Typeface of the Month: Albula Pro

We are happy to present our new Typeface of the Month: Albula Pro by the young type design studio Serpentype based in Zurich, Switzerland. 

Albula Pro is a contemporary geometric sans with a charismatic and elegant touch. Inspired by geometry and enhanced with unique form-details. The shapes are optically corrected in order to ensure an excellent reading experience and a broad professional use. Albula Pro is an ideal choice to make your design and layout stand out. It performs perfectly in headlines as well as for branding purposes. When designing Albula Pro, great importance was attached to legibility, so that a good reading experience is guaranteed regardless the text length, which makes it an excellent option for editorial content.

Name/Story:
The Albula region of the Swiss Alps has lent its name to this typeface, with its alpine pass whose serpentines wind up to 2,315 m. The famous Albula–Bernina railroad line, with its imposing constructions from the pioneering period of infrastructure buildings, leads through this region. The mountain crossings are the gateway to the Engadin, a remote valley of captivating beauty. Since centuries geometry is deeply rooted in the local culture, most evident in their houses that have been decorated with geometric shapes so-called sgraffito for generations.

Process:
Silvio Meier created the first drafts of Albula Pro during his communication design studies at the Zurich School of Design in the Type Design module. Over the years and in creative exchange with various type designers, the typeface gained in finesse and quality. In recent months, Silvio Meier finalized the typeface together with type designer Barbara Bigosińska.

Typeface of the Month: Albula Pro

Foundry: Serpentype
Designer: Silvio Meier
Release: January 2021
Styles and Weights: 18 weights from Thin to Extra Bold and matching Obliques
Price Single Style: $ 40.–
Price Full Family: $ 272.–
Price  Basic Set: $ 80.–
Albula Pro Bold is available for free
Buy at Serpentype or MyFonts

GLYPHS—The Alphabetic Perfume Collection

We would like to introduce you to Autobahn’s and Mark Buxton’s launch of GLYPHS—The Alphabetic Perfume Collection on Kickstarter from May 1st, 2021. Support the project now.

We can see, hear, and even feel letters, but how would it smell if our alphabet were available in scent? Rob Stolte of design agency Autobahn and master perfumer Mark Buxton have investigated this. It resulted in the first three unique and wearable to share perfumes that represent the historical origin of the letters A, B, and C. Autobahn and Buxton call it GLYPHS – The Alphabetic Perfume Collection and it is available on Kickstarter from May 1st, 2021. “Everyone who can write must know the origin of our alphabet,” says designer Rob Stolte from Autobahn, an internationally-awarded design studio specialized in typographic designs. When Stolte grew up, he had difficulty reading and writing. He would rather draw something than write it down. It frustrated him and he started to wonder where the shape of letters comes from. When Stolte discovered that letters are abstract images, this all changed. Take the historical origin of our letter A: it is actually the head of an ox. Turn the letter A upside down and you can still see the horns and head. “It offered me the opportunity to turn my weakness into a strength: express myself through typographic images and letters,” says Stolte. “Now we know where our letters come from, we also know how they smell.”

Capturing the scent of letters is no easy job. Autobahn and Buxton decided to go back to the origins of our alphabet, about which Autobahn made the acclaimed book A is van Os. It explains the history of our letters, which originated almost 4,000 years ago in the Sinai desert and come from images cut in stone: the A was an image of an Ox, the letter B stood for House, and the C for Boomerang. Perfumer Buxton has 25 years of experience and has designed perfumes for the largest luxury brands, including: Cartier, Comme des Garçons, and even a perfume for the film The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. “Every perfumer in the niche perfume industry is looking for a project like GLYPHS. It is bigger than just a perfume, you tell a story with it. History is in the making.”

GLYPHS is a series of works of art captured in perfume. Each perfume is presented in a unique, handmade stone holder and a roller ball, to write directly onto your skin. The makers of GLYPHS looking for backers. On Kickstarter you can contribute to the realization of the project in different ways.

GLYPHS—The Alphabetic Perfume Collection

Concept & Design: Rob Stolte/Autobahn & Mark Buxton
Price set of three perfumes (A,B & C): € 225.–
Price single 15 ml: € 75.–

Support the project now on Kickstarter and find more information on their website 

TIMELINE

The work TIMELINE commissioned for the exhibition Fiume Fantastika: Phenomena of the City presents a turbulent history of the city of Rijeka. From 1868 to the present day, Rijeka has been part of nine different states. Fifty illustrations deconstructed the rules, values and aesthetics inscribed in the most symbolic form of the society – 17 historic city and government flags. The front displays information on architecture, infrastructure, politics, economy and culture that shaped the city for the past 120 years. The illustrative back used the original color codes to suggest that we should not take the past literally, but analyse it, re-imagine and inscribe with new meaning.

Isolation

How artificial has our world become? Is there still room for our desire for nature and originality? Are houseplants an expression of the desire to return?
How much care and attention do they need by being taken out of their “natural” habitat? Is it possible to bear this responsibility? In our living world, we create sterile germ-free spaces in bright colours. It is too clean. Mud and dirt have no place here, only the beautiful bright colours. But can living beings survive in the artificial worlds we have created? Or do they long too much for jungle, mud and nature?

TIMELINE

Can we rethink our construct of time? And if so, can it be visualised and understood?

Timeline is a time-experiment inspired by the time models of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. His thoughts on the subject can be read on a folded map and can be internalized experimentally.

the studio of diego

During my travels through Mexico City i got inspired by the House-Studio of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. It is one of the most important cultural landmarks of Mexico City. Not only for being the studios of two of the most important artists of the twentieth century but also for being on of the first construction of the modern movement in the American continent.

Positive Afterimage

Afterimages occur when the photoreceptors in our retina are stimulated by light. They translate this stimulus into electrical impulses through a chemical reaction. These phantom images are still felt even when the original stimulus has faded away. They are usually perceived as bright spots after looking at the sun or another light source.

For that fun project I experimented with positive afterimages, documenting the colors and shapes I saw in my mind’s eye after looking into different light sources.

Bauwagenumzug

This is a page out of my first picture book, ‘ausgebüxt’, which is about the difficult situation of zoos and their animals, as well as diversity, friendship, and dealing with situations you (later realize) feel guilty about. I love the joy of trying to draw certain things I’ve always struggled with, like clouds, cars, and crowded places.

Netloops

Intersections, transitions, networks and cycles — these fundamental principles are integral parts of all complex systems surrounding us in the real world as much as in the ideational world. May it be natural ecosystems between animals, plants and the abiotic or may it be digital ecosystems between virtual entities made of codes and numbers. May it be physical networks like the mycorrhizae that connect billions and billions of plant roots and fungi on a microscopic level or may it be conceptual networks like our global community. May it be corporal connections like the innumerable synapses in each and every brain or may it be the countless thoughts, ideas and memories they connect.

Netloop

ntersections, transitions, networks and cycles — these fundamental principles are integral parts of all complex systems surrounding us in the real world as much as in the ideational world. May it be natural ecosystems between animals, plants and the abiotic or may it be digital ecosystems between virtual entities made of codes and numbers. May it be physical networks like the mycorrhizae that connect billions and billions of plant roots and fungi on a microscopic level or may it be conceptual networks like our global community. May it be corporal connections like the innumerable synapses in each and every brain or may it be the countless thoughts, ideas and memories they connect.

SPACE

Staying sane in a limited space and act like there is no pandemic.

Photography & creative direction: Doris Himmelbauer
Space. Kohlmaier Vienna
Art Installation. Esther Stocker
Dresses. Eva Poleschinski
HMUA. The Christoph Vienna
Models. Stella Models Vienna

Spread love

After the dark winter, the day began to lighten up little by little. The gray fountain in park near my home, which had been frozen all winter, started working on the day Summertime began. I saw a fountain spouting water for the first time in a long time. it felt like love.

True Colors

New Years Card in collaboration with silkscreen printer Lézard Graphiques. Twelve beer mats printed in 15 colors. One side shows the term cheers in twelve languages and the other side one of twelve proud flags. For 2020 we wished everybody to sit together whatever country you are from and whatever your sexual orientation is. The title True Colors is borrowed from Cindy Laupers track.

Teardrop

Tears have a healing effect they flush out all negative thoughts and filter the positive ones. “Let the teardrops fall from your eyes”, as Inna De Yard celebrates in the song “Let the water run dry”. The analogue collage is inspired by this song and is part of a series of posters. As a group of five students we founded an initiative which we use as our common space for interchanging our creative thinking, to explore our individuality, exchange ideas and initiate projects. We started by sharing our most favourite songs to get inspired by the musical and lyrical atmosphere. Feel free to explore more of our collective works @papiamagazin.

RGB / all the colors (updated verison)

»all the colors« is a homage to graphic design and print. It plays with geometric shapes, the RGB color palette, and the layering of elements which creates light and shadow. The typeface OCR-A used for the print series is one of the first fonts created that could be recognised by both humans and computers.