printing, embossing, and how these products can be recycled.To the delight of the audience, many haptic examples from the Achilles Group’s portfolio were also shown.

Moritz Schefers from the studio Houhou in Leipzig-Lindenau discussed the fascinating world of Risograph printing, its development, how it works, and how it has become a community of its own. Céline Hurka, a freelance graphic and typeface designer based in The Hague, discussed the political and experimental potential of variable font technology, and how it can be used to challenge traditional typographic conventions. She also talked about here collaborations with various artist and the launch of her own foundry. Stefanie Vogl, a type designer, photographer, illustrator, and art director, shared her experience with maintaining a passion for typeface design and avoiding creative blocks. Finally, Anja Rauenbusch from the Hamburg-based Bureau Oberhaeuser discussed the role of typography in information design and how it can connect and unify complex information in digital and analog contexts.

During the lunch break, there was the opportunity to go guided by Dafi Kühne through his exhibition “Dafi Kühne: Buchdruckplakate?” at theMuseum for the Printing Arts in Leipzig. The exhibition showcases about 100 posters designed by him for art and culture, demonstrating the potential of letterpress printing using various tools and materials, while providing insights into his creative process.

The 28th Leipziger Typotage celebrated the joy of typography in its various forms and presented a diverse program for typography enthusiasts. The whole day was excellently planned and wonderfully executed by all speakers and organizers. The location of the event at the Museum for the Printing Arts in Leipzig was also a great enrichment, where one could take a look at old and new printing presses between the lectures. Many thanks and see you next time!

The Book Block

The Book Block is a manual on industrial bookbinding, focusing on the binding methods of the book block’s assembly and binding.

The book’s design reflects its subject matter by strictly employing methods that, in bookbinding, concern only the book block. Its exposed spine, sewn-in endpapers, painted edges and printed signature folds are examples of this.

Illustrations and its typeface, Uivo, were developed for the Making a Book collection in order to systematise all visual elements.

A bilingual (Portuguese and English) book, where accessing the desired language is done by flipping the book. Sections on materials, processes and anatomy. Written and designed with quick consultation in mind.

Manuel Vicente, Trama Emoção

線條與情感 is an offprint translation to Mandarin to accompany the exhibition catalogue of Trama e Emoção (Plot and Emotion) on display in Macau. A monograph of Manuel Vicente’s oeuvre, compiling his iconic architectural work.

In order to reference the catalogue’s content, the use of latin was required. This mode called for a system that accommodates both scripts: leafing is done towards the left side – following Chinese convention –, and the main text top-to-bottom. Latin remissions and information are rotated to follow the text’s flow and rhythm.

Printed by Macanese printers in a single, deep red spot colour on newsprint paper, the format plays with the threshold between magazine and newspap

The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland

A facsimile edition of MacGibbon and Ross’ The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, reuniting its five volumes in a single one.

As such, the main characteristic of the volume is its 20 centimetre wide spine, covered with a flexible green synthetic canvas, in order to freely open the volume. Heavier anthracite sewn-in endpapers act as front and back covers, while edges are stained yellow.

Its volume makes it a heavy object. For this reason – and predicting its position in the bookshelf being below eye level – the information that usually is on the spine was stamped in red on the top edge, facilitating identification.

Fiapo, as pequenas grandezas de um ser minúsculo

Composed and letterpress printed by us, Fiapo, as pequenas grandezas de um ser minúsculo (Thread, the small greatnesses of a minuscule being) tells a love story of rogue fabric thread.
This whimsical story is written and illustrated by Hellington Vieira.

Printed and lay-flat bound on a lush, high bulk pure cotton-fibre paper, it makes use of forme elements’ rotations to produce variations in layout.

Type composition is manual, in a Garamond typeface. Illustrations are zinc plate gravures. The soft cotton paper allows for a subtle, but noticeable, bite when printing, contrasting in textures. The lay-flat allows for a perfectly flat opening, while the closed volume is a solemn parallelepiped

Itálica, INCM Book Collection

Imprensa Nacional’s Itálica is a collection of comparative translations of Italian classics.

As design objects, the books are heavily inspired by early Italian printing and composition techniques. The layout pays homage to the work of the sixteenth century Venetian printer Aldus Manutius; through the choice of body typeface, by the arrangement of titles, blurbs, notes. Transitions generative textures inspired by mezzotint.

Volumes in the collection are made distinct by the use of colour and texture. Colours are extracted from images of several italian cities and landscapes, combining a metallic spot colour screenprint on coloured paper. Textures are blind stampings of marbled paper.

The Book Cover

The Book Cover is a manual on industrial bookbinding, a deep dive in cover making assembly techniques.

Two Smyth sewn book blocks, one for each language (Portuguese and English), come together in a w-shaped cover with flaps, joined by Swiss binding. This allows for an active, varying role of the cover in the reading experience, beyond a purely protective function.

Illustrations and its typeface, Uivo, were developed for the Making a Book collection in order to systematise all visual elements.

Organised in degrees of complexity of covermaking. Additional sections on materials, processes and anatomy. Written and designed with quick consultation in mind.

The Book Box

The Book Box is a kit of 20 sample books, each bound and covered with different industrial bookbinding techniques. Part of the Making a Book collection, along with The Book Block and The Book Cover, dedicated to industrial bookbinding.

Designed to focus the attention on the subtle intricacies of bookbinding techniques in meetings, brainstorming sessions and lecturing.

From Smyth to Singer sewing, two-crease paperback to traditional round spine hardcover, The Book Box collects these industrial bookbinding techniques while details production details: how was each single book made, which materials were used, and, of course, where to find more information in The Book Block and The Book Cover.

DUCTUS

In calligraphy, ‘Ductus’ is the direction, number and sequence of strokes necessary to create letterforms. For this project, by freely amplifying the experience of lines becoming letters, I set about trying to understand ‘Ductus’ — the steps and processes that constitute calligraphy.

I began with the first step, which was, obviously, the line — drawing pages and pages of straight parallel lines, slowly starting to give them angles with increasing complexity. Before long, they began resembling letters, and I organically moved towards full scripts. From there, I continued on this expedition, roaming through the history of handwriting models, from Gothics to Romans to Copperplates.

ContactZone

ContactZone discusses essential concepts of art-historical research condensed into succinct keywords. Leading lights from art and academia on a national and international level have contributed various texts and images to this book. The result is a loose collection of materials that serves as a springboard for contemporary thought processes and can be regarded as a blueprint for future action. Themes, form, and content interact in meaningful ways, creating a forum that allows crosscutting perspectives on objects, places, and people to emerge.

Erik van der Weijde: ›This Is Not My Book‹

In den letzten zehn Jahren hat der niederländische Fotograf Erik van der Weijde mehr als 50 Publikationen veröffentlicht – viele hat er über seinen eigenen Verlag 4478 zine distribuiert. ›This Is Not My Book‹ gibt erstmals
einen Überblick über sein Werk, das zu den wichtigsten künstlerischen Positionen am Schnittpunkt von Foto­grafie und Independent Publishing zählt.

Der Band zeigt in großformatigen Tableaus die Verbindungslinien zwischen den einzelnen Publikationen, er enthält das ›Publishing Manifesto‹ des Künstlers und weitere Texte
sowie fünf Gespräche mit den Verlegern Anne König und Jan Wenzel.

Hito Steyerl: ›I Will Survive‹

Die Arbeiten und Texte von Hito Steyerl
gehören zu den zentralen Positionen, wenn es um die aktuelle Reflexion der gesellschaftlichen Rolle von Kunst und Museum geht, um das Experimentieren mit medialen Präsentationsformen und um die kritische Auseinandersetzung beim Einsatz von künstlicher Intelligenz.

Der umfassende monographische Band, der sich aus zwei Richtungen lesen lässt und in der Buchmitte aufeinander trifft, erscheint anlässlich Hito Steyerls Doppelausstellung im Centre Pompidou Paris und der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf.

Hannah Darabi: ›Enghelab Street. A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979 – 1983‹

Die Straße der Revolution liegt im Zentrum von Teheran, einer Hauptader des kulturellen Lebens. ›Enghelab Street‹ zeigt Foto- und Propagandabücher, die die iranische Künstlerin Hannah Darabi dort gesammelt hat.

Anhand von Drucksachen, die von 1979 bis 1983 veröffentlicht wurden – der kurzen Zeitspanne nach dem Ende des Schah-Regimes, als die islamische Regierung in den Anfängen war und Meinungsfreiheit herrschte – führt sie uns ins Zentrum einer künstlerisch und kulturell intensiven Periode der iranischen Geschichte.

Davide Cascio / Christian Kathriner: ›Transposition‹

Der Legende nach wurde die Santa Casa, in der Maria der Verkündigungsengel erschienen war, von Engeln aus Nazareth nach Loreto versetzt. Die Schweizer Künstler Davide Cascio und Christian Kathriner entwickelten 2009 eine Installation, die auf diese Legende Bezug nimmt. Für die Wallfahrtskapelle Hergiswald, die eine Nachbildung der Santa Casa darstellt, entstanden zwei Wandteppiche, gewoben auf einem CAD-gesteuerten Webstuhl in Flandern.

›Transposition‹ stellt die temporäre Rauminstallation vor, die die opulente
Ausschmückung der Barockkapelle von Hergiswald aufnimmt, und sie zugleich durch eine zeitgenössische Ästhetik bricht.

Jonas Mekas: ›Scrapbook of the Sixties‹

Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag, Allen Ginsberg und Yoko Ono – Jonas Mekas war mit vielen New Yorker Künstlern eng vertraut. Der gebürtige Litauer kam 1949 nach Brooklyn und begann dort, seine ersten Experimentalfilme zu drehen. Mekas entwickelte eine Form des Tagebuchfilms, in dem er seine alltäglichen Beobachtungen festhielt. Er wurde zum Seismographen der New Yorker Künstlerszene und Vordenker des amerikanischen Avantgarde-Kinos.

›Scrapbook of the Sixties‹ enthält veröffentlichte und unveröffentlichte Texte, die Mekas als aufmerksamen Tagebuchschreiber und einzigartigen Chronisten der Gegenwart zeigen.

Alexander kluge: ›Pluriverse‹

Anlässlich des 85. Geburtstags von Alexander Kluge richtete das Museum Folkwang dem Filmemacher, Autor und Künstler eine umfassende Werkschau aus. Die Ausstellung führt in sein künstlerisches ›Pluriversum‹ ein und zielt auf die Veranschaulichung von Kluges zentralen Methoden, Themen und Denkwegen.

Im Zentrum stehen dabei seine Filmcollagen. Die Publikation greift die Themen der Ausstellung auf und stellt das für Kluge zentrale Arbeitsprinzip der Kollaboration ins Zentrum – das ›Zusammendenken‹ mit Wissenschaftlern und Künstlern wie beispielsweise Thomas Demand, Gerhard Richter oder Ben Lerner. Die Publikation entstand in enger Zusammenarbeit mit Alexander Kluge.

JONAS MEKAS: ›CONVERSATIONS WITH FILM-MAKERS‹

Von 1958 bis 1977 schrieb der Filme­macher und Autor Jonas Mekas wöchtlich für die Zeitung ›Village Voice‹ seine Kolumne ›Movie Journal‹, in der er zahlreiche Gespräche mit Filme­machern aus aller Welt veröffentlichte.

In ›Conversations‹ sind erstmals in Buchform jene Interviews mit befreundeten Filmemachern und Wegbegleitern versammelt, darunter John
Cassavetes, Peter Kubelka, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Barbara Rubin und Andy Warhol. Fotomaterial sowie Skizzen, Briefe und Auszüge aus Drehbüchern ergänzen die Textsammlung.

Josef Koudelka: ›Ikonar – Archival Constellations‹

Anlässlich seiner Ausstellung im Photo Elysée in Lausanne werden zentrale Serien aus Koudelkas fotografischem Werk zusammen mit thematischen Konstellationen gezeigt, die sich aus der Logik seines Archives ableiten. Die Vielzahl an Materialien wurde aus den über 30.000 Kleinbildkontakt­bögen seines Archivs ausgewählt.

›IKONAR‹ ist somit eine neue Art der Zusammenschau von Koudelkas Arbeiten und gibt Einblick in deren Entwicklungsprozesse, die über die Jahre 1960 bis 2012 reichen.

Aleix Plademunt: ›Matter‹

›Matter‹ analysiert die uralte Frage des Seins. Materie ist träge, unbeweglich, unfähig zur Reproduktion, doch sie ist der Weg zum Leben. Ein Organismus durchläuft im Laufe seines Lebens­zyklus viele Veränderungen – er wächst,
lernt, entwickelt sich und stirbt –, doch was stets bleibt, ist die Materie.

Der spanische Künstler Aleix Plademunt
arbeitete seit 2013 an ›Matter‹, seinem bisher umfangreichsten fotografischen Vorhaben. Über eine Kette von Asso­ziationen hat sich seine umfangreiche Fotoserie schließlich in einem Buch­objekt manifestiert. Ein Gedanken­strom, der zu einer physischen Publikation geworden ist.

On the Edge of Time – Angela Lyn

Angela Lyn’s book “On the Edge of Time – Villa Arconati-FAR” is a personal search for traces, exhibition documentation and an overview of Angela Lyn’s complex work at the same time. The book conveys how the artist is able to respond to the baroque Villa Arconati near Milan with precise yet sensitive interventions. TGG designed the book in close collaboration with the artist.

No more Easter greetings!

On some index cards that were kept about the guests of the Grand Hotel Waldhaus in Vulpera it says: Apparently the hotel didn’t want every guest to come back. The concierge and receptionists endured the rude behavior of some of their illustrious and wealthy guests and recorded these experiences on individual index cards. In 1989 the Hotel Waldhaus burned down. However, among the items recovered from the remains were about 20,000 index cards belonging to hotel guests. This rare resource not only offers an interesting insight into the hotel’s past guests, but also the staff who kept the files.

angelghost—Epos in five parts

A publication as a work of art: The image of the superhero:in is omnipresent in pop culture, we examine it for its topicality in today’s contemporary historical context. In the 5 parts of the epic, the superhero:in is illuminated from different angles. The approach of this utopian image critically with existing narratives, in a poetic-abstract way. It is about questioning gender stereotypes and normative heroine narratives, as we know them from mainstream Hollywood cinema. In the 5 parts of the epic, the superhero is examined from different angles. In the beginning she is needed, how do they make of our ideals, which she can not withstand and at which she breaks in the end.