A Beautiful Mistake

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

A Beautiful Mistake is a project that celebrates the importance of mistakes, exploring the role of artificial intelligence in the creative industry, by the Italian type foundry Zetafonts. It was presented this week during the International Festival Offf Tel Aviv. A beautiful mistake. Half event catalog, half experimental artistic publication, it is a project entirely dedicated to the power of errors in the creative fields, exploring the growing potential of artificial intelligence at the service of the creative professions.

In May 2022, the Italian independent type foundry Zetafonts was contacted by Nitsan Rozenberg and Liri Argov, co-directors of OFFF TLV, the Tel Aviv branch of the worldwide famous OFFF Festival, to design an event catalog for the 2022 edition of this festival, dedicated to the post-digital creation culture.

The idea behind the festival theme, described in their “OFFF*UCK manifesto” and created by Awesome studio, is that mistakes are an essential part of the creative process and that—as a creative community—we should embrace them instead of trying to avoid their manifestation.

This resonated deeply with the Zetafonts team, since making mistakes is an integral part of creative’s work. Designing typefaces is all about trying to create variations on shapes that are already perfect and making little wrong experiments in the hope that they turn out as happy solutions. Without embracing them, we would never learn or grow, never push boundaries, or explore new territory.

The result is 256 pages curated by Isabella Ahmazadeh from the Zetafonts team, that share the excitement of a festival chock-full of inspiring ideas and insights, and that embody the spirit of OFFF: celebrating humanity, imperfections, and willingness to experiment and take risks. And precisely as a provocative contrast to the celebration of human error, this publication was also an opportunity to explore recent developments in artificial intelligence: a particularly hot topic in this 2022, so rapidly evolving that it is destined to soon generate that strange nostalgia that we can have when thinking about VHS or 8-bit computer graphics.

“The editorial Our Mistaken Futures”—says Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini, Creative Director of the foundry—represents a diary inside the book in the search for new letterforms and possible fonts in the latent spaces of typography as dreamt by machines using Midjourney AI and Dall-E; a glimpse into the weird future made up by neural network generated typography and ai-assisted graphic design.

For this central content, the award-winning foundry based in Florence has developed Deep Dream: a collection of two generated typefaces created with the help of a Deep Neural Network from 50.000+ vector shapes. “The results are amazing, each font has a different story, some are more organic, some have a tech feel, some have a retro feel, but all of them are beautiful in their own way and can be used for any kind of project. Deep dream typefaces are here to stay and we will keep creating more and more, stay tuned!” (This description is not written by humans)

A beautiful Mistake is a collection of all the possible mistakes done by visual designers—from low-resolution images and missing fonts to misaligned text, bad overprints, lorem ipsum leftovers, and even an upside cover. Enriched by a showcase of the amazing artworks by speakers and guests of OFFF TLV 2022, it is a celebration of the creative juices, of the things done wrong that end up looking beautiful anyway.

The occasion required the use of typefaces with a strong personality, suitable for editorial use, but which could provide an uneven, unexpected rhythm—says Francesco Canovaro, CEO and Type Director foundry—and thus, in pairing with one of Zetafont’s top-seller fonts (Milligram) was born a new, custom, typeface thought for use in editorial situations, where readability must be married to a strong personality.

Blacker Mono, designed by Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini and Francesco Canovaro is the monospaced version of the Blacker type-family, bringing its “evil serif” aesthetics into the realm of typewriter and coding typefaces.

A Beautiful Mistake

Fonts: Blaker Mono / Milligram / Deep Dreams
Book concept and art direction: Zetafonts Foundry
co-founders: Francesco Canovaro, Debora Manetti, Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini
Type and Creative Team: Isabella Ahmadzadeh, Sofia Bandini, Andrea Tartarelli, Mario De Libero, Veronica Iodice, Shrishti Vajpai
Artist Showcase: Adoratorio, Alef Alef Alef, Anagrama, Awesome – A Deloitte Business, Baugasm, Buck, Burton Rast, DixonBaxi, Esra Gülmen, Illo, Kiel M, Musketon, Ouchhh, Saffron, State Design, Studio Roses, Territory Studio, Tina Touli, Vasava, Vincent Schwenk
Offf TLV Directors: Nitsan Rozenberg and Liri Argov
Offf TLV Manifesto: Awesome Agency
Offf Festivals are a project by Pep Salazar and Héctor Ayuso
Printed by: 4Graph, Italy 

Some Magazine—Together

Posted on by mareneyra

What unites us? Since humans first formed communities, they have been thinking about what can be achieved better, faster, and easier together instead of alone. So the idea of collaboration is nothing new, we are herd creatures. In art, design, and culture, the collaborative is also a tried and tested approach. Last but not least, shared suffering is also half suffering. However, it is not only work and profit that are being shared, authorship is also transferred from the individual to the community. 

The editorial team of Some Magazine talked to very different artists and designers about their strategies and attitudes towards sharing. They found surprising new paths and unusual perspectives. But above all, the research for this issue left the editorial team with the deep conviction that the big questions, problems, and crises of our time can certainly only be overcome together—not alone. In this issue: Albrecht / Wilke, Na Kim, Studio Pandan, Josh Kern, Solitype, Maxim Brandt, Zongbo Jiang, and Clara Vastano.

Some Magazine is a bi-annual art and design publication from the Experimental Design course of Prof. Sven Völker at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. Since 2010, changing editorial teams of young art and design students research, write, layout, and produce it.

Some Magazine—Together
Issue #15

Publisher: FH Potsdam
Editor in Chief: Prof. Sven Völker
Editors: Greta Landmann, Merrit Schomakers, Eric Wätke, Angelika Miller
Design: Merrit Schomakers, Greta Landmann
Texts: Prof. Sven Völker, Greta Landmann, Merrit Schomakers, Eric Wätke, Sarah Beudt, Angelika Miller
Release: November 2022
Volume: 82 pages
Format: 17 × 24 cm
Language: English / German
Workmanship: Staple binding
Price: € 7.–
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TYPEONE Magazine Issue 05

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

As guest Editor Elliot Moody, Director and Founder of The Brand Identity states in the opening Editors Letter: There would be no branding without typography. And without typography, there would be no branding. This is what the new TYPEONE Magazine Issue 05 is all about.

Typography is crucial to a brand’s presence and identity, the two cannot live without one another. The two are completely interconnected. This issue, through The Brand Identity’s x TYPE01’s incredible team of writers, delves into the connections between branding and typography that haven’t been explored in great detail before, or perhaps doesn’t get the attention they should, or simply aren’y fully understood—to us at least.

TYPEONE has ventured into the future, investigating branding for cryptocurrency, cannabis, psilocybin, and NFTs whilst also venturing into culture, exploring the use of languages and scripts unfamiliar to the western world. They had asked type designers about what it actually takes to launch a typeface commercially, and asked design studios of various shapes and sizes about the prices of branding yourself. And in more ways than one, they tried to discover how custom typefaces actually work.

TYPEONE Magazine Issue 05

Director: Amber Weaver
Creative Direction: Alice Sherwin, Harry Bennet (Studio GroundFloor)
Lead Editor: Elliot Moody (The Brand Identity)
Assistant Editor: Zoë Loring Murphy
Front Cover Design: Daan Rietbergen
‘Letters’ Author: Ryan McGill of TwoºCreative
Graphic Designers: Alice Sherwin, Harry Bennet (Studio Ground Floor)
Editorial Contributors: Craig Berry, Emilios Theofanous, Ritupriya Basu, Harry Bennett, AliceSherwin, Ryan McGill, Poppy Thaxter, Zoë Loring Murphy
Publisher: TYPE01 Ltd
Volume: 136 pages
Format: 29.7 × 22 cm
Color: Litho printed CYMK + Pantone + Colourplan pape
Printing: Pressision Creative Print & Finishers
Price: £ 14.99
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Division

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Division is a script typeface that has its roots in the Berthold Script designed by Günter Gerhard Lange. The design of Division goes against the grain of script typefaces that are very influenced by handwriting where the glyphs are joined and the stroke is continuous. The typeface pushes the thinking around the ligatures to bypass possible unwanted expressions of legibility caused by the joined rhythm in order to achieve optical optimization. The ligatures for the most part non-standardized allow to join the letters in very precise cases. The uppercase letters have been worked with an expressive voluptuousness, serifs in a “chip” spirit and reveals the approach of a contemporary calligraphic posture. The Inline style offers a simplified, more primary layout, revealing a more volatile apparent structure where the loops fade and thus complements the more contrasting Regular style. The typeface is recommended for use in medium and large size and in All Caps/Initial Caps to bring out the maximum expressiveness, visual impact, and sensuality.

Division

Foundry: Skrr Type
Type Designer: Alff Rosine
Release: 2022
Styles and Weights: Regular and Inline
File Formats: OpenType, TrueType, woff, woff2
Price Single Style: € 40.–
Price Family: € 60.–
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Michele Lombardelli—Untitled

Posted on by feder23

Michele Lombardelli—Untitled solo exhibition at MAGA (February 26th–May 8th, 2022), starting from the pictorial works of recent years, the exhibition intertwines the different languages experimented by the artist, highlighting how Lombardelli’s interest, research, and lateral thinking they move at the same time towards painting as a sign, the photographic image as text, the book as an object of investigation, and sound as a material for exploration and dimension without measures and boundaries.

On display a series of recent paintings by the artist based on rigorous chromatic and geometric variations that do not exclude the unexpected and at the same time reformulate the idea of abstraction, dissolving any referential connection with the representability of reality. In the artist’s poetics the pictorial works, as well as the photographs, and the sound and musical projects, present in the exhibition, move away from the idea of synthesis or referentiality of the sign and image to give space to the mute, and at the same time sonorous presence of the signifying.

Lombardelli’s work, extremely free in the choice of expressive means (painting, photography, drawing, screen printing, sound) and supports (canvas / board, paper, carpet, ceramic, vinyl) is characterized by an environmental vocation and an expansive quality in which a constant and subtle tension flows between balance and precariousness, disorder and control: elements of an even tighter dialectic when the artist performs the sound.

Michele Lombardelli—Untitled

Publisher: Postmedia Books
Works by: Michele Lombardelli
Design: Federico Barbon
Languages: Italian, English
Volume: 488 pages
Format: 16.5 × 12 cm
Workmanship: paperback
Release: 2022
ISBN: 97888749033501
Price: € 26.–
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Photodarium 2023 & Photodarium Private 2023

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

It’s that time again: the year 2022 is drawing to a close and the last sheets of the old calendar are being torn off. The new editions of the Photodarium are now available again in our shop. This year also unfortunately for the last time in the Private version. So safe your copy now.

The classic edition Photodarium 2023 photo-tear-off-calendar will bring delight again every day in 2023 with an instant photo and its own little story. The front side of the calendar page always presents an instant picture in original size, on the back side is a short text about the origin of the photo as well as information on the photographer and the used photo film.

For the seventh time (but last time, officially), in addition to the classic edition, Seltmann Publishers release the special nude edition Photodarium Private 2023. A modern and young view on eroticism beyond pornographic clichés—from photographers and individuals all around the world. The edition is limited and a very special piece of art!

Photodarium 2023 / Photodarium Private 2023

Publisher: Seltmann Publishers
Author: Lars Harmsen, Raban Ruddigkeit
Design: Boris Kahl
Bookbinding: Desk calendar with high-quality lacquer finish in a sturdy collector’s box. Paper stand included.
Format in cm (w × h × d): 10.5 × 11.8 × 8.8

Classic Edition
ISBN: 9783949070204
Price: € 32.50
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Private Edition
ISBN: 9783949070211
Price: € 35.–
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266 weltverbessernde Projekte – ein Prozess

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

How the DDC created WAS IST GUT, a design competition for world-improving projects, and what it produced, is documented in 266 weltverbessernde Projekte – ein Prozess edited by Bettina Knoth.

This competition was different. And so is this publication! With WAS IST GUT, the DDC did not look for the familiar glossy solutions, but asked for projects that people have always wanted to do, because they open up new perspectives and spaces of possibility. The winners were selected through a democratic process of facilitated workshops and a symposium.

The 218 pages center around these following questions: How do we design meaningful things? How do we design sustainable living environments? How do we enable social relationships? All 60 nominated and awarded submissions in the categories product, space, and communication are shown in texts and images. In addition to inspiring essays and contributions by Prof. Mikala Holme Samsøe, Bettina Knoth, Prof. Dr. Felix Kosok, Nicolas Markwald, Rolf Mehnert, Ana Relvão, Michael Schieben, and Nina Sieverding, the entire process of the WAS IST GUT competition, from its genesis to the symposium and award ceremony, is documented in numerous illustrations, reflections, and commentaries. The publication was designed by oppa franz in close collaboration with DDC board spokeswoman Bettina Knoth. The great portraits are by Robertino Nicolic.

266 weltverbessernde Projekte – ein Prozess

Idea, Concept: Bettina Knoth
Design: oppa franz
Price: € 21.40 (incl. shipping and 7% VAT)
Order here via mail

Sponsored by the Hessian Ministry of Economics, Energy, Transport and Housing

Fuerte Type

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Fuerte Type is an independent type design studio based in Dubai (UAE) and Colonia (UY), committed to developing rigorously crafted typefaces with a strong graphic appeal to help designers create memorable visual experiences.

Over the last six years, Fermín Guerrero (Fuerte’s Director) has been publishing typefaces with two of the most prestigious type foundries—Colophon (UK) and Typotheque (NL), which received a variety of awards such as the European Design Award and Latin American Design Award. After this highly enriching experience he felt it was time for him to try his own thing.

Fuerte offers a single license model that includes both, desktop and webfont files, and covers the most common design scenarios such as branding, publishing, websites, apps, social media, moving image, merchandising, and so on, as well as free trial fonts that allow you to properly test the fonts in your own designs before buying. Fuerte’s type shop was just launched with its first three type families, go check it out on the Fuerte Type website and Instagram to learn more.

Fuerte Type

Designer/Director: Fermín Guerrero
Take a look at Fuerte Type and its typefaces here!

CORRELATIONS

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

CORRELATIONS is an interdisciplinary event gathering creatives, experts, as well as curious non-experts for an exchange on Artificial Intelligence. Over 2.5 days, KITeGG will provide a forum for critical reflection, knowledge and skill sharing, and discussions on the use of AI as a creative tool. With a series of lectures, workshops, performances, and an exhibition, they invite visitors to explore different “intelligent” systems in creative contexts and learn about their relevance and impact on our world.

The forum is held by KITeGG, a 4-year research project on AI in Art and Design, and is the second in a series of eight summer and winter schools between 2022 and 2025. The next event takes place in Schwäbisch Gmünd in spring 2023.

Program
With contributions by Jenifer Becker, Joscha Berg, Entangled Others (Sofia Crespo & Feileacan McCormick), Moíses Horta Valenzuela (Hexorcismos), So Kanno, Jannis Maroscheck, Björn Ommer, alla popp & Janne Kummer aka Alaska, Aeneas Stankowski & Rahel Flechtner, and more.

Exhibition
How are personal or mass-media image archives transformed via machine learning models into a new, surprising—or perhaps all too familiar—artistic-creative language? How much statistics is there in aesthetics? And to what extent can AI-based algorithms be used as tools for creative research that continues a self-reflected experimental tradition of media art without immediately squinting at the product?

The exhibition presents works by students of the University of Art and Design Offenbach and the KITEGG partner universities, which have been created in an examination of these socially relevant topics. Next to the results of searching for new visual form languages based on generative modeling, experiments in the fields of sound synthesis, and the conceptual processing of mass media content will be shown.

The exhibition features works by Malik Arbab, Elisa Deutloff, Lea Endres, Johannes Growe, Younes Jaafari, Jenny Kasper, Max Kreis, Bastian Kämmer, Nassim L’Ghoul, Anastasia Ruchkina, Lisa Marleen & Laura Juliane, Yalu Moreta.

CORRELATIONS

When? 
November 9th until November 11th

Where?
HfG Campus,
Schlossstraße 31,
63065 Offenbach am Main
Germany

See the full program here

Banner design: Laura Hilbert
Motion design website: Tobias Rauch

Visualizing Complexity

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Visualizing data is complex, it depends on a variety of factors to present statistics in an understandable way. The handbook Visualizing Complexity by Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil can help: At the intersection of design, journalism, communication, and data science, the book opens up new ways of working with abstract data and invites readers to try their hands at information design.

  • New standard work for information design
  • Attractively designed and illustrated manual
  • Innovative presentation solutions for analog and digital media

Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil condense their extensive professional experience into an illustrated guide that offers a modular design system comprised of 80 elements. Their systematic design methodology makes it possible for anyone to visualize complex data attractively and using different perspectives.

Visualizing Complexity

Publisher: Birkhäuser
Release: May 2022
Languages: English / German
Volume: 224 Pages
Format: 158 × 228 mm
Price: EUR 42.– / CHF 45.–
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Sirenia

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Sirenia is a friendly display face with rounded corners and flowing transitions. The letters have a very organic look and feel, as if naturally grown. There are clear calligraphic influences in the typeface, since the letterforms are based on a written construction, all drawn with a single stroke. This authentic natural look is ideally suited for lifestyle products, the food and beverage sector and for sustainable design.

With nine weights and corresponding italics, the typeface offers a wide range of expressions: If the light weights appear elegant and filigree, the typeface changes its character to a dynamic brush typeface in the medium weights, and in the heavy weights it takes on a funny, almost psychedelic bubblegum aesthetic. Sirenia’s 1,270 characters contain many decorative letters and swash variations for initial, medial and final letters. This makes Sirenia a great choice for logotypes, packaging and advertising. Despite its display qualities, Sirenia is also well legible in small font sizes and also looks good on the screen.

The design process of Sirenia started twenty years ago with a student project at the University of Applied Sciences Trier with Prof. Andreas Hogan. Using the Blend Fonts feature of the type design software Fontographer, Felix Braden tried to interpolate different type styles and take inspiration for new letterforms from the fragmentary results. When he actually, stumbled upon his old designs he was surprised by the good legibility and relevance of the design. The organic shapes and ornamental curves made the font look like a contemporary antithesis to the minimalism of Geometric Sans. So he decided to expand the font as a family and completely rework it. He drew more rounded consistent shapes and added numerous alternative letters to the alphabet, at least one alternative for each letter and three or four variants for the majority of them, giving the user lots of options for combining letters in a lively and expressive way.

Sirenia

Release: October 17th, 2022
Foundry: Floodfonts
Designer: Felix Braden
Format: OTF, WOFF
Styles: 18, Thin to Black (incl. Italics)
Price: per style: $ 49.– / family: $ 495.– / Free for all users of the Adobe Creative Cloud
BUY (Sirenia is 60% off on Myfonts until December 1st, 2022)

Picture 01: © Taryn Elliott
Picture 03: © Rayul, illustrations: © iwat1929 (freepik.com)
Picture 05: © F Leonard, Odunsi Oladimeji, Michael Fallon, illustration designed by Freepik
Picture 08: Illustration designed by Freepik

 

BookBau Festival 2022

Posted on by mareneyra

Slanted loves BookBau! We had the pleasure to be part of the BookBau Festival 2022. From Friday, October 28th til Sunday,October 30th, visitors were able to explore the different booths of international and national publishers of the artist book scene, different universities, and students. In addition, the visitors were offered a varied program with workshops, lectures and round table discussions.

Many thanks to the HfG Karlsruhe students, teachers, and faculty who created a new space full of books and prints to explore. We hope for many more BookBauFestivals in the future.

Zukünfte gestalten

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

“By designing and communicating future scenarios, you shape the futures of those around you, and can indirectly influence the future course of events.” – Zukünfte gestalten.

To do this, we have to say goodbye to the future in the singular. Because this singular suggests that there is only one, seemingly inevitable future. If we consistently put the term in the plural, we recognize that the world can be shaped.

Zukünfte gestalten opens up a new role for its readers as mediators between research, politics, and society. It offers tools for a systematic and strategic examination of the future, or better: of possible futures.

With the help of the methods and tools presented in the book, creatives can make different, shapable futures tangible and enable decision-makers to set a wiser course in the present. In this way, they design more than surfaces and interfaces. Ideally, they become designers of a better world.

Eileen Mandir and Benedikt Groß present detailed Design Futuring-workshops from fast track to five-day sprint. With shopping list and schedule, with alternative program, and emergency kit. This book not only wants to be read, but implemented!

Zukünfte gestalten 

Authors: Benedikt Groß / Eileen Mandir
Publisher: Hermann Schmidt
Design: Gold und Wirtschaftswunder
Release: September 2022
Volume: 256 pages with over 500 diagrams and illustrations
Format: 17 × 24.4 cm
Workmanship: Thread-sewn hard cover with a color-printed Majestic Snow White cover and colored ribbon bookmark
ISBN: 978-3-87439-958-6
Price: € 40.—
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Typeface of the Month: Postea

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

This Typeface of the Month: Postea, is a geometric sans serif typeface by TypeTogether. The story of Postea starts with Veronika Burian, Munich-based type designer and co-founder of TypeTogether type foundry, and her first encounter with a 1920s post office building in the architectural style of Bauhaus.

“The clean, simple, and slightly quirky Deutsche Post signage lettering caught my eye, with its longish extenders and varied letter widths, especially the bottom-heavy ‘s’,” says Veronika Burian. “I had been thinking about the challenge of designing a geometric sans for a while, and when I saw that ‘s’ I knew this was the inspiration I was looking for.”

Postea is a rather small type family, but smaller, in this case, does not mean either simpler or less accomplished. The challenge is represented in the typographic goal of the new typeface: Postea is meant to have outstanding performance in a wide range of situations from branding, indoor signage, and posters, to magazines and books on photography and architecture. In practice, this creates a couple scenarios that demand different levels of volume and tone with which the fonts must speak to the reader.

Postea’s 14 static styles, or two variable fonts, feature a Latin character set with support for over 140 languages and plenty of typographic goodies. Inspiration for Postea’s icons comes from geometry, art deco, and the use of specific icons related to museums and art. One of the most complex goals was to create functional iconography that is both recognizable and consistent with the skeletal structure of the font family. As with the character designs, simplicity prevails, which ensures compatibility with all the glyphs that make up the family.

Typeface of the Month: Postea

Foundry: TypeTogether
Designers: Veronika Burian, José Scaglione
File Formats: OTF, EOT, WOFF, WOFF2
Weights: Regular & Italic, Semibold & Semibold Italic, Bold & Bold Italic, Extrabold & Extrabold Italic, Hairline & Hairline Italic, Thin & Thin Italic, Light & Light Italic + Variable & Variable Italic
Release: 2021
Price per style / family: € 44.10  / € 397.– (for up to 5 users)
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Walking Distance

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Five continents, three decades: with Walking Distance, Olaf Unverzart presents his interpretation of a travel diary. Beyond tourist attractions, well-known places with supposedly typical folklore, his volume of photography opens our eyes to the things and creatures “in between”—this “in between” mainly takes place on the street.

The power of the images lies in the stillness and intimacy of the scenes. Unverzart’s photographs do not have a voyeuristic feel; they do not pretend to uncover essential insights and truths about places or their people, but appear as fleeting impressions. The individual photographs with their black-and-white composition and grainy texture have a strange quality that seems removed from time and place, lending them an almost universal character.

Unverzart explores the most diverse types of transition: we see cars, rails and streets as well as passers-by and pedestrians. Scenes of the old-fashioned and the obsolete point to the photographer’s search for a lost era and repeatedly allude to the extreme cultural, social and technological changes of the last three decades.

Walking Distance

Publisher: Verlag Kettler
Photographer: Olaf Unverzart
Design: Hannah Feldmeier
ISBN: 978-3-98741-006-2
Price: € 39.–
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kiosk magazine

Posted on by kiosk magazin

kiosk magazine is a monothematic magazine, curated by seven friends from Münster, Germany, and filled with diverse contributions. kiosk is not only a magazine, it is also a place where texts and illustrations, photographs, and fragments, puzzles and inspirations meet. The design works as a connecting element and helps the contents to fit together and form unexpected connections. For the seven designers, it is also about the people and perspectives behind them, who find a meeting place in the kiosk.

The second issue is dedicated to the theme of play and all its different contexts and perspectives. Where are the boundaries between play and reality? What rules do we play by? For humans, play is a place of refuge from everyday life, where we are suspended from the habits and regulations of life. kiosk is intended to open up such a place again on 150 pages, to bring readers back to the analog, to challenge reading habits, to stimulate shared reading, and dialog.

Elena Scherweit, Jana Vogt, Julia Rosenberg, Laura Flethe, Leon Beckmann, Lu Kohnen, and Paula Götz are still in the mood for print. Sometimes it just helps to see things in black and white, like with chess. With the issue on the topic of play, they wanted to create a joker among magazines that invites everyone from age 0–99 to read without a fixed target group.

kiosk magazine

Editorial, Design, Editing: Elena Scherweit, Jana Vogt, Julia Rosenberg, Laura Flethe, Leon Beckmann, Lu Kohnen, Paula Götz
Release: Autumn 2022
Printing: KROOG Printservice, Westerkappeln
Format: 19.5 × 25 cm
Volume: 165 pages
Paper: 90 g/m² Circle Offset Premium White
Language: German, English
Typefaces: Marguerite by Charlotte Rohde, DM Mono by Colophon Foundry, Redaction by MCKL Type, CirrusCumulus by Clara Sambot, ABC Maxi Round by Dinamo Typefaces, mv_ox by Moritz Voss
Cover Photography: Caro Lenhart
Price: € 22.–
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Frankfurter Buchmesse 2022

Posted on by Juliane Lipp

We had the pleasure again this year to visit the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2022 which took place for the 74th time. After two very restricted and reduced years, the exhibition halls definitely filled up again—what we happily observed. The book fair was back, with plenty of events, conferences, readings, talks, performances and exciting surprises. This year the focus topic was translation—not only literally into other languages, but also in forms of media, context, and as a requirement for cross-cultural understanding and communication.

We were excited to see two of our books displayed at the book fair: Oktoberfest 1984-2019 by Volker Derlath (2021) and TEATRIP by Christian Beck and Stefan Braun, both presented as part of the exhibition of “Deutscher Fotobuchpreis.” At the booth of Hermann Schmidt Verlag we also discovered the daily typeface-calendar TYPODARIUM 2023.

The guest of honor 2022 was Spain, known for a diverse literature and rich culture. Under the motto Creatividad Desbordante they presented its current literary, creative industry, and developments and trends in its literary and cultural life. Fantastically designed by TwoPoints.Net, the Guest of Honor Pavilion was a colorful feast for the eyes with magical installations.

With its diverse impressions, the stimulating conversations, the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2022 was once again an overwhelming and inspiring journey! We are already looking forward to next year, where the book fair will hopefully be even more full of books, magazines, people and impressions!

Typodarium 2023

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

With a sure instinct and a global network, Raban Ruddigkeit and Lars Harmsen are always scouting new fonts. The most exciting find their way into this years Typodarium 2023. Day of the week and date on the front, index of figures, designer and source of supply on the back on a colored background. The cute calendar sets the pace in the typographic year and is a desideratum for courageous designers who know about the subtle power of writing.

Because letters once emerged from images, this development is now being reversed in favor of images and because visual communication likes to draw on the full, there are icons, symbols and dingbats on Sundays.

We wish you that your 2023 will be among many beautiful signs!

Typodarium 2023

Publisher: Verlag Hermann Schmidt
Editor: Lars Harmsen, Raban Ruddigkeit
Volume: 384 pages in 12 colors, printed on both sides
Format in cm (w × h × d): 8.5 × 12 × 4.8
Design: Jonas Rose
EAN: 42 6017281 092 0
Price: € 20.– 
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Pictures: © Julien Fincker

Slanted Magazine #40—Experimental Type

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

Mum probably told us, “The oven is a danger zone.” Still, we had to ex­periment our first burn to know how hot fire is. Our parents covered us with millions of kisses, long before we fell in love with somebody and experimented our first kiss. Even if we saw it before, nobody could really tell us how beautiful it is. Everyone must experience it by him- or herself. In other words: by making experiments we gain experience and knowledge. Experiments open our horizon, let us enter the undiscovered, and feed our lust for more.

With Slanted Magazine #40—Experimental Type we open eight doors, each one offering a glimpse into spaces that were explored by pushing conventions, limitations, and thoughts to the next level. We all know though, that the game is never over. The discovery of new areas, technologies, and thoughts are a constant source of inspiration, research, and experimen­tation for those that follow.

Tactile Realism shows works with tactile character, adding material properties to the typeface. The Anti-Reader-Friendly typography becomes the “readymade” of the type world—and in doing so, a form of denying the possibility of defining art. In the Deliberate Imperfection & Serendipity space, disassembly, and assembly of type leads to great discoveries. While Coincidence & Intention brings the accident into the design process and explores works based on mistakes and inaccuracy. The Ever-Changing room showcases experiments of kinetic typography breaking away from its static state by adding movement and a three-dimensional stereoscopy, and the fourth dimension: time. Cutting Edge drives the attention to state-of-the-art technologies and their impact on design experiments. Off the Screen explores physical space in which writing becomes material, object, and sculpture. Last but not least, Push to the Limits engages to think finitude differently, breaking boundaries of learned symbolisms and triggering new stimuli.

In addition, a special limited edition has been published. A set of three type stencil to draw your own experimental letters. Keep on being experimental!

Slanted Magazine #40—Experimental Type

Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Release: October 2022
Volume: 288 pages
Format: 16 × 24 × 2.4 cm
Language: English
Printing: Offset printing, Stober Medien
Bookbinding: Swiss brochure, thread stitching by Spinner Buchbinderei
Cardboard Cover: Black Magic, 320 g/sm
Paper Inside: lona® art, 115 g/sm, arto® gloss, 150 g/sm, Pop’Set aqua, 120 g/sm, distributed by Inapa Deutschland
Finishing: Hot foil stamping by Stober Medien
ISSN: 1867-6510
Price: € 18.–
BUY

MC1R Magazine #7

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

There is a new issue of MC1R Magazine #7 —The Magazine for Redheads and we love it!

The blow up issue represents the latest projects all around global photography initiatives with redheads. This print copy is limited and exclusive, designed by Marcel Häusler, the new designer of MC1R Magazine.

Contributors: Erika Lust, Joel Meyerowitz, Palina Rojinski, Henrik Alm, Jocelyn Lee, Thomas Knights, RED HOT, Ethan Gulley, Mia Bean Breitbart, Jonas Unger, SUNS CARE, Marc Jahn, Ricarda Brieden, Anna Rosova, Anastasia Egorova, Ella Uzan and many more.

MC1R Magazine #7

Release: June 2022
Publisher: MC1R
Volume: 160 pages
Format: 23,5 cm × 16,5 cm × 2 cm
Language: English
ISSN: 2199-3947
Price: € 16.—

Film Festival Cologne

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

It moves organically in nature. Its texture is familiar to us in a pleasant way. It breathes. Its surface is smooth and in resting dynamic movement. It lives, and we recognize a substance of which we are ourselves. No longer as the navel of the world, but as an element of the new order.

The key visual of FILM FESTIVAL COLOGNE this year illustrates the posthumanist feel of our time. We humans no longer believe in grand narratives. We no longer think of ourselves as actors, rather as the audience of the world theater. Visual information pelts us, it “overwhelms us.” They make it increasingly difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, good and bad images. Are we art or junk?

And yet—every now and then something stings us. Every now and then, images manage to break out of the multitude of their peers and touch or change us in our lives. Pictures shake awake, fight for space, haunt us. Weapons and comfort at the same time. Are we art, or much more?

Welcome to FFCGN—DIE MACHT DER BILDER Vol. 2. Once again, this publication brings together and curates a wide variety of content from the world of the motion pictures. This book is a feature. The editors talk to people they find inspiring. It’s a snapshot of their work, at FILM FESTIVAL COLOGNE and far beyond. It’s a best of content they’re up for. And, last but not least, a little piece of nostalgia, a hint from the realm of analog: Go to the festival’s website! There you’ll find everything you need to know about the power of moving pictures.

Film Festival Cologne—Die Macht der Bilder Vol. 2

Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Editor in Chief: Martina Richter
Head of Text: Timothy Bidwell
Art Director: Holger Risse
Managing Editor: Sebastian Hammer
Editors: Emilia Stein, Johannes Hensen,Till Stein, Leonard Ulmen, Sven von Reden
Design: Lars Harmsen, Florian Brugger, Alexander Staudt, Melville Brand Design
Publishing Direction: Lars Harmsen, Julia Kahl
Release: October 2022
Volume: 176 pages
Format: 16 × 24 cm
Language: German
Workmanship: Swiss brochure
Printer: Stober Medien
ISBN: 978-3-948440-44-2
Price: € 18.–
BUY

Call for Submissions Yearbook of Lettering 2023/24

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

After six successful editions of the typeface compendium Yearbook of Type, we are now starting a new series of books dedicated to lettering: The Yearbook of Lettering #1. It will be published in spring 2023 and will present the best of lettering from all over the world, from traditional calligraphy to street art and graffiti—in the form of a clear, comprehensive compendium.

Each individual artist in the Yearbook of Lettering will be presented on at least one page. It will show a visual with a detailed view of their artwork. We will develop a design that leaves room to showcase the lettering work, the specific style, materials, and technique. The pages will also feature some short facts: background information about the artist, style, materials, and contact information.

The catalog is followed by an index of all the included artists arranged alphabetically. An essay section offers sketches, background knowledge, technical information, instructions, and descriptions from the world of lettering and the different styles and technics.

The presentation of the artworks in the book serve both graphic designers and agencies as a source of inspiration and can be a big help for clients selecting the right artist and style. As a catalog and reference work, the Yearbook of Lettering will also be of interest to all those who are interested in the contemporary world of lettering and all kinds of written art.

We are looking forward to our first edition with you!

Conditions for Participation

It is possible to book one page or up to three spreads! The presented artworks may not have been published earlier than 2018. Artworks can be submitted via our website until December 4th, 2022.

Are you an author in the field of lettering and art? We also accept submissions for essays and advertorials by mail.

To produce a book like this costs a lot of money. We are convinced that it is sustainable and offers real added value, so we try to make it affordable for as many people as possible. Therefore, and in order to produce high quality, we ask the participants of the book to cross-fund their participation with a small production cost contribution (even then, there will be a selection). This is intentionally kept low, in order to allow many artists—and especially young ones—to take part and only generates a small part of the total costs of such a project. Moreover, each participant can order one printed book in return for free (+ shipping).

It is especially important to us to give a young generation of lettering artists access to participation. This is why we offer students (proof required) a 50% discount on the regular price. The quality of the submitted work will be reviewed by a curational board of professional lettering artists.

Please note that we reserve the right to reject submissions if they do not meet our quality standards (technical aspects, originality, extension, context, etc.). We want to ensure a constant quality of content. Therefore we check every application carefully and get back to you with personal feedback.

Early Bird rate (EB) (incl. VAT) available until November 13th, 2022
Regular rate (R) (incl. VAT) available until December 4th, 2022
1 page: € 99.– (EB) / € 109.– (R)
2 pages / 1 spread: € 179.– (EB) / € 199.– (R)
4 pages / 2 spreads: € 329.– (EB) / € 359.– (R)
6 pages / 3 spreads: € 489.– (EB) / € 529.– (R)

Get detailed information about the book, special rates for multiple spreads, and our media reach from this PDF.

HOW TO reserve and book a space:
1. Send an email to [email protected] with the number of spreads you would like to book and links or samples of the artworks, so we can review them and get back to you.
2. Receive a link and pay the submission fee.
3. Now your space is booked. We’ll get in touch with more information about the upload.
4. Upload the requested files and information until December 4th, 2022 (latest!) and you will be guided step-by-step through the process.

Key Visual ©: Hugo “Xesta” Moura
Artists ©: Chris Campe, Tintenfuchs, Thomas Hoyer, Gemma O’Brian, SnoozeOne, Hugo “Xesta” Moura

the books are alright

Posted on by Tessa Breuer

The Institut für Buchgestaltung (IFB) at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences invites you to celebrate the medium book at the symposium the books are alright, and discuss its future.

On October 28th, 2022, the IFB will hold a symposium on book design, which is aimed towards design students and friends of beautiful books. Guest speakers have been invited from teaching, research, and professional design backgrounds to share their critiques on time and media in the world of book making.

The Institut für Buchgestaltung (IFB) was founded in 2006 to offer students the possibility to intensively engage with the design of analogue and digital publications, or to participate in research and transfer projects. This is the second time the Institute has invited well-known personalities from Germany and abroad to Bielefeld.

the books are alright is a conclusion which can also be understood as an open question
While preparing for the symposium, the general mood of the student body was frequently discussed. Lars Vieth, an Undergraduate at the Department of Design and a member of the symposium organizational team, summed it up thus: “Somewhere between analogue nostalgia and digital hype, we are suffering from a loss of reality—we are at a frantic standstill. Intoxicated by an abundance of information, we stagger through our everyday lives in search of meaning within the chaos—and there we find the medium book, an object that by being grasped, also grasps us. Does it provide us with answers, or are we fleeing from our responsibility?”

Prof. Dirk Fütterer, Dean of the Department of Design and IFB head, states that the previous few digital, issue-laden semesters have led to great existential doubts within the department. “A few years ago, we heavily debated whether the analogue book and print media will have a future in the digital age. During the “Corona semesters” we teachers realized that the need for the analogue has greatly increased amongst the students, and its corporeal, meaningful presence is being celebrated. Print is very much alive—it seems to give the students a retreat and also a means to mentally decelerate!” Seven experts from design practice and research fields will present in Bielefeld over the course of seven inspiring lectures, the future opportunities and possibilities of the book as an analogue medium within a digital context will be considered and discussed. The interdisciplinary backgrounds of our guest speakers bring a wide range of reflections, critiques, and future-oriented design practices to the lectern, all of which are focused on the interface of analogue and digital, over which hangs the question: the books are alright, aren’t they?

the books are alright

When?
October 28th, 2022
The panel program starts at 10 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m., after which there will be a bar area for celebration and further discussion.

Where?
Institut für Buchgestaltung (IFB) at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences
Lampingstraße 3
33615 Bielefeld

Speakers
Franziska Morlok, Hans-Jörg Pochmann, Simon Wahlers, Jonas Voegli, Ondine Pannet, essays on typography

Tickets
Get your tickets here!

In order to promote inter-university exchange, there will be specially priced tickets for students. Professionals can secure discounted seats with the Early Bird ticket.

Picture ©: Institut für Buchgestaltung