various book projects about design and publishing…open to see what works for you!

Peter Radelfinger is an obsessive collector. Falsche Fährten visualizes the thousands of (analog & digital) folders of texts, poems, and images he collected for over 14 years—with content ranging from serious and tragic, to absurd, ironic, and comical. Peter meticulously files his collections with four distinct codes based on type: FF (Text), FBP (Image: Print), FBD (Image: Digital), and FBN (Image: Network). Referencing his manuscript, the book interlaces FFs on the left with FBPs or FBDs on the right; until the FBNs and Index begin, and it switches. A script was written to automate the image loading and numeration, and place the text boxes. A custom typeface was also designed: FFS.

The book “Time to Breathe” is the result of an artistic and creative exploration of the work of the mountaineer Reinhard Karl. His photographs and texts inspired me for a journey on which I entered into a dialogue with his world. It is a declaration of love to analogue photography, the art of woodcut and linocut and the magical attraction of the medium itself, a book as a reliable object that can be experienced with all the senses.

An architectural publication on architecture is used to create Ornament is Crime. The various pages are cut up with a scalpel. In the process, blocks of text are removed and the printed elements of building parts and the like are left behind; the sequence of pages and the original book remain. The various layers now form a kind of relief. Opening to any random double page spread, we see a three-dimensional architectural landscape, a kind of model presented in space. In the video work we see two hands flipping through the book object page by page, leafing through it, and in so doing creating all sorts of combinations of architecture as in a kind of “architectural generator.

As a way of challenging habits of the graphic designer process and in direct relation to the subject of the texts, each section of the publication was formatted using a different editing tool or software. In this performative process, F451 used five different tools and software: Adobe InDesign 17.4/18.0, Paged.js 0.3.5, LibreOffice Writer 7.4.1.2, Microsoft Excel 16.64, and HTML5 + CSS3 + Javascript ES6. While the layout templates aimed to achieve graphic interoperability, the pages of the book showcase distinct characteristics that highlight the unique possibilities and limitations of each software environment.

“A Wandering Poem” is the printed collaboration between travelling poet Christian Marques and visual interpreter Angharad Hengyu Owen. An experimental literary project which embodies a bi-disciplinary re-exploration of an eight-month journey from Europe, across the Middle East, to Asia: Undertaken by the author himself, crossing seven countries, covering roughly 11’500 kilometers by land, unearthing one poem a day. The result is a bilingual (EN/PT) collection of emotional imprints, where each poetic free-verse works hand in hand with its unique visualisation on paper, offering a multi-layered and inner-directed reading experience, and ultimately a voyage of sorts through printed words.

As an adult, how can one deal with one’s own envy, confront others’ envy and communicate one’s needs without losing face. During my Master’s studies, I dealt with this feeling for several months. These thoughts became texts and illustrations. To complement this, I asked other people to anonymously write down moments when they were envious. If they wanted, they could also draw the emotion. Finally a collection of honest expressions and uncomfortable truths was formed, risoprinted and bound by hand.

On the occasion of the documenta 14, the church of St. Elisabeth showed a site specific installation by the artist Anne Gathmann The artwork is one large hanging bow, consisting of 4000 aluminum bars. The single bar with its distinctive shape and materiality becomes the key visual for the whole visual identity and is found on all the printed matters.

The book is accessable from two sides. The used paper features a coated and an uncoated side leading to a destinctive rhythm throughout the entire book: One spread coated (images) one spread uncoated (text), etc. The 90° rotated text runs through the book as one long ribbon, same with the images. Reference numbers link text to art pieces.

»Hypertourist« is a design-philosophical, cultural and media-historical examination of travel.

Is there a difference between travelers and tourists? Who will design the travel of the future? And – do you need a suitcase for virtual travel? »Hypertourist« is a hypertextual, non-linear journey. It has neither order nor hierarchy, it will never be complete or finished. Each user can start at any point, arrange the intermediate stops themselves, skip or repeat them. Each person can shorten, change or add to the journey. As a hypertourist, everyone experiences their own, hyperindividual journey.

What are microaggressions and how do they feel? How does catcalling feel for affected individuals? Language can hurt, and that’s exactly what the illustrations show. The speech bubbles poke, squeeze, and choke the characters.But behold! The heroine, the gender star, takes action. Large megaphones protest for equality and structural change. In an optimistic vision of the future, the speech bubbles intermingle in a great diverse communication. New ideas develop from the conversations and a respectful and enriching exchange is outlined. In this particular collaboration, the theme and content of the illustrative work are supported by the endless page and the uncut continuity of the storyline.

This work is a theoretical exploration and a solution approach that does not demonise growing connectivity, but combines it with boredom, thereby building a bridge to creativity. To visualise the feeling of boredom, the text is printed on continuous paper by a dot matrix printer, which in itself is a very decelerating and boring activity. The book block was then split lengthwise down the middle so that the two halves can be turned parallel to each other, but don’t have to. Anchored in a handmade cover, the result is a book object that already looks like a dusty file cover from the outside and gives the audience a completely new reading experience.