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.
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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.

A book-object based on the story “the wedding” by Silvina Ocampo.
In this story, not everything is as naive as it looks like. What starts as a sweet and pure relation between family and friends, ends up in envy, treason and death.

Letters and music notes are symbols that represent sounds. Just as music notes are arranged to create melodies, letters are arranged to create meaning. The rhythm and flow of letters in a word can create a certain mood or tone, much like the tempo and rhythm of music can evoke different emotions. Letters and music notes also have specific rules and structures that must be followed to create something coherent and understandable. Both forms of communication have the power to move and inspire people, making them a vital aspect of human expression. So why not combining these two worlds, which seems to be sometimes so separate to each other?

„Amazing jellyfish“ is part of a book series, where in each book a different marine animal is presented. It is not a classic children’s book, because the illustrations are in black and white in combination with one significant highlight color for each animal – in this case cyan. The focus is on details and hidden objects, which are playful to discover in between corals and fish swarms. The book not only addresses the jellyfish themselves, but also playfully explores topics such as microplastics, bionics, and even the origin of the universe. The latter is also taken up again in the illustrations as an allusion to the fact that we know less about the deep sea than about the moon.

A visual representation of the European Research Council’s Political Apologies Across Cultures dataset. Do notions of collective moral responsibility differ across cultures? Or is there a similar understanding about the function and meaning of political apologies for human rights violations? The thin and light grey paper that has roughened edges reminds of newspaper. It has a glue binding and a Swiss brochure. The design of the book picks up the seriousness and subtleties of political diplomacy.

Te Pae is the new convention centre of Christchurch, New Zealand, built after the earthquakes of 2010/11. The book’s narrative is a rite of passage, unfolding the collective transformation from rubble to urban beauty. It seeks to delight and transport the reader to Te Pae; a landmark embodying the island’s stunning natural beauty and diverse cultural values. To capture this, the book is designed with an emphasis on materiality. Through its various paper weights, textures & finishes, it reflects the diversity of materials and craftsmanship of Te Pae. Its fluid layout is an interplay among vivid, full bleed colour photography, small monochromatic page insets, serif typography and tactility.

The challenge of Allerhand (all sorts / a little bit of everything), was to create a new and attractive collection of paperback classroom books for teenagers. The collection is based on colored and perforated covers that allow intriguing inside / out dialogues, while leaving a total freedom to the designer when choosing the title character. The body text typefaces, have a contemporary aspect, great readability, but also specific aspects related to dyslexia. The low-weight, bulky (2.0) paper and soft cover make the book lightweight for schoolbags.

Reflecting on and researching the topic of why people keep notebooks, I came across the work Meditations by the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. On 48 pages I explore the 12 books of Aurelius chronologically and reinterpret his quotes calligraphically. The texts are accompanied by cut-outs. The calligraphy cut out with a scalpel, undergoes a double process of creation. Turning the cut-out reveals an abstracted version of the text that was not visible before. Aurelius’ theses about one’s place in the world and the teachings of Stoicism are more relevant than ever in times of crises and media overstimulation. Perhaps we should all try to pause more and put our daily thoughts on paper?

The book relates the entire Solvay project by artist Denis Meyers, from the initial sketchbooks to the complete destruction of the site. It is organized in twelve sections, marked by different photographic approaches, print techniques and paper choices. Every copy of the book is unique, as it contains 10 manual inserts + an original. The raw cardboard cover is manually taped and has to be cut or teared off. A limited handmade boxed edition contains original elements from the destroyed building, art fragments, some of the artist’s work tools and the cover is hand painted.

Teapot partnered with Tereza Hradilkova a/k/a Porigami to environmentaly reinterpret the classical dystopian work Absolute at Large by Karel Capek.

The book presenting the reconstruction and new buildings of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, the architectural plans. It was made with experimental binding.

This work is the final assignment of the course Fundamentals in more-than-human Design. I made this graphical manifestation to present my understanding of the concept: that is to question what is human and what kind of human we want to be. The title “Modern Human” contains a pinch of silly humor with a similar sound to MTH, while representing a contemporary timeline. The visual is made into two pages, with one side questioning the individual, and the other side questioning the human community. Humans here are connected by human chromosomes placed upon a petri dish with a geo map made of microbes. “SamenLeving” – “Society” in Dutch then weaves human, society into the geo-bacterial ecology.

„Jamming“ is an imaginary trip to the motorways of 90s europe. The book draws inspiration from several journeys to the south – sitting in the back seat – while being stuck. The picture stories take place between stopped cars on the lane, on side stripes or at rest stops. Besides the most obvious topic in a book about traffic jams – the passing of time – the book contains various picture stories and short comics that show humorous events, taking place „on the road“. The book was released by the Lissabon based publisher Stolen Books in 2021.

The book shows the development of Moritz’s fabric collection from 1992-2007 with photographs by Rudolf Schmutz. To reflect the high quality, we used different types of paper for full-color printing. For example, to enhance the impact of the designs, we used Hello Silk with an additional transparent pearlescent coating. To highlight a particular section of the book, we used Lessebo Smooth. Various other pages scattered throughout the book were printed on Translucent paper. The 184-page book is bound in an uncoated black hardcover with a text image embossed with a reflective iridescent foil. A transparent, full-color printed cover comes into play with the embossed foil on the hardcover.

The Building Views series aims to provide a technical and cultural overview of the architecture of apertures and the history of glass door windows.This series’ initial number is dedicated to Alvar Aalto. It’s graphic approach pursues those dichotomies as well, not only through layout, but also through format, textures, and visual and tactile experience. The window as a means to look at a subject from different angles is the cover’s motto, implying that each view has its own nuances.

To commemorate Moritz’s 15th collection for Marburg Wallcoverings, we were asked to design a book in collaboration with Ulf Moritz himself. Besides a regular edition we also created a limited jubilee edition. Both editions contain multiple types of paper. All full-page imagery is printed with a transparent lac. The images are printed on matt varnished paper and finished with a partial gloss spot varnish. The 124-page square core in both editions has a Singer-sewn binding. The softcover around that core comes with a jacket with high-profile, embossed flowers. The typography on the jacket and the cover is a glossy-black foil gravure.

Most things that are commonly described with good, beautiful and touching are not formally perfect. The book studies the topics of photography, painting, architecture, sound and – a personal one – stutter, to develop a book-layout-concept based on imperfection. In the book, those imperfections are referred to as “Rauschen” (grain). The layout shall not only inform the viewer/reader but rather move them, too.

The authors own imperfection – a stutter – motivated him to explore this topic. After many years of therapy the question comes up if “perfect speech” should be the goal or if there is more potential in not striving for perfection but for authenticity.

To mark its 125th anniversary, Vorwerk asked Ulf Moritz to design a commemorative book. Moritz approached us to collaborate with him in doing so.
In designing the commemorative jubilee book ‘Zeit/Time Raum/Space’ we were given the freedom to play with the theme. We chose to use different paper for each of the 9 chapters. In combination with special printing techniques like high-gloss spot UV and braille embossing.
For the front of the cover we had a special lenticular foil made on which we printed the design that Tord Boontje made especially for Vorwerk’s 125th anniversary. The book is printed by robstolk® (Amsterdam)

The book presents a collection of 100 drawings by Bas Kosters about Michael Jackson, gathered as a stack and featuring a Helvetica-bound hardcover.

By using the letters as punched-out shapes that reveal an associative and atmospheric illustration, we play with the meaning of the title.

Ana Resende is a Porto-based designer focused on book design, combining this practise with her other interests such as architecture, cinema, and curatorial projects. Having been working independently for more than ten years, she values collaborative approaches as a way to constantly learn and enhance the possibilities of each project.