“Something Like A Phenomenon” is the first monography about visual artist Sharon Van Overmeiren’s work. Van Overmeiren’s artistic practice of freely referencing a broad variety of historic and contemporary sources that are being transformed and amalgamated into her works is applied to the sphere of book design: The layout of each section typographically references an already existing book that is related in one way or another to the artist’s specific process and body of work. Including three essays by Koen Bulckens, Václav Janoščík, and Paul de Lange, as well as a ‘book soundtrack’ by Elko Blijweert and an A2 poster by Kabinet Studio. Published by Damien & The Love Guru, Brussels.

Helvécia, a Black village community in the southern part of the Brazilian state of Bahia, owes its name to the plantation from which it originated. It was founded in 1818 by Swiss and German settlers, and the coffee grown on its vast estates brought them great wealth. This would not have been possible without exploitation: in the mid-19th century, for every 200 white settlers, there were 2,000 slaves of African origin. With great sensitivity and in dialogue with the inhabitants, Swiss-Brasilian photographer Dom Smaz searched Helvécia for traces of the past. His compelling images capture the vibrant village and the life of its inhabitants while essays explain the historical circumstances.

The accompanying exhibition featured more than 700 works from the museum’s collection to explore arts and crafts from a contemporary perspective at the intersection of art and design. The design reflects different aspects of arts and crafts, one of which is materiality. All objects are shown in their original size to highlight their three-dimensionality and surface texture. The book itself consists of three papers with different gloss levels and thicknesses. A transparent paper printed on both sides is used for the intro to raise the question of what arts and crafts can be. The cover was partially printed with a glittering pigment-infused transparent varnish.

LISTENING: Music – Movement – Mind is a conceptual and practical book about the creative relationship between mind and body in the context of music and martial arts. Musician and composer Nik Bärtsch, founder of the so-called Ritual Groove Music, has developed techniques that offer musicians and martial artists useful and surprising tools to support, focus and simplify learning and creative processes in many fields of artistic activity and daily life.

This is the first book-length monograph to examine the reception of Blossfeldt’s work. Drawing on unpublished materials, it analyzes the photographs’ replication in teaching materials, pattern books and art books, and also in the pages of the illustrated press. The six chapters of the richly illustrated study trace the paths Blossfeldt’s legendary plant motifs described as specimens, illustrations, patterns, analogues, models and abstractions from 1890 to 1945. Thematic excursions into the present, illustrating the rediscovery of Blossfeldt’s motifs in design and architecture over the past twenty years, offer a contemporary perspective on the famous German photographer.

On the 200th anniversary of the discovery of Antarctica, Antarctic Resolution offers a high-resolution image of this hyper-surveilled yet neglected continent. In contrast to the fragmented view offered by Big Data companies, the book is a holistic study of the continent’s unique geography, unparalleled scientific potential, contemporary geopolitical significance, experimental governance system, and extreme inhabitation model. A transnational network of multidisciplinary polar experts – represented in the form of authored texts, photographic essays, and data-based visual portfolios – reveals the intricate web of growing economic and strategic interests, tensions, and international rivalries.

On the initiative of the lighting company Zumtobel Group, architectural photographer Iwan Baan and architect Francis Kéré set out to capture how the sun’s natural light cycle shapes vernacular architecture in Burkina Faso. Iwan Baan’s pictures are accompanied by architectural sketches from Francis Kéré, who grew up in this light environment and whose architecture is inspired by it.

The book traces the history of Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild’s famous art collection. It not only provides the latest research findings on the provenance of 132 objects from the original collection, but it is also the first to contain a large number of historical photographs depicting most of the 1,500 items in the collection. The format, paper, layout, and typeface reference encyclopedias of the last century with modern means. The 132 objects of the accompanying exhibition are presented as cut-outs—overprinted with a rectangle of transparent, glossy lacquer. This additional layer underlines the value of the objects and represents today’s view of their history.

The book presents a series of interviews with 12 protagonists of the book industry. Since the role of design in relation to the future of the printed book was not represented by any of the interviewees, the idea was to address this through the design of the book. As a “blue block,” it addresses the perception of a book as an object and questions the role of design through the mere appearance of itself.

The chairs in this private collection are not an assembly of objects of everyday use. They are a congregation of creatures often eluding their primary purpose as seating. Metaphorically exaggerated height and disassociation transform the chairs into individuals, or sculptures exploring the uncertain boundaries of physics. The book’s generous layout allows readers to immerse themselves in this cabinet of curiosities and give their imagination free rein. Nicolas Polli and Jean Vincent Simonet use their photographic essays to interpret the exhibits originating from well-known artists and designers. The texts illustrate the collection in terms of the friction between art and design.

The work of Marshall Brown demonstrates the power of collage as an architectural medium. The book features some forty collages, including a large foldout of one of his latest works. The book comes with three different covers, each featuring a work from Marshall Brown’s central collage series. The individually shaped title plates, which are glued in blind-embossed shapes, refer to collage as technique and medium.

After thirteen years of collaboration, Michael Riedel draws a line under his work with his New York gallery and publishes their email correspondence—whose ultimate intention was to sell works of art—in the form of banknotes. Abstract recapitulates the many years of correspondence by interweaving excerpts of the emails with a narrative layer—which is also visually comprehensible through different fonts. Text chapters alternate with image sections showing banknote bundles. Large-scale silver embossings transform each of the pages into a new banknote. Flipping pages resembles counting money.

Taking the collections as waymarks, Akris – A Century in Fashion encompasses the house’s hundred-year history: its humble beginnings as an apron atelier, its ascent into the world of high fashion and its rootedness in St. Gallen, center of a once booming Swiss textile industry. Contributions from different authors, among them fashion writer Jessica Iredale, explore the history, uniqueness and forward-looking nature of the house. Photo essays by Iwan Baan illustrate its hometown and inside world. Choreographer John Neumeier and artist Thomas Ruff discuss their creative collaborations with the designer.

Celebrating 25 years in the biz we knew we wanted to do something positive, optimistic and humorous with a nice chance for error so we decided on a Risograph printed manifesto ..type thing! We wanted to explore the unpredictability of it, the mishaps and offsets, tweaking the artwork to encourage this even more, making each book unique and special. Some of the initial sheets had the wrong pages overprinted creating a wonderful set of misprints with a juxtaposition of elements all out of context yet perfectly pleasing to the eye, as we say in the manifesto – embrace the happy accidents. We’re grateful to be doing this for a living and we wanted this artefact to hint at the joy in what we do.

To explore the complexity of “peace,” I visualized Security Council resolutions by rearranging and reordering a decade’s worth. The deconstruction combined with minimal design challenge readers. The result is a small, thick, and heavy book that embodies the Sisyphean task of achieving lasting peace.

I used the typeface Univers by Adrian Frutiger, a Swiss designer whose home country has a longstanding reputation for neutrality in matters of war and peace. To represents the official character of messages, I used Monospasz by thr German Jan Gerner. The book is printed on Crane’s Crest from the USA, which is the official paper for dollar bills.

Memories are based on the objects around us and the connections we have with them, which go beyond their color and shape. Documenting is a form of preservation, and what is preserved tells a story. They are the traces of an existence.
But what happens when these memories of a loved one fade? The project “August” attempts to remember my grandfather by presenting the traces of his life in a documentary book, both through narratives and photographic images of personal objects. This project tries to sensitize readers to socially relevant topics such as aging, generations and fear. The presented photographs and interviews are visualized and represented by memories of the past.

Vilém Flusser divides the cultural history of mankind into five stages. The first stage introduces the person who is in direct contact with nature in a four-dimensional world. The second stage sees the invention of tools. The transition to the third stage marks the discovery of the surface. Tools are used for image production. The fourth stage testifies to a steadily increasing degree of abstraction. Mankind begins to write. This development reaches its climax in the fifth, zero-dimensional stage. There we only encounter the so-called techno-images, which are generated by machines. According to Flusser, the writing of history ends with the fifth stage. I have turned each stage into a book.

The catalogue accompanied the exhibition «Im Zweifel für den Zweifel» (In Doubt for Doubt) at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf.
We conceived it as some kind of conspiracy bible – small format, tight typography, thin paper with high bulk, red instead of gold edges, embossing on leather-like cover.
The catalogue received the prize for »Young Book Design« by Stiftung Buchkunst in 2019 and was shortlisted at Walter-Tiemann-Preis in 2020.

Wunderbook is a visual research and an editorial planning journey which involved the students from School of Design in the Politecnico di Milano. The students met and interviewed people with perceptual problems and delved deeply into the altered spacial vision they are immersed into. The workshop is focused on the theme of misperception as a planning incentive for an inclusive design with social impact, it has been carried out within a laboratory of Communication Design. All the work of visual research led to the production of an object book where to explore different visual languages, analogic and tactile predominantly.

Makét 02: From Here On Out, featuring works by Binh Dang, Nguyen Duy Tuan, Nguyen Dinh Phong and Thi My Lien Nguyen, and an essay by Nguyen Phuong Thao.

Makét 02 (Vietnamese pronunciation of Maquette) has materialized from a very loose pitch. Our initial idea, which now seems naive and straightforward in hindsight, is to bring together several bodies of photography work we love into a book. While created in different contexts, they all carry distinct individual visions and offer more questions than answers. An ensemble of various modes of documentary, so to speak.
–
Produced by Matca, co-published with The Gioi Publishing House
Designed by Nguyen Duy Quang – Studio Cạp Cạp

An experimental book project in which the panels of the comic “Black Hole” by Charles Burns were cutted out, so that only the structure of the page layout remains. The content is thus unknown, but the dramaturgy of the story becomes apparent through the shapes and arrangements of the panels. At the beginning, clear lines and symmetry determine the structure, and as the tension builds, the cut edges become wilder and more disordered.

This brochure was designed based on the history of this particular theatre: El Picadero.
A theatre that was set on fire by the military forces during dictatorship in Argentina.
A theatre that was revived by its people, and which represents them. Their strength, their union and their resistance in a time where this was forbidden.
El picadero is all of us; its identity is a collective construction.

Each writing system has different advantages and disadvantages and also quite different approaches. The philosopher and Japanologist Florian Coulmas deals with questions about writing. Based on selected seven central questions, the book Endogen Type Studies approaches type in three different ways. For instance, the first question in the book is: Is good type for the reader also good type for the writer? Each question is viewed from a historical, a philosophical, and a design perspective. A wide variety of experiments support the approaches to the different questions.