Parcours Summer 2020

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Parcours invites you, on behalf of all graduates, to the Finals Bachelor and Master of the MSD / Münster School of Design from August 14th to 16h, 2020—this year of course a virtual exhibition.

Parcours is more than just an exhibition. Rich in contrast and versatile, sometimes contradictory, but always individual and special.

From social magazine to sustainable product solutions and flexible exhibition concepts: Parcours presents design and design creators in all their diversity—tangible, digital and innovative.

A live program will provide additional insights into our workshops, as well as online lectures by graduates. Visit courses from the comfort of your own home.

Parcours Summer 2020

When?
Certificate Ceremony:
Friday, August 14th from 11 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.
Please pay attention to the Live-Stream
Exhibition:
Saturday, August 15th and Sunday, August 16th, 2020

Where:
Online

Please pay attention to the online program! Follow the information on all relevant channels: Instagram, Facebook, and Website

The Gardens of Eden & Small Homes, Grand Living

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

We present you two new publications The Gardens of Eden & Small Homes, Grand Living by gestalten that can help you to make your life in an urban world even more individual.

The Gardens of Eden—New Residential Garden Concepts & Architecture for a Greener Planet

As our lifestyles become more sustainable, so does the way we interact with our gardens. No matter what size your patch is, it’s easy to create diverse and rich environments for plants and insects, or to grow your own fruits or vegetables. The Gardens of Eden introduces you to over 20 imaginative projects, featuring interviews with garden designers, insightful texts, and plans to show what contemporary garden culture looks like. In addition, this title offers information about different climate zones and soil types and gives tips for sustainable gardening and self-sufficiency. Get creative with native plants, and design greener corners within urban areas. The Gardens of Eden looks at fascinating examples of gardens around the world, teaching what you can do for nature while revealing what a green space can do for you.

Authors: gestalten & Abbye Churchill
Release date: Febuary 2020
Format: 21 × 26 cm
Features: Full color, hardcover, stitch bound, 256 pages
ISBN: 978-3-89955-990-3
Buy


Small Homes, Grand Living—Interior Design for Compact Spaces

Small Homes, Grand Living’s assortment of projects and homes pays homage to the iconic innovation within modest living areas and shows the creative usage of space in continually expanding urban areas. As more people across the globe move into cities, living space becomes a precious commodity. Designers, architects, and innovative inhabitants seek new ways of creating a home that is just as comfortable as it is functional and aesthetically pleasing. Where does one stow clothing, bicycles, suitcases, or bed linens? Where is the perfect place for the desk, bed, or couch? How does one use less square meters more effectively?

Compact flats perched atop the roofs on high-rise buildings. A one-bedroom apartment that houses a family of four. Stairs that cleverly transform into wardrobes. A collection of cozy cocoons shows the personality and innovation of those living inside: a home is both shelter and a welcoming reflection of the residents. Small Homes, Grand Living offers real interior design solutions directly from the occupants’ imaginations.

Editors: gestalten
Release date: April 2017
Format: 21 × 26 cm
Features: Full color, hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN: 978-3-89955-698-8
Buy

Slanted in Rhineland-Palatinate: Anselm Littschwager

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Our new 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.

In the Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate we present selected artisans: Anselm Littschwager is a silversmith, tool smith, and custom knife maker from Rockenhausen. His products are hand crafted by himself using the highest quality materials. He works using traditional methods that are sustainable. Most of his work is commissioned directly by customers. Each item he creates is unique.

Visit his website or take a look at his beautiful work in the Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate.

The Book Block

Posted on by Rúben R Dias

The Book Block is a manual of industrial binding techniques, the first in the Making a Book collection, which focuses on manuals for graphic book production. With the aim of elevating knowledge about graphic production among designers—helping them to produce better books and communicate more effectively with all those involved in the process—The Book Block brings together the 17 most common industrial binding techniques in 6 categories, exploring each one in detail, describing them, and showing what is possible to do in this day and age.

Conceived from scratch to be bilingual, in Portuguese and English, the book seeks to systematize Portuguese terminology in the printing industry, while providing the same information in the lingua franca of today’s global market: English. In an international context, with customers, employees, and producers sprinkled throughout the world, this book provides the perfect tool for an effective communication. Developed by experienced book designers and bookbinders—Itemzero and Maiadouro—this book is a summary of decades of know-how, now easily made available.

Due to recent high demand, the first edition is already out of stock. A new revised reprint will be available in early August. In order to ensure your copy at its current price, reserve your book now.

The Book Block

Title: The Book Block / O Miolo do Livro
Subtitle: Insustrial Bookbinding Techniques / Técnicas de Encadernação Industrial
Design and Infographics: Itemzero (Rúben Dias, Fábio Martins, Ricardo Dantas)
Prepress, Printing and Finishing: Gráfica Maiadouro
Language: Portuguese and English (Bilingual)
Authors: Rúben R. Dias, Rui Oliveira, Fábio Duarte Martins, Ricardo Philippe Dantas
Publishers and Editors: Itemzero + Maiadouro
Publishing house: Itemzero
Typeface: Uivo by Scannerlicker
Release: December/2019
Volume: 144 pages
Format: 11 × 27 cm
ISBN: 978-989-330088-6
Retail price: € 17.90
Buy

Slanted in L.A.: Rob Carmichael / SEEN

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.

Rob Carmichael opened SEEN in 2005 after many years as a designer in the music and publishing industries. SEEN is an independent art direction and graphic design studio primarily serving clients in music, publishing, and the arts. The studio’s work is realized in various mediums: Packaging, books, posters, clothing, identities, and websites. SEEN is based in El Sereno, L.A..

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

Eye 100

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

After nearly three decades of continuous publishing, Eye’s hundredth issue is a special called Talking about graphic design, a broad overview of current design and designers. We wish the Eys team the best for their anniversary and are already looking forward to the 200th edition!

For this edition Eye invited eleven prominent individuals to talk about graphic design, including Liza Enebeis, Bobby C. Martin Jr, Fraser Muggeridge and Sophie Thomas, all of whom took part in the online Type Tuesday launch event on June 9th, 2000. The cover feature is an interview with ‘mag-man ad-man’ Richard Turley, photographed by Maria Spann. Other interviews are with Elaine Ramos, Michael Bierut (Pentagram), Kate Moross, Jessica Walsh, Françoise Mouly (The New Yorker) and Milton Glaser, who voice their opinions and discuss work, design processes, clients and other concerns.

These illustrated conversations are interleaved with thirteen snapshots of projects that range from editorial design to digital processing, from calligraffiti to Hangul type design. In ‘Remixing the here and now,’ Derek Yates profiles Dines’s Studio Blup, while ‘Kiel’s code’ by John-Patrick Hartnett examines Kiel Mutschelknaus’s evolving Space Type Generator.

Three articles address historical matters: Silas Munro’s review of ‘As, Not For,’ Jerome Harris’s traveling exhibition of work by black designers; ‘Objects of inspiration’ about the Letterform Archive in San Francisco; and ‘Eye’s early years,’ in which Rick Poynor, who edited the first 24 issues, recalls the aims and ideas behind the magazine’s 1990 launch. Other subjects include photographer Jack Davison (profiled by The New York Times Magazine’s Kathy Ryan); the geometrical approach of illustrator Malika Favre; French studio Spassky Fischer; Swiss letterpress designer Dafi Kühne; and Extinction Rebellion.

Editor John Walters describes Eye 100 as ‘a panorama of current, time-stamped graphic design practice,’ representing ‘a freeze-framed “now” that has taken on new significance’ in the shadow of the pandemic. At 140 pages (including covers and inserts), this is the biggest Eye ever, thanks to the generous support of readers, subscribers and advertisers worldwide. All final design and production took place during the Covid-19 lockdown, thanks to the socially distanced design team of Simon Esterson and Holly Catford and the enthusiasm and skill of Dawkins Color and Pureprint, respectively Eye’s repro house and printers since 2008.

Eye 100

Publisher: Eye Magazine
Editor: John Walters
Volume: 140 pages
Buy

DO YOU READ ME? & Buchhandlungen

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

DO YOU READ ME?
Bookshops are not the only places where books are sold. They are places of togetherness in a neighborhood and often the first port of call for travelers who want to explore a city. Bookstores invite you to linger, to readings, concerts and parties; always with the aim of bringing together people who are thirsty for knowledge and curious and to make friends with strangers.

The shops themselves are as different as their owners. There are small bookshops where books are stacked up to the ceiling, minimalist concept stores and true book temples; they are located in apartments, on boats or in Gothic churches. Do you read me? brings together bookstores from all over the world and introduces some of the people who make them unique places.

Publisher: gestalten
Author: gestalten & Marianne Julia Strauss
Release: April 2020
Format: 21 × 26 cm
Volume: 272 pages
Language: English, German
Workmanship: full color, Hardcover, thread stitching
ISBN: 978-3-89955-884-5, 978-3-89955-994-1
Buy


Buchhandlungen—Eine Liebeserklärung (“Bookshops—A Declaration of Love”)
“Books are the proof that humans can do magic.” If one takes a look at the bookstores portrayed by the renowned photographer Horst A. Friedrichs, the quote by the author and astrophysicist Carl Sagan is immediately understandable: From a floating bookstore on a canal boat to endless rows of books in a former cathedral, Friedrichs shows an exquisite selection of 47 independent bookstores. His pictures open the doors to the unique world of books and their enthusiastic dealers, who with great sensitivity and passion create extraordinary places. Treasure chambers full of precious ideas, rooms of fantasy, and rebellion. Microcosms for people with an open mind.

These places have never been more important than today, in a time of fake news and short messages. The stories are told by the author Stuart Husband. With portraits of the bookshops Walther König (Cologne), Shakespeare & Company (Paris), Lello (Porto) and many more.

Publisher: Prestel
Foreword: Nora Krug
Workmanship: Hardcover, half-linen
Volume: 256 pages
Format: 24,0 × 28,0 cm
ISBN: 978-3-7913-8580-8
Release: June 2020
Buy

The Unheard Archive

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

The Unheard Archive is the outcome of an oral history project initiated by Zara Arshad in May 2019. This project entailed reflecting on graphic design practice in South Korea today via conducting interviews with numerous locally-based graphic designers. It draws particular attention to the experience of women designers, those engaged or working with marginalized communities (e. g. LGBTQ+ and physically-disabled groups), emerging designers, and other underrepresented voices in design history.

The Unheard Archive website is a storytelling platform—an online catalog, rather than a repository of oral history materials. It offers just a sense of some of the conversations that have taken place between the researcher and narrators.

Materials from each interview session (comprising audio files and transcripts) are in the process of being prepared. These resources will eventually be deposited at an institution that will make them available for public use. This will include material from interviews conducted with the following designers: Lee Jaeyoung, Lynn Kim, Shin In-ah, Yang Meanyoung, Kim Somi, Woo Yunige and Sunny Studio.

The Unheard Archive was created by Zara Arshad, a researcher, curator and design historian. Arshad has previously held roles at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Design History Society, Beijing Design Week and Icograda Beijing. She is currently a PhD researcher at University of Brighton/V&A.

Image captions
– Poster designed by Sunny Studio for Shin Ji-ye, 2018 Seoul mayor candidate and representative of the Green Party.
– Park Ji-sung (left) and Park Chulhee (right) of Sunny Studio.
– Drag workshop for a local queer parade. Credit: Lee Kanghyuk.
– #MeToo #WithYou’ signs at Doing Cafe (2019). Photo by Zara Arshad, taken during a research trip to Seoul, which entailed investigating new ‘safe spaces’ for women. Many of the stops I made are listed in this article by the New York Times.

Absolute Egypt

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Absolute Egypt book is a documentation of the local visual culture through the lens of graphic design in the local older areas of Cairo and takes the reader on a tour in our local streets by presenting a collection of its most mesmerizing vernacular graphic designs.

The book was originally Moataz’s bachelor thesis in the German University in Cairo. Then after the completion of the bachelor, the book underwent further refinement for almost two years, under the supervision of lecturer Philipp Paulsen and the guidance of publisher Khatt Books (with the editing of Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès and Edo Smitshuijzen), resulting in this final published version.

Raghda Moataz wanted to make sense of her local environment, to investigate those local vernacular graphic designs and understand their spectrum in a research-based book, and not just look at their aesthetics in a brief encounter. Therefore, when the author studied graphic design, she could see beyond the visuals and organize the designs to understand the underlying skeleton of how people live through graphic design and how those graphic designs tell the story of our culture.

Raghda Moataz graduated from the Faculty of Applied Sciences and Arts at the German University in Cairo (GUC). She is a writer, researcher and graphic designer, with a deep love for practicing and teaching design. Moataz became one of the youngest authors in her field when she published her first book Absolute Egypt. Her work especially revolves around researching visual culture and reusing its meanings to produce new visuals that are relevant and powerful. In regards to work, Moataz was a graphic design instructor at Kemet Arts & Design, was the art director of Hundred Best Arabic Posters (100/100) competition round two and was among the founding team of Hasala donations services. She was also an Adobe Achievement Award semi-finalist, listed among the 100/100 competition round two winners, featured in the HGB book fair 2018 in Germany and a three-times excellence award winner for high academic achievements at the GUC.

Absolute Egypt

Author: Raghda Moataz
Publisher: Khatt Books
Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-94-90939-19-9
Pages: 240
Format: 18.5 × 20 cm
Edition: softcover (with flaps)
Languages: English & Arabic
Price: € 29.50
Buy

BEYOND Filmfestival 2020

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

At the 9th International Symposium-Future Design and Film Festival-Climate Change from July 23rd to 26th BEYOND Filmfestival 2020 will stage a triad of science, art and technology with the aim to create a better future.

Both events, Film Festival and Symposium will be broadcasted virtually, live and online worldwide. Take a look at the program here.

The climate crisis and the crisis of imminent ecological collapse not only affect the nature we live in, but our economic, political, social and technological systems. The climate crisis is a crisis of contemporary global civilization and therefore also a task for art.

This year, BEYOND Film Festival Future Design therefore focuses on climate change and its effects. National and international films that deal with ecological and social problems, films that force society, politics and companies to think and above all to act, films that create new narratives and ideas for the 21st century and design alternative futures are welcome. Discover all movies here.

The symposium will be translated live into several languages using the artificial intelligence Lecture Translator developed at KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology).

BEYOND Filmfestival 2020

When?
July 23rd to 26th, 2020

Where?
Online

Get your ticket here

A Shift in Perspective

Posted on by leoniekaltenegger

The discipline of visual communication, similar to many others, underlies a great deal of pressure, as it involves a high need for surprising, unconventional ideas: creative solutions. A Shift in Perspective: An Investigation into Creativity from Constraint examines not only whether or how one can influence creativity but also whether constraints can promote the creative process. Furthermore, since creation is often associated with freedom, this thesis intends to change how the creative process is perceived. While several psychologists and philosophers have widely studied creativity, much uncertainty regarding the correlation between creativity and constraint still exists. Divided into two parts, this thesis addresses the framework behind creativity from theoretical and empirical perspectives. Conducted as self-study, this small-scale observation aims to resolve the main research question and provide a better understanding of the creative process.

The empirical self-study, which includes an in-depth analysis of creative constraints along with the daily creation of a poster, intends to shift how society understands the creative process. When one considers creativity, terms such as ‘freedom of creation’ and ‘boundless possibilities’ often come to mind, as well as an open space for spontaneous, informal creation. However, this experiment proposes that rather than being unlimited, the creative process necessitates constraint, which opens creators to new perspectives and allows them to explore unknown spaces that might have never been discovered otherwise. The experiment was conducted over six months, with an overall duration of 168 days. With the idea of limiting herself for that time, the designer introduced a new constraint every 14 days. The selfstudy was organized into twelve chapters: six months of daily creation divided into 12 categories, one for each constraint.

Leonie Kaltenegger is an Austrian designer with a strong focus on visual communication—creating brandings, corporate identities, visual concepts and editorial content, currently based in Salzburg. Her practice combines diverse fields of visual communication and is often characterized by the use of extreme contrasts and bold typography. Driven by a subtle, abstract visual language, she aims to reveal the essential characteristics of a brand or project. Besides her studies, she works on selected projects on a freelance basis and enjoys to collaborate with other creatives. Aiming to shape and create, giving thoughts a figure.

A Shift in Perspective

Editorial, Concept, and Layout: Leonie Kaltenegger
Project: Bachelor Thesis, University of Applied Sciences Graz
Release: February 2020
Volume: 255 pages
Format: 25.7 × 20 cm
Language: English
Production/Finishing: Book, Softcover, refined with a color cut in black
Print: Aichfelder Druck GmbH
Binding: Buchbinderei Papyrus GesmbH & Co. KG
Paper: Curious Matter Goya Black Truffle, Munken Kristall Rough
Edition: 10 (not for sale)

Moholy-Nagy 125

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

László Moholy-Nagy, the great intellectual and technical innovator and world-famous Hungarian artist was born on July 20, 125 years ago. His oeuvre is well known in many countries around the world, his works are auctioned at record prices and have been exhibited in recent years in the largest museums in London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles attracting huge audiences. However, few are aware of the roots of this decisive, experimental, innovative creator of the 20th century, namely that he was Hungarian.

On the occasion of the anniversary, the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest (MOME), named after the artist, created an unusual audiovisual campaign, which will be presented on July 20th, on László Moholy-Nagy’s birthday, by Hungarian media service providers, online platforms and foreign Hungarian institutes.

On this occasion, the university pays tribute to the timeless validity of Moholy-Nagy’s ideas by releasing an audiovisual package online on July 20th at 10 a.m. together with the Moholy-Nagy 125 report film, by Moholymotion a 125-second animation, dozens of interviews and video messages, as well as an interactive website.

The initiative features such prominent figures of Hungarian art and cultural life as art historian Krisztina Passuth, artist Dóra Maurer, Julia Fabényi, director of the Ludwig Museum, architect Zsófia Csomay, József Fülöp, rector of MOME, István Orosz, graphic designer, a member of Hungarian Academy of Arts or Károly Gerendai, cultural manager. In addition to members of the Moholy-Nagy family, renowned professionals from the international art world contributed to the commemoration such as Karole P. B. Vail, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and Annemarie Jaeggi, director of the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin.

The Urania National Film Theater, Budapest will host the film premiere screening at the opening night to the series of events on July 16th. The film produced by MOME will be accompanied by the Hungarian premiere of The New Bauhaus, an American documentary about László Moholy-Nagy.

The online commemoration on July 20th will be followed in the fall by further events on MOME’s new, world-class campus opened last September.

The commemorative series was created in collaboration with MOME, the Hungarian Academy of Arts, the National Film Institute, the National Office of Intellectual Property, and the Urania National Film Theater.

Moholy-Nagy 125

Concept by/Producer József Fülöp, Tamás Kollarik
Producer: Zsuzsanna Vincze
Co-producer: Tamás Gergely Kucsera
Creative producer: Viktória Szabó
Line producer: Györgyi Falvai, Dóra Csányi
Communication: MOME Brand Office
Finance: Mónika Mayer, Andrea Nagy
Film staff: Annamária Maronics, Kristóf Pajor, Krstan Petrucz, Barbara Keserű, Dániel Firnigel
Animation: Melinda Kádár, Bori Mákó, Lili Korcsok, Éva Darabos
Layout, microsite: Balázs Vargha and Gábor Réthi
Released by the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, July 15th, 2020

When?
July 20th, 2020
10 a.m.

Where?
Online

Shape Grammars

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

How can unique pieces be mass produced? Or: How can the computer take over and support creative work? Sol LeWitt writes in his Sentences on Conceptual Art: “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. […] There are many side effects that the artist cannot imagine. These may be used as ideas for new works.” A form is removed from the status of pure art as soon as it is filled with unambiguous information or applied utility. Its poetic function as art is thus weakened, its practical function as design is strengthened.

With the right system, an idea can also become a machine that produces design instead of art. This is then called generative design. However, this form of design is primarily used to display complex data sets or to fire off overwhelming visual spectacles.

Based on the work of Sol LeWitt, graphic designer Jannis Maroscheck has designed and programmed his own production systems that can draw an unlimited number of individual graphic shapes.

The result is a systematic catalog—a kind of dictionary of shapes—for browsing and exploring geometric systems, in which one can always discover something new.

Shape Grammars is intended as a handbook for graphic designers for the design of fonts, logos and pictograms, which, in addition to 150,000 generated shapes, shows some potentials and limitations of generative design. At the same time, the work serves as a basis for further research on more complex systems and artificial intelligence. The computer can thus already function as a dialog partner in the creative process.

Shape Grammars

Editor, Designer: Jannis Maroscheck
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Release: July 2020
Volume: 836 pages
Format: 18.5 × 23.4 cm
Language: English, German
ISBN: 978-3-948440-09-1
Price: € 45.–
Buy

George Hardie Exhibition

Posted on by work-in-process

At a dinner party some years ago a fellow guest asked George Hardie what he did for a living. The acclaimed English Illustrator, Professor of Graphic Design, replied, “I’m an illustrator, designer, and teacher.” Unsatisfied, his table mate pressed, “No, what do you really do?” Hardie is an unflaggingly polite, but most of all, modest, English gentleman. So, after a lengthy pause he responded, “I notice things and I get things noticed,” a fairly unassuming assessment of a five-decade-old career as, he semi-ironically claims, that of a ‘jobbing illustrator.’
– The rules of the game, Daniel Nadel, Eye no. 58 vol. 15, 2005

George’s work is visible world wide, anyone with a poster or an album cover of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin is likely to be looking at one of his designs. Regularly among the world’s top ten favorite album covers is his prism for Dark Side of The Moon (designed with and for Hipgnosis) also his phallic Zeppelin crash for Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album. His work has been exhibited widely with exhibitions that have included one-person retrospective at Brighton, Barcelona and Ljubljana. His books have been shown at The Pentagram Gallery in London and in Nagoya, Japan. George Hardie has enjoyed a 51-year-long career, one which includes many international commissions from a wide variety of clients. He gained widespread notice through his stamp designs for the Royal Mail including Channel Tunnel stamps for the Royal Mail and La Poste in 1994. He also created illustrations for the Magic stamps produced in 2005. George has been awarded by D&AD, the global association for Creative Advertising & Design: four 1970s D&AD silver awards with Hipgnosis, and a fifth silver award for his Millennium stamp. He was elected a Member of the Art Workers Guild (1997) and subsequently became Master of the Guild and a Royal Designer for Industry.

George Hardie was the tutor of the exhibition designers and curators, on the Masters course at the University of Brighton from 2007–2009. These being the last years as head of the masters course and his teaching career, they were quite blessed with getting to work so closely with him and acquiring a great awareness of their role as thinkers, makers, and designers. The designers had been wanting, for a while, to have the space to present his work to audiences outside of the UK to show the great breathe and range of his other less famous works so that they too could get some recognition just as his work for music album covers has had. For them, George Hardie is an essential artist in the history of British graphic design. A humble/modest/discreet English gentleman, endowed with great finesse of mind and remarkable kindness, George is also a great collector of everything and anything, to the great despair of his wife Avril. His work unfolds like his collections: by associations of ideas and forms.

The exhibition has been categorized in 13 sections that allow one to discover the great variety, thoroughness, and facetiousness thanks to an abundant graphic vocabulary that George has developed for more than 50 years. There are 217 pieces of work gathered in this exhibition. For the scenography, the designers color coded the sections, choosing colors that George uses most often; a birds eye view of the room show you that the central picture rail forms a ‘G.’ A wink to George’s signature, which he often slips in his productions and which takes the shape of the staircase which leads to his studio of work. The exhibition poster is also a tribute to the isometric style of George’s work while playing with the concept of movement. They wanted the exhibition to take up the basics of George’s work: form, volume, color, multiple levels of reading …

George Hardie Exhibition

Exhibition design and curation: Maison des éditions and work in process
Poster design: Benjamin Lahitte

When?
The exhibition is in a summer break and will continue from 26.08.2020–12.09.2020

Where?
Le Bel Ordinaire
Les Abattoirs
Allée Montesquieu
64140 Billère
France

Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Above all, Rhineland-Palatinate stands out for its wine with 65 percent of German wine being produced there. But what about design? Following the Special Issues of Babylon (2013), Marrakech (2016), and Rwanda (2019), we were curious to find out more about our Heimat Germany and highlight regional differences in the Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate.

The first destination of our journey took us right across the Rhine, to Rhineland-Palatinate. In its state capital Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg invented letterpress printing and delivered the first printed Bible in 1456, and probably drank a pint of wine on it. The state was formerly founded from the French occupation zone after a referendum on the state constitution on May 18th, 1947, two years before the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany. The black, red, and gold of the flag of the Hambach Festival, the first democratic demonstration, are still the colors of the Federal Republic of Germany today.

The 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.

With the help of descom—Designforum Rhineland-Palatinate we sourced designers, photographers, illustrators and makers—all people who love their region and are passionate about what they do. So yes, beyond beautiful landscapes with vineyards, rivers, forests, and castles, Rhineland-Palatinate is a shining example of design in Germany, that moves with time while sticking to its roots.

Slanted Special Issue Rhineland-Palatinate

Editor, Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Release: July 2020
Volume: 128 pages
Format: 16 × 24 cm
Language: English
ISBN: 978-3-948440-08-4
Price: € 12.–
Buy

Supported by descom—Designforum Rhineland-Palatinate

Schwarzdenker

Posted on by Laura Nadvornik

Schwarzdenker offers a wickedly self-deprecating view of today’s creative industry. For designers, for all the future potential designers, and for their parents trying desperately to prevent that.

The topics of the first edition: a relentless introspection; a revelation of scandalous practices in competitive business; a look outside where others get along quite well without design; about the manners of how designers treat each other and customers; a biting satire about designers as a species and a razor-sharp criticism of their thinking; the eternal dilemmas “art vs. Design” and “fame vs. success”; about fashionable “denglish” (German and English language mix) and the eternal same; about today’s fake news and the good old days; with anger about design education and with confidence in the future, about sustainability in print and real problems in procurement practice, and last but not least about money.

Schwarzdenker

Publisher: Victoria Sarapina
Authors: Michaela Harnisch, Horst Moser, Olaf Leu, Kurt Weidemann, Silvia Werfel, Dr. Hans Jürgen Escherle, Jost Hochuli, Herbert Lechner, Rudolf Paulus Gorbach, Susanne Zippel, Christian Büning, Clemens Theobert Schedler, Peter Vetter, Joachim Kobuss, Bernd Weber, Christian Aumüller
Photographers: Kathrin Schäfer, Oleg Koscheletz, Dominik Parzinger
Illustration, Lettering, Infographics: Silja Götz, Frank Ramspott, Petra Wöhrmann, Peter Felder
Volume: 132 pages
Language: German
Format: 19 × 27 × 0.8 cm
Price: 13.– Euro
Buy

Yearbook 2019: Position

Posted on by Burg Giebichenstein

The current yearbook of the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design provides insights into the institution under the topic “Position” and presents outstanding student projects from 2019.

The eighth edition of the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design yearbook is dedicated to the main topic of position on over 200 pages in German and English. To take and show attitude and to represent positions to the outside world is not only indispensable for artists and designers. To position oneself in the social context, to express oneself, and to become active is increasingly a task that educational and cultural institutions want and have to face. Against this background, the yearbook is at the same time a place of discourse for questions: What does it mean for an art school to develop a common attitude and to communicate this to the outside world? What role do art and design play in social contexts—or not? In four essays and an interview on the subject of “taking up a position,” professors, staff, and students approach the complex from different perspectives.

With this yearbook, the BURG looks back on the 2019 academic year and presents a variety of artistic and design positions of students, teachers, and graduates. For example, the exhibition is “open daily” with student works on theme “A für Alltag” or the farewell exhibition “Reportages” on the end of Prof. Ulrich Klieber’s teaching career. The exhibition “Bio, plastics—or both,” shown for the first time in Germany, examined bioplastics and their ecological relevance. In contrast, the exhibition “welt erfahren” on the other hand showed works that dealt with other cultures and life worlds. In autumn, BURG alumni presented their works in the guest exhibition Teilchenbeschleuniger (Particle Accelerator) at the Spinnerei Leipzig.

In addition, a comprehensive section of pictures and texts documents the works and projects of students and graduates who were selected for the Saalesparkasse Foundation Art Prize and the GiebichenStein Design Prize, as well as works created in the context of the graduate scholarship of the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The graphic design of the new yearbook picks up on the topic of position by focusing on the seriousness of the statements, like a manifesto, through reduction. In this way, content and visual hierarchies in the text typesetting were kept to a minimum and images were ordered by a fixed design grid.

Yearbook 2019: Position

Publisher: Rectorate of Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle
Concept: Brigitte Beiling, Silke Janßen
Editors: Brigitte Beiling, Bert Sander
Design: Patrick Müßiggang, Arne Winter
Art Direction: Jonas Hansen
Printed at: University publishing house Burg Giebichenstein University of Art Halle
Format: 18 × 26 cm, 216 pages, paperback
Languages: German and English
ISBN: 978-3-86019-154-4
Sponsor: Saalesparkasse Halle
Price: € 7.–
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The yearbook 2019 of Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design in Halle (Saale) was supported by the Saalesparkasse Halle.

Arpona

Posted on by Floodfonts

Arpona is a typeface for anyone who prefers to stand out from the crowd, than to go with the flow. It comes with small wedge serifs and a strong character, ideal for corporate design and all projects characterized by a sense of individualism—for example art, fashion, food, beverage, and lifestyle topics.

Arpona is inspired by roman letters carved in stone but otherwise difficult to categorize. It is neither a pure serif nor a sans but rather a symbiosis of different design concepts. Because of its display qualities, it’s a good choice for packaging, advertising, and editorial design and is well readable even in running text on screen.

The family has nine weights, ranging from Thin to Black plus corresponding italics. Each style includes 590 glyphs supporting all western-, eastern-, and central-european languages including four sets of figures and various currency symbols. Arpona is available on MyFonts and in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Arpona

Foundry: Floodfonts
Designer: Felix Braden
Release: May 2020
Format: OTF, TTF, WOFF, EOT
Styles: 18, Thin to Black (incl. Italics)
Price per style: $ 49.–,  family: $ 495.–
Buy

For more information visit the Arpona microsite

Yearbook 100 Beste Plakate 19

Posted on by Laura Nadvornik

Every year the association 100 Beste Plakate e. V. presents awards to honor the most innovative and trendsetting poster designs from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The Yearbook 100 Beste Plakate 19 has fast become the go-to source for graphic artists, designers, and advertisers. Even today, the traditional printed poster is still regarded as the ultimate challenge in the graphic arts.

The 100 Beste Plakate yearbook focuses on how designs can be described verbally. What is the relationship between language and image? How can visual codes and phenomena or trends be captured in words? Thirty designers, curators, artists, architects, and theorists were invited to join the project and to describe the selected posters. The purpose of this exercise was not to come up with a standard jury statement, but to point out ways of interacting personally with the poster: either by offering an objective description or by delivering a subjective critique in the form of an essay.

Florian Lamm and Jakob Kirch, who created this year’s 100 Beste Plakate 19 yearbook, have translated this conceptual task into their design by dividing the catalog into two parts. While the thirty text contributions have been united in a booklet, a separate image section presents the corresponding posters.

Yearbook 100 Beste Plakate 19

Publisher: Verlag Kettler
Design: Lamm & Kirch
Format: 17 × 24 cm
Volume: 332 pages
Language: English, German
Workmanship: double Swiss brochure
ISBN: 978-3-86206-825-8
Price: € 29.90 
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Have a closer look!

Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design: Rundgang 2020

Posted on by kristina.pauli

Once again, the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (ABK Stuttgart) is hosting the annual “Rundgang”—a diverse exhibition of the students’ most recent projects and assignments. This year’s Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design: Rundgang 2020 is taking place online from July 17th to 19th, in a new, digital format.

As the doors of the Campus Weißenhof must remain closed due to the current situation, the students’ work will be presented on the interactive online platform. Performances, artistic experiments, film, and seminar projects from the departments of Architecture, Art, Design, and Art History—Conservation can be seen via galleries, livestreams, and 360 degree videos and will form a virtual exhibition beyond the limits of the campus. Only the windows of the Academy will provide exhibition space for works of art at the ABK.

Additionally, residents of the Stuttgart area can explore further select locations that will accommodate student projects and make up the decentralized part of the exhibition. Students will present their work in shops, cafés, state institutions, and even on their own balconies.

The official opening of the event is taking place on Friday, July 17th at 6 p.m. on the Rundgang website. This will encompass not only the virtual exhibition but also a wide offer of live tours, award ceremonies, speeches, and much more. As usual, there will be merchandise available on the online shop.

The annual Rundgang is the highlight of the year for not only the students, but also professors and university staff of the ABK Stuttgart, who all work towards creating a unique and multidimensional exhibition for the visitors. This year, the Rundgang is focussed on digital content, making it more accessible than ever. Visitors from all over the world are invited to tune in and experience what the university has to offer, all from their own personal screens.

Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design: Rundgang 2020

When?
from July 17th to 19th (offical opening is on Friday, July 17th at 6 p.m.)

Where?
Online at the Rundgang website—Tune in!

Permanently Improvised

Posted on by Laura Nadvornik

Permanently Improvised: 15 Years of Urban Print Collage! The artist duo Various & Gould has been an integral part of Berlin’s Urban Art scene for a decade. In a playful and unconventional way, the two artists tackle major social issues and find new, specific forms of expression in each of their series.

Just in time for Various & Gould’s 15th anniversary, this bilingual monograph presents the full range of their work, enriched by essays by selected authors.

Permanently Improvised

Photographer: Boris Niehaus, Luna Park, Hans Friedrich, and others
Publisher: seltmann+söhne, Kunst- und Fotobuchverlag
Author: Various & Gould
Release: November 2019
Volume: 208 pages
Format: 24 × 17 cm
Language: English, German
ISBN: 978-3-946688-73-0
Price: € 35.– 
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Universal Specimen

Posted on by rosetta

Universal Specimen is a new tool for previewing and evaluating fonts in multiple languages. It helps designers preview and evaluate their fonts in a vast number of languages (163 to be precise). It was developed by Rosetta Type Foundry, specialists in multilingual typography and global fonts.

Using sample text from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the specimen allows you to preview, typeset and adjust the typographic settings for multiple translations of the same text side by side.

Universal Specimen comes ready to use with selected fonts from the multilingual Rosetta library, but it also works with any font file you have on your computer. The app runs in the browser, so nothing gets uploaded to our servers and we don’t collect any information about the fonts you use; in other words, it’s safe to use with your current font licence.

The developers hope the tool will quickly become part of your typesetting toolkit. Expect this first version to be extended with more languages soon.

The Universal Specimen was developed by Rosetta, world typography specialists, publishers, and makers of original fonts addressing the needs of global typography. Their goal is to enable people to read better in their native languages.

Try the new tool now!

reGeneration 4

Posted on by Clara Weinreich

Every five years since 2005, the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland, has staged an exhibition to review tendencies and look at perspectives in contemporary photography. reGeneration 4 accompanies the 2020 exhibition and features works by a wide range of emerging international photographic artists. In addition, the book includes statements from participants in the earlier exhibitions, commissioned by the curators-editors, about their individual artistic evolution, in which environmentalism, social equality and inclusion, digitalization, and securing their own livelihood appear as key topics and practical challenges. The book presents these insights alongside depictions of the works by all thirty-five artists selected for reGeneration 4, brief commentary texts, and an introductory essay.

reGeneration 4

Publisher: Scheidegger & Spiess
Editors: Lydia Dorner and Pauline Martin. With an introduction by Tatyana Franck and contributions by Émile Delcambre Hirsch, Lydia Dorner, Pauline Martin, Emilie Schmutz and Lars Willumeit
In collaboration with the Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne
Release: 2020
Language: English & French
Finishing: Hardcover
Pages: 232 with 160 color and 6 b/w illustrations
Dimensions: 22 × 30 cm
ISBN: 978-3-85881-857-7
Price: SFR 59.– / GBP 50.– / USD 59.– / EUR 58.–
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Picture 1: © Antonio Pulgarin, de la série Fragments of the Masculine, 2017.
Picture 2: © Cristina Velásquez, Los huevos en mi casa los puso mi mamá [Les oeufs chez moi ont été pondus par ma mère] (2019), de la série The New World, 2019.
Picture 3: © Émile Sadria, de la série Obsolete 2019, 2019.
Picture 4: © Erik Berglin, Tulip Variations #94, 2020.
Picture 5: © Jennifer Abessira, de la série #ElastiqueProject, depuis 2011.
Picture 6: © Jessie Schaer, de la série Perception, du vide à la forme, 2019.
Picture 7: © Karolina Wojtas, de la série Abzgram, depuis 2017.
Picture 8: © Léonie Marion, Sans titre (2017), de la série Soulèvements jurassiques, 2016–2019.
Picture 9: © Nathaniel White, Une tombe de réfugié en Sicile, Sicile (2018), de la série Routes, 2020.
Picture 10: © Piotr Zaworski, de la série Untitled, 2018.
Picture 11: © Raphaela Rosella avec Gillianne, Mimi, Rowrow, Tammara, Tricia et leurs familles, de la série You’ll Know It When You Feel It, 2011–2019.
Picture 12: © Rochelle Brockington, de la série Skin + Hair Stock photos, 2018.
Picture 13: © Sébastien Delahaye, de la série La Bête des Vosges, 2017–2018.
Picture 14: © Sheng-Wen Lo, Zoo Blijdorp de Rotterdam, Pays-Bas (2016), de la série White Bear, depuis 2014.
Picture 15: © Thandiwe Msebenzi, Indawo yam – Mon endroit (2017), de la série Awundiboni – You Don’t See Me, 2015–2017.
Picture 16: © Yuan Jin, de la série Grow from Elapses, 2016–2017.

 

ONE Hamburg

Posted on by Arndt Benedikt

Defying the current crisis with optimism: ONE Hamburg is a bright example. Since concert halls are closed, just like stadiums and stages, the new social TV platform offers news, interviews, podcasts and concerts, which can be followed via livestream from the comfort and safe zone of your sofa at home.

“We want to give people the stage they have unfortunately lost for the time being—and at least digitally connect the city and its people,” say the initiators about their motivation.

All those involved immediately picked up speed and commitment. And in just 139 hours, the project was taken from idea to go-live. Part of the team is the design studio Arndt Benedikt from Frankfurt. Not only did they create the brand and on-air design overnight, they also took over the rollout for all assets of the various communication media.

It was important to Arndt Benedikt to create a positive design that spreads clarity and optimism in these turbulent times. The strongly reduced design system is based on surfaces, typography and color only. The bright color spectrum gives the design a positive radiance, the reduction to running text and headline level brings the message of the individual TV formats into the foreground.

After the launch on March 18th, ONE Hamburg has been broadcasting daily since March 19th on channels such as Facebook, Instagram, or its own URL. All this set up to connect people who create and love culture despite the current crisis and to offer a digital stage. Stay Home. Stay Connected.