Stiftung Buchkunst’s Awards of the Year 2021

Posted on by Franzi Haeussner

Book lovers take note: the 25 Schönsten Deutschen Bücher (The Most Beautiful German Books) were once again chosen by the Stiftung Buchkunst (Book Art Foundation). The Stiftung Buchkunst has decided to honor the book Man kann keine Steine essen (Prima Publikationen, Stuttgart/Basel) with the Preis der Stiftung Buchkunst (Book Art Foundation Award.) The work, based on recipes and photographs by Japanese sculptor Shinroku Shimokawa, was created in collaboration with graphic designers Clara Neumann and Christina Schmid.

The jury (Julia Kahl / Slanted Publishers, Sylvia Lerch, Dieter Dausien / Buchhandlung am Freiheitsplatz, Dr. Joachim Unseld / FVA) selected the award-winning book from the 25 Schönsten Deutschen Bücher (The Most Beautiful German Books) announced by the Stiftung Buchkunst in June. The book designers, manufacturers and publishers of these 25 Schönsten Deutschen Büchern were also celebrated at the award ceremony. In addition, the Stiftung Buchkunst honored the winners of the Förderpreis für junge Buchgestaltung (Promotional Awards for Young Book Design). The prizes, each endowed with 2,000 euro, went to three titles that rethink the medium book: Virginie Calvet and Felix Hunger (Zwischen Euphrat und Tigris), Alissa Verj and Suki Su (Culture Switch), and Kristina Hilse (Eine Sammlung zu Margaret Atwoods The Handmaid‘s Tale).

23 jurors worked over nine days to find the most beautiful, innovative and forward-looking book publications of the year. The 25 Schönsten Deutschen Büchern and the Preis der Stiftung Buchkunst were selected from a total of 633 titles, and the three winning titles for the Förderpreise für junge Buchgestaltung was selected from 170 entries.

This year’s award ceremony also saw the presentation of the annual catalog of Die Schönsten Deutsche Bücher 2021 (Most Beautiful German Books) designed and implemented by the team of Daniel Wiesmann—Büro für Gestaltung from Berlin.

The award-winning books will now go on a large traveling exhibition and can be seen at numerous locations in Germany and abroad. The cooperation with the Literaturhaus Frankfurt will also be continued: The 25 award-winning books will be on display in the foyer of the house throughout the year.

Catalog: “Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher 2021”

Concept and Design: Büro für Gestaltung (Daniel Wiesmann, Robert Radziejewski, Jule Erner)
Photography and Video/Reproduction and Lithography: farbanalyse
Editors: Katharina Hesse, Carolin Blöink, Jana Mayer-Stoltz, Josefine Kleespies
Texts of the Jury: Elmar Lixenfeld
Translation: Iain Reynolds
Typeface: Oracle, Oracle Triple
ISBN: 978-3-9822108-0-3
Paper: IGEPA Salzer EOS, Lessebo Design Smooth Bright, Pergraphica Infinite Black
Printing: Gallery Print
Binding: Josef Spinner Großbuchbinderei GmbH
Pice: € 20.–

Pre-order in Bookstores

Shinroku Shimokawa: Man kann keine Steine essen

Publisher: Prima.Publikationen
Photography: Shinroku Shimokawa
Design: Clara Neumann, Christina Schmid
Editing: Sabine Fessler, Christina Schmid
Format (w × h): 150 × 210 mm
Volume: 240 pages
ISBN: 978-3-9821198-4-7
Workmanship: thread stitching
Typeface: LL Brown
Paper: Munken Polar
Printing: Offizin Scheufele
Binding: Buchbinderei Spinner
Pice: € 32.–

Award Winner “Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher” 2021

Michael Disqué, Roman Ehrlich, “Überfahrt”
Holm-Uwe Burgemann, Konstantin Schönfelder, “Gesellschaft Eine Insel”
Deborah Levy, “The Cost of Living”
Franz Dobler, “Ich will doch immer nur kriegen was ich haben will”
Charlie Kaufman, “Ameisig”
Anna Bokov, “Avant-Garde as Method”
Sven Tillack mit Beiträgen von Daniel Martin Feige,  Jo Frenken, “Exploriso. Low-tech Fine Art”
Marc Angélil, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes, Julian Schubet, Elena Schütz, Leonard Streich, “Migrant Marseille”
Tobias Roth, “Welt der Renaissance”
Monika Dommann, Hannes Rickli, Max Stadler, “Data Centers”
Shinroku Shimokawa, “Man kann keine Steine essen—Kochbuch eines japanischen Bildhauers”
Alexander Klose, Benjamin Steininger, “Erdöl—Ein Atlas der Petromoderne”
Joachim Schwarz, “Heimkommen”
Maja Adler, Sophie Bürgi, Eleonora Heim, “Auf Abwegen”
Detlef Dietrichen, Anselm Franke, Katrin Klingen, Daniel Neugebauer, Bernd Scherer, “Das Neue Alphabet”
Beiträge von Elise Lammer, Lars Bang Larsen, Julia Voss u.a., “Kosmos Emma Kunz”
Raphaeël Bouvier, “Rodin / Arp”
David Chipperfield Architects, “Inagawa Cemetery Chapel and Visitor Centre”
Steffen Knöll, “NASA Apollo 11—Man on the Moon”
Barbara Staubli und Barbara Hatebur, “Umgeben von Kunst”
Tom Eigenhufe, “Sonnige Grüße aus Ziffernhausen”
Julia Dürr, “Wo kommt unser Essen her?”
Finn-Ole Heinrich, Dita Zipfel, “Schlafen wie die Rüben”
Lucia Zamolo, “Elefant auf der Brust—Warum sich Liebeskummer lohnt”
Volker Mehnert, “Die großen Flüsse der Welt”

 

Ars Electronica Festival 2021

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

We are delighted to announce that Ars Electronica Festival 2021, the festival for art, technology, and society, will take place from September 8th to 12th, 2021. For the second time since 1979, it will be a hybrid event that includes exhibitions, concerts, talks, conferences, workshops, and guided tours in Linz, Austria, and more than 80 other locations around the globe.

Together with artists, scientists, and activists from all over the world, the Ars Electronica Festival 2021 is calling for a fundamentally new approach to the challenges of the 21st century. Two main things are needed for us to tackle those challenges: the freedom to act and the ability to act. In the face of ever greater ecological and social disruption, it’s clear that the time for beating around the bush is over. It’s time to put our money where our mouth is; it’s time for a New Digital Deal.

Ars Electronica—a field test for the 21st century
This year’s festival aims not only to promote new things, but to let them play out as prototypes: The question of what we want to use new technologies for, and how, will be answered by a dual event that takes place both on-site and online. The question of what learning should look like in the 21st century will be the focus of a Festival University that will bring 100 young people from more than 40 countries to Linz. The question of how we can link economic value creation with ecological and social sustainability and anchor it locally is at the center of a new Regional STARTS Center in Linz and Upper Austria. The festival for art, technology and society is not only a forum, but also a field test for the New Digital Deal.

Ars Electronica in Linz, online, and at 86 Ars Electronica Gardens around the world
In Linz, this artistic-scientific exploration of our future comes together on the Festival Mile in the city center, which stretches from the OK in the Upper Austrian Cultural Quarter to the University of Art and Design Linz on the main square and the nearby Salzamt, to the Ars Electronica Center and the STADTWERKSTATT on the north bank of the Danube. The festival in Linz has an additional venue in Kepler’s Gardens on the campus of Johannes Kepler University.

Moreover, another 86 Ars Electronica Gardens around the world will join the call for a New Digital Deal in 2021. The proposals made there will be offered partly on site for the local public and partly online for the international community.

Part of the Ars Electronic Festival is also the Ars Electronica Garden Berlin. Here, outstanding student works from the HTW Berlin’s Communication Design program will be exhibited as part of the 2021 Ars Electronica Festival at the Reinbeckhallen.

Online is where it’s at: after nearly a year and a half of Home Delivery and a first hybrid festival in 2020, Ars Electronica is taking the next step and committing to the dual-event format. The Swapcard event platform provides access to a wealth of streamed lectures, workshops, concerts, and tours from Linz and the Ars Electronica Gardens around the world. Users can also put together their own festival calendars and visit many different chats to exchange information and network with other visitors from all over the world.

Ars Electronica Festival 2021

When?
September 8th to 12th, 2021

Where?
Online, in Linz, Austria, and more than 80 other locations around the globe

Find further information about the program in Linz and the online program or book a ticket for one of many events taking place from September 8th to 12th.

Corporate Design for the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences

Posted on by Gallery Type

In close cooperation with the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Studio Capitale Wien/Berlin has worked on a new corporate design that we would like to present to you today: Corporate Design Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences.

A modular logotype is the core of the new design for HKA. Reflecting the functional positioning of the university, the new logo is based on mathematical operators. Together with the more emotional positioning in the visual language it is the basis of the rebranding.

The logotype furthermore defines a grid, in which the whole organizational structure of the university is comprised: faculties, institutions, and facilities. The design system is on the one hand logically composed as well as almost infinitely flexible, as the logotype and the vertical grid are adaptable to almost every format.

To increase public visibility of its faculties the new design of the HKA provides individual colors for each, making it clearly visible as a part of the overall brand but also giving it individuality. The color scheme also puts forward the notion of a “lively” and “colorful” university. GT Pressura by Grilli Type is the new corporate typeface.

The German-Austrian design studio Capitale Wien/Berlin is responsible for the new design. For the past two years Capitale worked closely with the university on their new corporate identity as well as on the corporate design. Dozens of workshops and visits, an online survey, an offsite event helped to form a collective vision of what the new brand should look and feel like: an up-to-date technical university that really cares about it’s students, teachers, and staff.

Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences

Design: Capitale Wien/Berlin
Client: Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
Release: 2021
Typeface: GT Pressura by Grilli Type 

Take a look on the corporate identity on the university’s website.

MD Primer

Posted on by Mass-Driver

Today, we would like you to take a look at MD Primer — A Celebration of the Unrefined, the latest typeface from Mass-Driver:

MD Primer is based on a number of both European and American designs from the 19th Century—many of which have never been digitized. While these fonts were produced by skilled craftspeople working for established foundries, at the time of their production the sans-serif style had yet to settle into the traditions we are familiar with today.

The Typeface explores the naïvety with which these early sans-serifs were designed, and its relationship with their expert manufacture. The result is as carefully crafted as it is stylistically unrefined. The difference in weight and size between upper and lowercase is pronounced, for instance, and its rhythm is unconventional by modern standards.

Rather than copying these “imperfections” directly from the references, MD Primer considers them in the context of modern usage, reducing the appearance of some and accentuating others to better fit contemporary practice. The result is a practical set of fonts suited to display and short texts, which via stylistic alternates (“a,” “g,” “j,” and the number “1”) can be dialed up or toned down in character to fit a wide range of applications.

MD Primer — A Celebration of the Unrefined

Foundry: Mass-Driver
Designer: Rutherford Craze
Release: May 2021
Styles: 6 weights, from Light to Black
Formats: OTF, WOFF, and WOFF2 (other formats on request)
Trials: Free trials and non-commercial licensing available
Price Single Style: from € 60.–
Price full Family: € 240.–
Buy 

Fruit Exhibition Bologna 2021

Posted on by Franzi Haeussner

We are announcing that Fruit Exhibition 2021 opens its gates for the ninth time. Fruit Exhibition is the annual independent art book fair of Bologna, taking place from September 4th to 5th, 2021. Open to the public, Fruit Exhibition includes artists’ books, catalogs, graphic design projects, periodicals, stationary, and zines.

Fruit Exhibition will be taking place at Parco della Montagnola in Bologna with a selection of the best international works dedicated to contemporary art: catalogs, magazines, and art books. Amongst the available titles, new but also out- of- catalog and collectors’ editions.

Conceived to bring people closer to creative publishing and graphic design, Fruit program of talks is varied and comprehensive: interviews, conferences, and presentations of new and affirmed projects. It is a 360° journey into creative publishing, from old and traditional techniques to digital publishing and new technologies.

Workshops will be taking place on Saturday, September 4th, while the exhibition will begin on September 5th, 2021.

Fruit Exhibition Bologna 2021

Where?
Parco della Montagnola, Bologna
Italy

When?
September 4th to 5th, 2021

Find further information about the fair here.

Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Printed one per page in black on cream paper, the publication Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters features over 750 large character illustrations selected from Klim typefaces including Calibre, Domaine, Founders Grotesk, Heldane, National, Signifier, Söhne, and Untitled. The volume features a fascinating essay titled What We See When We Read by graphic designer, writer, and educator Paul McNeil and a foreword by Formist publisher and designer Mark Gowing. A real experience for all detail lovers of type design. Beautifully crafted and in a nice format to look at a few swoony curves in the evening in bed. 

“When is a letter not a letter? Or perhaps, when does an abstract form become part of a greater language system? Dave Foster and I conceived of this book while discussing the iconic, yet abstract, nature of letterforms. In particular, we were talking about Kris Sowersby, and began formulating the idea that viewing a large, disorganized group of Sowersby’s glyphs might exhibit both his vast output and the relative absurdity of these timeless and ubiquitous forms.

In order to turn this idea into a reality for Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters, Foster and I considered Sowersby’s body of work as a collection of stand-alone drawings. This set of drawings is enormous and difficult to take in, but it is, of course, still made up of letterforms. Viewed here without their functional intention of scale, alignment, spacing, style or language, they transform into something else—something other, without their usual meaning, or perhaps just a different meaning.

Typography and meaning have been intrinsically entwined for hundreds of years, a relationship that constantly shifts and changes with the course of history. Sowersby understands this history better than most. As a master type designer, he is an astute practitioner with one eye on typography’s diverse history, even as the rest of him remains firmly fixed in the present. As a result, Sowersby’s typefaces pay homage to those that have come before, and yet they are beautifully inventive. This inventiveness creates new cultural contexts for our pre-existing forms, helping us to plot a forward path with the knowledge of our past.

Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters is a small representation of the greater whole of Sowersby’s collected works. The diversity and artistry represented here is a snapshot of multiple expressions of predetermined alphabets through the application of nuance, instinct and theory. Sowersby spends much of his time immersed in the relationships of form and the minutiae involved in every drawing of every letter. There is a wonderful absurdity in this practice. As such, Sowersby creates elegant forms and details that are sometimes overlooked in favor of reading the words they carve out. But much like a chair or a teacup, we can find beauty in the infinite variability and artistry of these everyday items by simply abstracting their meaning, and hopefully offering a more intimate understanding of what is often right in front of us.” — Mark Gowing

Kris Sowersby: The Art of Letters

Publisher: Formist
Editors: Mark Gowing and Dave Foster
Essay: Paul McNeil
Design: Formist
Workmanship: Paperback, foiled cover with black page edges
Format (w × h): 150 × 210 mm
Volume: 800 pages 
ISBN: 978-0-6485963-4-9
Buy

neue Rasant

Posted on by neue

We are pleased to present you the typeface neue Rasant from the German type foundry neue, released in spring 2021:

neue Rasant is an interpretation of a typeface used by the Singapore Land Transit Authority for its directional signage. The typeface design is based on a rigid grid with little to no room for optical compensations or any kind of harmonization whatsoever. This approach can be seen as epitomic to an engineer’s way of designing which offers paradoxically unorthodox solutions in a seemingly orthodox system.

neue Rasant is a uniwidth design which means that the individual characters are occupying the same amount of space across all weights and styles. This way of designing a type family turns out handy if one wants to avoid unintentional line breaks or space consumption.

The typeface comes in five weights ranging from Thin to Bold. For the Italics the designer has the choice between a traditional slant to the right or an unconventional slant to the left. All weights and styles are equipped with arrows matching the individual weight’s stroke thickness.

neue Rasant

Foundry: neue
Designer: Alexander Roth
Release: May 2021
Styles and Weights: 5 weights from Thin to Bold with matching Obliques and Counter-Obliques
Price Single Style: $ 30.–
Price Full Family: $ 150.–
Buy at MyFonts 

NEBEL Magazine 01: Power Issue

Posted on by Vivian Dehning

We are presenting you today the editorial Bachelor Project NEBEL Magazine 01: Power Issue — Publication on Contemporary Culture by Vivian Dehning:

NEBEL is a magazine on contemporary society and culture that critically and artistically explores feminisms, sex, gender, and heteronormativity. It creates space for dialogues and monologues, questions, and answers as well as the interconnection of different perspectives. With texts, essays as well as artistic and photographic contributions and reportages it amplifies quieter and louder voices of different people. Existing conflicts are taken up, assumptions are called into doubt and old questions are rethought.

As a magazine, NEBEL aims to depict diverse and contemporary discourses, make experiences visible, and encourage sustained debates that may then lead to further interactions.
The first issue is about power in different contexts and is edited with 17 articles, printed on two different papers and thread-bound. As an extra a card with a quotation from Virginia Woolf is enclosed, who, with an anecdote from her essay “A Room Of One’s Own” is the name-giver of the magazine.

Vivian is a designer with a focus on storytelling, driven by editorial design, photography, and typography. She specialized in publication design, visual identities, and type design as well as portrait and documentary photography.

NEBEL Magazine 01: Power Issue

Design & Art Direction: Vivian Dehning
Authors: Alicja Boß, Vivian Dehning, Jasmin Mittag, Evelina Müller, Dr. phil. Christoph Müller, Vivian Rutsch, Luise Schlütsmeier, Ive Senkowski, Lisa Starke, Anna Stemmler, Jeremy Suyker, Roman Thomas, Elena Vonderau
Editor: Vivian Dehning
Volume: 192 pages
Format: 17 × 22.5 cm
Language: German
Release: 2021
Finishing: Dummy Edition / BA thesis / non published
Cover: Vivian Dehning & Patrycja Kopinska
Proofreading & Editing: Jehonä Kicaj

Find further information here

Walz Stipendium & Schwarze-Kunst-Preis

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Today we would like to inform you about two tenders by the German Verein für die Schwarze Kunst Dresden e.V. (engl.: Association for the Black Arts Dresden), the Walz Stipendium & Schwarze-Kunst-Preis, which are more than worth a look, if you are interested in the topics of hand setting, hot type, or letterpress printing:

Walz Stipendium
With the Walz, the Verein für die Schwarze Kunst Dresden e.V. (Association for the Black Arts Dresden) enables friends of artistic crafts to learn the basics of black art and implement their own projects in up to 17 different workshops.

For 2022, the association is awarding seven walking tours for two months each in changing workshops. Four of these are reserved as Walz Stipendium (engl.: Walz Scholarships) for scholarship holders under the age of 30 years, which the association supports with 1,000 euros each.

The deadline for applications is October 1st, 2021. If a sufficient number of walkers cannot be selected, additional applications will be accepted with no time limit. 

The application is informal, but should contain at least the following items:

  • Name, age, profession/education
  • How did you hear about the announcement?
  • Motivation and previous experience
  • Own intention
  • Preferred period and time constraints
  • Letter of recommendation from a workshop/specialist

The Walz does not have to be completed continuously for two months, but should be completed in a maximum of six months. A total of 40 working days of at least five hours must be proven. A total of at least three workshops must be visited. The scholarship is paid out in several parts, in each case after confirmation of the respective workshop. The time of the Walz must be coordinated with the workshops involved.

A personal report within the framework of the general meeting. Travel expenses will be reimbursed separately. In addition, a written report on the experience gained during the Walz.

Find further information about the Walz Stipendium here and find where to apply here. Scroll trough the spots of the workshops here

Schwarze-Kunst-Preis
The Verein für die Schwarze Kunst e.V. awards for the first time in 2022 and then annually prizes for outstanding final theses (bachelor, master, and doctorate) that deal theoretically, application-oriented or artistically with the subject areas of typecasting, hot type, or letterpress printing. The field of study is open. Conceivable fields of study are, for example, more creative-artistic, technical, sociological, historical, business administration or didactic.

The call for entries and the awarding of prizes are intended to keep alive the significance of the revolutionary inventions of movable type, to generate new knowledge, or to present present-day areas of application.

The first prize is endowed with 500.– Euros, the second and third prizes with with a letter of recognition. A presentation of the work at the general meeting of the association is desired. Travel expenses will be covered by the association.

The deadline for submission, but not the cut-off date, is September 30th of each year. The thesis must not be more than two years old at the time of submission (examination date). The thesis can be submitted by the supervising scientist in consultation with the graduate as well as by the graduate himself/herself as well as by the graduate himself/herself for the award. The jury consists of members determined by the board.

Find further information here

100 Poster Battle 2020–2021

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are pleased about todays release of 100 Poster Battle 2020–2021, which is now available at our Slanted Shop! Students at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts with Lars Harmsen have spent the past Corona semester daily exploring both analog and digital poster design possibilities, creating original compositions and graphics that have been bound together in the publication in eight chapters according to design guidelines.

Sober: A poster should invite, communicate, inform, convince, and also provoke. If a viewer feels addressed, a poster is able to influence his or her decisions through text and images.

Emotional: @100posterbattle—one poster a day, for a hundred days, the span of a semester. Inspired by daily events from politics and current affairs. With the aim to try out different techniques, beyond the limits of conventional tools. 

In the end, 100 days of poster design reads like a diary. 2020/21 was marked by the pandemic and its consequences for culture, society, and education, the scary tweets of Trump and the upcoming US-elections, BLM, LGBTQ, Söder and Laschet in the power struggle, pro-democracy demos in Thailand, climate goals 2030, and fun-facts like the height of Mt. Everest which has shrunk by 86 cm, the eruption of the Sakurajima volcano in Japan, Elon Musk has become the richest man in the world as well as the boom of sextoys …

100 Poster Battle 2020–2021 

Editor: Dortmund University of Applied Sciences
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Release: September 2021
Supervision and Text: Prof. Lars Harmsen
Design: Chantal Dübel, Claudia Müller, Nina Kallerhoff, Janine Krause, Saeeda Shabbir, Sinan Akpinar
Volume: 244 pages
Format: 180 × 240 mm
ISBN: 978-3-948440-29-9
Price: € 30.–
Buy 

AndNowEast

Posted on by grsldc

We are delighted to announce that the first edition of AndNowEast Poster Festival will take place in Bucharest, Romania, from September 17th to 26th, 2021. Take the opportunity and submit your poster by August 30th, 2021 and be part of the event: AndNowEast Poster Festival.

AndNowEast is a poster festival dedicated to Eastern European designers with a showcase of some of the best submissions, 50+ poster designs from 18 countries, workshops, talks, special guests, and many more surprises.

“Not so long ago, we had two Europes separated by History into West and East. West was fresh, colorful, and smart, East was cold, grey, and Utopia. And we are all aware of the stereotypes, but something still lives as a legend. Now borders are off, the Internet is on, we have ponies and rainbows, and we are repeatedly asking ourselves if our grass is as green as on the other side. Or maybe greener? AndNowEast looks right of the imaginary fault line and asks: is there an Eastern European visual genius loci? From Intaglio to Indigo to Instagram, the poster has continuously adapted to answer our communication needs. The placard is a versatile vehicle, a mirror of our social and cultural environment, and a summary of our material, and immaterial appetites. In short: a colored radiograph of civilization. AndNowEast is a local initiative with a regional reach and a global mindset.”

The Open Call for poster submission is still available until August 30th, 2021. They invite all designers, students, freelancers, and all graphic designers from Eastern Europe to submit their posters. Eligible countries are Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Ukraine.

AndNowEast is organized by Local Design Circle, an NGO aiming to become the voice of Romanian designers, facilitate access to education, and help shape a healthier visual environment.

AndNowEast Poster Festival

When?
September 17th to 26th, 2021

Where?
POINT
General Eremia Grigorescu 10
Bucharest
Romania

Read more about the festival and the Local Design Circle or submit here until August 30th

Swiss Graphic Design Histories

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Swiss Graphic Design Histories offers an entirely new redefinition of Switzerland’s graphic design landscape. Based on extensive research by scholars of design history and with a multiple and inclusive approach, it reaches beyond the usual canon and the well-known epicenters Basel and Zurich with the Germanophone fathers of what has become famous as the Swiss Style in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

In three volumes it features visual artifacts and archival documents, the majority published here for the first time, alongside likewise previously unpublished conversations with designers who have forged developments of the past decades, as well as new essays discussing key terms that refer to various design practices. The complexity of the undertaking is embraced through a system of keywords, thus enabling readers to connect contents within the individual volumes. A fourth volume comprising a glossary, bibliography, and an index of the keywords rounds out this long-awaited new survey of graphic design in multi-lingual Switzerland that sheds new light at networks, practices and media largely ignored so far.

With contributions by Chiara Barbieri, Rudolf Barmettler, Jonas Berthod, Sandra Bischler, Constance Delamadeleine, Davide Fornari, Roland Früh, Ueli Kaufmann, Sarah Klein, Robert Lzicar, Jonas Niedermann, Sarah Owens, Michael Renner, Peter J. Schneemann, Arne Scheuermann, and Sara Zeller.

Swiss Graphic Design Histories 

Editing: Davide Fornari, Robert Lzicar, Sarah Owens, Michael Renner, Arne Scheuermann, and Peter J. Schneemann
Publisher: Scheidegger & Spieß
Format: 17 × 24 cm
Language: English
Volume: Three volumes and additional booklet, 688 pages
Printing: Paperback in slipcase
ISBN: 978-3-85881-868-3
Price: 97.– Euro
Buy

Available also in Open Acces Format:

Volume 1: Visual Arguments (ISBN 978-3-03942-019-3)
Edited by Sandra Bischler, Sarah Klein, Jonas Niedermann, Michael Renner

Volume 2: Multiple Voices (ISBN 978-3-03942-020-9)
Edited by Chiara Barbieri, Jonas Berthod, Constance Delamadeleine, Davide Fornari, Sarah Owens

Volume 3: Tempting Terms (ISBN 978-3-03942-021-6)
Edited by Ueli Kaufmann, Peter J. Schneemann, Sara Zeller

Reference Booklet

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Davide Fornari is associate professor at ECAL Lausanne, where he directs Research and Development, Robert Lzicar is professor of design history at Bern University of the Arts HKB, Sarah Owens is professor of design theory at Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, where she also directs the graduate program in Visual Communication, Michael Renner is professor of visual communication and Director ad interim at FHNW’s Academy of Art and Design in Basel, Arne Scheuermann is professor of design theory at Bern University of the Arts HKB, Peter J. Schneemann is professor of modern and contemporary art history at University of Bern.

Forward Festival Berlin 2021

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are excited to announce that the Forward Festival is coming to Berlin for the first time: Forward Festival Berlin 2021 — 13 Hours Non-Stop Creativity With Day & Night Program. Get your ticket now!

Berlin is defined by the creativity being spread by its community—and so is Forward Festival. In a way, these two were always meant to be—both are based on a community thriving on creativity and always moving ahead. Capturing the city’s energy, the premiere of Forward Festival Berlin 2021 awaits with an on-site program full of highlights: more than 15 speakers live on stage from local to international heavyweights of the creative industries, exclusive side-events, happenings, audio-visual performances, and much more will bring encounters full of creativity.

Day & Night program
For this special occasion, Forward goes DAY and NIGHT: 13 hours of non-stop creativity from afternoon until the morning after are aiming to unite industry-leading and aspiring creatives. As speakers, graphic design legend Eike König, visualist Nicole McLaughlin, street photography icon Martha Cooper, galerist Johann König, artist Esra Gülmen and many more are taking the stage at Babylon Kino during the day, while all-around artist Max Siedentopf, photographer and Berlin legend Sven Marquardt and the brand-new creative agency NEWFORMAT are lined up for their talks at night alongside live music and audio-visual performances.

Challenging times call for creative ways of thinking
After successful online and hybrid events in Vienna, Munich, and Hamburg, it now is time for Forward to return to the real world. True to the Festival’s motto of 2021 ME, WE Forward unites the creative scene for the very first time in Berlin. With a program packed with high-class talks, creative workshops, and lots of exchange and networking, the event promises nothing less than a firework of creativity.

“Within six years, we became one of the most important platforms for the entire creative industry and its networks—now we are finally coming to Berlin! We came up with a day and night concept, which captures the city’s energy and lets all that creativity and inspiration that we had to hold in for the last year and a half run freely. With this Festival we will focus on re-connecting like-minded people in an exciting atmosphere again.”—Othmar Handl, Festival Founder

Forward Festival Berlin 2021

When?
September 17th, 4 p.m. to 18th, 5 a.m., 2021

Where?
BABYLON Kino
Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30
10178 Berlin
Germany

Tickets: On-site tickets from € 75.– and Livestream tickets from € 55.–

Tickets for the on-site event on September 17th at BABYLON Kino are limited and in high-demand, Livestream tickets are also available on the Forward Festival website.

Find their full program and get an overview here

unsichtbar: Frauen gestalten Schrift

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Although the design is a bit of yesterday, the publication unsichtbar: Frauen gestalten Schrift (engl.: invisible: women designing typefaces) is highly relevant today when it comes to gender equality issues and visibility of women in the typography scene:

If you are dealing with type design, you will be asking yourself: Where are the women? Barbara Lüth has posed herself this question and writes in her book stories about the life and work of 20 female type designers. In the first part of the book the author illustrates easy to grasp how those women—since the beginning of the 20th century—are exerting influence on the field of type design due to their work. They have made substantial contributions—however without getting the deserved attention in this male-dominated field. In the second part the type designers themselves speak out and answer the author’s five questions about their works, including questions about the process of formation and their favorite letter. This book aspires to achieve first and foremost: to make visible the life and work of these outstanding women.

Barbara Lüth was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1973. Due to her being a formed gold smith, she has always been attracted to designing. She spent a few years in Norway where she devoted more time to this passion. For a few years now she has been dealing with typography and lettering. From 2018 to 2020 she attended the workshop Typografie Intensiv in Munich. In June 2021 her book unsichtbar – Frauen gestalten Schrift was published.

unsichtbar: Frauen gestalten Schrift

Publisher: August Dreesbach Verlag
Design: Barbara Lüth
Release: June 2021
Volume: 128 pages
Format (w × h): 17 × 24 cm
Workmanship: hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-96395-023-0
Pice: € 24.–
Buy

Plastikcomb & Dutch Type

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Only today on August 20th, 2021, from 0:00 to 23:59 (CEST) we have the pleasure to offer you two publications that inspire us at a special price. Take a peek at the two books Plastikcomb & Dutch Type in our Slanted Shop:

Starting with “PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0 – A Beautiful Mess,” PCM is a biannual, analog art publication that pays homage to the great magazines of the past, containing editorial content in a chaotic, abstract style.

PLASTIKCOMB MAGAZINE 1.0

Publisher: Plastikcomb Publishers
Design: Aaron Beebe, Thomas Schostok
Cover: Aaron Beebe
Volume: 132 pages
Format: 21 × 27 cm
Language: English
ISSN: 1034-0941
Price: € 15.– (special price only on August 20th, 2021)
Buy

Published in March, 2004, Dutch Type was sold out about four years later. Only in the end of 2018 the reprint was published thanks to the help of many backers via a kickstarter campaign: In Dutch Type, Jan Middendorp presents a comprehensive overview of type design and lettering in the Netherlands, tracing its origins through type designers and lettering artists from the 15th to the 20th centuries.

Dutch Type

Author: Jan Middendorp
Publisher: Druk Editions
Design: Bart de Haas and Peter Verheul.
Editorial assistance and index: Catherine Dal
Reprint: Files revived by Ramiro Espinoza & Paula Mastrangelo
Volume: 320 pages
Binding: Hardcover
Format: 23 x 28 cm
Language: English
Print: Die Keure in Bruges, Belgium
ISBN: 9783982003702
Price: € 20.– (special price only on August 20th, 2021)
Buy

Postea: An Inspiring Venture

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Today, we would like to share with you the story of Postea: An Inspiring Venture, which starts with Veronika Burian, Munich-based type designer, sometime in Spring 2020 during Covid lockdown. In Germany, outdoor sports and activities were still allowed and going for a walk was a highlight of her day. One venture led Veronika to discover an unfamiliar part of the city. Here in the middle of a large and usually busy public square stands a 1920s post office building in the architectural style of “Neue Sachlichkeit,” commonly known as Bauhaus.

It is no surprise that Germany might inspire a new geometric sans serif design; this is, after all, where everything began in the early twentieth century. During a period marked by a reaction against the industrial context that shaped society, the revolutionary Bauhaus instead prioritized the unity of function and form in art and design, ergonomics, and architecture.

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.

The intermediate weights of the Postea type family are intended for applications that demand high readability, and the extreme styles are geared to produce impact and recognition. The game Postea continuously plays is to find a balance between the two extremes of readability and charisma, so a small amount of stylistic alternates were included to give designers the ability to easily tilt the scale one way or another.

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: small capitals, symbols, currency, and numerals, superior, and inferior characters, plus the usual ligature and fraction support. As a bonus, in the most widely used office apps, users can quickly access the icons by simply typing the icon name and applying Stylistic Set 05. Inspiration for the icons comes from geometry, art deco, and the use of specific icons related to museums and art.

Postea: An Inspiring Venture

Designer: Veronika Burian
Foundry: Type Together 
Release: May 2021
File Formats: OTF, WOFF, WOFF2
Styles, widths, weights: 14 Styles, 7 weights and matching italics
Price single style: € 44.10 Euro
Price bundle: € 397.– Euro
Buy

You can read more about the creation of Postea here and try it on TypeTogether’s type tester now!

Freistil 7

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Today, we would love to present you the publication Freistil 7 — Das Buch der Illustration (Engl.: The Book of Illustration), which is now available at Slanted shop.

Illustration is more than just depicting the world as we see it. Illustration is interpreting and focusing. Illustrators are creating images you have never seen before. Images that have the power to change the thinking, acting, and feeling of those who are watching them. That’s because people in media business and creative agencies are always searching new talents, styles, trends, and techniques.

Illustration confronts the enormous number of replaceable photos taken by advanced smartphone cameras with strong images. For the seventh time and with enough temporal distance to the previous editions, Freistil 7 is presenting the incredible works of 157 illustrators from all over the world. It’s showing images that speak a thousand words.

In times like this it is so important to stand out for freedom of speech and picture. Therefore, the editorial focus of Freistil 7 lays on illustration that shows more than others see—or want so see. The book surveys the political power of strong images and introduces to you illustrators who teach important men to fear. For example, the editorial is dedicated to Art Spiegelman who, in his underground comic Maus—A Survivor’s Tale, tells poignantly the story of his father, a survivor of Auschwitz. For his graphic novel Spiegelman has won the Pulitzer price.

Authoritarian systems are afraid of the power of images. The more autocrats are there in the world the more important becomes the political meaning of images. Unfortunately, also the risks are increasing for those who have the courage to hold up the mirror to the world. Based on that, this edition of Freistil 7 is more than a simple invitation to explore new talents. It’s encouraging us to reflect about our times and is confronting it by illustration.

Freistil 7 — Das Buch der Illustration

Editor: Raban Ruddigkeit
Publisher: Verlag Hermann Schmidt
Volume: 376 pages
Format in cm (w × h): 17 × 24 cm
Language: German, English
Workmanship: Hardcover with two bookmarks and a coating made of stone paper in eight special colors
ISBN: 978-3-87439-952-4

Indiecon 2021: Independent Publishing Festival

Posted on by Nina Steimel

We are delighted to announce that the Indiecon 2021: Independent Publishing Festival opens its gates beginning of September for the eighth time, since its founding in 2014 for visitors. More than 70 independent publishing houses and solo publishers present and sell their magazines, books, zines, and printed goods at Indiecon 2021. Once more with distance, mask, and preregistration. However, a visit is still worth it: As of now, visitors can immediately book a free ticket. Those who don’t want to miss the event should be quick: The number of guests is limited due to the corona pandemic.

The event’s theme Reflections calls for everyone to look in the mirror: What do you see? Indiecon 2021 is about shifting identities and notions of self, reflections of social change that are rooted in independent publishing, and the right time to do some thinking. And for this, in these times—there is ample opportunity. “This year again, the Indiecon will again be a kaleidoscope reflecting the themes of the pandemic,” Festival organizers Die Brueder Publishing explain.

Afropean Experience, Queer Erotica, Climate Change, and Anti-fascism
“Hardly any medium can react faster or more accurately to society’s disposition—reflecting it—than an independent magazine,” Brenneisen says. On the tables of this year’s exhibitors, audiences will find publications centering on Afropean experiences and anti-fascism, climate change and gentrification, queer erotica, and neurodiversity. The titles give a view into phenomenological claims onto everyday objects that function as mirrors of larger social relationships—from the gene mutation of red hair to a tea ceremony. The publishers survived the pandemic—how did this effect the magazines, zines, or books?

At the end of day, it is about giving space to independent publishing in times of pandemic. “We believe that literature, journalism, and art can hold a society together. Every publication opens a window into the thoughts of another human—and ideas develop in exchange. This is now more important than ever,” Indiecon’s organizers write.

Of Chances and Constraints
For Indiecon COVID-19 also means a lot of changes: Instead of a bustling large event—open to everyone—Indiecon 2021 guests must register in advance.

This way, a safe number of people can browse in the indoor area. Inside masks on for safety. “It is the same principle like shopping at the supermarket: disinfect hands, masks on, maintain your distance,” Indiecon’s organizers write. Last year and this year too, the organizers successfully implemented a safety and hygiene concept.

Number one priority, exhibitors and audiences should feel safe. To participate for free in Indiecon you will need a negative Corona test, a vaccination certificate and an FPP2 mask. Detailed information about the Corona measures is available on the Indiecon website and we recommend revisiting the website shortly before the event.

“We hope that the guests profit at the end of the day from the change-up of the set up,”the organizers write. A smaller crowd at the event allows for a more intimate exchange with publishers. Guests are encouraged to browse their interests in advance. For this, a comprehensive online catalog will be made available on the Indiecon website.

Indiecon 2021: Independent Publishing Festival — Reflections

Where?
Stockmeyerstraße 43
Oberhafen, Hamburg
Germany

When?
September 3rd to 5th, 2021
Friday, September 3rd, 2021, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.
Saturday, September 4th, 2021, 3 p.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday, September 5th, 2021, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Find further information here, visit their conference’s website or book a free ticket for events on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, of September at Hamburg’s Oberhafen.

One insecurity remains, should Covid-19 infections rise and lead to necessary constraints, Indiecon might face cancelation.

Data Centers

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Today, we would like to introduce you to the publication Data Centers — Edges of a Wired Nation, which is now available at Slanted Shop! It was awarded at the competitions Die schönsten Deutschen Bücher, Die schönsten Schweizer Bücher, and Best Book Design from all over the World 2020/2021.

It deals with a topic we all face on a daily basis. Data centers are the spines of our Internet; they operate silently and secretly in thousands of locations around the world. They process the information we produce and access in invisible ways. Data cures through placeless, inconspicuous, anonymous structures, such as buildings, cable ducts, junction boxes, and landing pads, etc. They are everywhere and nowhere. The publication collects research on the individuals and institutions involved in setting up, nurturing, and governing digital infrastructures and analyzes current and future developments, using Switzerland as an example.

Bringing together photographic works, essays, and case studies Data Centers explores the mutual, typically fraught entanglements of place, past and digital infrastructure. Underneath the official storyline—Switzerland’s favorable alpine climate, the relatively low energy-costs, the political stability of the area, and its strategic positioning in central Europe—Data Centers uncovers a more varied, inconclusive set of trajectories: narratives of techno-nationalist aspirations; of Swiss-Chinese interdependencies; of deregulation and once-mighty telecommunications enterprises; of cold-war legacies, and the multi-billion-dollar business of data security.

Data Centers — Edges of a Wired Nation

Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
Editors: Monika Dommann, Hannes Rickli, and Max Stadler
Design: Hubertus Design
Release: 2020
Volume: 344 pages
Format: 259 mm × 189 mm × 25 mm
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-03778-645-1
Price: € 35.–
Buy

New (Little) Gestalten Books

Posted on by Nina Steimel

There are four new beautiful books of (Little) Gestalten for big and small friends of visual design, which may make your summer vacations more colorful. They are now available in the Slanted Shop: Brand New Brand, We Love Pizza, Schwein gehabt! and Who invented this?.

Brand New Brand
The current situation may feel uncertain and unsettling, but while the pandemic has posed new challenges for brands in nearly every industry, social distancing also means that our need to connect is stronger than ever. It is vital for businesses to create communities centered around their brands, and the pandemic may well act as an accelerator to put values into practice that have become increasingly important to customers, such as a call for greater diversity, more social responsibility, better ethics, and a stronger focus on sustainability. More than ever, brands need to think holistically. It is true, branding can help businesses break through the noise, build trust and recognition, but it is so much more than just a look or a logo. Branding is creating the emotional reaction a company can elicit from its customers by sharing meaningful moments with people to create empathy, respect, satisfaction and delight–this is when the relationship with the brand really begins.

Brand New Brand is a compendium of the best visual identities recently created for businesses from all over the world. It shows how well-considered, holistic branding can take a bakery, a solar panel installer, a gym that serves as an inclusive workout space for all body types, a Black-owned social and wellness clubhouse, a physiotherapist or even a waste management business that is using circular solutions, from one of a crowd to one in a million. It shows how, in an era of pandemics and political and economic instability, creative, innovative thinking is the greatest asset.

In-depth case studies explore the ideas currently shaping the field of branding, such as the use of traditional techniques or the reinterpretation of local visual languages. This expertly curated collection with a foreword by Astrid Stavro, an internationally-renowned graphic designer and partner at Pentagram’s London office, explains the context, the thinking, and the inspiration behind the design. As many of the projects in this book show, if you have a good idea that has been well crafted, so much can be achieved with even the most modest of budgets. Whatever the scope of the project, there is always space for surprise and innovation, a way to do things differently, and push things further.

Publisher: Gestalten
Release: May 2021
Volume: 256 pages
Format in cm (w × h): 24 × 28 cm
Language: English
Workmanship: Stitch bound, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-96704-005-0
Price: € 19.90
Buy


We love Pizza
Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like pizza? The book We love Pizza delivers the full box including all the different styles from Italy to America. From classic toppings to surprisingly strange combinations, We Love Pizza explores the diverse ways of eating a pizza, and introduces the pizzeria people who help bring our favorite food to the table.

First created in Naples, Italy, hundreds of years ago, pizza has grown to become a dish adored all over the world. Conquering the bellies of millions, We love Pizza provides fun facts about this enduringly popular—and oh so tasty—classic. Did you know that in the United States alone every second, 350 slices are sold? Or that the Hawaiian pizza was actually created in Canada? Many cultures and countries have developed their own interpretations, and this colorful book looks at pizza from every angle. We love Pizza explains little pizza lovers how to make dough from scratch and uncover inspiration for toppings, all while tickling taste buds and inducing an appetite. Grab a slice of the action!

Elenia Beretta is an Italian illustrator living in Berlin. She studied Editorial Illustration in Milan and works for clients like Vogue, New York Times, Süddeutsche Zeitung, or Elle magazine. She illustrated food books and children’s books for Rizzoli Editore and is one of the illustrators for the three volumes of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls. After Tasty Treats this is her second book with Little Gestalten.

Publisher: Little Gestalten
Release: June 2021
Author: Elenia Beretta
Volume: 40 pages
Format in cm (w × h): 21 × 26 cm
Language: English
Workmanship: Stitch bound, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-96704-705-9
Price: € 14.90
Buy


Schwein gehabt!
Can pigs swim? Why do piglets have milk teeth? And how did the wild pig become a domestic pig? Schwein gehabt! answers many questions about our favorite bristling animal: from the Danish protest pig to the Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, from animal husbandry to pigs in mythology and astrology, from prominent pig owners to mating behavior: This engagingly illustrated book Schwein gehabt! introduces various breeds, reveals exciting and quirky facts about the species, and provides insight into the cultural history of the pig.

Daisy Bird grew up in the west of England on a farm surrounded by animals. After studying at Cambridge University, she moved to London, where she now lives and works. She is the author of non-fiction and children’s books about how people and animals live together. Her favorite breed of pig is the English Middle White.

Camilla Pintonato is a writer and illustrator from Venice. She studied illustration in Milan and was awarded a prize by the Goethe Institute, among others. In addition to her work on numerous children’s books, she spends a lot of time in her garden and with her cat Rosmarino.

Publisher: Little Gestalten
Release: March 2021
Illustrator: Camilla Pintonato
Author: Daisy Bird
Volume: 72 pages
Format in cm (w × h): 21 × 28.5 cm
Language: German
Workmanship: Stitch bound, Hardcover
ISBN978-3-96704-701-1
Price: € 19.90
Buy


Who invented this?
Many of the things surrounding us were once nothing more than an idea. Things that on first glance may seem small and common, like the jeans we’re wearing right now, Post-its, toothpaste or fizzy drinks, just as much as things such as the light bulb, tires, the microchip or plastic that have become an integral part of our everyday lives, as well as still others that appear to be invisible, but have undeniably changed the world we live in forever like frequency hopping that is the basis of modern technologies such as Bluetooth and WLAN, radioactivity, alternating current, which is the electricity that comes out of our plugs, or the ubiquitous world wide web.

These things that make up the fabric of our everyday lives, did not just appear out of nowhere, though, they were conceived by talented inventors, scientists, and engineers. Some are the result of teamwork, some of many years spent alone in a laboratory. Other inventions grew out of everyday situations and some were simply the result of chance. Who Invented This? is a fascinating trip back through history that shows how now famous scientists and inventors like Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla, or Ada Lovelace, as well as lesser known, but no less creative minds such as Adi Dassler, the inventor of football boots, George Beauchamp, who developed the first electrically amplifiable guitar, or Louis Braille, who as a 16-year old came up with the idea of using dots to create a form of writing that blind people could read with their fingers, have turned their ideas into great inventions.

How they seized opportunities, had faith in their ideas, and the courage to try something new. At a time when the lack of trust in science appears to be growing and controversies about facts are on the rise, “Who Invented This?” aims to inspire creativity and spark the interest in science and engineering by connecting groundbreaking minds from the past with modern technology, culture, and medicine.

Making her children’s literature debut in Who Invented This?, German author Anne Ameri-Siemens is using her experience as a journalist to tell engaging stories about human development and the world around us. She previously worked for Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung-Magazin, and German television networks.

Becky Thorns is the illustrator behind Little Gestalten’s acclaimed title The World of Whales that has been shortlisted for the World Illustration Award 2020. She graduated from Falmouth University with a Fine Art degree in 2015 and now specializes in children’s illustration, literary themed works, and calligraphic lettering.

Publisher: Little Gestalten
Release: May 2021
Volume: 96 pages
Format in cm (w × h): 20.5 × 26 cm
Language: English
Workmanship: Stitch bound, Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-89955-133-4
Price: € 19.90
Buy

 

Fernhout: The New Typeface for the Dutch Design Week

Posted on by Stuart de Rozario

Today we would like to present you Fernhout: The New Typeface for the Dutch Design Week and inform you that the DDW will take place in Eindhoven in mid-October. Save the date and order your ticket from mid-September, because DDW will not be online only this year!

Fernhout is the new typeface designed by London type designers The Foundry Types for the Dutch Design Week (DDW), in collaboration with Amsterdam design agency Thonik. The new display face is based on the simple primitive forms, rectangles, and quarter-circles by the late Wim Crouwel’s Edgar Fernhout exhibition poster and catalog for the Van Abbemuseum in 1963. The typeface and brand identity is currently being rolled out across the Netherlands.

Hosted by the city of Eindhoven, DDW is the biggest design event in Northern Europe. With over 2,500 designers, scattered over 110 locations, showcasing their work to more than 350,000 visitors from across the globe. DDW coordinates exhibitions, lectures, prize ceremonies, networking events, debates, and other festivities.

Thonik approached The Foundry Types and asked them to create a typeface based on the new logo they had designed, expanding the character set to include a-z in lowercase, figures, and punctuation glyphs. The Foundry Types’ objective was simple: to create a clear expansion of the Crouwel Edgar Fernhout letterforms that seamlessly integrates with the new DDW brand identity.

The Foundry Types’ ethos throughout the design process was clarity, integrity and authenticity; the constructed Edgar Fernhout letterforms consist of a simplistic rectangle block system, two columns wide and four oblongs tall, circled segments, and angled indentations. Although the glyph shapes are playful and simple—these basic forms often throw up challenging complex problems and limitations.

The purist, basic forms of Fernhout offer little scope to break the grid without diminishing the overall visual virtues. Crouwel’s carefully devised grid often allowed many glyphs to design themselves, but complex glyphs with diagonal strokes, “k, s, x, z, 2, 4, 5, 7” needed to be stripped back and simplified. Characteristics within the letterforms also threw up a few dilemmas—how to design an “i” and “j” dot along with readable punctuation? The Foundry Types decided to introduce another element—the square, this allowed a little more freedom to express the concept in a more refined way. Problematic junctions to the center section of the “3” and “8” were the trickiest to achieve, a double quarter-circle was added to allow these glyphs to be easily recognizable.

Stuart de Rozario (Co-partner of The Foundry Types) said, “Just like Crouwel’s lettering, his posters and catalogs are unique. All vary in style and execution, often displaying humanity within his strict modular grid vision: systematic, logical, but crafted by hand and with a keen eye.”

Thomas Widdershoven (Co-founder of Thonik) said, “Crouwel loved monospaced letters so the fact that Edgar Fernhout’s name doesn’t contain a ‘w,’ ‘m,’ ‘l,’ or ‘i’ must have appealed to him. We did have to tackle those letters and have tried to finish the game while playing by the same rules. We’ve chosen all lowercase letters since they feel more democratic and look sympathetic. The use of indentations has helped increase legibility.”

David Quay (Co-partner of The Foundry Types) said, “Wim never envisaged his designs to go on to be used as complete typefaces, and would often be taken aback to know people would want to use them in their own design projects.”

Roy Terhorst (Partner of Thonik) said, “Animating the newly developed font for the DDW site felt natural, when the letters started moving, the underlying grid became visually present. A bridge was forged between the aesthetics of the past and the design language of the future: motion design.”

The Fernhout typeface consists of just a single weight with a very limited character set due to its elemental forms. It will be available to license later this year at The Foundry Types exclusively, a PDF specimen is available on request.

Fernhout: The New Typeface for the Dutch Design Week

Foundry: The Foundry Types 
Design Agency: Thonik
Release: Winter 2021 at The Foundry Types exclusively
Styles: Single Weight with limited character set; PDF specimen is available on request

Dutch Design Week

When?
October 16th to 24th, 2021

Where?
Eindhoven, Netherlands
The DDW is spread across dozens of locations in the city
The full program for DDW21 will follow in September

Visit The Foundry Types to not miss the release and book your ticket for the DDW here.

Photographs courtesy of The Foundry Types. © The Foundry Types 2021.

The Space Between

Posted on by Concrete Nature

The Space Between — Limited Edition Risograph Photozine is the first publication designed and published by Concrete Nature, a Glasgow based studio launched in 2020. The risograph printed publication features a curated selection of photographic work from an international line up of creatives. The Space Between acts as a collective experiment assembled to consider, observe, and question our relationship with nature. It is the curated product of the studio’s first open call inviting creatives to submit black and white photographs on the subject matter.

The publication takes us on a journey to reflect on the different ways our relationship with nature manifest itself within the various spaces we experience, from the lushness and abundance of the outdoors to the intricacy of the man-made spaces we occupy.

Concrete Nature is an environ­mentally conscious creative studio working across print, digital and space. The studio balances collaborative, commissioned, and self-initiated projects. Their self-initiated work intentionally range across platforms, including publishing, limited edition printed goods, and events.

The Space Between

Publishing, Concept, and Design: Concrete Nature
Foreword: Clementine Carriere
Format: 148 × 210 mm
Volume: 56 pages
Language: English
Printing: Out of the Blueprint
ISBN: 978-1-5272-7610-9
Price: £ 17.– (£ 2.– from each sale will be donated to two UK based charities, Refuweegee and Mermaids UK)
Buy

Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021

Posted on by Nina Steimel

Trust your gut feeling, book your ticket, and look forward to the three-day event of Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021—Intuition in November 2021 with various lectures, workshops, book presentations, and get-togethers with lunch and aperitifs!

Be it in private or professional life: Projects and plans are often agreed to spontaneously. If they succeed, one speaks of a gut feeling on which one could rely. Conversely, an uneasy feeling can protect you from disappointment. So much for the theory of intuition, which is the subject of the 20 or so top-class speakers at this year’s Tÿpo St. Gallen. The three-day typography symposium is considered the most important industry gathering for designers in the German-speaking world and is organized by the St. Gallen School of Design. The workshops offer a colorful mix of paper science, lettering, programming, writing, type, and web design.

Among others the following voices will speak at the Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021 Symposium: OrtnerSchinko is a graphic design and art direction studio in Linz, Austria. Founded in 2015 by Kira Saskia Schinko and Wolfgang Ortner, OrtnerSchinko develops contemporary design and brand strategies for companies as well as in the field of art and culture. Specializing in typographic design, OrtnerSchinko realizes—through consistent simplification—strategic design with added value in terms of perception, visibility, memorability, orientation, differentiation, and positioning.

Just von Rossum, a well-known Dutch type designer and programmer, is coming to St. Gallen on Saturday. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. After working for MetaDesign in Berlin, he opened his own studio as a type and graphic designer in the Netherlands. Together with his brother Guido van Rossum, he developed the Python programming language. Together with Erik van Blokland he is co-founder of LettError.

Ana Laura Campos, Sonja Steven, as well as Kerstin and Sarah Tolpeit already started working together during their time at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. In 2013 they founded Klass—the office for design. The common focus of their work is typography. It is the starting point for logo, book and web design. The medium does not determine the form. Whenever they find time, they realize their own projects such as books, prints, calendars, or exhibitions.

Tÿpo St. Gallen sees itself as a forum for experts and people with an affinity for design, and seeks and promotes the exchange between speakers and audience. In addition to presentations, there will be plenty of time for discussions and an inspiring supporting program.

Tÿpo St. Gallen 2021

When?
November 5th to 7th, 2021

Where?
Gewerbliches Berufs- und Weiterbildungszentrum St. Gallen
Schule für Gestaltung
Demutstrasse 115
9012 St. Gallen
Switzerland

Tickets
Early bird: CHF 348.–
Professionals: CHF 398.–
Students, apprentices: CHF 199.– (Student ID must be provided)

For further information click here and book your ticket here

Itacolomi

Posted on by Emerson Eller

Itacolomi by Eller Type is a font family conceived for editorial purposes. Based on historical models, it is well placed in the present time, turning classic proportions into contemporary letter shapes. It is robust and clean in small sizes, keeping consistency in both print and digital environments.

Itacolomi is an outcome from Eller’s Ph.D., the result of an extensive investigation into Scottish style types produced in Brazil around 1820. A possible connection between Brazil and Scotland. In short, it preserves the qualities of the famous 19th-century Scotch Roman types while adding a personal approach with unique features from the early Brazilian models.

The Typeface has six weights, romans plus respective italics, which makes twelve fonts with an extensive character set that supports over two hundred languages and includes small caps, ligatures, old-style, and tabular numerals.

Itacolomi

Foundry: Eller Type
Designer: Emerson Eller
Release: 2021
Format: otf, woff, woff2
Styles: Light, Regular, Medium, SemiBold, Bold, Black plus respective italics (12 fonts)
Price: Family $ 168.–
Individual Styles: $ 35.–
Buy on MyFonts or Fontspring