When:
Vernissage:
Thu, December 6th, 7 p.m.
Exhibition:
Fri, December 7th–April 14th
Office Hours:
Tue–Sun: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Wed: 10 a.m.–8 p.m.
Where:
Museum für Gestaltung Zürich
Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96
8031 Zürich—CH
The Fikra Graphic Design Biennial
During his stay in the Emirates, Lars Harmsen met Salem Faissal Al-Qassimi, Founder & Principal of Fikra. His studio now organized the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial: Ministry of Graphic Design”. Invited to lecture and give a workshop, Lars send us a few impressions of the event happing right now in Sharjah.
This wide-ranging exhibition and curatorial initiative explores graphic design’s influence in shaping the present and imagining potential futures.
Set to open on November 9, 2018 and run until the end of the month in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial 01 creates a departure point for dialogue, research, and thinking within the discipline. Anchored in Sharjah, but extending to the wider region and beyond, the Biennial will offer a global platform to shed light on the role of graphic design in the 21st century.
Fikra Graphic Design Biennial 01: Ministry of Graphic Design draws inspiration from the unique governmental structures within the United Arab Emirates, such as the Minister of State for Happiness and the Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence. The fictional yet familiar format of a “Ministry of State” serves here to facilitate experimental thinking about the expanded field of graphic design and its impact on public opinion, entrepreneurship, culture, technology, and society-at-large.
Ministry of Graphic Design is organized into several Departments, each representing a distinctive curatorial focus and format. These Departments include the Department of Graphic Optimism, Department of Dematerializing Language, Department of Non-Binaries, Department of Flying Saucers, and Department of Mapping Margins. Presenting objects, ideas, performances, installations, and more, the exhibition’s curatorial departments embrace a polyphonic and geographically-diverse approach to historical and contemporary practice.
The overall Biennial and its Departments serve to catalog and exhibit existing design works alongside contributions from adjacent fields; to workshop real-world problems and theoretical questions; and to propose speculative designs that project future scenarios and strategies for the discipline.
“We are excited to launch this first-of-its-kind, international graphic design biennial in the region. We envisaged creating a graphic design biennial for both professionals and the general public alike,” said Salem Al-Qassimi, Founder and Principal of Fikra, and Director of the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial. “The event aims to communicate the importance of graphic design as a practice and help designers understand it better. More importantly, I think that it is crucial to have a representation of this region in the discourse related to graphic design practice across the globe. It is equally important for us to carry forward our ideas, culture, and narrative.”
Prem Krishnamurthy, issuing a joint statement on behalf of the Artistic Directors, commented that “Fikra Graphic Design Biennial 01: Ministry of Graphic Design proposes graphic design as integral to contemporary civic life, forming nearly every medium, message, and communication we encounter today. While graphic design is sometimes overlooked as the mere commercial production of visual surfaces for existing ideas, in reality, it is a timely medium for catalyzing new approaches. Intended seriously yet inflected by a tongue-in-cheek approach, the theme presents graphic design in familiar and unconventional formats. During this moment of global turbulence, the exhibition challenges the public perception of the field and experiments beyond accepted disciplinary boundaries. Our goal is to start a dialogue around what graphic design could accomplish tomorrow.”
The Biennial team consists of Salem Al-Qassimi, Founder, and Principal of Fikra and Director of Fikra Graphic Design Biennial; Maryam Al Qassimi, Principal of Fikra and Co-Director of the Fikra Graphic Design Biennial; Eleonora Cervellera, Head of Programming and Partnerships; as well as Artistic Directors for the inaugural edition of the biennial: Prem Krishnamurthy, Na Kim, and Emily Smith, supported by a curatorial team including Hala Al-Ani & Riem Hassan, Nina Paim & Corinne Gisel, Uzma Rizvi, and Alia Al-Sabi. Additionally, the team includes an advisory board of cultural experts, Dr. Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès, Pascal Zoghbi, Kiyonori Muroga, Catherine Ince, and Uzma Rizvi.
Fikra is a design-led educational platform that comprises Fikra Campus—a co-working space, a café, a gallery, and a library—Fikra Design Studio, and Fikra Graphic Design Biennial.
Dynamic Font Day 2018
When Variable Fonts came up fall 2016, the Dynamic Font Day was the first conference to profoundly discuss this joint project of Adobe, Apple, Google and Microsoft. Two years later, it’s time to verify the promises of the inventors and promoters. How far support for the new format has grown? Where are the first smart implementations out there? How far still to go to a real responsive typography? — Or will this whole story end in a huge flop?
Typography in digital media has grown by leaps and bounds during the last years. The wheel is rapidly turning for designers and developpers. The Dynamic Font Day 2018 will bring the latest updates, illuminates chances and risks and helps you, to find your own position in this ultrafast digital world.
The conference language will be English. We will have a lineup of internationally renowned speakers in the field of digital typography. You will find a continuously updated speaker list here.
The Dynamic Font Day 2018 will be hosted by Munich School of Design & Fashion in the very city center of Munich. The school is a creative hub for the media and fashion industry not only in Munich and the perfect soil for an international conference like ours.
Adobe Black Friday offer
Black Friday special: Adobe offers 40% discount on Adobe Creative Cloud! Only € 35,69 instead of € 59,49 monthly, valid until 11/23/18. Check out all the numerous tools and new features such as Adobe XD, Adobe Sensei, Premiere Rusch CC, or Photoshop CC for iPad.
New videos online from Dubai
In Spring 2018 the Slanted editors took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Dubai. A city—when described by many people—that is all sickening shine and has no soul. But Dubai and the whole region, originally a piece of desert sparsely populated by Bedouins, is now transforming itself rapidly into a center, if not the world’s greatest center, of trade, finance, and tourism—and moreover, something important happened in the last few years: Culture! Today, a new Arab world is being plotted and planned. The entire Gulf is teeming with initiatives—from the most public to the most private—to change and reinvent seemingly immutable rules, regimes, edicts, and assumptions, culminating, perhaps, in the stated intention to work more closely together. The Gulf states have a past, and they will have a future. The contours of that future are legible in Slanted Magazine #32—Dubai and the video interviews with the creatives presented in that issue!
Limitied Dubai Special Edition
On occasion of the release of Slanted Magazins #32—Dubai, a limited special edition has been published which is exclusively available in the Slanted Shop. The edition contains an illustrated booklet that has been printed on a risograph as well as a photo book showcasing some of the best photographers and photo artists from Dubai. It’s all packed in a high-quality, calligraphic tote bag.
Publisher: Slanted Publishers
Release: October 2018
Edition of 250
Price: € 29,–
Riso Booklet: It Was All a Dream—Dubai Diaries
Born and raised in Madrid, adopted by Barcelona and Dubai in the past years, Ruben Sánchez is an artist with a strong, colorful graphic style that resonates through all of his projects. Coming from the cultural worlds of graffiti and skateboarding, Sánchez mixes techniques and influences from each field, working on all kind of materials from canvases, murals, reclaimed wood, sculptures or installations. His artworks can be found all around the globe, as a part of art festivals, humanitarian projects or international exhibitions but also as “uncommissioned” works in all kind of places. Sánchez gave Slanted’s creative director Lars Harmsen a “carte blanche“ to create a compilation of his works produced during his time in Dubai. The booklet was printed by the well-known riso-workshop Drucken3000 in Berlin.
Illustrations: Ruben Sánchez
Design: Lars Harmsen
Volume: 24 pages
Format: 14,8 × 21 cm
Paper: Metapaper Rough white, 100 g/sm
Binding: staple binding
Printing: Drucken3000
Colors: Yellow, Fluorescent Pink, Fluorescent Orange, Blue, Medium Blue, Purple, Fluorescent Green, Crimson Red
Photo Book: Under Construction
The special photography publication UNDER CONSTRUCTION showcases work from the photographers Ola Allouz, Faysal Tabbarah / architecture + other things, Ammar al Attar, Lama Hussain Gargash, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Irenaeus Herok, Johannes Heuckeroth, Celia Peterson, Juan Roldán, Christian Topp, and Ashok Verma. The intention of this publication is to allow a closer view on society in the UAE, giving enough space for own interpretation. The book has printed by Océ Printing Systems on a Canon imagePRESS C10000VP.
Photographers: Ola Allouz, Faysal Tabbarah / Architecture + Other Things, Ammar Al Attar, Lamya Hussain Gargash, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Lars Harmsen, Irenaeus Herok, Johannes Heuckeroth, Celia Peterson, Juan Roldán, Christian Topp, Ashok Verma
Design: Lars Harmsen
Volume: 144 pages
Format: 16 × 24 cm
Printing: Canon imagePress C10000VP by Océ Printing Systems
Binding: adhesive binding
Tote Bag: Love Dubai
Wissam Shawkat is a rule-breaker and known for his new calligraphic style which references a number of traditional scripts including Sunbuli, Jali Diwani, Eastern Kufic, and Thuluth, bringing them together with modern design. For the tote bag of this special edition he drew a calligraphy exclusively for Slanted. The artwork can be translated to “Love Dubai.”
Calligraphy: Wissam Shawkat
Production: World of Textiles
Material: 100% heavy cotton (220 g/sm)
Color Bag: black
Format: 37,5 × 43 × 7 cm, handles 60 × 3 cm
Print: silkscreen
Slanted in Dubai: Möbius Studio
In Spring 2018 the Slanted editors took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Dubai. A city—when described by many people—that is all sickening shine and has no soul. But Dubai and the whole region, originally a piece of desert sparsely populated by Bedouins, is now transforming itself rapidly into a center, if not the world’s greatest center, of trade, finance, and tourism—and moreover, something important happened in the last few years: Culture! Today, a new Arab world is being plotted and planned. The entire Gulf is teeming with initiatives—from the most public to the most private—to change and reinvent seemingly immutable rules, regimes, edicts, and assumptions, culminating, perhaps, in the stated intention to work more closely together. The Gulf states have a past, and they will have a future. The contours of that future are legible in this Slanted issue!
Möbius Studio was founded by Hala Al-Ani, Hadeyeh Badri, and Riem Hassan. The three met during their undergraduate studies at the American University of Sharjah and decided to start the studio post their existential blues. The studio is a means to explore studio-initiated projects and commissioned work while maintaining some sort of sanity. They work unsociable hours and consume as much coffee as they consume antiaging eye cream.
Take a look at the Slanted #32—Dubai to get an idea of Dubai’s creative environment. Additionally you can find several video interviews on our video platform to get a deeper insight in the designer’s thoughts.
Slanted in Dubai: Toil & Tinker
In Spring 2018 the Slanted editors took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Dubai. A city—when described by many people—that is all sickening shine and has no soul. But Dubai and the whole region, originally a piece of desert sparsely populated by Bedouins, is now transforming itself rapidly into a center, if not the world’s greatest center, of trade, finance, and tourism—and moreover, something important happened in the last few years: Culture! Today, a new Arab world is being plotted and planned. The entire Gulf is teeming with initiatives—from the most public to the most private—to change and reinvent seemingly immutable rules, regimes, edicts, and assumptions, culminating, perhaps, in the stated intention to work more closely together. The Gulf states have a past, and they will have a future. The contours of that future are legible in this Slanted issue!
Toil & Tinker is a print studio and design shop for creative needs. The foundations of the studio are printing services: from the latest digital print presses, to screen printing, risograph, and soon, to come, letterpress printing. The design team also offers advice and branding guidance to individuals, homegrown startups, and larger businesses, helping to make your creative vision leap from screen to paper.
Take a look at the Slanted #32 – Dubai to get an idea of Dubai’s creative environment. Additionally you can find several video interviews on our video platform to get a deeper insight in the designer’s thoughts.
Werkwoche
First organized in 2013, the 6. International Design Week Werkwoche will be launched by the Faculty of Design of the Augsburg Universtiy of Applied Sciences. The festival offers a wide programme of workshops, lectures, talks and an exhibition on current topics to reveal the future trends on design and media as well as its related disciplines. Together with distinguished designers and lecturers from London, Paris Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Cologne, Augsburg, Belfast, Caldas and from the Sunshine Coast Australia we explore, discuss and showcase the role of contemporary design and we foster exchange and awareness of the vital role design plays in our lives. All students are welcome to take part.
There will also be the exhibition of the “Best German Book Design”.
Events:
Lectures:
4 p.m.—7 p.m.
K 1.01, Campus am Roten Tor
Hochschule Augsburg, Friedberger Straße 2,
Tue, November 13th,
Interface Inside Out
Vera Schmidt, Mercedes-Benz Advanced Digital Design
4 p.m.—4:45 p.m. (K 1.01)
Auftritt der Dinge
Pina Dietsche, Judith Dörrenbächer
6 p.m.—6:45 p.pm. (K 1.01)
Wed, November 14th
And the Wild
Christine Blaney and Pat Griffin
4 p.m.—4:45 p.m. (K 1.01)
The work of Osborne Ross
Andrew Ross, London
5 p.m.—5:45 p.m. (K 1.01)
Before and After Photography
Diogo Saldanha
6 p.m.—6:45 p.pm. (K 1.01)
Thu, November 15th
Sound Aesthetics in Fado Music
Luis Caldeira
4 p.m.—4:45 p.m. (K 1.01)
Die Welt als Entwurf 2.0
Boris Kochan
5 p.m.—5:45 p.m. (K 1.01)
Rohrschachmatt: Ist das Kunst oder kann das weg? Der Weg zum Trigger Tool.
Tobias Seemiller, Florian Schläffer
6 p.m.—6:45 p.pm. (K 1.01)
Exhibition:
Best German Book Design
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
10 a.m.—3 p.m.
K 1.01, Campus am Roten Tor
Participation in the workshops is reserved exclusively for students of the Faculty of Design. All interested parties are welcome to the lectures and the exhibition. Admission is free.
Here you can find more pieces of information.
Matters of Communication
The conference “Matters of Communication” creates a space for discussion about how communication is designed today and how design is communicated today. Registrations can be done until November 10th.
Whether space, image, text, object or system – design is always also communication. Against the backdrop of increasing radicalization, segmentation and polemization of social discourses, the relationship between design and communication seems more volatile today than ever. New communications media, channels, spaces and systems are constantly emerging. Machines, objects, even entire environments become independent actors that communicate with us and interact on various media levels. How can we sound out the contexts, the conditions that lead to possibility and the interdependencies of impact with regard to designed communication? What concepts are needed to conceptualize the relationship between design and communication from a present-day point of view?
What are the pioneering approaches and methods of design research in relation to communication through and within contemporary forms of expression, as well as cultural and economic production? How do research projects reflect “Matters of Communication”, i.e. the form and materiality of designed communication, and their role in the emergence of attributions and interpretation contexts? What is the role that design research plays in the development of relevant questions and solutions? How is theory formation and translation into teaching and practice carried out?
Program:
Language and Image
The design of communication has always moved between the rather denotative qualities of the written word and the greater connotative freedom of the image. Depending on the design concept, visual design serves to support the flow of communication or can, with an expressive gesture, break through familiar visual forms of representation. How is communication in language and image designed, perceived/received and interpreted today? What are the impact factors influencing the design of visual communication? What influence does visual communication have on prevailing social discourses?
Space and Scenography
From non-places to highly utilitarian buildings to narrative spaces of experience, from physical buildings to augmented hybrid worlds to virtual reality – space is more complex than ever. How do contemporary spaces function as communication interfaces? How are these spaces argued, narrated and communicated through their design? What is the role of the simulation as a specific form of expression in the context of economic and social issues?
Object and Interaction
Designed objects are a combination of materials, function and aesthetics, as well as an interface in complex technological, economic and social contexts. How is communication designed today between objects and people, and amongst people through objects? How do these objects communicate in relation to their position in economic and ecological cycles? What role does materiality or immateriality play in relation to the communicative abilities of objects?
Society and System
Complex systems such as computers, companies or societies are based on the constant exchange of materials, energies, symbols and are therefore communicative systems per se. How do such systems get designed? How does design deal with different stakeholders groups in these systems? What does good communication within a system mean, and how are friction and conflict used as productive forces?
When?
Registrations can be done here until November 10th.
Workshops and Lectures
November 16th—17th 2018
Where?
Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design
Registrations can be done here.
Torino Graphic Days 2018
For the 3rd time the Torino Graphic Days took from October 11th until 15th, 2018 in Turin, Italy.
Bi-Scriptual
Script is language. Language is communication, and communication is the key to successful intercultural exchange. As a result of globalization and increased interaction across countries and cultures, multilingualism is becoming increasingly important all around the world.
Script, as the most important conveyor of information, is at the center of this development. Designers are more and more faced with the challenging task to create advertising posters, signage systems, books or lettering for example that not only combine different languages but two or even more writing systems with varying visual precepts and habits.
Bi-Scriptual
Typography and Graphic Design with Multiple Script Systems
Editor: Ben Wittner, Sascha Thoma, Timm Hartmann
Publisher: niggli
Volume: 320 pages
Format: 21 × 31,5 cm
Language: English
Specials: Hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-7212-0982-2
Price: 49,90 €
Buy
Typeface of the Month: Grand Gothik
Grand Gothik is a postmodern, multiscript, multifaceted and variable type system which pays homage to the development of grotesque (gothic) typefaces over the years. Taking late 19th and early 20th century European and American grotesques as a starting point, it traces this typeface genre up to mid-century movie theater marquees, new wave cinematography, American highway signage and telephone directories, adding some historical references for good measure.
Originally designed in 2017 as a bespoke typeface for a bilingual, black and white magazine on surfers, waves and landscapes, it was later reimagined and redesigned leading to the release of its commercial version. The name reflects Grand Gothik’s versatility as a fully functional variable font and its depiction of a vast array of gothic styles found in American and European grotesques. Designed with 3 stylistic alternates, each variation of Grand Gothik depicts a specific period and style: from the less calculated appearance of late 19th century grotesques all the way to their gracefully-shaped contemporary counterparts.
Open counters with enhanced white space and curved strokes with oblique terminals instead of horizontal were used in order to increase clarity of characters at small sizes. The ascenders were extended and the descenders shortened. The contrast was adjusted to reflect Grand Gothik’s personality as a revamped grotesque, the numbers were redesigned according to their historical references and letter “a” was designed with a spur to increase readability. Contrary to most grotesques, Grand Gothik implements sharp joints, as curved strokes and stems merge into each other with a sharp instead of a smooth connection.
Grand Gothik’s design space includes 3 axes for weight, width and one for italics. It is available as a variable font or as five separate opentype families—compressed, condensed, normal, wide and extended. Each family comes with 9 weights spanning from Extra Thin to Black plus italics. Quite interestingly, the letter “o” in the wide version does not follow the extended form of other characters, taking instead the shape of an almost round circle.
Grand Gothik was designed with a default version and three stylistic variations: The multifunctional default version comes with squared-off stems and letter “a” is designed with a spur. Its first variation (ss01) retains the squared-off stems of the default version, while letter “a” and “G” lose their spur, the curved tail of “y” becomes straight and the crotch of “M” sharp-pointed, altogether imbuing the typeface with a clean corporate texture. The second variation (ss02) is more eclectic, exchanging the squared-off stems for slanted stem endings, ultimately becoming more angular. The third variation (ss03) is vibrant and uncalculated and constitutes a nod to early 20th century European grotesque styles, particularly Venus of the Bauer type foundry or the ATF gothics such as Franklin Gothic or the lesser known Times Gothic and Title Gothic No. 9. The middle stroke on letters such as E, F and H sits higher, pushing the design of other characters such as B, K, P and R, in the same design direction. An alternate version of letter “a” and “k” was designed to reflect that era, along with alternate forms for lowercase letter “t”.
The Grand Gothik type system comes with a wide range of styles/weights and supports an extended array of languages and scripts such as Latin, Greek and Cyrillic. Keeping up with the ever-evolving virtual and digital landscape, Grand Gothik comes with an extended character set of weather icons, numeral symbols, wayfinding arrows, movie rating stars and emojis. Also, a Bitcoin symbol was designed as part of its character set in its newly introduced unicode position, rendering Grand Gothik a truly functional modern typeface. The whole series is complemented by its corresponding italics which are not cursive but rather refined oblique letterforms in sync with their traditional genre. Finally, Grand Gothik’s demanding personality shines at its heavier extended versions with its hip, expressive, almost brutal energy.
Apart from its default state which embodies the temperament and character of several notable grotesque typefaces, Grand Gothik’s multifaceted disposition and stylistic variations can fit a multitude of typographic needs. Firm, robust and legible, its first variation is an exceptional candidate for corporate brands which need to communicate their vision and value to multiple international markets. The second variation, a bit more vibrant and refined in nature, works beautifully with modern publications. The typographic voice of the third variation, characterized by the vibrant and raw texture of 19th century European grotesques hits home with posters, books, signage, magazines and postmodern conceptual art. Altogether, Grand Gothik’s variable format brings to web design all the precision, variety and spirit once available only in print media. An essential tool for web designers and developers alike.
Grand Gothik
Foundry: Parachute Typefoundry
Designer: Panos Vassiliou
Release: 2018
Format: otf, ttf, eot, woff, woff2
Weights: 92 (available also as a 3-axis variable multiscript font)
Price: 625,– Euro per family (65,– Euro per weight)
KHATT
Egyptian cities and villages abound with an enormous wealth of khatt, or calligraphic script, ranging from casual scrawls and scribbles to elaborately-painted colorful murals. These historical and contemporary versions of urban lettering, varying in surface, medium and technique, adorn mosques, shop-fronts, houses, trucks, boats, schools, tuk-tuks and walls. They are records of human existence, documenting expressions of hope, fears, dreams and anxieties.
Featuring beautiful, unique examples of these written expressions, Khatt is an extensive visual documentation of the found typography and calligraphy in Egypt, a calligraphy hub that possesses a rich tradition of education and production in the field. This timely volume records the traditional craftsmanship of hand-painted
calligraphy, which is fast disappearing because of the digitisation of the Arabic script.
KHATT – Egypt’s Calligraphic Langscape
Design: Engy Hashem
Publisher: Saqi Books
Release: October 2018
Volume: 160 Pages
Format: 25 × 23 cm
ISBN-13: 978-0-86356-901-2
Language: Englisch
Pice: 25.00 GBP / 28.20 EUR
Here you can buy the book.
Creative Paper Conference 2018
Last weekend the Creative Paper Conference took place in Munich. It’s a mixture of fair and conference bringing together the paper, print and design industry. The theme of this year’s edition was “Analog Revolution”, giving insights of the status quo and the future of possibilities in print.
More than 30 companies presented their service and materials to the visitors and gave tipps and first-hand information. In the conference hall international speakers gave insights in their work. We were happy to be among those and to present our latest issue of Slanted Magazine about Dubai and its wonderful production.
Thanks a lot to the organizers of the conference for inviting us and for making this great event every two years. We are already looking forward to the next edition in 2020!
Dynamic Font Day 2018
When Variable Fonts came up fall 2016, the Dynamic Font Day was the first conference to profoundly discuss this joint project of Adobe, Apple, Google and Microsoft. Two years later, it’s time to verify the promises of the inventors and promoters. How far support for the new format has grown? Where are the first smart implementations out there? How far still to go to a real responsive typography? — Or will this whole story end in a huge flop?
Typography in digital media has grown by leaps and bounds during the last years. The wheel is rapidly turning for designers and developpers. The Dynamic Font Day 2018 will bring the latest updates, illuminates chances and risks and helps you, to find your own position in this ultrafast digital world.
The conference language will be English. We will have a lineup of internationally renowned speakers in the field of digital typography. You will find a continuously updated speaker list here.
The Dynamic Font Day 2018 will be hosted by Munich School of Design & Fashion in the very city center of Munich. The school is a creative hub for the media and fashion industry not only in Munich and the perfect soil for an international conference like ours.
Dynamic Font Day 2018
When?
Sat. November 17th 2018
9 a.m.–8 p.m.
Where?
Designschule München, Sendlinger-Tor-Platz 14
Eingang West (Wallstraße), Raum 405/406
Bleisatzwerkstatt
80331 München
More information can be found here.
#nextgeneration: what does the study look like in the future?
The Deutsche Studentenwerk’s poster competition invites graphic design, visual communication and communication design students to take a creative look at topics that are relevant to Studentenwerke and higher education institutions, and to communicate these topics to the public using striking and catchy visual messages.
This year’s topic: #nextgeneration: what does the study look like in the future?
The competition has been taking place every year since 1987. It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and its co-operation partner is the Berlin Museum for Communication.
Until December 2nd you can apply online and hand in up to three posters. For more information click here.
Peter von Arx
The exhibition “Letterform in Posters and Film” at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst FHNW, is a showcase of both von Arx’s posters, as well as, short films produced by himself and his students. Today, these historical works can provide us with insights into design processes preceeding today’s digital tools and “new media” which in turn, can be useful in critical reflections on the current situation of visual communication and its relationship to technology, craftsmanship, art, and society.
Graphic designer Peter von Arx (born 1937), produced an extensive body of work in conjunction with his occupation as teacher and, later, as the head of the HFG Ausbildung visueller Gestalter at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (SfG).
After completing an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Zurich (1954–1958), he went on to train as a graphic designer at SfG Basel (1958–1962) with, amongst others, teachers Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder, and Walter Bodmer.
Included in his body of work are thirty-five world-format posters, which he began producing in his own studio shortly after his studies, in parallel to his teaching activities.
A comparative examination of the posters, produced between 1960 and 1978, reveals von Arx’s interest in letterform design, showing how the forming of letters can create meaning beyond that of the notated phonetic sounds, thus both elaborating on or changing the meaning of the language itself. Letterforms can also create meaning outside of mere linguistic messaging, linking language and imagery. For example, in some posters by von Arx, letters are coupled to image elements – to either oppose or connect them.
As a result of a commission involving film graphics, in 1968, von Arx was confronted with using time as a design factor. Based on this experience, his design focus turned to developing graphical film sequences, expanding the nature of static graphics with this dynamic medium.
In addition to his own experimental work, von Arx, went on to establish the Filmgrafik course at SfG Basel, which, in 1968, was integrated into the Fachklasse and the Weiterbildungsklasse für Grafik. From 1983, he was head of the HFG Klasse Visuelle Kommunikation at the Schule für Gestaltung Basel and taught the course “Audio-Visual Projects”.
As a consequence of his courses on film graphics, von Arx published the book “Film + Design: Die elementaren Phänomene und Dimensionen des Films im gestalterischen Unterricht” in 1983. This systematic analysis of the phenomenon of film provided a basis for the upcoming age of digitalization and time-based design possibilities.
Through his own initiative and that of his co-operation with highly dedicated colleagues, Peter von Arx can look back on thirty years of innovative design education. His instruction in the field of film graphics is remembered today as a core component of the highly specialized curriculum of the “Basel School”.
Peter von Arx (*1937)
Letterforms in Posters and Film
When?
Vernissage:
Fri. November 2nd 2018
Exhibition:
Sat. November 3rd–Fri. November 30th 2018
Symposium:
Fri. November 16th 2018
Opening Hours:
Monday through Friday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday: 1 p.m.–6 p.m.
Wo?
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst
Gebäude D, Foyer
Freilager-Platz 1
4142 Basel / Münchenstein
Here you can find more information.
Kontiki
The Kontiki typeface digitally simulates a handmade woodprint, but is less expensive to produce and easier to correct. It offers a designer the possibility to create a printed image that is very close to a traditional woodcut. As the warmth of manually printed matter demonstrates a special effort and has become a sign of quality and good taste, Kontiki is quiet useful for advertising, packaging, editorial and corporate design.
To create the Kontiki fonts, 193 glyphs were manually cut into five wooden plates and carefully printed by hand. From countless test prints, the most charming four were selected and digitized to create the different styles. For each of the 560 characters, the font offers four different qualities of print and gives you the opportunity to create a vivid typography according to your own visions.
The Kontiki Family has 4 styles as single fonts with 560 glyphs each, featuring four different qualities of print. The Pro version contains all 2240 glyphs as “stylistic alternates” in one font with optimized kerning for all style combinations offers the “contextual alternates” feature. This OpenType feature generates an automatic variation of glyphs with randomized selection. All customers of the Pro Version will get all single fonts of the family for free. If you have no access to these opentype features with your layout software, it may be better to use the smaller single font files, but if you would like to have optimized kerning for all letters, use the Pro version.
Kontiki offers various sets of numerals and mathematical signs, as well as common currency symbols in all four styles. To meet the needs of global communication it has a wide range of language support and supports all western-, eastern- and central-European languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Afrikaans, Albanian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Danish, Dutch, Faroese, Finnish, Frisian, Galican, Greenlandic, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Kurdish (Latin), Leonese, Low German, Luxembourgian, Malagasy, Malay (Latin), Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Occitan, Pilipino (Tagalog), Rhaeto-Romanic, Scottish Gaelic, Swahili, Swedish, Tahitian, Wallon, Bosnian (Latin), Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Serbian Latin, Slovak, Slovene, Upper Sorbian, Lower Sorbian, Turkmen.
Kontiki supports the following OpenType features: standard ligatures, lining figures, oldstyle figures, tabular figures, tabular old style figures, fractions, nominatoers, denominators, inferiors, ordinals, contextual alternates (this OpenType feature is only availabe in the Pro version. It generates an automatic variation of glyphs with randomized selection. You can also choose the stylistic sets manually with stylistic alternates)
Inspired by type, made from woodcuts his wife has carved, Felix Braden decided to cut a full set of glyphs for a manual printrun. To start with, he draw a Clarendon style bold typeface, by reducing the contrast of one of his favourite typefaces: Century Schoolbook. A light and a black weight were digitized and interpolated to generate a bold weight to be cut in wood.
After testing different techniques and sizes, he settled on a woodcut in a size of around 150 points and cut a total of five plates to complete a full set of glyphs. The choice of paper was also a difficult task. Eventually, he chose a matte coated printing paper with a very smooth surface, because he wanted to show the misprints in the printed image and not the effects caused by the structure of the paper. All plates were printed in an edition of 30 and four different qualities for digitalization were chosen: a print with full pressure, a half pressure print, and two subsequent prints without re-inking.
After selecting the best quality prints, the complete set was scanned and all same style glyphs were compiled into a single pixel file. Prior to vectorizing (with the „Trace Image“ extension) the scans had to be simplefied by using Gaussian Blur and Median filter to keep the file size as small as possible. To be a well performing font, a glyph should have around 1000 nodes as a maximum, and all its curves should be replaced by straight lines. After all the fonts were optimized and generated with Glyphs app.
Residing in Cologne Germany, Felix Braden, the designer behind Kontiki, has a background in graphic design. He studied Communication Design at Trier University of Applied Sciences with Prof. Andreas Hogan and worked with Jens Gehlhaar at Gaga Design. He co-founded Glashaus Design, is an art director at MWK Cologne and works as a freelance type designer. In 2000, he founded the free font foundry, Floodfonts, and designed numerous free typefaces, which are available as webfonts via Adobe Typekit. His commercial fonts are distributed by FontShop International (FF Scuba), Floodfonts (Capri, Sadness, Grimoire), URW++ (Supernormale), Volcanotype (Bikini) and Ligature Inc (Tuna, as a cooperation with Alex Rütten) and are all available via MyFonts. FF Scuba is one of the winners of the Communication Arts Typography Annual 2013, and was an honorable mention in Typographica’s Favorite Typefaces of 2012, in Typefacts Best Fonts of 2012, in FontShop’s Best Types 2012, and in Typecache’s Favorite Typefaces of 2012. Kontiki was nominated for the German Design Award 2019.
Kontiki
Foundry: Floodfonts
Designer: Felix Braden
Release: Oktober 2018
Formats: OTF / TTF
Weights: Fine, Rancid, Rotten, used
Price per Cur: until November 17th available for EUR 9, then EUR 17.99
Family price: until November 17th available for EUR 27.50, then EUR 54.99
Here you can buy the font.
Festival Architecture RADIKAL
Conditions for Participation:
The Festival Architektur RADIKAL (May 31st until June 2nd 2019) is aimed at international students of all design disciplines.
Our only condition to you is that you are definitely able to take part at the Festival.
Services:
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will offer following things for the three festival days:
Work and livingrooms
Assistance with the organization of events as well as technical assistance and public relations.
Certificates for all participants
Following is required by the participants:
Health and liability insurance
Visa
Cost of living
Traveling expenses
Participants are free to apply for additional funding for their stay with the support of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
The Jury:
Dr. Claudia Perren, Leitung Festspiele Bauhaus Dessau und Direktorin der Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Kathrin Luz, Kuratorin Festival Architektur RADIKAL
Dr. Werner Möller, Kurator Festival Architektur RADIKAL
Deadline:
November 15th 2018 (MEZ)
You can apply here.
Slanted Magazine #32—Dubai
In Spring 2018 the Slanted editors took a close-up look at the contemporary design scene of Dubai. A city—when described by many people—that is all sickening shine and has no soul. But Dubai and the whole region, originally a piece of desert sparsely populated by Bedouins, is now transforming itself rapidly into a center, if not the world’s greatest center, of trade, finance, and tourism—and moreover, something important happened in the last few years: Culture! Today, a new Arab world is being plotted and planned. The entire Gulf is teeming with initiatives—from the most public to the most private—to change and reinvent seemingly immutable rules, regimes, edicts, and assumptions, culminating, perhaps, in the stated intention to work more closely together. The Gulf states have a past, and they will have a future. The contours of that future are legible in this Slanted issue!
Slanted met some of the most amazing creatives such as Möbius Studio, Wissam Shawkat, and Fikra Design Studio. Not only can you find their brilliant works in the new issue, Slanted also provides a deeper look at their opinions and views through video interviews that can be watched online on our video platform for free.
Illustrations, photography, interviews and essays complement the issue thematically. Slanted #32 comes with contributions by Abjad Design, Uday Al-Araji, becky beamer, Jason Carlow, Dr. Nadine Chahine, Afra Bin Dhaher, Fatmah Al Dhanhani, Noor Eid, Elephant Nation, Jori Erdman, Reem Falaknaz, Marcus Farr, Fikra Design Studio, Martin Giesen, Glyphs, Nan Goggin, Gökçe Günel, H2R Design, Hanken Design Co., Tulip Hazbar, Khalid Al Jallaf, JAM Type, Kemistry Design, Ibraheem Khamayseh, Cristiano Luchetti, Faissal El-Malak, Mohammed Mandi, Möbius Studio, Moloobhoy & Brown, Myneandyours, Nasir Nasrallah, Ingo Niermann, Narjes Noureddine, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Uzma Z. Rizvi, Khaled Al-Saai, Sheikh Saifi, Fatmah Salmeen, Ruben Sánchez, Tarsila Schubert, Wissam Shawkat, Slash, The Flip Side, The Lighthouse, T.ZED Architects, Tahreek, Tinkah, Toil & Tinker, Tribe Magazine, Twothirds Design Bureau, WTD Magazine, Majid Al Yousef, and Mandana Ziaei.
The booklet “Contemporary Typefaces” is a regular feature of Slanted Magazine presenting an editorial selection of recently published international high-quality typefaces as well as typefaces with an Arabic language support in an additional section, including Akkordeon Slab (Eduardo Manso / Emtype Foundry, Faune (Alice Savoie / Centre National des Arts Plastiques), Knif (Building Paris, Axel Pelletanche-Thévenart / A is for…), Mackay (René Bieder), Mazagan (Mário Feliciano / Feliciano Type Foundry), Rektorat (Prof. Rudolf Barmettler, Anton Studer / Nouvelle Noire), SangBleu (Swiss Typefaces), Sloop Script Pro (Richard Lipton / Lipton Letter Design), Trash (Estela Ibarz González / Bruta Types), Adelle Sans Arabic (Azza Alameddine / TypeTogether), Amariya (Dr. Nadine Chahine, Matthew Carter / Monotype), 29LT Bukra (Pascal Zoghbi, Swiss Typefaces, Adrien Midzic / 29Letters), Clother (Jérémie Hornus, Julie Soudanne, Ilya Naumoff / Black[Foundry]), Edit Serif Arabic (Christoph Dunst / Atlas Font Foundry), FiraGO (Ralph du Carrois, Anja Meiners, Botio Nikoltchev, Titus Nemeth, Hasan Abu Afash, Rob Keller, Kimya Gandhi, Natalie Rauch, Akaki Razmadze, Natalie Rauch, Yanek Iontef, Mark Frömberg, Ben Mitchell / bBox Type), URW Geometric Arabic (Jörn Oelsner, Boutros Fonts / URW Type Foundry), Graphik Arabic (Khajag Apelian, Wael Morcos, Christian Schwartz / Commercial Type), Markazi Text (Fiona Ross, Borna Izadpanah, Florian Runge / Google Fonts), Skolar Sans Arabic (Titus Nemeth, David Březina / Rosetta Type Foundry), Teshrin (Kristyan Sarkis, Peter Biľak / TPTQ Arabic), and SF Tobba (Sultan Mohammed Saeed Maqtari / Sultan Fonts).
In addition to this exciting publication, a limited special edition is available consisting of a tote bag designed by Wissam Shawkat and produced by World of Textiles and a risograph printed booklet presenting the colorful work of Ruben Sánchez. Moreover, it contains a photo book showcasing the work of Ola Allouz, Faysal Tabbarah / Architecture + Other Things, Ammar Al Attar, Lamya Hussain Gargash, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Lars Harmsen, Irenaeus Herok, Johannes Heuckeroth, Celia Peterson, Juan Roldán, Christian Topp and Ashok Verma that has been printed by Océ.
Slanted Magazine #32—Dubai
Publisher / Design: Slanted Publishers
Release: October 2018
Volume: 256 pages + 48-pages booklet
Format: 16 × 24 cm
Language: English
Printing & Finishing: Stober
Paper: Gmund 925 Brown Silver, MultiArt Gloss, PlanoPlus, OpakoSatin, distributed by Papyrus
ISSN: 1867-6510
Price: € 18,- (DE) / € 21,- (International)
Get your copy here.
Reportagen Band #43
Report # 43 is released.
The content:
– The Phoenix of Paris. By Julia Amberger.
– Where is Transdniestria? By Urs Mannhart.
– 5x Mail. By Erwin Koch, Carol Pires, Amir Hassan Cheheltan, Emilienne Malfatto, Kerstin Zilm.
– This Animal is an Issue. By Barbara Bachmann.
– Whose will be done? By Alexander Krützfeldt.
– The Historical Reportage: In Court, 1976. By Fritz H. Dinkelmann.
Reportagen #43
Publisher: Puntas Reports AG
Design: Moiré
Release: November 2018
Volume: 144 pages
Format: 16,5 × 23 cm
Language: German
ISBN: 978-3-906024-42-4
Price: 15,– Euro
Buy
The Global Warming Typeface
Unique font with implemented global warming data. This annually released font is a new and unusual method of data visualization in the graphic world and we already look forward to the day, on which we won’t have to release an updated version of the typeface ever again, because the human race actually managed to stop the global warming process. But until then we’ll start with five fonts for the years 1910, 1936, 1963, 1990, 2017
50% of the payed amount will be donated to the Climate Group.
The Global Warming Typeface
Foundry: STAN STUDIOS
Cuts: 1910, 1936, 1963, 1990, 2017
Format: OpenType Font / Web Open Font Format
Price per Family: 25,– Euro
Morisawa Type Design Competition 2019
Morisawa Type Design Competition has been giving birth to new typeface designs for more than three decades from the first Morisawa Awards International Typeface Competition held in 1984. The last competition (2016) received more than 700 entries from 49 countries and regions, including both Kanji and Latin category. We are looking for works with new expressivity and full of challenging sprit from all over the world.
Morisawa Award calls for typeface designs with creativity and aesthetic excellence of designs for two categories, Kanji and Latin. Designers and experts who lead each field will join as new judge members and will evaluate entry works. People’s Choice Award will be chosen by the general public votes online.
Akashi Award used to call for entries for typeface to commercialize. We launch a new initiative and set a theme each time for entries. This time, the theme is “variable fonts” which is implemented in the OpenType specification. The judges will comprehensively evaluate whether your work is new or progressive as a variable font.
The submission period is November 1st, 2018 to January 31st, 2019. The result is planned to be announced in July 2019. You can find all the submission informations here.
Kanji Category
Issei Kitagawa / Osamu Torinoumi / Ryoko Nishizuka / Masaaki Hiromura
Latin Category
Ilya Ruderman / Indra Kupferschmid / Cyrus Highsmith / Laura Meseguer
The Emeritus Jury
Matthew Carter
Awards
Morisawa Award (Categories: Kanji and Latin)
Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a sub-prize money;
Kanji Category
Gold Prize: JPY 1 million (1 work)
Silver Prize: JPY 500,000 (1 work)
Bronze prize: JPY 300,000 (1 work)
Honorable Mention: JPY 50,000 (3 works)
Latin Category
Gold Prize: JPY 1 million (1 work)
Silver Prize: JPY 500,000 (1 work)
Bronze prize: JPY 300,000 (1 work)
Honorable Mention: JPY 50,000 (3 works)
Peopleʼs Choice
Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a gift.
Kanji Category
Highest number and 2nd highest number of votes (1 work each)
Latin Category
Highest number and 2nd highest number of votes (1 work each)
Akashi Award
The theme is “variable fonts.” Please see the entry guideline for more detail. Morisawa Inc. examine entry works.
Winners receive a testimonial, a trophy and a sub-prize money.
JPY 500,000 (Up to 3 works)