In his essay, the writer and artist Isaiah Lopaz tells of recovered memories, yearning desires and the bitter and painful disappointment that his place of refuge, Europe, became. His text powerfully bears witness to how, despite racism and exclusion, he finds himself in his diverse and polyphonic identities, where he develops his own poetic language and power. The text is accompanied by thirteen collages from the Anthology/Appendix series, which explores themes of diaspora, desire, isolation and belonging.
Fluent in the Languages of my Selves is the first in the blue notes series. blue notes publishes intersectional voices and invites us to explore marginalized experiences and perspectives in short literary and visual formats. Like the blue notes, they create resistant dissonances.
As the name indicates, Grafikmagazin is a print magazine focusing on all things graphic design. Primarily it’s aimed at professional creatives and design students from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and beyond. Grafikmagazin presents outstanding work from graphic design, typography, illustration, photography, design theory, research, paper, and printing every two months.
The editorial team of Grafikmagazin created a variety of sections and categories but selected focus themes for each issue, like Creative Printing. The topics portray how imaginative, eclectic, and playful graphic design can be while featuring successful branding concepts and niche ideas.
The extensive “Showroom” section lets readers know other creatives and the stories behind design studios worldwide. The “Design and Research” category presents interdisciplinary projects that show how science and research can benefit from creative solutions and play an active role in graphic design. In the “Production and Publishing” section, everything revolves around print. You will find exquisite books, sophisticated annual reports, and high-quality embossed greeting cards. Also, the cover artists of each issue are interviewed or get to highlight their ideas.
Each cover is printed on a different paper, and the design interprets the particular Grafik+ theme more broadly or shares a fresh perspective on a unique design technique. This particular cover was realized in six different versions from different studios and artists, each riso-printed. The Grafikmagazin team, its correspondents, and freelancers are bound and driven by the firm belief that print is not dead. With the will to prove just how alive it is, and the motivation to start something fresh yet deeply traditional, they strive for nothing less than to create another print magazine that makes history.
Forward proudly presents the sixth issue of its unique Design Magazine, on 100 pages, including seven interviews with a variety of top creatives like Refik Anadol, Ines Alpha, Baugasm, and many more. The magazine takes a deep dive into AI and its unknown future of technological evolution.
This year’s amazing print design by Zwupp is emphasized by a cover picture from Claudia Rafael with a special effect. The AI theme in the Magazine is not just reflected on the outside and in the content, but also in the inside with AI-generated images, facts, and the artificially made Typo.
Letters and typefaces not only transport information but also create a feeling and have a personality. Lettering takes this a step further—with its movement, artistic strokes, and variety, it has the potential to radiate a whole range of energies and tell stories of harmony and distortion, about positive and negative space. Words become drawings and pictures themselves.
Born out of the success of the concept of the Yearbook of Type, we have created a new book series: the Yearbook of Lettering. It presents a selection of lettering artwork created all over the world—from traditional calligraphy and hand lettering, street art and graffiti, to 3D digital lettering, showcasing the vibrant and wide range of different styles and techniques.
The book offers an overview of high-quality handcrafted typographic art and can help clients source the right artist for a project. It serves as a source of inspiration not only for people in the design world but also displays the contemporary world of lettering and the many different styles available—giving lettering, calligraphy, brush lettering, blackletter, hand lettering, graffiti artists, and more the platform, appreciation, and recognition they deserve.
Lettering art from all over the world!
“A multifaceted presentation of the world of lettering.”
Grafikmagazin
The world is made up of a thousand colors, and no sound is like another. It’s noisy! We have finally accepted the dissonances because we are not all cut from the same cloth. Yet, we live under the same sun together. This year’s key visual, created by Holger Risse, takes into account a complex spirit of the times: it poses the tricky question of what still connects us despite all our differences.
There is a need for spaces for encounters. Only through encounters does the diverse “beauty of being human in our society” (Jovanovic) come to shine. Let’s let it shine together with FFCGN – die Macht der Bilder Vol. 3!
Here you’ll learn all about the power of images in film, pop culture, art and society—in this book, at FILM FESTIVAL COLOGNE from October 19th to 26th, 2023, and always on the net. Once more, this publication gathers and selects a diverse range of content from the realm of motion pictures. This book is a showcase. The editors engage in conversations with individuals who inspire them. It offers a glimpse into their work, both at FILM FESTIVAL COLOGNE and in broader contexts. It presents a selection of the top-notch content they endorse.
The publication re:imagine your city invites you to explore and rethink current paradigms that shape our urban environments. It offers insightful perspectives on commemoration and heritage, city planning and gentrification, migration and post-pandemic changes, solidarity and critical spatial practices. The publication is the result of a collective effort by an engaged transdisciplinary network of urban practitioners, educators, researchers, artists, designers and architects in the framework of the international design lab for urban practices and transformation re:imagine your city.
Over the last few decades the term “bootlegging”—a practice once relegated to smugglers and copyright infringers—has become understood as a creative act. Debates about homage, appropriation, and theft that are common in the art world, are now being held in the spheres of corporate branding, social media, and the creative industry as a whole. Today, bootlegging has become fetishized as an aesthetic in and of itself, influencing everything from underground record labels to DIY T-shirts, publishing ideologies, to acts of high fashion détournement.
UNLICENSED contains twenty-one interviews with a range of creative practitioners on the topic of bootlegging. The conversations in UNLICENSED investigate bootlegging’s creative and critical potential, and explore new ways bootlegging can be deployed in order to thrive as an impactful cultural force.
Interviews with: A March Issue (Line Arngaard & Sonia Oet), Babak Radboy, Clara Balaguer & Czar Kristoff, BLESS (Desiree Heiss & Ines Kaag), Boot Boyz Biz, Akinola Davies Jr, Eric Doeringer, Experimental Jetset (Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den Dungen), Elisa van Joolen, Hassan Kurbanbaev, Urs Lehni & Olivier Lebrun, Jonathan Monk, Matt Olson, Online Ceramics (Elijah Funk & Alix Ross), Mark Owen, Printed Matter (Jordan Nassar & Christopher Schulz), Nat Pyper, Hassan Rahim, Shanzhai Lyric, SHIRT, Oana Stanescu.
Valiz with Source Type. Ben Schwartz (1988) is a graphic designer and editor based in New York. He collaborates with several graphic design studios in the cultural sector across a variety of media.
The publication by Astrid Busch World in Minds is an artistic approach to the ports of Hamburg, Antwerp in Belgium, Le Havre in France, and Istanbul in Turkey. The history and present of the four ports, as well as the frequency of the ships arriving and departing, are the basis of the project’s content and complement each other in their interaction. What does a port mean for a city and how has the development of the ports proceeded. Ships used to sail directly into cities, the harbour was part of the city. Nowadays, access to the port is strictly controlled and only open to authorized personnel. Past, present, and future of the four ports and the tanker traffic are brought together creating stories about the ports, other worlds, ideas, and exchange. The images she brings back from her travels are incorporated into a process of ongoing metamorphosis, resulting in new kinds of transition and expansion. In combination with the documentary images of the harbo, they act like “strange counter images” that stimulate associative thinking.
The art historian Wolfgang Ullrich writes about the project: „By offering images to her audience that do not immediately reveal what they depict or how they came into being, thereby giving rise to speculation, she seeks to awaken curiosity. And when she brings together images of different character in the same space, hanging or projecting them partially over one another, she encourages active associating and thinking ahead. She even entices viewers to come up with their own interpretations of the presented image processes. Those who do not have the opportunity to travel to unknown or hard-to-reach places should not be satisfied with just a few images from there but should be given the promise that something new can always emerge anywhere. The title World in Minds makes it abundantly clear: There is so much to discover when one looks inward as well as outward and relies on one’s own imagination.“
Astrid Busch’s works encompass installations, photographs, paper works, objects, and moving images. Her works are often based on architectural designs or places that she investigates for their sensual perceptibility and their impact on the human being. Her motifs refer to found and self-created images that are transformed and altered in dimensions and then translated onto various image carriers in the space under complex lighting conditions. Astrid Busch studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg and the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin, where she graduated as a master student of Prof. Katharina Grosse. She lives in Berlin and Düsseldorf.
Her works have been shown in national and international exhibitions. Astrid Busch has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York City, USA (2021), a cultural exchange stipend for Istanbul of the federal state of Berlin (2021), a cultural exchange stipend for Brasilia of the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin (2020), a project scholarship from the Kunststiftung NRW (2019), scholarships from the Association Fort! In Le Havre, France (2018) and the Künstlerdorf Schöppingen Foundation (2017), a work scholarship from the Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn (2016), a residency scholarship from Kunstdepot Göschenen, Switzerland (2020), from Museum Kunst der Westküste, Föhr, Germany (2021), and from La Forme Lieu d‘exposition Art Contemporain Architecture in Le Havre, France (2016), and a scholarship from the Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems (2013).
The world is better than it thinks.
Just because bad news attracts more attention doesn’t mean the world is getting worse. In his latest project, international creative star Stefan Sagmeister explores the question of whether everything really was better in the past …
He researches facts about the state of the world in the past and today—numbers that encourage!—and transforms them into meaningful infographics. He buys oil paintings from supposedly better times and turns them into “data carriers” for his diagrams with a scalpel and skilled craftsmanship. This is how good news becomes works of art.
Stefan Sagmeister has mastered the art of vizualising the good in the world. Make room for the beautiful and the good! In your thoughts. And on your bookshelf: this book can be a first step!
Love is of course never perfect, it is messy, nasty, and full of conflict as well as immeasurable joy. Cartoonist Nadine Redlich’s work is ridiculously relatable. It covers hangovers, procrastination, general self-doubt and everything in between. But it doesn’t do it in an illustrative style that’s too close to home; instead, she designs squidgy sweet characters like a bluntfaced rock or a cheeky little blob.
For 40 years there were two German states. They shared a terrible past. One launched the first and only attempt to build a socialist society in Germany. Next door, the economic miracle started.
The renowned design researcher Andreas Koop (“NSCI”) analyzes the stylistic means of the GDR’s visual identity and reconstructs, as it were, the manual of the workers’ and farmers’ state: from the coat of arms to the national colors, typefaces/typography, and print media, to architecture and public staging. The focus is on graphic design and the representation of power.
Koop works free of Ostalgie and personal judgement—full of respect for the victims of the Stasi and for those who courageously took to the streets on Mondays. An approach to the GDR through its self-portrayal!
Use the Content Strategy Workbook and Content Canvas to create a content system for your brand. Focus on creating content that generates qualified leads to your website, engages them to take action, and inspires them to come back for more.
What’s included?
Content Strategy Workbook
The Workbook provides a guided process, structure, and hands-on activities to help you and your team develop a content strategy that makes sense for your or your client’s brand. Activities go from defining target personas and performing a content audit to publishing, promoting, analyzing, and optimizing content for conversion and SEO.
Content Canvas
The Content Canvas will enable you to uncover and centralize all the core components of your content system and will serve you as a roadmap for success.
Use this set of 35 self-reflection cards to revisit your life, current priorities, modes of expression, skills, and values. Crystallize your next steps in life.
The Brand Strategy Workbook and the Brand Canvas will take you through a structured inside-out branding process, helping you to crystallize your brand’s core: your “whys,” authentic points, proof points, next-level of success, target clients, positioning statement, and brand personality.
What’s included?
Brand Strategy Workbook
This workbook will take you through a structured inside-out branding process, helping you to crystallize your brand’s core: your “whys,” authentic points, proof points, next-level of success, target clients, positioning statement, and brand personality.
Brand Canvas (A2 template)
By the end of the process, you’ll have created a Brand Canvas that clearly lays out your vision right in front of you. You’ll experience that “aha” moment! This will provide the foundation, clarity, and a new dose of inspiration to turn your ideas into a proper brand.
Lost & Found collects anonymous photographs and combines them with texts by contemporary authors to give them a new context. In this edition, we invited 21 authors to respond to photographs in the form of a love letter.
IN LOVE FROM invites readers to explore the powerful connection between photography and the written word and to reflect on the complexity of human relationships and emotions. The authors give a voice and new meaning to the photographs.
The publication also offers a glimpse into the future, as among the unique love letters is a special one written by an AI (GPT-4). The combination of human creativity and modern technology raises fascinating questions and opens up new perspectives on the role of AI in the art of writing.
It’s impossible not to believe. We all have a view of the world that is reflected in our beliefs. “I believe that” is what we say when we express our opinion. And when someone expresses views that are too far removed from our own values and worldview, we don’t believe them. But that doesn’t mean that beliefs are immutable. Our point of view can change. And similarly, a belief can change us. Did you know that a belief can affect how we perceive pain and that we believe different things depending on whether we are speaking our native language or a foreign language?
The 6th issue of fortytwomagazine is on the topic of belief and presents ten scientific perspectives and one artistic angle—this time coming from the artist Daria Chernyshova.
The Interview Magazine for Those Who Wonder!
The popular classic PHOTODARIUM is now appearing for the twelfth time and will delight us again in 2024 with an instant photo and a little story of our own. The high-quality tear-off calendar shows artistic and intimate snapshots of 365 well-known photographers and newcomers, professionals, and Polaroid fans from all over the world.
On the front of each calendar page there is an analog Polaroid photo, printed in its original size and finished with a special glossy finish that creates a real Polaroid feeling. On the back there is a small text with the often very personal story of the picture as well as information about the photographer and the Polaroid film used. And of course printed in the tried and tested quality and glued and bound by hand.
The PHOTODARIUM (formerly POLADARIUM) is a well-assorted gem and an eye-catcher for your desk, window sill, cake buffet, hat rack, shop window, bedside table … and of course the perfect Christmas present for all friends of analogue photography!
The scarcity of resources, climate change, and the digitalization of everyday life are fuelling the economy of swapping, sharing, and lending—all of which are in some way linked to a culture of commoning. In this context, we understand commons as community-based processes that use, collectively manage, and organize generally accessible resources—referring to both goods and knowledge. Commons in Design explores the meaning and impact of commons—especially knowledge-based peer commons—and acts of commoning in design. It discusses networked, participatory, and open procedures based on the commons and commoning, testing models that negotiate the use of commons within design processes. In doing so, it critically engages with questions regarding designers’ positionings, everyday practices, self-understandings, ways of working, and approaches to education.
Contributors: Rachel Armstrong, Errantry Media Lab (Max Stearns & Nathalie Attalah), Yuhe Ge, Juan Gomez, Luis Guerra, Katherin Gutiérrez Herrera, Cyrus Khalatbari, Rilla Khaled, Cindy Kohtala, Torange Khonsari, Álvaro Mercado Jara, Nan O’Sullivan, Victoria Paeva, Sharon Prendeville, Zoe Romano, Gregoire Rousseau, Daniela Salgado Cofré, Christine Schranz, Elpitha Tsoutsounakis, Eva Verhoeven, Jennifer Whitty. Support: Swiss National Science Foundation.
Style Cards Vol.1
You’ll discover designs from fashion, branding, print, photography, art, film, and other creative disciplines. Expand your horizons. Save lots of research time.
Curated Themes:
– Minimal
– Vintage
– Classic
– Ethnic Bohemian
– High Tech
– Natural
– Feminine
– Luxurious
– Metropolitan Hip
– Colorful & Bright
Style Cards Vol.2
It features the world’s most interesting works across visual disciplines curated into themes that shape our visual culture. Think of it as a trend-book in the form of cards.
Curated Themes
– Crypto Techno
– Dreamy Geometry
– Future is Now
– Monochrome
– Nature Calling
– Vintage Modern
– Neon Gradient
– Happy Pop
– Bold Play
– Speakeasy
Word Cards
This collection of ideation cards enables you to define the components of a brand’s personality: brand archetype, tone of voice, personality traits, and style.
What’s Included?
• 12 Brand Archetype Cards
• 40 Tone of Voice Cards
• 40 Brand Personality Cards
• 37 Style Characteristics Cards
Create your own style
Mix and match the styles with word cards to create your own moodboard for your design project. Add even more play to your work!
Use this set of 65 Brand Strategy Cards to define your brand strategy: authentic points and proof points, positioning, messaging, brand personality, etc. Set a solid foundation for your brand system. Works perfectly with Brand Canvas.
You need a beautiful card for a birthday, baptism, or just to send lovely greetings? Then we have exactly the right product for you. Our set Glow consists of five folded cards with matching envelopes. Printed with a neon orange gradient, you can use the cards directly or enhance them with your own design. The cards are delivered open—so you can decide for yourself if you want the gradient inside or outside.
Never forget a birthday or anniversary again sounds tempting, doesn’t it?
Our birthday calendar will help you with that. And best of all, you can use it every year.
13 graphic risography art prints in 15 spot colors for great joy all year long.
More than 180 people lost their lives in the flood of July 14–15, 2021. For numerous people, that night changed everything. In the aftermath of the flood, the general public became aware, perhaps for the first time, that climate change has arrived in Germany.
The members of the DOCKS Collective set out on a journey to the Ahr valley on the day after the disaster. Their aim was to photograph the local situation and talk to those affected by the flood. Owing to their collective structure, the five photographers were able to work in several places at the same time.
Over a period of two weeks, the five members took photos non-stop in the Ahr valley and in the regions hit by the waters. They documented their experience and people’s stories, the unbelievable destruction and the great solidarity of the helpers.
It rapidly became clear that the reconstruction of the destroyed areas would take a long time. When the media interest began to decline, the collective decided to continue visiting the region, the numerous helpers, firefighters, and victims. For a year, the members witnessed loss and immense grief, but also inspiring solidarity, an impressive willingness to help, and perseverance.