Graduation Show 2021: 30DEGREES

Posted on by Nina Steimel

The Bachelor and Master graduates show their work at the Graduation Show 2021: 30DEGREES — At the Merz Akademie. The Akademie is happy to welcome you to the parcours of the Summer Semester back to the Kulturpark Berg on Saturday, July 17th, 2021.

30DEGREES: The graduates will present their work in the fields of Film, and Video, New Media, Visual Communication and—for the first time—Crossmedia Publishing. Their projects deal artistically and critically with topics such as gender ideologies, ideals of beauty, and pornography as well as the influence of online media, and algorithms. The exhibition will feature documentary, fictional, and interactive films, photographs, video essays, 3D worlds, installations, publications, and much more.

The exhibition of graduates is also aimed at students as well as their parents who would like to take the opportunity to get to know the Merz Akademie; individual student consultations are available.

One week later, on July 23rd, 2021, starting at 5 p.m., the digital version of the graduation exhibition 30DEGREES will begin. In addition to the Bachelor and Master projects, there will then also be a digital showcase of current projects from all areas of study, which have now been created in what is now the third online semester.

A bit of euphoria certainly resonates after such a long time, but of course we will design the exhibition on the Merz Akademie Campus according to the current incidence situation and only open with an adapted hygiene concept.

Graduation Show 2021: 30DEGREES — At the Merz Akademie

When?
The live Graduation show will be open on Saturday, July 17th, 2021
The digital version of the graduation show will start on July 23rd, 2021, at 5 p.m. 

Where?
Merz Akademie Campus
Kulturpark Berg
Parkstraße 14
70190 Stuttgart
Germany

[kɔn] Paper No. 7: HAUT

Posted on by kon_paper

[kɔn] is an up-and-coming magazine for literature and culture. Each issue brings together essayistic, literary, and journalistic texts around a single keyword. Therefore we are pleased to present you [kɔn] Paper No. 7: HAUT — The Skin Issue:

[kɔn] notations, [kɔn] texts and [kɔn] troversies of the issue are investigated—while the format explores the intersections and boundaries of text and design, content, and form: how poetic can academic and journalistic texts be, how journalistic might poetry be when published in a newspaper? Which new modes of reading can be established when essay, poem and column meet?

[kɔn] Paper No. 7 is all about skin. In articles, interviews, poems, essays, and short stories skin oscillates between discourses and is opened, in- and described, dissolved, pierced, mended, and interpreted. Changing shape from protective border to profane workshop material, from intimate contact surface to projection screen—and always a great read.

The seventh issue not only celebrates the many layers of skin within the texts—a lot has changed on the outside too: thanks to a new illustration concept, the convenient magazine format, degradable colors, and recycling paper the new [kɔn] shines in a fancy finish and environmentally-friendly look.

[kɔn] Paper No. 7: HAUT — The Skin Issue

Editors: Felix Lindner, Magda Hirschberger, Pia Lobodzinski, Henrike Reintjes, Adela
Sophia Sabban, and Fabian Widerna
Concept and Design: Julia Hell
Illustration: Carmen Reina
Release: October 2020
Volume: 48 pages
Language: German and English
Price: 4.70 Euro

Available online and in selected bookshops in Munich and Berlin

 

Claymore

Posted on by Nina Steimel

The English Typographer Jeremy Tankard just published his typeface Claymore on June 21st, 2021. The typeface is a subtly modulated sans serif with an equally subtle hint of Gothic inspiration. Its striking image performs exceptionally well across the family’s range of weights. The many details have been crafted to deliver an engaging and clear image in text, with a strong individual personality when used at display sizes. 

Claymore takes inspiration from the shaping and playfulness of medieval letters. During the eleventh to twelfth centuries the classical Roman letter was radically experimented with, this eventually resulted in a new style of capital letter, the round Gothic, often referred to as Lombardic. We strongly associate these letters with the Middle Ages, an association that is perhaps enforced as a result of their popularity through the Gothic Revival and Arts & Crafts movements. One of the most striking features of the Lombardic capital are the serifs, which extend so much that they join together and close the letter shape. Claymore reinterprets the idea of an extended serif as an additional stroke; forming one of the core features of the typeface. These additional strokes are applied to capital C, E, F, G, L, T, Z, and lowercase a, c, and r. Another core idea was to give some of the italic capitals their own shape. This is hinted at in the Lombardic letter which shows a flowing movement to its structure. In many typefaces the italic capitals are simply sloped versions of the roman ones. To give Claymore’s italic caps a little more individuality, a branching arch is used; in much the same way as seen in the lowercase, where an arch springs from a stem. This detail is found on B, D, E, F, P, R, and the effect it achieves is mirrored in the curved bases of E, and L. The result creates visually engaging word shapes and textures as well as an immensely readable text face.

The Claymore specimen is a little different to some of our previous ones; it’s split between showing the individual fonts and presenting a short text, titled Principles of Type. This comprises a collection of thoughts gathered over several years, and offered as a possible approach to the design thinking of a typeface. As a physical item, the specimen uses different paper stocks, color and sizes to engage the reader. The three colors were chosen to not only bounce off each other, but to also make suitable additional colors when overprinted. Illuminated manuscripts and stained glass provided the inspiration for the color pages, and the visual patterning of figured verse  and calligrams for the text which appears on translucent paper. In contrast to this, Principles of Type is set cleanly on grey stock and inserted as a booklet in the centre. Printed in three specials plus black by KMS Litho Ltd on various uncoated stocks supplied by Fenner Paper. The specimen has been designed to allow a degree of randomness in its assembly, making the final item more individual and unique.

Jeremy Tankard established his type foundry in 1998 after working in corporate design for several years. His typefaces have gained a reputation for their originality and quality. In addition to his own foundry, Tankard has produced designs for Microsoft and Adobe as well as many bespoke corporate designs. Information about the design stories behind each of them, together with commissioned work, can be seen at StudioType.com

Claymore — By Jeremy Tankard

Foundry: Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd
Designer: Jeremy Tankard
Styles and Weights (16 fonts; 8 roman and 8 italic): Claymore Hair, Claymore ExtraLight, Claymore Light, Claymore Regular, Claymore Medium, Claymore Bold, Claymore ExtraBold, Claymore Black, Claymore Hair Italic, Claymore ExtraLight Italic, Claymore Light Italic, Claymore Italic, Claymore Medium Italic, Claymore Bold Italic, Claymore ExtraBold Italic, Claymore Black Italic
Volume Specimen: 28 pages
Format Specimen: 15.2 × 23 cm
Price Single Style: £ 40.– GBP
Price Full Family: £ 640.– GBP

The specimen is free, but postage will be applied at checkout
More detailed information about the design of Claymore can be read at StudioType.com.
The Claymore fonts can be viewed, tested and licensed here and also be seen in use on the dedicated Explorer page here or on the Gallery page

We’re hiring: Employee (m/f/d) with focus on distribution

Posted on by Julia Kahl

To support our team, we are looking for a distribution employee (m/f/d) with very good German and English skills to start as soon as possible.

With you, we want to make our publications accessible to an even larger audience and develop contemporary strategies for implementing our corporate goals. This includes in particular the maintenance of the online store, expansion of the existing distribution network and the development of subscriptions. 

We are a small team and offer you a varied, extremely challenging job and insights into all areas of work of an independent publishing and media company with flat hierarchies. Personal responsibility is important to us in the following areas of activity: 

  • Cooperation with our shipping department as well as all other retail customers
  • Support of the online store as well as external vendors
  • Coordination of fulfillment
  • Order processing, logistics and warehousing
  • Accounting 
  • Inventory management and data maintenance
  • Subscription management
  • Acquisition of new trade partners
  • Development and implementation of marketing concepts
  • Preparation and support of congresses and book tables
  • Support in the editorial office

At best, you should already have some practical experience in sales and/or publishing, show above-average motivation, flexibility, passion, stress stability and a high willingness to perform, be self-confident, communicative, able to work in a team and interested in design, and demonstrate organizational skills and creativity. Furthermore, you should enjoy international communication. You show verve in dealing with the publishing team, customers and business partners. 

We require a university degree or a completed apprenticeship in the field of publishing, business or media as well as good IT skills (Mac; Office). As an internationally active company, you will also be able to express yourself confidently in German and English, both orally and in writing.

Start: as soon as possible
Duration: permanent
Working hours: full-time (40 h / week)
Location: Karlsruhe, GER

Please send your complete application documents (meaningful cover letter/justification, curriculum vitae, certificates, etc.) immediately by email to Ms. Julia Kahl, [email protected]. We will review them as soon as possible and get back to you.

We are looking forward to your application!

Slanted Publishers is an independent publishing and media house founded in 2014 by Lars Harmsen and Julia Kahl and operating internationally. We publish the award-winning print magazine Slanted, which focuses on international design and culture twice a year. Our publishing program focuses on contemporary design and culture, particularly graphic design, typography, illustration and photography, working closely with editors and authors to produce outstanding publications with meaningful content and high quality.
These publications can be found internationally in retail stores, museum shops and at airports and train stations, as well as in the company’s own online store, which also serves as a marketplace for other exceptional products from design talents and producers around the world.
On the online platform www.slanted.de with over 100,000 users monthly as well as the social media, news and events from the international design scene have been published daily for 17 years and inspiring portfolios from all over the world are presented to a constantly growing readership. Due to its specific focus and wide reach, Slanted is today one of the most influential design platforms worldwide.
Slanted Publishers has developed internationally into a multi-award-winning brand in the field of design. The publications are lively and inspiring—the philosophy of our publishing house cosmopolitan, tolerant and curious.

Please Come: Shameless/Limitless 

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Please Come: Shameless/Limitless Selected Posters & Texts 2008–2020 is a 536-page brick of a book. It charts the history of Shameless/Limitless, a Berlin promoter whose trajectory has paralleled (is responsible for?) the establishment of the most recent iteration of the city’s DIY music scene. Dive into unforgettable moments of the Berlin party series with this new publication!

The book includes:

— 219 posters for shows, parties and events spread across 40 Berlin venues made by 130 designers, notable and newcomers alike.
— 24 guest texts which celebrate and shed light on the ethos of the S/L spirit, from buds including musicians (Alex Cameron, Molly Nilsson, Sean Nicholas Savage, infinite bisous, Jane Penny of TOPS, Farao, Sam Vance-Law +++) designers (Aisha Franz, Tabitha Swanson, Jason Harvey and Natalia Portnoy to name a few), kindred spirits and more.
— Over 100 original event promo texts.
— Posters for first or early shows from now-established artists (Alex Cameron, Better Person, Erika de Casier, Fatima al Qadiri, Ultraflex +++) to memorable nights with artists passing through town (Metronomy, Crack Cloud, Project Pablo, Pender Street Steppers, Handsome Furs, Geneva Jacuzzi, Homeshake) to recurring shows and parties with heavy hitters (Molly Nilsson, Mac DeMarco, Win Butler of Arcade Fire, Kirin J Callinan, Sean Nicholas Savage, TOPS) and, of course, much more.
— An interview between frequent contributor Norman Palm & S/L founder Kevin Halpin. 

… and a couple more nice things, too. Immerse yourself in the unique aesthetics of the Berlin DIY-club scene!

Please Come: Shameless/Limitless—Selected Posters & Texts 2008–2020

Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Editor: Kevin Halpin
Design: Norman Palm, fertig design
Production: Zille Sophie Bostinius
Release: June 2021
Volume: 536 pages
Format: 17 × 24 × 3.2 cm
Language: English
Printing: 4-color offset, Pinguin Druck
ISBN: 978-3-948440-26-8
Price: € 42.–
BUY

L’HOMO. Le Book

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are pleased to inform you that L’HOMO. appears in book form: L’HOMO. Le Book.

High-profile and taboo-breaking. The sexy covers of Arie Boomsma, Tim Hofman, and Jan Versteegh, among others, have not escaped the attention of many. Every year L’HOMO.—from the makers of LINDA.—knew to generate an enormous amount of publicity for LGBT emancipation in the Netherlands. The acceptance of the LGBTI community—and anyone who does not agree with one of these letters—is very important to them. L’HOMO. Le Book, compiled by the editor-in-chief of L’HOMO. Iebele van der Meulen looks back on more than eleven years of love and looks forward to a more inclusive society where diversity is celebrated and everyone is visible. The publication contains the highlights of 12 issues of the groundbreaking magazine, as well as new content created for the book. Featured photographers include Marc de Groot, Robin de Puy, Alex, Jouk Oosterhof, Erwin Olaf, Dirk Kikstra, Philippe Vogelenzang, Ernst Coppejans, Wendelien Daan, Pieter Henket, and many more.

“In the 2010s the magazine grew into the gay medium in the Netherlands. At a time when LGBTI acceptance is increasingly under pressure, L’HOMO. Le Book is an important document that exudes eroticism, humor, and guts.”—MENDO

About L’HOMO.
L’HOMO. grew from a magazine exclusively for gays to an all-round brand for the entire LGBTI community. This book looks back with spectacular images and poignant stories and looks ahead with never before published photos and human interest stories. A book full of love and guts, where the sexyness splashes and where the acceptance and visibility of the entire LGBTI community is viewed with a critical eye. L’HOMO. Le Book was published on May 17th 2021, the international day against homophobia.

About Iebele van der Meulen
Iebele van der Meulen was creative director at LINDA. and editor-in-chief of several specials including L’HOMO. Last year he was involved in the creation of the latest title LINDA.loves.

About MENDO
MENDO is a publishing house and bookstore, born in 2002 out of an insatiable hunger for visual inspiration and aesthetics. MENDO creates and curates books, and connects cultures and gerations by sharing the love for print and imagery.

L’HOMO. Le Book

Publisher: MENDO/Kosmos publication
Compiler: Iebele van der Meulen
Release: May 17th 2021
Language: Dutch
Volume: 224 pages
Printing: Hardcover
Format: 17 × 24 × 2 cm
ISBN: 978-90-215794-1-2
Price: € 27.50
Buy

Ardena Font Family

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are pleased to introduce you to the well-rounded and extensive Ardena Font Family by Julien Fincker, that can be used for many purposes:

Ardena is a modern sans-serif typeface family. While neutral and clear at first glance, it can be characterized as both pleasant and confident due to its open, rounded forms and vertical terminals.

It can be used in both a restrained and expressive way. The thinner and thicker weights are particularly suitable for strong headlines, while the middle weights can be used for typographic challenges and body text. Completed with an extensive character collection, it becomes a real workhorse. A versatile allrounder that is up to all challenges—for Corporate Identity, Editorial, Branding, Orientation and Guidance systems and much more.

The Ardena family has a total of 20 styles, from Thin to Heavy with matching Italics. With over 1,064 characters, it covers over 200 Latin-based languages. It has an extended set of currency symbols and a whole range of Open Type Features. There are alternative characters as stylistic sets, small caps, automatic fractions—just to name a few. 

In particular, the extensive range of arrows and numbers should be highlighted, which are perfectly suited for use in orientation and guidance systems. Thanks to Open Type Features and an easy system, the various designs of arrows and numbers can also be simply “written” without first having to select them in a glyph palette. 

The principle is easily explained: If a number is placed in round or square brackets, it will automatically be displayed in an outlined circle or square. If you add a period to the number, it is displayed in a full circle or square. The same principle also applies to the arrows. The arrows themselves are combinations of greater/less symbols with the various slashes or hyphens.

About the Designer
Julien Fincker lives and works in Stuttgart, Germany. After graduating as a Communications and Graphic Designer, he worked for influential agencies and companies, such as Grafisches Atelier Stankowski + Duschek. Today he works as an Art Director at Sieber & Wolf Werbeagentur. Freelance and part-time, he also attaches great importance to multidisciplinary work—especially type design. 

Ardena Font Family — By Julien Fincker

Designer: Julien Fincker
Release: 2021
Styles and Weights: 20 Styles from Thin to Heavy with matching Italics
Price Single Style: € 26.99
Price Full Family: € 144.99
Ardena Medium is available for free
Buy at MyFonts or Fontspring

Exercises for / in Exchange

Posted on by Henrike Uthe

Exercises for / in Exchange — Art University Cooperation is an experiment in communication between students of the Berlin University of the Arts and the weißensee academy of art and design: Since, due to the pandemic, studies hardly take place in the rooms of the universities in the summer semester of 2021, the aim is to expand the possibilities of the digital to create common, cross-university spaces.

The first part of the workshop encouraged a digital exchange about perspectives—whether the ones out of the window or on studying, and various forms of introductions were explored. Students shared—a coffee, an idea, or as well frustration, and doubt. Groups then developed typographic ideas from the collectively generated material and prepared them for the spatial installation. The final part of the course was devoted to production on site, not on screens, but on the glass panes of the designtransfer exhibition showcase. This created a space that stimulates reflection on forms of connection; that poetically interrogates and typographically visualizes shared experiences of online teaching and learning; that collectively locates individual perspectives and stimulates interactions in multiple ways.

Exercises for / in Exchange — Art University Cooperation

Participants: Nour Al Safadi, Kseniya Apresian, Yan Chmarau, Hannah Corbaz, Victoria Fechtner, Jonas Gerber, Lisa Grafe, Ben van Heyden, Cäcilie Hoff, Hyuntae Jung, Karola Kulcsár, Jette Kulicke, Lucille Küpferle, Marius Kurz, Raviva Nsiama, Christian Pasqual, Aisha Ramm, Yael Rathjens, Araiké Severino, Inyeong Song, Alissa Schaaf, Lea Verholen Schmitt, Lucia Schmitz, Jakob Erek Sen, Yewon Seo, Antonia Leonie Steinbrink, Taro Usami, Magdalena Weber,  and Joanna Zvonar
Course of study: Fine Arts / Sculpture, Fine Arts / Stage and Costume Design, Communication in Social and Economic Contexts, Fashion Design, Product Design, Textile- and Surface Design und Visual Communication
Course by: Stefanie Rau (Weißensee academy of art Berlin) and Henrike Uthe (University of the Arts Berlin)
Author: Stefanie Rau
Photos: Mattia Friso

When?
June 11th to July 11th, 2021

Where?
designtransfer, outdoor showcase
Einsteinufer 43
10587 Berlin, Germany
and online

Typeface of the Month: NaN Jaune

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Our Typeface of the Month: NaN Jaune — By Jérémy Landes is something of a grotesk grotesque: a typeface bursting with charm and novelty with 20 upright styles spread across three optical sizes, accomodating any scale or application.

Jaune’s design began in 2016 as a single display weight taking inspiration from the warmth and compactness of Roger Excoffon’s 1960’s design Antique Olive. Over the following years Landes would expand the weight repertoire and add two additional sub-families bringing Jaune’s natural swagger to mid and small size uses. The result is a family of striking and joyful fonts engineered for all modern touchpoints, with Jaune having shown itself to work as well in print as in tough digital environments.

Jaune Maxi was created with display use in mind. Ranging from the blackest Black to a razor sharp Thin its short extenders make it ideal for compact text blocks and strong headlines. Jaune Midi is the all-terrain middle-child comfortable in all contexts and conversations. Jaune Mini’s open counters, deep ink-traps and simplified structure enhance legibility and eases Jaune’s natural swagger in longer text and smaller sizes.

At the end of the day, Jaune is a family of contrasts. Ranging from the blackest Black to a razor sharp Thin, and from ultra display to ultra text, with a language coverage of 224 Latin languages, it’s intended to play in a tremendous variety of contexts.

Trial fonts are available for immediate download. Check-out the NaN Jaune’s mini-site and game SansSheriff.wtf

Typeface of the Month: NaN Jaune By Jérémy Landes

Foundry: NaN 
Designer: Jérémy Landes
Release: May 2021
File Formats: TTF, WOFF2 + Variable versions
Styles: 20 upright styles across three optical sizes from a razor Thin to a super Black
Price per style / family: € 40.– / € 200.– (Variable fonts are included free in all family packages)
Mini-site and game: SansSheriff
Trial fonts
Buy

Downtown Camper

Posted on by Julia Kahl

City. Nature. Sea. This is how one could describe Sweden’s capital Stockholm. We were here for one week to finally meet creatives again and learn more about their approach and attitude. After a long day of work, it was nice to come to a cozy and central hotel: Downtown Camper by Scandic is our urban base camp for half of the time here.

The business hotel does not look like a classic business hotel at all. No wonder, Scandic commissioned Swedish architects Stylt Trampoli to “bring nature into the city,” according to Mette von Schack, marketing manager. The Downtown Camper is their signature design hotel and is thought out down to the smallest detail: The property’s aesthetic embraces urban adventure, with natural elements such as wood, cork, leather, and greenery alongside rough, industrial accents and modern designs.

The architects say about their work: “When you walk into the entrance of the Downtown Camper Hotel in Stockholm, the first things you notice are the pillars of wood, the reception desk made of polished timber, and an abundance of ferns. Then, in one corner, you find ceiling-to-floor corkboards pinned with maps of Stockholm. Nearby, moss runs down one side of a freestanding column like a drip. A line of skateboards sit perched against the wall by reception. On another wall, the words Downtown Camper are proudly splashed onto the wall in green foliage. The overall effect is like the lovechild of a park ranger and a hipster.”

The hotel encourages its guests not only to visit the well-known tourist hot spots, but to experience the city in their own, “real” way. For this purpose, bicycles, skateboards, surfboards and even kayaks are available for rent. And not only that, you can also join guided tours for free. But also in the hotel itself you can find many green plants in all corners, which create a very welcoming atmosphere.

The rooftop terrace with spa and bar are incredible—you’ll just have to see for yourself. Of course, there’s also a gym, plus meeting rooms, workspaces and much more. The camper offers something innovative yet familiar and the central location is great. A muted, yet colorful design scheme energizes every space, encouraging spontaneous interaction and enlivened togetherness.

Thanks for having us!
More information can be found here.

BEYOND MATTER

Posted on by Nina Steimel

BEYOND MATTER — Thinking about Exhibitions in novel ways: Digital Art and New Forms of Experiencing Art is an international, collaborative, and practice-based research project, which takes cultural heritage and culture to the boundaries of virtual reality. Within a multitude of activities and formats it reflects in particular on the virtual condition of spatial aspects of art production, of curating, and in art presentation, and education. The priority areas of the project’s research and practice are the digital revival of selected, groundbreaking past exhibitions, art and archive exhibitions, conferences, artist-in-residence programs, the online platform, and publications. The project was initiated by the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, in collaboration with the Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, the Ludwig Museum – Museum for Contemporary Art, the Tallinn Art Hall, the Aalto University, and the Tirana Art Lab. It is co-financed by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union.

In the projects BEYOND MATTER and Hybrid Museum Experience (HyMEx Symposium), funded by the EU and the Federal Government of Germany, the ZKM | Hertz-Lab is intensely involved with producing digital art, but above all with the available options for its presentation and dissemination in the digital environment. The results of this museological and artistic pioneering work are now on show in three new exhibitions, an online platform with an innovative program, a symposium, digital models, and a new series of talks. The funding of Hybrid Museum Experience has enabled long-lasting improvements to be made to the dissemination of culture and the use of digital technology in museums.

The Hybrid Museum Experience “will show in exemplary fashion how the digital transformation in culture and media achieves a successful outcome”—Prof. Monika Grütters MdB.

The implementation of new museum technologies like, for example, the Immaterial Display, a mobile hardware installation for an immersive visit to virtual models of an exhibition, inevitably raises the question of their usefulness for the production of knowledge and disseminating it. This is addressed with the help of an accompanying study: as an expansion of BEYOND MATTER, Hybrid Museum Experience will develop a self-service evaluation automaton, and from its data sets it will be possible to read off durable markers for the museum of the future.

From April 29th, 2021, not one but two groundbreaking exhibitions will be on show: the physical exhibition Spatial Affairs at the Ludwig Museum – Museum for Contemporary Art and also its digital counterpart, the online exhibition Spatial Affairs. Worlding—A tér világlása at beyondmatter.eu. Spatial Affairs, curated by Giulia Bini and Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás, explores the reactions in art to new perceptions of space and how they intertwine with reality, with a special emphasis on these times of computergenerated virtual and immersively experienced reality.

Spatial Affairs. Worlding—A tér világlása is an online environment designed and programmed by The Rodina, Amsterdam, and coproduced by ZKM and EPFL Pavilions, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, which is waiting to be discovered. In the multi-user exhibition the avatars of the visitors mingle with the moving bodies of the net art and browser-based projects on display. The soundscape of the virtual environment was created by Enrico Boccioletti.

With the launch of the digital exhibition platform VIEW, realized by the Estonian design collective AKU, on April 8th, 2021 the online version of the installation Drifting, Browsing, Cruising, which had been scheduled for this summer at the ZKM, was opened in the virtual exhibition space Fantastic Confabulations. Like a laboratory, Fantastic Confabulations wants to enable new, that is, heterogeneous, queer formats of scenography, and curating. Both the installation and the exhibition space originate from the computer-generated pens of Eleni Diana Elia and Theodoulos Polyviou, currently guest artists at the ZKM. The digital platform and the exhibition space will also host the installations by the subsequent BEYOND MATTER guest artists.

ZKM visitors will be able to see the VR space-related installation Drifting, Browsing, Cruising which challenges visitors wearing a VR headset to negotiate the constraints of the often ritualized, ideologically influenced exhibition space in a new way. The simultaneous use of headphones enables users to meet each other. This is done by calibrating the physical limits of the space in such a way that they come up against virtual limits which are seen by the VR headsets and thus make the experience of the installation immersive and tangible.

In the context of the project BEYOND MATTER: Cultural Heritage on the Verge of Virtual Reality in addition to the ZKM | Karlsruhe, the Centre Pompidou has also undertaken to explore the possibilities of reviving past exhibitions by using experimental methods of digital spatial design. Over the course of this year, digital models of the groundbreaking exhibitions Les Immatériaux (Centre Pompidou, 1985) and Iconoclash (ZKM | Karlsruhe, 2002) will be made and presented on beyondmatter.eu. The models are being developed in collaboration with Aalto University, Finland. Part of the work process was a series of talks with the experts who worked on the original exhibitions. These took place in 2020/21 for the ZKM’s Iconoclash and included Dario Gamboni, Boris Groys, Sabine Himmelsbach, Bruno Latour, and Peter Weibel. The talks can be accessed on the project’s website beyondmatter.eu. In May the Centre Pompidou will begin its talks with experts involved in Les Immatériaux, which will be posted monthly on monthly on the project’s website. The first experts will be Philippe Bettinelli, Andreas Broeckmann, and Francesca Gallo.

BEYOND MATTER — Thinking about Exhibitions in novel ways: Digital Art and New Forms of Experiencing Art

Spatial Affairs Artists: Morehshin Allahyari, Andreas Angelidakis, Carola Bonfili, Adam Broomberg & Guy De Lancey & Brian O’Doherty, Petra Cortright, Agnes Denes, Aleksandra Domanović, Louise Drulhe, Wojciech Fangor, Stanislav Filko, Lucio Fontana, Dora García, Sam Ghantous, János Gulyás, Hans Hollein, Lauren Huret, Jodi, Hiroshi Kawano, Katarzyna Kobro, Alicja Kwade, Oliver Laric, Sam Lavigne & Tega Brain, Jan Robert Leegte, Lou Cantor, Stano Masár, Cildo Meireles, Rosa Menkman, Metahaven, Imre Nagy, Georg Nees, Robert Olawuyi, Gyula Pauer, Goran Petercol, Sascha Pohflepp & Alessia Nigretti & Matthew Lutz, Àngels Ribé, The Rodina, Rafaël Rozendaal, Jeffrey Shaw, Andrej Škufca, Károly Tamkó Sirató, Viktor Timofeev, Unrated/Besorolás Alatt, Gyula Várnai.
Curators: Giulia Bini and Lívia Nolasco-Rózsás
Curatorial assistants: Jan Elantkowski and Fruzsina Feigl

Drifting, Browsing, Cruising
Online Thu., April 4th–Sat., July 31st, 2021
Museum Balcony: from Summer 2021

Spatial Affairs. Worlding—A tér világlása
Thu., April 29th–Wed., August 8th, 2023

Spatial Affairs
Thu., April 29th–Sun., June 27th, 2021
Ludwig Museum Budapest
Komor Marcell utca 1.
H-1095 Budapest, Hungary

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Lorenzstraße 19
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany

Visit the website and find information about grants for guest artists here

I Love Typography Shop

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

I Love Typography, a leading voice in the world of type, has expanded its portfolio with an innovative webshop dedicated to font discovery and licensing. To mark this occasion, some of the world’s best type designers are releasing new typefaces, and launching new foundries, in celebration.

The popular blog www.ilovetypography.com (ILT) has unveiled today a new design that combines its signature content dedicated to all matters type with an innovative e-commerce platform that re-imagines font discovery and licensing. It brings to market the most powerful search capabilities yet with a system, based on type descriptors and dubbed with the acronym CEDARS+, that empowers users to find typefaces based on formal qualities that can be as general as the rhythm of the typeface and as detailed as the shape of the serif.

Working closely with its foundry network to celebrate this milestone, ILT has launched today a total of 16 new typeface families by renowned designers such as Hannes von Doehren (Palast), Jean-François Porchez (Alumi Inline), Lucas de Groot (Tao, TheStencil), Mamoun Sakkal (Sakkal Kitab and Lublub), and Martin Majoor (Comma Base). ILT has also launched two eponymous foundries by Martin Majoor and Malou Verlomme to bring the total of its foundry partners to 40. ILT’s first cohort of foundries includes designer favourites such as Barnbrook Fonts, Canada Type, exljbris, FontFabric, HVD, Jeremy Tankard Typography, LiebeFonts, Lucas Fonts, Studio René Bieder, Typesenses, TypeTogether, and Typofonderie. It also includes leading experts in world scripts such as ArabicType, Rosetta, Sakkal Design, and Tiro Typeworks.

I Love Typography has been celebrating the beauty and craftsmanship that goes into type since 2007. Its author, John Boardley, has amassed almost half a million Twitter followers who regularly turn in to read his reviews and analysis of the past, the present, and sometimes, the future, of type. Joining ILT as its CEO is award winning designer Dr. Nadine Chahine who combines her expertise in type design, legibility, and international relations to steer ILT in its new expansion. Named as one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and Creative Reviews’s Creative Leaders 50 in 2016, Chahine is focused on empowering independent foundries and creating a customer experience that is rooted in the joys of discovering and licensing new fonts: “Finding the right typeface for your project should not be a chore. There is such a storm of expressions in type design and we want to bring that diversity and power into the hands of designers. We also want to create a platform where independent foundries can thrive and maintain control of their business models. We believe that such a twin-speared approach can help foster a creative ecosystem that celebrates the beauty of the written word.”

Completing the founding trio is Julia Hiles who brings more than 20 years’ sales leadership experience in both finance and creative industries. Hiles, in her role as CRO, will centre this creative ecosystem around sustainable business models that benefit both foundries and brands: “In a corporate world where everyone starts to look the same, brand owners can turn to us to discover the right brand expression, confident in the knowledge that they are licensing high quality typefaces that are fit for purpose.”

Take a look at the new I Love Typography Shop

Practica Program

Posted on by Practica Type

Apply until July 18th, 2021 and join the Practica Program — Typeface Design Course in fall 2021 and dig deeper into typeface design: Spend 14 weeks immersed in the world of type design with industry professionals by your side. Students begin the course ready to work on a typeface they’ve begun outside of the program. Through a series of lectures and mini-workshops, they’ll learn how to expand their typeface through the process of interpolation. They’ll also visit some of the finer points of the craft, like refining their drawing and spacing skills, while also discussing the macro issues, like what makes a typeface successful or how it responds to the culture it springs from.

Lead Instructors: Nicole Dotin, Sol Matas
Speaking voices: Maria Doreuli, James Edmondson, Krista Radoeva, Aleksandra Samuļenkova, Kristyan Sarkis, and Sara Soskolne

All sessions will be held (in Englisch) live via Zoom. For those who cannot attend in real time, the talks will be recorded. The feedback sessions, on the other hand, must be attended live to fully benefit from them. This gives you some flexibility to fit the program into your own schedule, but also the opportunity to interact with other students. Finally, course instructors are available to meet one-on-one with students outside of class. There are more than fifty-five course hours for the entire program, not including office hours

Practica Program — Typeface Design Course 

When?
August 26th to December 7th, 2021
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7 p.m. (Berlin)
Convert to your timezone

Apply now!

All sessions will be held live via Zoom. For those who cannot attend in real time, the talks will be recorded. The feedback sessions, on the other hand, must be attended live to fully benefit from them. This gives you some flexibility to fit the program into your own schedule, but also the opportunity to interact with other students. Finally, course instructors are available to meet one-on-one with students outside of class. There are more than fifty-five course hours for the entire program, not including office hours.

Font Customization: How Does It Help Designers’ Work?

Posted on by TypeType

Customization is an instrument solving a large array of design tasks and helping corporate brand establishment. It often happens that existing fonts do not correspond to the needs of a certain project. But font is not a static instrument that functions only the way it was created. To convey the company’s individual style, the font can and should be adapted and customized to one’s needs that may range from simple changes like diminishing the character composition to complex design changes in all glyphs. Therefore, TypeType offers you to participate in their free webinar: Font Customization: How Does It Help Designers’ Work? — Free Webinar by TypeType.

During the webinar Aleksandr Kudryavtsev will talk about what problems customization solves, graphical customization, technical customization, license customization and how many resources font customization requires.

TypeType is an independent font design studio established in 2013. More than 35,000 designers all over the world have been using their fonts since. In their work, they have always relied on a scientific approach, deep analytics, and implementation of innovative technologies.

Font Customization: How Does It Help Designers’ Work? — Free Webinar by TypeType

Speaker: Aleksandr Kudryavtsev, CEO TypeType

When?
July 7th, 2021, 5 p.m. (UTC)

Register to get notifications to connect to the webinar in advance

ULTRAFETT Typography Festival 2021

Posted on by Mirko Israel

The ULTRAFETT Typography Festival 2021 — Celebrating the World of Type and Typography is taking place online from June 7th to July 11th, 2021: Enjoy new videos from our international speakers every week—on YouTube—for free!

Celebrating the world of type and typography, eleven of the world’s best typographers and designers are ready to be your travel guides. With many inspiring contributions and personalities, ULTRAFETT celebrates a wide variety of typographic styles and disciplines: Explore current trends, new approaches, ultrafett means of expression, and so much more. The collective love for typography, influences and ideas from all around the world and a whole lot of fun are making ULTRAFETT a memorable trip of 2021. The Festival is an event at the FH Bielefeld, Department of Design. It is conceived, planned, designed, and implemented by students of communication design. The focus is on the emotional power of typography.

ULTRAFETT Typography Festival 2021

When?
Studio Yukiko—Monday, June 28th, 6 p.m. CET
Mitch Paone—Thursday, July 1st, 6 p.m. CET
Vera van de Seyp—Monday, July 5th, 6 p.m. CET
Fraser Muggeridge—Thursday, July 8th, 6 p.m. CET
Paula Scher—Sunday, July 11th, 6 p.m. CET

Where?
Online
Subscribe to their YouTube channel to never miss an event

Exhibition 100 Best Posters 20

Posted on by Nina Steimel

The current selection of the Exhibition 100 Best Posters 20 from the three German-speaking countries can be seen in Berlin until July 4th, 2021, then on tour in Essen, St.Gallen, Lucerne, Lausanne, Oldenburg, Vienna, Zurich, Mendrisio, Genf, as well as in Seoul, Chisinau, and Timisoara. Despite the pandemic with some unrealized poster projects, the jury with Markus Weisbeck, Xavier Erni, Andrea Gassner, Na Kim and Franziska Morlok had 1,973 posters from 600 entrants to choose from.

As a result, the 100 best posters include 43 × Germany, 50 × Switzerland and 7 × Austria—76 commissioned works, seven own commissions and 17 student project commissions. For 23 of the 100 best posters, animated versions can be called up with the help of the Artivive app.

The yearbook 100 Best Posters 20 Germany Austria Switzerland with all 100 winning posters, designed by Bueronardin, with texts by Markus Weisbeck and Fons Hickmann and the essay One Year (Parallel-Parallel) by Dorothee Dähler and Yeliz Secerli has been published by Verlag Kettler to accompany the exhibitions.

Exhibition 100 Best Posters 20 — Germany Austria Switzerland 

Design: Bueronardin
Editing and Proofreading: Hermann Büchner
Cover: Verlag Kettler
Photos: Michael Kirsten

Where?
Exhibition 100 Best Posters 20 Germany Austria Switzerland currently on its first stop:
Kulturforum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Matthäikirchplatz
10785 Berlin
Germany

 

Euclid—Typeface Mystery No. 1

Posted on by Nina Steimel

More than three years after the release of their first typeface monograph, Swiss Typefaces is proud to announce the launch of a new book. Euclid—Typeface Mystery No.1 was conceived and designed by Hubertus Design. The typographic tome of 264 pages is a feast for the eyes, built around a story that will send a chill down your spine.

For their second book, they invited Hubertus Design to work on the concept and art direction. The Zurich-based studio was given carte blanche for a book that would showcase the many facets of Euclid, their ultimate geometric sans typeface. And they lived up to their name as leading voice in innovative book design. They came up with an idea that transcends the expectations—including our own. You might assume that a publication devoted to a typeface was one big specimen. Like our previous SangBleu Typeface: The King, His Court, The Explorer & The Gift, the new book is so much more. Euclid — Typeface Mystery No.1 is a multidisclipinary triptych, constructed from three main components that are skillfully interwoven with each other: At the heart of the book is A Snippet of the Clear Night Sky, a mystery novel that Matthias Michel has authored specifically for this purpose. Hubertus Design brought in Matthieu Gafsou. The Franco-Swiss artist contributed Eerie Indeed, a series of photographs that augment the book with a rich pictorial layer. And then there’s the Euclid Typeface, which is used to set all text. The combined outcome is just as beautiful as it’s disturbing, and a creation that we find difficult to categorize.

Two versions of the book exist. The Standard Edition can be had for CHF 50.–. The Ultimate Edition is a limited run that will be sold at CHF 200.– and that includes both the book and the typeface: each copy of the Ultimate Edition comes with a gift card hidden somewhere inside the book. Once you’ve extracted it (surgical equipment required), it will allow you to download the complete Euclid Typeface for free. That’s five collections with 54 styles, to the value of CHF 405.–. In other words, you’ll get the fonts for half the standard price—and the book on top!

Euclid—Typeface Mystery No. 1

Fonts: Euclid Circular A, Euclid Circular B, Euclid Square, Euclid Triangle, Euclid Flex, and Euclid Stencil (designed by Emmanuel Rey / Swiss Typefaces), Euclid Mono Vanguard (designed by Emmanuel Rey, Quentin Schmerber / Swiss Typefaces)
Font engineering: Christoph Koeberlin
Concept and Art Direction: Hubertus Design (Matthias Michel, Jonas Voegeli, Lea Fischlin, and Kerstin Landis)
Typeface descriptions: Florian Hardwig
Novel: Matthias Michel
Photos: Matthieu Gafsou
Illustration cover: Noah Scalin
Print and binding: Musumeci S.p.a
Cover material: Cloth Balatex Imperial 4440
Paper: Munken Polar Rough/Maxi Satin/Prolight
Reproduction pictures of the book: studio GG58
Volume: 264 pages
Format: 24.5 cm × 31.5 cm

Standard Edition: CHF 50.– (≈ € 45,70 Euro)
Ultimate Edition: CHF 200.– (≈ € 182,82 Euro)
Get your free trial of the Euclid typeface

Swiss Typefaces is offering Slanted readers a free license for their lab font Euclid Mono Vanguard with the purchase of any version of the book. To proceed, purchase the book on physical.company. While checking out, add “Slanted2021” in the “additional options” field and you’ll later receive an email to download the font free of charge. (Emails are handled manually, they might take a moment to arrive). The Offer is valid until July 8th, 2021.

Forward Festival Hamburg 2021

Posted on by Nina Steimel

“Always keep moving Forward!” After a very successful Online-Only-Event in March, Forward Festival is returning with a hybrid format on July 1st and 2nd, 2021 in Hamburg: Forward Festival Hamburg 2021 — Comeback of Creativity Between Post-Digitization and Community-Thinking.

Forward Festival is a renowned conference for the local and international creative industries, established in 2015. The festival’s self declared mission is to serve as a platform for creative people and to promote inspiration and exchange. Protagonists from all disciplines of creativity are brought together in a program combining forums, workshops, exhibitions, talks, and side-events. Topics range from (graphic)design, typography, marketing, and branding to VR/AR, artificial intelligence, and architecture to photography, film, and TV. Forward has made an impact internationally as an important platform for the industry at locations in the DACH region (D-A-CH or DACH is an acronym for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.) From 2020 on, the focus has been on a hybrid event concept in order to make the program accessible to people across borders via livestream and interactive online formats. The success formula of Forward is: It comes from within the industry and is authentic in its approach and content. The conference hits the right tone and sets key priorities as its initiators, such as Forward founder and curator Othmar Handl, themselves coming from the creative industries. Speakers follow this spirit and therefore contribute with personal stories about success and failure in the creative process, cooperation between the disciplines, and their views of the creative industry.

The program promises a variety of speakers and lots of inspiration from all different branches of the creative industries. More than 15 speakers, masterclasses, and much more will inspire the livestream audience as well as the festival-goers on-site at designxport Hamburg. For 2021, Forward Festivals are focusing on the comeback of creativity to the real world from the digital world. Founder and curator Othmar Handl says about his vision that is inspired by the “shortest poem ever written” by Muhammad Ali: “ME, WE—When the great Muhammad Ali created this poem, he didn’t know that much later these two words perfectly fit to describe our situation in 2021: Already living the age of Me, it seems that times of lockdowns have not only confined us physically. We were also forced to focus on our egos, our Me. Were we at the brink to forget the We? The opposite was the case: We just recognized how much we missed the We!” Despite returning to the “real world”, Forward Festival Hamburg will take place as a hybrid event. This way, creatives from all over the world can take part and enjoy two days of inspiration via Livestream—just like the well-received Online edition in March 2021. About the bold decision to schedule this edition of Forward Festival even though there were still lockdowns in place when he started planning, Handl says: “We firmly believe that there must not be a cultural and creative vacuum even in challenging times. Together with partners and speakers, it is very important to us that creativity is not neglected or even completely ceased at any time.” He stresses that he is convinced that the creative industry and the many surrounding industries have an increasing need for knowledge transfer, inspiration, and exchange—after all, the festival’s mission has always been to serve as a platform for creative people and to promote exchange.

As speakers, the biggest independent agency Wieden+Kennedy, Australian illustrator Gemma O’Brien, design-legend Mirko Borsche, and digital artist Gmunk join the lineup as well as the Experience Design team of Google, and artist-designer Erik Kessels. Workshops will be held by Emily Cohen (“Managing Clients for High Impact”), Dot Lung (“Personal Branding”), and Erik Kessels (“Personality Before Portfolio”).

Forward Festival Hamburg 2021 — Comeback of Creativity Between Post-Digitization and Community-Thinking

Tickets Livestream: from € 55.–
On-site package: from € 299.–
Tickets for the on-site event are strictly limited and in high demand, capacities are added from time to time on the Forward Festival website when available.
Tickets for online and on-site workshops can be booked separately. 

When?
July 1st and 2nd, 2021

Where?
designxport Hamburg
Hongkongstraße 8
20457 Hamburg-Hafencity, Germany
and online

Find further information here and get your ticket here

Speaking in Tongues

Posted on by Nina Steimel

The Speaking in Tongues Group exhibition at Blake & Vargas brings together work by artists who explore the body as a transformative vessel. Studio Last has designed three different posters for the exhibition.

Feat. works and editions by:
Angelika Loderer
Anna Lena Grey
Carolin Eidner
Christian Hoosen
David Schiesser
Dorothy Iannone
Garrett Nelson
Lotte Meret
Nat Marcus
Sarah Bernauer
Una Szeemann
Young Boy Dancing Group

Speaking in Tongues, also called Glossolalia, refers to the act of speaking in an unknown language. With his vision of a new theater, the Theater of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud wanted to dissolve the boundaries between art and life, stage, and audience. Instead of classical narration and dialogue, he experimented with movements, sounds, and utterances in an imaginary language. His last work, the 1947 radio play To be done with the judgment of god, begins with glossolalia, and ends with the proclamation:

“When you will have made him a body without organs, you will have freed him from all his automatic reactions and given him back his true freedom.” Torn by the dichotomy that the body is both body and mind, Artaud desires a body that is not defined by the needs and functions of its organs.

In A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze / Guattari, 1980), Gilles Deleuze asks the question, “How does one make a body without organs?” A body without organs creates and forms itself from the infinite possibilities of its virtual potential, independent of its organism. The body without organs operates in the free flow of its intensities, desires, and language. In exchange and intermingling with other bodies, it constantly renews itself.

The collective body in Speaking in Tongues, composed of the individual works in this exhibition, can be read as an artistic exploration of a body without organs. This imaginary body reveals itself without solidifying, constantly reshaping its contours. Through its permeable surface, it is able to merge with other bodies. Speaking in Tongues, the language of his body emerges as he speaks equally inwardly and outwardly.

Speaking in Tongues

When?
June 11th to July 18th, 2021
Opening hours:
Thursday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.

Where?
Blake & Vargas
Reichenberger Straße 72
10999 Berlin, Germany

Find out more about Studio Last or take a look at the exhibition space Blake & Vargas

Credits:
Poster 1: Artwork by Angelika Loderer, Space between a kiss, 2019, aluminum.
Poster 2: Artwork by Lotte Meret, still from To Fear Hope and Desire Again, video & spatial installation, 2020, 14:38 min, 2K
Poster 3: Artwork by Anna Lena Grau, not yet titled, 2021, plaster & pigments.

Images by Philippe Gerlach & Sylvan Dahlgrün. Poster series by Matthias Last.

Support “Flexible Visual Systems” on Kickstarter

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Yesterday, the Kickstarter-campaign for Flexible Visual Systems started, a book initiated by TwoPoints.Net, which is not just another book by the design studio based in Hamburg, Berlin, and Barcelona.—It is Martin Lorenz’s once-in-a-lifetime book and now he needs your help to make it become real: Support “Flexible Visual Systems” on Kickstarter!

Flexible Visual Systems is the design manual for contemporary visual identities. It teaches you a variety of approaches on how to design flexible systems, adjustable to any aesthetic or project in need of an identifiable visual language. The publication sums up ten years of research at the University of Barcelona, 20 years of developing systems at TwoPoints.Net and 18 years of teaching systems at over ten design universities throughout Europe on 320 pages. To learn how to design flexible systems is not just learning another craft, it is going to change the way you think and work entirely. It is an approach, how to design. If you would place system design into a curriculum it would be the foundation course, putting you in the right mindset. You can apply the systemic approach to any discipline you will later specialize in, from corporate design, communication design, user experience design to textile design.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part is a richly illustrated theoretic introduction (82 pages) explaining the past, present, and future of flexible systems. It describes how they were used in the past, how they are used today and why they should not just organize formal solutions, but the way how we work. The second part is a hands-on, almost purely visual, description of how to design flexible systems on form, starting with a circle, triangle, square, pentagon, and hexagon. Lots of instruction manuals and examples on how to use them on 148 pages! The third part explains how transformation processes can become flexible systems for visual identities. Especially creative coders, motion designers, and people who love to experiment will have a lot of fun with this chapter.

The funding goal does NOT include the design or editing of the book or production of the rewards—but we need support from you to cross-fund the printing costs. Therefore, the total goal includes the printing costs of the publication as well as shares of handling (shipping costs, fees). The actual sum to make the book possible is 22,000 euros, but 15,000 of that is to be pre-funded through Kickstarter. So help exceed the actual founding goal so that the book can spread to the winds.

Support “Flexible Visual Systems” on Kickstarter

Publisher and Distributor: Slanted Publishers
Content and Design: Dr Martin Lorenz
Volume: 320 pages
Format: 210 × 250 mm
Language: English
Printing and Binding: Agpograf, Barcelona, Spain
Printing: 3 Pantone Spot Colors
Cover paper: Softcover, Invercote G, 300 g/sm, Matt Varnishing
Inside paper: Coral Natural M.1.2, 120 g/sm
Delivery: Wrapped in shrinkfoil, packed in box envelopes, shipped with tracking nr.

The 320 pages will be printed in three bright Pantone colors, impossible to imitate with CMYK or RGB, on a high bulk paper. Printing and binding will be done by the printer Agpograf in Barcelona. The book will be published and shipped in September.

Support the project on Kickstarter and preorder a copy or grab one of their rewards such as a notebook, an art-print canvas, or a workshop with Martin Lorenz.

Quirkwood

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Another day, another typeface! We are happy to introduce you to the typeface Quirkwood — By Canadatype:

Quirkwood was Robby Woodard’s pandemic project. During all the craziness and uncertainty surrounding lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, the veteran designer decided to revisit the classic Egyptienne / Italienne / French Clarendon aesthetic and make it his very own with two extra spoons of fun and a generous dollop of cheer. Quirkwood is what we have after his typographic bender, and we believe our world is all the better for it. This is a spaghetti western with Shazam and Wile E. Coyote cast in prominent starring roles, a bluegrass album of Edith Piaf covers.

By reconfiguring a classic archetype’s DNA and introducing new quirks to it, Robby presents a uniquely sunny and wholesome character with this typeface. The common reversed-stress-slab treatment goes a long way for sure, but there are also plenty of unusual elements working hard in the background here: Ball endings harmonizing with thick soft rectangles, diagonals cutting light into thick softnesses, eager open midsections guiding the eyeballs, strokes thickening into curled serifs just short of swashing out, and giddy extenders bopping along to an eccentric beat. And a horseshoe “U”!

But it’s not only fun and games. Underneath the bubbly appearance, the Quirkwood family is an expert typographic feat that offers plenty of bells and whistles: Contrast-based groupings and weight variation, intelligent contextuality, chromatic layering options verging on graffiti-like possibilities, stylistic alternates, small caps, standard and discretionary ligatures, and other fine typography features.

Quirkwood — By Canadatype

Foundry: Canada Type
Designer: Robby Woodard
File Formats: otf, ttf, eot, woff, woff2
Styles and Weights: Quirkwood Regular, Quirkwood Bright, Quirkwood Shadow, Quirkwood Highlight, Quirkwood Text Regular, Quirkwood Text Medium, Quirkwood Text Medium Bright, Quirkwood Text Bold, Quirkwood Text Bold Bright, Quirkwood Chunky Regular, Quirkwood Chunky Bright, Quirkwood Chunky Bold, and Quirkwood Chunky Bold Bright
Price Single Style: $ 30.–
Price Full Family: $ 150.– (13 fonts)
Buy

picto-, ideo-

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are delighted to announce that picto-, ideo- — by Johannes Bergerhausen and Ilka Helmig is now available at Slanted Shop!

On the occasion of the exhibition Pictograms, Signs of Life, Emojis: The Society of Signs at the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren 2020 and at the Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg 2021 the publication picto-, ideo- — By Johannes Bergerhausen and Ilka Helmig was published. 

Designer and researcher Johannes Bergerhausen and artist Ilka Helmig focus on the unknown and opaque writing systems. What is a script? How many people speak which language? And what are the missing scripts? The editors open a discourse on script as a cultural asset, the existing inventory of written languages, the digitization of the world’s languages, and missing typographic signs for so-called “non-Latin” or “minority” scripts.

Prof. Johannes Bergerhausen, born in 1965 in Bonn, studied communication design in Düsseldorf and lives in Cologne and Paris. In 1998 he was a scholarship holder at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris. Since 2002 Johannes Bergerhausen is a professor for typography and book design at the Hochschule Mainz. In 2005 he released decodeunicode.org, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. He is a Guest lecturer worldwide and won numerous awards. He published the books decodeunicode—The characters of the world (2011) and Digital Cuneiform (2014). Prof. Johannes Bergerhausen used to be Visiting Professor at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique (ANRT) in Nancy, France between 2014 and 2015.

Prof. Ilka Helmig, born in 1971 in Frankfurt am Main, studied fine arts and communication design in Nuremberg and Bonn and lives in Cologne and Paris. Since 2007 she is professor for drawing and visual conception at the University of Applied Sciences Aachen. Ilka Helmig has led several workshops, has been part in numerous solo and group exhibitions (most recently Karst Gallery, Plymouth, UK, and Artist in Lab Fraunhofer Gesellschaft 2020).

In their publication, Ilka Helmig shows drawings of air twirls created by the act of speaking and articulating. Air is extruded through the lips of one’s tongue and released into the atmosphere in the shape of structured air vortices. Scientists have discovered that the vortices of spoken sounds are replicable.

picto-, ideo-

Publishers: Johannes Bergerhausen and Ilka Helmig
Concept and Design: Johannes Bergerhausen and Ilka Helmig
Text: Johannes Bergerhausen
Translation: Nicola Fischer
Release: September 2020
Volume: 46 pages
Format: 17 × 24 cm
Language: German and English
Price: € 16.–
Buy
Find further information here or scroll through the world’s writing systems 

Büro Destruct 4

Posted on by Nina Steimel

It is a great honor for us to publish the fourth monograph of the Swiss design studio Büro Destruct. Büro Destruct 4 not only presents the best of the realized projects of the past twelve years, but also intermediate steps, discards, experiments, and inspiration.

In contrast to the strict and somewhat restrained Swiss Style of the 1960s, Büro Destruct stands for design without the handbrake on. Apparently everything is possible. It can be humorous, loud, colorful and zeitgeisty. At the same time, minimalism, precision and craftsmanship are present in all their work. The Swiss, who see themselves and their studio as a kind of band, again present a skillfully composed album with this new book.

The Bern-based foursome have never dealt in safe or conventional consensus graphics, but prefer distinct, sometimes trashy and always refreshingly original designs. Blessed with a healthy dose of insatiable curiosity, they have been seeking out inspiration from beyond the mountain ranges since the mid-1990s—long before the proliferation of Internet access and distribution. The Swiss strongly associate with values inherent in Japanese culture, in which they have found—and continue to find—inspiration over the years. However, unlike Emil Ruder and other heroes of classic Swiss graphic design, who also drew on Japan, they are more inspired by the wild side of Japanese culture.

Büro Destruct’s vector-heavy graphics have always conformed to “think global, act local.” Often against the grain of public conception: they were among the few to ignore the temporary, yet intense flirt of Swiss graphic design with fledgling neo-conservatism. Over the past 27 years, Büro Destruct have successfully avoided being pinned down or getting too comfortable in a defined area. At the same time, of course, it is there: that special Destruct eerie feeling. An independent handwriting, for which many words could be found, but which even after more than two decades is best conveyed by looking at their work …

Büro Destruct 4
By Büro Destruct

Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Concept & Design: Büro Destruct
Preface: Jens Müller
Release: June 2021
Volume: 256 pages
Format: 24 × 28 cm
Language: English, Preface also in German & Japanese
Printing: Offset with spot color
ISBN: 978-3-948440-27-5
Price: € 38.–
BUY

TypeTogether

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Today, we would like to put TypeTogether, founded by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione, who met while completing their Master’s degrees in type design at University of Reading in the spotlight:

Whether for screens or in print, the TypeTogether type foundry specializes in creating multiscript editorial fonts for the general public as well as custom typefaces for discerning clients. They are one of the leaders in instituting the variable font format alongside the usual OpenType and TrueType formats. Variable font technology packs the infinite range of styles between the two design edges (e.g. ultrathin and ultrablack) into one file that can be as small as 10% of the static files. You get everything in between, not just the few weights with which you are accustomed. Even better, TypeTogether has priced the variable fonts at 15% less than purchasing the static files.

Here’s a look at three font families on the leading edge of design that’ll support the intention of your text:

Florian Fecher’s Lektorat is a sans family capable of setting a full range of editorial publishing. Its six concentrated text styles speak directly to readers, and its three display widths equal 21 fonts capable of informing, persuading, and entertaining en masse. Methodical in rationale and irrepressible in function, Lektorat’s 27 static styles or three variable fonts are the embodiment of editorial expression.

Bogidar Mascareñas created Laima, a brand-ready stencil formed by a flowing calligraphic brush instead of rigid machinery — lively, unexpected, and captivating. Stencils are often restrictive and industrial, not expressive and flourished. As a stencil made by calligraphy instead of a machine, Laima is a perfect brand ambassador for album art, upscale venues, and packaging.

Catalpa was designed to be an overwhelming headliner, to give words bulk and width like the quirky and hulking wood type that inspired it. With only four thin and four heavy weights, being a display family is its single-minded purpose. Available as two variable fonts or eight static files.

For more details, visit the TypeTogether website.