Munken Rebranding and Munken Sans

Posted on by Lara Zettl

This year Munken amazes with a rebranding that has it all. Collaboration, diversity, and unique experiences formed the roots of the creative concept. Today, the paper company combines these elements to kick off the new Munken CoLab initiative, which is done together with the Swiss Type Foundry, Lineto. The result was the Munken Rebranding and Munken Sans. Inherent to collaboration is the idea of sharing, a concept that is essential to Munken’s cultural identity. The new brand appearance which was designed by JUNO is based on the visionary, nature loving and Swedish personality of the company. Because that was not meant to be enough, Munken Sans was designed in the spirit of collaboration with Laurenz Brunner and Selina Bernet, in dialogue with Jonas Williamsson and Cornel Windlin (Lineto). The elegant and modern sans serif typeface took inspiration from the Swedish traffic font, Tratex, designed by Kåge Gustafson for national road signs in the 1960s.

Munken Sans is the outcome of a collaboration between Munken and with Laurenz Brunner and Selina Bernet, in dialogue with Jonas Williamsson and Cornel Windlin. The Swiss typographers from Lineto have further developed Tratex timelessly beautiful and characteristic design for Munken Sans. Unlike Tratex, which consists of only one weight, the font is available in three weights: regular, medium and bold.

In a 448-page handbook, concepted and designed also by JUNO and printed on paper from the own design range, Munken Sans is displayed for the first time in a varied and playful way. Based on the themes of nature, paper and signposts, the font is shown off in several different applications. The Munken Handbook is an homage to paper as an object in book form. Moreover the Handbook brings together the new typeface and the company’s design range. The characters and the material form a tactile unity, presenting an organic coexistence following in the long tradition of the art of letterpress printing. Click here to find out more about the Munken CoLab, Handbook, and the free typeface.

With the goal of starting an open and creative process with this new font, the company is sharing the Munken Sans font with the design community. Munken Sans is available to download free of charge here.

Munken Rebranding and Munken Sans

Munken Sans

Designer: Laurenz Brunner with Selina Bernet, in dialog with Jonas Williamsson and Cornel Windlin (Lineto)
Type Foundry: Lineto
Release: October 1st, 2020
Weights: Regular, Medium, Bold
Price: free of charge (download here)

Munken Handbook

Volume: 448 pages
Paper: All eight grades of the Munken Design Range
Binding: Otabind
Screen: FM 20μ
Printing: four colors
Ink: Toyo Ink
Printing Press: Komori Lithrone S40P Hybride Print Technology

Typeface of the Month: Dashiell

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

We are presenting our Typeface of the Month: Dashiell by the New York-born, Dublin-based type designer Max Phillips and published by Signal Type Foundry. The Dashiell family consists of three optical sizes that make the font versatile in use. With its classic forms that are both elegant and adapted for easy legibility, the Dashiell typeface exudes a light and vibrant look that adds emotion and individuality to any design. This makes Dashiell a typeface that adapts to the modern and versatile demands of our time without losing its seriousness and quality.

Dashiell was made to be read. Designed by a devoted reader with terrible eyesight, it combines the warmth and openness of Caslon with the lucid elegance of Garamond. Counters and x-height are ample but not large. Apertures are moderately open, and unbracketed wedge serifs add crispness. It’s available in six weights and three optical sizes to meet a wide range of contemporary needs.

Dashiell Text is an all-round workhorse: sturdy but open, with modest contrast, and carefully balanced to work both onscreen and on paper. Dashiell Bright has more sparkle, and is especially suited to printed books and magazines. And the dramatic contrast and wiry hairlines of Dashiell Fine are made for large sizes; it includes a bonus Light weight for especially delicate work.

Named for Dashiell Hammett, whose succinct grace helped modernize twentieth-century American fiction, Dashiell supports over 140 languages and includes proportional and tabular lining and oldstyle figures, small caps, case-sensitive punctuation and delimiters. For the non-succinct, there’s also an opulent selection of borders and ornaments.

To see more of Dashiell, check out the Signal Type Foundry website. Free trial fonts are available for download.

Typeface of the Month: Dashiell

Foundry: Signal Type Foundry
Designer: Max Phillips
Release: October 2020
Formats: OTF, TTF, WOFF, WOFF2, EOT
Weights: 31 styles, 6 weights, 3 optical sizes
Price: From $ 50.–
Free trial fonts
Buy

Battle of Print 2020

Posted on by Lara Zettl

Battle of Print 2020 is a design competition organized by the Kommunikationsverband Bremen which focuses on different themes each year. This year, the Battle of Print is part of the Graphic Novel exhibition at the Wilhelm Wagenfeld Haus gallery in Bremen. Invited are all designers, graphic designers, and illustrators to submit their drafts and take part in the 2020 design competition. The submitted works will be included in the exhibition from October 30th, 2020, to February 28th, 2021, whereby the top twelve designs will be featured in the 2021 Battle of Print calendar. The calendar is a non-profit product and will be available for a nominal fee of just 5.– Euro. The artists who make it into the top twelve will receive five specimen copies each. In addition, the winner will receive a prize valued at 500.– Euro, comprising  250.– Euro prize money and a voucher for ten fine art prints from Steintorpresse.

In contrast to a classic comic or cartoon, a graphic novel elaborates a literary model or creates its own novella-like narrative, more often than not with additional autobiographical features. It generally takes the form of a book or booklet. Barbara Yelin’s definition is “The comic is an independent medium at the crossroads between literature, film and the visual arts, where the wide-ranging possibilities of the narrative interweaving of image and text fascinate and challenge me time and time again.” Will Eisner formulated it thus: “The future of graphic novels lies in the choice of worthwhile topics and the innovative way in which these are presented.” Although the focus is on Graphic Novels, the time won’t be enough to finish a whole story by the submission deadline, so a compelling excerpt of the graphic novel and the cover design are sufficient.

Battle of Print 2020

Submissions
The closing date for submissions is October 15th, 2020
Please send your submission as a printable PDF 
This year, creativity knows no bounds. Whether you’re from Germany, Europe or anywhere else in the world—anyone and everyone is welcome! More information here

Exhibition

When?
Opening event: Thursday, October 29th, 2020 at 7 p.m.
Exhibition: Friday, October 30th 2020 to Sunday, February 28th, 2021
Opening hours: Tuesday: 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Where?
Wilhelm Wagenfeld Stiftung
Am Wall 209
28195 Bremen

More information here
Illustration by: Erik Kriek
A cooperation project of Kommunikationsverband Wirtschaftsraum Bremen e. V. with Wilhelm Wagenfeld Stiftung.

Typodarium 2021

Posted on by Lara Zettl

As trend radar and typo-inspiration, as up-to-date-keeper and as eye-catcher on designer tables the Typodarium has conquered its firm place—and designers are eagerly waiting in August to see which small, fine extra Raban Ruddigkeit and Lars Harmsen have given the cute calendar in the Schriftschatz collection box this time. Before we tell you, we would like to say that the Typodarium 2021 shines in twelve cheerful colors and, in addition to typo vitality, brings colorful joy to everyday creative life. Once again, it is packed in a colorful, solid collection box in which your special font treasures are well protected and waiting to be used. As always, you will find the degree of expansion and where to buy the fonts on the back of the daily papers.

But what is the “Typo-Schmankerl” 2021?
On Sundays there is not only more variability in the appointment calendar, but also in the Typodarium 2021: 52 variable fonts are presented by the classic among typo calendars. Flexible in use, they solve even the trickiest challenges in graphic design.

Lars Harmsen and Raban Ruddigkeit not only have their ears very close to the pulse of the typography scene, they are an integral part of it. Every year they succeed in tracking down the hippest new creations in type design, discovering new type designers before they are on everyone’s lips and in all designs. Over the years, the two editors have developed an unmistakable feeling for the grassroots movements of serifs—so the Typodarium brings a breath of fresh air to agencies and production departments, magazine and book design, web and print, packaging and fashion. And on your desk. Have fun and a happy 2021!

Typodarium 2021–A 365 Day Type Calendar

Editors: Lars Harmsen, Raban Ruddigkeit
Publisher: Verlag Hermann Schmidt
Design: Jonas Rose
Format: 8.5 × 12 cm
Volume: 384 pages in 12 colors, printed on both sides
Language: English
Specials: Packaged in a sturdy collecting box for archiving the type samples
EAN: 42 6017281 086 9
Price: 19.80 Euro
Buy

Photos: © Verlag Hermann Schmidt

Lottery: Beautiful design notebooks from nuuna

Posted on by Julia Kahl

Slanted and brandbook have known each other for over 10 years now. In 2010 I discovered the beautiful notebooks at the Creative Paper Conference in Munich and we immediately realized that we share a passion for design, print and paper—without further ado we cooperated for our first common notebook: The Future Won’t Be Set in Garamond

A lot has happened since then and a lot of books have been produced by us and by brandbook. For two decades now, the Frankfurt company has been producing notebooks, image books and calendars for renowned design and advertising agencies and hundreds of top companies in various industries worldwide. In the meantime they have even founded their own retail label nuuna, with which they live their passion for beautiful notebooks.

In their studio, the nuuna team develops new book concepts and tests materials and finishing processes with the aim of constantly reinterpreting the medium of the book. Every nuuna notebook has an individual 360° cover design, which also includes the book edges and turns the books into real design objects. The books are made of premium paper, thread-stitched and bound in recycled or vegan materials. The covers are screen-printed or digitally printed or finished with effective metallic embossing.

Out of conviction, nuuna notebooks are produced 100% in Germany. They are produced regionally in compliance with the highest environmental, social and safety standards in factories where you know exactly what you are getting: the most intensive screen prints and the highest quality thread bindings, for example. nuuna has been using Munken paper, which comes from sustainably managed forests, for years to produce the book blocks. Since summer 2020, the premium paper has also been freshly awarded the Cradle to Cradle certificate. No resources are wasted during production and no environmentally harmful waste is produced: further confirmation that nuuna does everything right with this paper. The result: thoroughly sustainable idea memories, small design objects, collectors’ items—and the beginning of the end of boring notebooks.

Just recently we produced another joint notebook as part of our L.A. Special Edition and are still happy about the brilliant result: a flashy notebook in neon orange with dark blue screen print on high gloss—a real eye-catcher!

Now you also have the chance to call a nuuna notebook your own: We raffle nine notebooks of the Bad Book, Been There und Metropolis series (three of each). To take part in the lottery, write an email to [email protected] with the subject “nuuna,” name your favorite notebook and let us know your postal address (for dispatch). The lottery ends October 5th, 2020, 11 a.m. (UTC+2). The winners will be drawn after the deadline and contacted by email. Whoever takes part in the raffle agrees to receive news from Slanted and accepts the privacy policy. Legal recourse is excluded. We wish you good luck!

Wer bitte ist Rudolf Koch?

Posted on by Lara Zettl

The new book Wer bitte ist Rudolf Koch? meets the concern that one of the most influential persons in Offenbach’s cultural history could be forgotten. The Klingspor-Museum in Offenbach owns and cultivates the estate of Rudolf Koch, who died in Offenbach in 1934 and whose work is still influential and inspiring today. The internationally renowned typeface artist shaped the understanding of type as a field of the fine arts and made a significant contribution to the international success of the Klingspor Brothers Type Foundry in the first half of the 20th century.

For the first time in over 50 years, a book is published that sheds light on Koch’s wide-ranging oeuvre. The designer’s work at the Klingspor Museum over the last 20 years the plays a decisive role. Thanks to the designers at the HfG, Laura Brunner and Leonie Martin, a compendium has been created that makes it pleasureably to get insight in Koch’s work. Furthermore Wer bitte ist Rudolf Koch? brings a striking chapter of art history to light, which has taken place in Offenbach. The fact that there hasn’t been an approach to the artist Rudolf Koch is evident in the design of the book. Laura Brunner and Leonie Martin, who study visual communication, have found an appealing yet appropriate form for Koch’s multifaceted personality. The cover pages of each book were screen printed in different colors, also the typeface was used in several variations. Especially for the title and the separator pages, the two students, have developed new varieties of Koch’s Types. The book is a homage to Rudolf Koch and his inspirational work, which is still appreciated in these times.

Wer bitte ist Rudolf Koch?

Designer: Laura Brunner and Leonie Martin
Publisher: Klingspor-Museum
Concept: Stefan Soltek and Martina Weiß
Format: 18 × 24 cm
Volume: 276 pages
Paper: Union Enviro Top, Union Pop’Set
Language: German
Price: 25.– Euro
Buy

Magalog DDC Award Gute Gestaltung 2019

Posted on by Lara Zettl

For the Deutscher Designer Club Award Gute Gestaltung 2019 yearbook the design studio formdusche invented a whole new format, by adding an editorial part to the traditional winning catalog. formdusche designed a magalog and gave the format two sides: one for the catalog and one for the magazine.

We are proud to be a part of this year’s jury selection and for this reason we are also happy to listed in this beautifully designed catalog. Slanted Magazine #33—Prague was awarded with Bronze and TOTOAL ARMAGEDDON—A Slanted Reader on Design with an Award.

By using a twin brochure, the design supports the change of perspective of the medium and makes the magazine a special object. This function invites the reader to endorse it on both sides. Attentive readers can look forward to references in the form of analog links that invite them to switch back and forth between the two parts or simply enjoy reading the magazine. No magalog—no fun.

Beton me up!—Sometimes there is no need to do exactly the obvious and logical, nevertheless sometimes there is. In this year’s DDC MAG, the graphical concept is based on “fit to use” not “be different.” The approach of the architect collective Brandlhuber+ formed the inspiration with its intention of creating spaces and by reusing or changing the existing. Don’t start from scratch, but continue to sharpen what is there with good ideas. Wow: How sustainable is that? It is about exposing places, peeling out concepts and leaving traces, but also with a focus on the material: concrete. The imaginary 3D optic of the last DDC MAG, was literally meant to be more comprehensible this time. The visual idea was going out of the computer and into reality. In the middle of the Corona lockdown, the’ve got their hands dirty in a detail-loving DIY action in the home office, touched concrete, paid homage to materiality, poured moulds, and continued with patience and passion until they thought it was finally finished.

The formdusche team was fascinated by the unique results and their imbalance. Furthermore they asked themselves, together with the DDC, “How do we want to live? The courage to be imperfect is a first step. But what comes after the concrete?”

Magalog DDC Award Gute Gestaltung 2019

Design: formdusche
Client: Deutscher Designer Club
Paper: Gmund Bauhaus Dessau Weiss
Format: 22.5 × 33.5 cm
Volume: 136 pages
Language: German

Photos: © formdusche

Typo Ping Pong #1

Posted on by TypoGraphicDesign.de

Typo Ping Pong #1 is a new free font from the independent Foundry Typo Graphic Design. It is the result of the collaboration between Manuel Viergutz and Luis Herke, who were using their home stay for creating their new typeface.

Its extraordinary Look comes from a design procedure, called the ping pong method. By creating free forms individually, like letters with faces and eyes, smileys and icons of the letters A–Z and the numbers 0–9, the designers created an exceptional text image. In total, the font includes a variation of 100+ glyphs, which creates an exciting reading rhythm and provides what a display font should create—impact and fun.

On the one hand the letters were designed analog—which is easy to recognize by the rough structure of the glyphs, and on the other hand digitally designed. The individual letters from the Typo Ping Pong #1 are still in the creative development process, which results in new typefaces. Due to its large number of different characteristic and creative traits, there is a wide range of possibilities for use. Moreover the headline-font invites to experimentation with its different alternative forms for both, print and web.

Another collaboration is already in sight with new creative impulses, new designers and promising ideas.

Typo Ping Pong #1

Designer: Manuel Viergutz and Luise Herke
Type Foundry: Typo Gra­phic Design
Release: May 2020
Weight: Regular
File formats: print (.otf) and web (.woff)
Price: free for one user, from two users 15.– Euro
Get the typeface here 
Type specimen posters here

 

Typografie intensiv

Posted on by Lara Zettl

Typografie intensiv (En: Typography intensive) is a proven seminar about typography and design, extra-occupationally in four semesters. It is all about experiencing the rules of typography and design, testing and solving challenging design tasks, meeting design demands for the future, and having fun at learning.

The typographic and creative demands have increased on a large scale thanks to the computer. By using it you need to have appropriate skills and knowledge about the best way to achieve good legibility and an attractive graphic image through typography. Typografie intensiv could be seen as an alternative to the studies of communication design; at the same time it is a continuation for media designers. The teaching content reaches from micro type and composition, to color and grids. The focus of the course is on practical exercises, whereby the theoretic modules are monthly planned and online to some extent. In between there are extensive homework assignments, which results are discussed intensively. In addition, the lecturers give valuable advice from their own practical experiences.

Typografie intensiv

When?
Ongoing from September 26th, 2020
320 hours in four semesters + monthly block-seminar
Friday,  9 a.m to 6 p.m
Saturday,  9 a.m to 5 p.m

Where?
Saarstraße 6
80797 München
Germany

Further information can be found here
apply here

schaubau 2020

Posted on by Lara Zettl

schaubau 2020 is an international summer school that is taking place for the third time in the heart of the Bauhaus city of Dessau. A design camp that is aimed at creative students, schoolchildren, craftsmen and value creators from all creative disciplines, including design, architecture, fashion, and art. This year the schaubau summer school is dedicated to the controversy.

For a week the attendees research and design powerful texts and expressive images with the Berlin designer Alexander Branczyk (DRUCKEN3000) as a formulation of democratic participation on an equal footing. Terms such as “left-wing filthy,” “asylum tourism,” “sleeping sheep,” “do-gooder” and “coronary dictatorship” damage the coexistence in a peaceful and diverse society. But also statements like “You will be allowed to say that,” “I have nothing against … but! …” ignore that a democracy is based on common truths—a non-discriminatory, turned language is its expression.

The results are finally put on paper with the risograph. You will need a laptop for the workshop.

In addition to the drafting and creation, a cultural framework program ensures a varied—and hopefully sunny—workshop week. So don’t forget your swimming gear.

schaubau 2020

When?
From September 27th to 30th, 2020

Where?
vorOrt-haus
Wolfgangstraße 13
06844 Dessau
Germany

Tickets
50.– Euro
Material and lunch are included in the ticket price.

Please send your application by mail.

If you have any questions, please get in contact with the schaubau team.

 

 

Typotable No. 7

Posted on by typotable

Typotable No. 7 — Lettering. Typedesign. Skincare is part of the independent lecture series Typotable, where current type design and typography positions are shown and discussed. The lectures are held by established type and graphic designers as well as by young designers and students. After two cancelled events, Typotable No. 7 is back as conference format with five speakers and a wide range of topics.

– Chris Campe will talk about her different fields of work, techniques, and workshops and answers frequently asked questions about her passion
– Mark van Leeuwen will talk about his experiences from classic lettering to type design (presentation in English)
– Natalie Rauch will take the audience on a journey into the world of non-Latin writing systems
– Henning Skibbe will tell how to design fonts with strong characters and what actually distinguishes a font family
– Charlotte Rohde shows her typefaces and their experimental usage, as well as her skincare routine

Typotable No. 7

When?
September 26th, 2020
1 p.m. until 6 p.m.
(doors open at 12:30 p.m.)

Where?
Museum für Druckkunst
Nonnenstraße 38
04229 Leipzig
Germany

Tickets
30.– / 40.– Euro
Buy

We ask you to bring your mask to the event and to keep a distance of 1.5 m to other participants.

Photographic/film and sound recordings will be made during the event. By participating in the event, you agree that the organizers may use the photo/film and sound recordings for advertising purposes (on websites, social channels, for press coverage or similar) without any restrictions in terms of time and space.

The AI Designer

Posted on by tanvel

The Russian Art. Lebedev Studio is breaking new ground in design with The AI Designer. Real customers were confronted with the fact that their request for a brand identities to the design studio was answered by an artificial intelligence designer using randomly generated forms. This creates new and unimagined creative paths that human designers would probably never have taken, but it is also a threat to the market and its credibility. Because if we assume that a visual identity and the success of a company can be completely left to computer-generated chance, then the trust in the basis and knowledge of our profession can be doubted. It is exciting to see how AI-based technologies can be combined with our knowledge in the future and thus be developed further.However, we should always do this with a critical eye on quality and credibility and include the designer as a social being in the design process.

The project was developed in complete secrecy by an isolated team at the Studio. In the name of conspiracy, the AI was introduced as a remote employee with his own profile, portfolio, and name—Nikolay Ironov. This meant the team could manage any risk of leaks, while also gathering valuable feedback from clients on Nikolay Ironov’s work—free from any prejudice against generative design.

The results exceeded all expectations. Over the last twelve months, Ironov has developed logos for real clients (cafes, bars, influencers, apps, and consumer goods).

The photo of Nikolay was also generated. It was created by a neural network from photos of all employees of the studio.

All clients were unaware that their designs were being created by a machine. All of Nikolay Ironov’s work was approved by clients and then released to huge audiences. Today, Ironov’s work can be seen in businesses throughout Russia, on branded products, and in endless YouTube clips. The AI’s unique style led to a number of the logos attracting considerable public interest, media attention, and discussion in online communities.

Designers, even the more daring and progressive ones, are often defined by the work of their peers, international award juries, and their own experiences. Given that Artificial design intelligence sidesteps all this, Nikolay Ironov is free to utilize techniques that no human would ever consider. By taking bold and unexpected steps, he is able to create the genuinely new.

This event marks the moment that the mass automation of creative processes becomes a reality for businesses.

Take a look at Nikolay Ironov’s own portfolio site and check out his generated design. 

Slanted in L.A.: Jens Gehlhaar

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

In a town like L.A. and on a production like Slanted’s, which brings together the material for a magazine, not everything has to work out. Often, the best things happen when they’re not planned, just as they did when we went to this gleaming city in fall 2019. We were happy to meet the luminaries from the local creative scene and we are thrilled to share our inspiring encounters with you.

Jens Gehlhaar, born and raised in Germany, is a commercial artist living in Los Angeles who works in film, design, advertising, and music. He has directed commercials for Apple, Volkswagen, Emirates Airlines, and many other brands. He has designed identities and titles for MTV, VH1, and This American Life, and has drawn typefaces for TV Guide and two different Tom Cruise movies. He is currently a commercial director represented by Logan & Sons.

Jens Gehlhaar’s work can be found in the Slanted Magazine #35—L.A.. Additionally we shot a video interview to talk about his attitude and view of things. Take a look at our new issue and the video platform to encounter new ways of design thinking!

Re:Post

Posted on by Henrike Uthe

Re:Post shows visualizations of the basics class of Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts, which demonstrate a digital dialogue between text and image.

A text is posted by each student in a specified order, which refers formally or in terms of content to the preceding one: a chain of quotations is created, the components of which are visualized by the class.

The project accompanied the entire online summer semester 2020 and thus contributes to a constant exchange between the students. Both in selection and in sequence, the quotations testify to the moment of their selection, negotiate current events and trigger reflections on dominant structures. Questions on copyright, diversity, female authorship and their representation are actively negotiated, especially since the critical view always focuses on your own quotation selection and visualization practice and thinks auto-reflexively about responsibility in design.

Re:Post

Editors: Basics, Visual Communication, UdK Berlin
Release: Summer semester 2020
Course by: Henrike Uthe
Text: Stefanie Messner
Website: Hauke Irrgang
Visit

Forward Festival 2020 Vienna

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

For six years now, the Forward Festival has been a popular hotspot for creatives and those interested in the creative scene. With this year’s motto Digital Eyes, the Forward Festival 2020 Vienna will take place October 8th and 9th, digital, analog and yet anything but binary.

Digitization and technology are no longer exclusively future-visioned terms, they came to stay. It affects us all, our work, the market, it changes and will no longer become less. With our heads in our smartphones, we seem to have entered a post-digital age.

This year Forward Festival decided to go live and make a livestream from the already sold-out Viennese festival. The livestream will broadcast all lectures on the main- and forward stage on both festival days. Find the entire line up of the main stage with Refik Anadol, ARS ELECTRONICA, Irma Boom and many more here.

Forward Festival 2020 Vienna

When? 
October 8th and 9th, 2020

Where?
Livestream:
Early Bird Festival tickets EUR 45.– instead of EUR 85.–
including a Forward Festival goodie bag worth EUR 35.–

Typologie, a Typographic Palette

Posted on by Studio Recto Verso

Through more than a hundred unique font specimens, Typologie, a Typographic Palette is an immersion in contemporary French type design, in its broadest, most eloquent and heterogeneous expression. The book takes the form of a color chart in order to illustrate the plurality of type design in France, and the multiple inspirations and compositions of the type foundries behind it, with their similarities and their singularities. In this way, this typographic palette is a gateway to a better understanding and knowledge of the world of French-style type creation.

Typologie includes two introductory essays written by Philippe Apeloig and Geoffrey Dorne. The lettering composed for its cover is a creation by Stephane Lopes.

Each graphic designer has their own habits, and fonts to which they keep coming back, (a little) out of habit, and (a lot) out of laziness. However, by doing so, they miss out on a multitude of original characters created by type foundries and type designers, each of whom has their own approach of type lettering, and their own understanding of it. Typologie aims to highlight this vibrant creativity through the selection of a hundred contemporary French fonts. Say goodbye to Garamond and other Didot, and greet Sbire, Garaje, or Retiro.

Recently the project was financed by crowdfunding and will soon be available here for sale.

Typologie, a Typographic Palette

Publisher: Studio Recto Verso
Authors: Philippe Apeloig, Geoffrey Dorne, Pierre-Yann Lallaizon
Release: June 2020
Volume: 130 pages
Format: 60 × 20 cm
Language: French and English
Retail price: 25.– Euro
Buy

Slanted in Rhineland-Palatinate: Beratungsstelle Formgebung

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

The newly released Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate deals with regional design as well as arts and crafts. The German federal state has a long tradition of arts and craftsmanship, supported and kept alive by a strong middle-class as well as strong regional institutions and cultural drivers. Awards such as the State Prize for Arts and Crafts promote, amongst others, outstanding gem and jewelry designers, ceramists, silversmiths, carpenters, barrel makers, and textile designers of the region.

The Beratungsstelle Formgebung is an institution of the consortium of the Chambers of Crafts in Rhineland-Palatinate, which advises crafts enterprises on questions of product design and marketing. It is a key task of the institution to create awareness and visibility for the creative diversity within crafts by means of exhibitions, competitions and participations in trade fairs.

Due to its manifold activities and involvement the Beratungsstelle Formgebung has a profound overview of the arts and crafts scene in the state, which manifests in the triennially awarded state prize that brings together the most talented craftsmen in the region. The presented pictures show a selection of laureates.

Get an impression of their work from the current Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate or visit the institution’s website.

Supported by descom—Designforum Rhineland-Palatinate.

Pictures:
1. Edu Tarin @edu.tarin, edutarin.com, Photo: © Michael Jarmusch
2. Roswitha Kaster @roswithakasterphotographie, roswithakaster.de, Photo: © Roswitha Kaster
3. Philipp Gröninger @philippgroeninger, philipp-groeninger.de, Photo: © Philipp Gröninger
4. Tischlerei Sommer @tischlerei_sommer, tischlerei-sommer.de, Photo: © Michael Jarmusch
5. Monika Nickel, flechtwerk-gestaltung.de, Photo: © Michael Jarmusch
6. Martina Stertz, martina-stertz.de, Photo: © Michael Jarmusch
7. Podium.Wert.des.Handwerks, podium discussion at the Federal State Representation RLP in Berlin, 2019.

Slanted in L.A.: Greg Lindy / Lux Typographic + Design

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

In a town like L.A. and on a production like Slanted’s, which brings together the material for a magazine, not everything has to work out. Often, the best things happen when they’re not planned, just as they did when we went to this gleaming city in fall 2019. We were happy to meet the luminaries from the local creative scene and we are thrilled to share our inspiring encounters with you.

Greg Lindy is the founder and creative director of Lux Typographic + Design. The L.A. studio is based on Greg’s expertise and innovative work in type and brand. With a strong vision and approach, Greg has developed fonts for retail sale as well as custom fonts for brands in the retail, cultural, and corporate arenas. Greg currently teaches Type Design at Art Center of College of Design in Pasadena.

Greg Lindy’s work can be found in the Slanted Magazine #35—L.A.. Additionally we shot a video interview to talk about his attitude and view of things. Take a look at our new issue and the video platform to encounter new ways of design thinking!

Digital Underground Vol. 1

Posted on by Vincent Tavano

In Digital Underground Vol. 1, editor and art director Vincent Tavano reflects on the new approach to the discipline of digital design and its impact on the over all world of graphics.

Artists have always given birth to movements; Cubism, Dadaism, Pop art, Brutalism, movements that marked their era and forever influenced the world of art. The 21st century and the advent of the digital medium have also drawn the framework of a new creative practice, digital design. The internet is a limitless playground, an interactive platform where text, image, sound, and video intermingle in an open virtual environment.

In recent years, Vincent Tavano has seen the invisible formation of an avant-garde artistic circle, with its codes, its style, and an ultra-modern approach to the discipline. Sometimes funny, futuristic, experimental, brutalist, or unexpected, this book offers a compilation of references from websites that Tavano has selected for their aesthetic sensitivity and their cultural root. A publication that also questions the key players of this “nouvelle vague” about their approach and vision of this new era in graphics. A written record of a new generation of thinkers working behind the “screens.”

Featuring Bureau Cool, DVTK, Ezra Miller, International Magic, Selam X Studio, Studio Moniker, Yehwan Song, Zach Lieberman, etc.. Foreword by Marc Kremers from Future Corp.

Digital Underground Vol. 1

Editor: Vincent Tavano
Format: 11.5 x 17 cm
Volume: 256 pages
Edition: limited to 300 copies
Workmanship: Otabind brochur
Language: English
Price: 28,– Euro
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Pictoplasma in Isolation

Posted on by pictoplasma in isolation

Since 2004, Pictoplasma has been celebrating the best in contemporary character design and art at its annual conferences in Berlin and NYC. For the first time, and for obvious reasons, this year’s physical conferences had to be cancelled.

No matter how devastating this year may be, Pictoplasma refuses to give up on 2020: This September 18th and 19th, the first ever digital Pictoplasma in Isolation is set to take place as a free 2-day livestream broadcast, awaiting all global character pioneers, creatives and enthusiasts with more than 40 inspiring artist talks, 77 hand-picked animation shorts, and a special symposium track featuring conversations and talks by academics, theorists, and activists on the new-normal iconic symbol of today: The Mask in Visual Culture.

Special focus: the mask in visual culture
This year’s edition of the festival puts a thematic emphasis on the mask and expands on Pictoplasma’s ongoing research into how characters relate to, invade, take over and warp the human body, reexamining one of our most ancient cultural artifacts in a new light. Among the artists featured are Damselfrau and threadstories, two of the most prolific artists currently working with masks. Two digital artists will reflect on how face filters function as a way to change our identities online: David OReilly and Ines alpha.

Pictoplasma in Isolation

When?
September 18th and 19th, 2020

Where?
Online

Find the full speaker line-up, program, and registration information here.

Troublemakers Class of 2020

Posted on by Madeleine Morley

The Troublemakers Class of 2020 is a remote workshop for design research and writing, and a support network for the killjoys, underdogs, outcasts, misfits, rebels, and downright troublemakers asking difficult questions on design campuses worldwide.

Ours is a para-academic environment to nurture and hone ongoing research; a safer space for those yearning to find others who they can share, learn, and grow with. The Troublemakers reject the idea that design is an all-powerful, problem-solving discipline, understanding that design itself is complicit with multiple systems of oppression that reinforce structural inequalities. They believe that design research is more than just a step in producing products and services—it’s a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. Together, the Troublemakers tap into the power of research and journalistic storytelling in order to surface the oppressive complexities that shape our lived realities.

Each Troublemaker brings their ongoing research to the workshop. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have produced one final article relating to your research topic, which will be edited and published on the online design magazine Futuress.

Troublemakers Class of 2020

Application deadline: September 18th, 2020
Workshop runs: October 2nd, 2020, to January 24th, 2021
Basic price: 120.– Euro
(3 × 40.– Euro, for students, recent graduates, and starting-out professionals)
Solidarity price: 240.– Euro
(3 × 80.– Euro if your institution / employer is paying, or you can and want to pay it forward)
Reduced price: 0–75.– Euro
(If you are accepted to the workshop but cannot afford to pay the basic price, we will reduce the price or waive the fee completely depending on your situation)
Apply here

SAND Issue 21

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

To mark a decade of publishing SAND, the editors are calling 2020 their “year of archaeology” and have filled SAND Issue 21 with a mix of new discoveries and excavated favorites. And in the midst of a pandemic, they have gotten to know the pieces even more intimately, seeing them in a surreal light they could not have imagined when they began this issue.

Archaeology is the study of context. It’s not just about digging up and admiring an elegant sculpture, but about reimagining the vanished context it came from, a day-to-day landscape in which that sculpture made a different kind of sense. In Jeff Gu’s “The Grieving Emperor,” an editor puts a red pen to a Roman love story. Zophia McDougal humanizes the same empire’s abstract units of measurement. J.M. Parker’s characters visit a Canaanite arch in the crossfire of the Israel-Palestine conflict, juxtaposing the old silenced stones against today’s cacophony. In Singapore, Hsien Min Toh describes a ledger of donations towards funeral expenses, a written record that swallows its wordless grief. However, sometimes in the issue, it seems as if the past also gazes forward from behind us, unapologetically at us, anticipating our present. The poem “Anxiety” foresees our agitation in a storm of thumbnails and nerves—a fragmented, flattened portrait like Morgan Stokes’s evocative cover. Or, in Siru Wen’s video installation stills, a simultaneous reach back into an intimate, domestic history as well as a foreshadowing of an insular and physically-distanced present.

This moment’s solitudes are more collective than ever. We’ve learned overnight that our whole species is linked by a chain of touch and breath. We’ve grown aware of the thousands of extinct viruses whose bodies are still archived in our cells. That connectivity terrifies us, no matter how poetic. We’ve come to think of our personal and global excavation processes as being a bit like trying to understand the ocean by fishing, yanking the fish out of its watery habitat and inspecting it in the open air.

You can watch selected performances and animations of the issue’s work on this YouTube channel, along with the full replay of the 10th anniversary issue launch festival.

SAND Issue 21

Editor in Chief: Jake Schneider
Managing Editor: Simone O’Donovan
Editorial Coordinator: Matthew Deery
Editors: Ashley Moore, Melissa Richer, Crista Siglin, Emma C. Lawson
Art Editor: Ruhi Amin
Distribution & Funding Coordinator: Natalia Dumont
Designer: Dimitris Gkikas
Communications & Outreach: Ruby Mason
Event Coordinator: Courtney Gosset
Verein Coordinator: Christina Wegener
Publisher: Self-Published
Release date:
Digital version: June 2020
Printed version: July 2020
Format: 14.8 × 21 cm
Retail price: 12.– Euro
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GRAPHIT 2020

Posted on by aennsing

The GRAPHIT 2020 — Festival for Illustration and Urban Sketching is taking place in Erfurt from September 23rd to 27th.

GRAPHIT explores cultural, artistic and creative-economic aspects of drawing, reflects contemporary visual culture and brings creative people together in a scientific festival format. The five-day symposium is taking place from September 23rd to 27th, 2020, packed with workshops, lectures, debates, and open workspaces. In addition, various special formats are being planned, such as urban sketching tours of Erfurt. Check the full program here. Also check out the event’s blog for news and inspiration.

GRAPHIT 2020

When? 
September 23rd to 27th, 2020

Where? 
Klanggerüst 
Magdeburger Allee 175
99086 Erfurt
Germany

Tickets

 

Slanted in L.A.: Jeremy Mickel / MCKL

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

In a town like L.A. and on a production like Slanted’s, which brings together the material for a magazine, not everything has to work out. Often, the best things happen when they’re not planned, just as they did when we went to this gleaming city in fall 2019. We were happy to meet the luminaries from the local creative scene and we are thrilled to share our inspiring encounters with you.

Jeremy Mickel runs MCKL, a L.A.-based type foundry and design studio, publishing original fonts and creating custom designs for clients. Founded in 2012, MCKL has collaborated with leading design firms, corporations, and organizations around the world to provide custom typeface and logo design services.

Jeremy’s work can be found in the Slanted Magazine #35—L.A.. Additionally we shot a video interview to talk about his attitude and view of things. Take a look at our new issue and the video platform to encounter new ways of design thinking!