Happy Place

In times of insecurity and turmoil, it’s good to have your happy place, especially if you encounter incomprehension as an artist, or when the internet jumps at you in an unguarded moment.

Happy Place by Max Baitinger collects stories about the search for balance in everyday life full of absurdities. In which doctors instruct machines to diagnose patients, and at the same time, you are asked by your computer whether you are a robot. Where you go to the sports studio to accept bruises for your health and where the grouchy tax system observes you through the window. In order not to lose your balance, it helps to start the day with yoga exercises and to take a deep breath. After all, you want to be ready to visit inspiration and intrusive people. And what if everything still ends up becoming too much? It’s simple: dream of your happy place and pet the animals.

Wie lange noch

Loosely and yet meaningfully, Alice Socal describes the experiences of her pregnancies in an interplay of irony and perplexity. Combining text and image, she organizes her doubts, fears, expectations and wonders of this special time. In the leading roles: a cat as alter ego, a dog as boyfriend and a seal as the pregnancy itself.

Wie lange noch is documentary and reflection at the same time. The narrative in comic form proves to be the perfect medium, both for the humorous contemplation of personal insights and for the analysis of identity issues between desire and reality—as woman, partner, artist, and mother-to-be.

BookBindingKit

The BookBindingKit offers an overview of the elements of haptic book design. When different techniques are combined playfully, new ideas for unconventional books and book objects emerge.
The poster can be used in many ways—as teaching material for students and apprentices or as inspiration for designers and artists. It can also be helpful when meeting customers in print shops, bookbinderies, and publishing houses.

Jan-Holger Mauss – For Adults Only

Jan-Holger Mauss erases the models featured in vintage gay magazines. Meticulously he goes through an entire publication, page by page, using an ‘analog’ eraser to render these figures invisible and clear out everything but a few words or some parts of the background. This results in landscapes, interiors, and abstractions, leaving only what he wants us to see: the charm of editing, the art of two-dimensional sculpting, the merits of rubbing away.
Referring to “whole train” graffitis, Jan-Holger Mauss describes his editions as “whole books.”

Tina Haber – Schlossbesuch

Experimenting with the drawing possibilities of a tablet screen, Tina Haber finds a different approach to the painterly process of creating an image. The arrangement and layering of transparent markings or text fields brings forth abstract structures that may evoke architectures, landscapes, or even figures. Some areas appear shadowed; others seem superimposed. A vague spatiality emerges.
In Schlossbesuch Haber shows a selection of vector graphics from the years 2020–2022; the abstract spaces and objects depicted appear permeable and almost weightless. During this period, the artist visited her father’s birthplace for the first time, a village near the Czech-German border, and its castle, Zámek Cervený Hrádek (Rothenhaus Castle), where her grandfather worked before being drafted to serve in the Second World War. The artist could easily recognize some parts of the building that were known to her from old family photos. Thus, a foreign place reveals its fragmentary connection to her personal history. The titles of the drawings are a list of components for a building—Ramp 1, Walls 14, Relief 3, Passage 2—and the changing color saturation of the risoprints reinforces the impression of a fictitious architecture, or one from a memory or dream.

Jan-Holger Mauss – Buddy

Jan-Holger Mauss erases the models featured in vintage gay magazines. Meticulously he goes through an entire publication, page by page, using an ‘alog’ eraser to render these figures invisible and clear out everything but a few words or some parts of the background. This results in landscapes, interiors, and abstractions, leaving only what he wants us to see: the charm of editing, the art of two-dimensional sculpting, the merits of rubbing away.
Referring to “whole train” graffitis, Jan-Holger Mauss describes his editions as “whole books.”

Jan-Holger Mauss – Wild Thing Nr. 1

Jan-Holger Mauss erases the models featured in vintage gay magazines. Meticulously he goes through an entire publication, page by page, using an ‘analog’ eraser to render these figures invisible and clear out everything but a few words or some parts of the background. This results in landscapes, interiors, and abstractions, leaving only what he wants us to see: the charm of editing, the art of two-dimensional sculpting, the merits of rubbing away.
Referring to “whole train” graffitis, Jan-Holger Mauss describes his editions as “whole books.”

Collision

Collision by Lars Harmsen is the collision of intuition and the human experience. A visual journey of photographs, design, and ideas.

With this publication, the author mercilessly settles accounts with the last 10 years of his creative work. Numerous pieces and creations, from Slanted, PosterRex and 100for10 to freelance works and other projects have been destroyed, cut up and reassembled. A maximum of carnage. With a minimum of diplomacy.

Raban Ruddigkeit wrote about the work: “A year ago Lars bought a boat. He has actually been sailing all his life. He sails as a designer over the trends and hypes, over the egos and the shooters. In his work he connects drops to water and waves to a sea. Now and then he expresses himself in his own graphic language. Especially when, as today, the sea becomes rougher and more uncomfortable. Then Lars brings out his unwavering compass—a true sailor only proves himself in the storm.”

 

Longlist Die Schönsten Deutschen Bücher 2024, Stiftung Buchkunst
Awarded by Art Directors Club, ADC Award Germany 2024 (Silver)

Grafikmagazin 01.23 Bars & Drinks

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 Bars and Drinks. 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 & 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 & 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.

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.

Krisenkunst – Kunstkrise? Kunst und die globale Umweltkrise. Ein Gespräch mit T. J. Demos

Crisis Art—Art Crisis? Art and the Global Environmental Crisis. A Conversation with T.J. Demos
How can dystopian thinking be transformed into positive forces for a common future? There are no easy answers to this question, yet it is imperative to engage with it in order to contribute to a more sustainable and socially just world.
The publication Krisenkunst – Kunstkrise? deals with this complex topic in form of a dialogue led by young artists and academic staffs from the Acadamy of Fine Arts Leipzig and the Athens School of Fine Arts, as part of the program p o s t documenta: contemporary arts as territorial agencies, with award-winning author and theorist T.J. Demos.
Conceived as a platform for experimental modes of art education, production, and dissemination, as well as for collaborative practice and critical discourse, the p o s t documenta program established an intercultural exchange over a period of three years (2020-2022) between Leipzig and Athens and dealt with urgent challenges of the present. Among other things, this brought about the wonderful opportunity to speak with T. J. Demos about the relevance and potential of artistic creation in the context of the global environmental crisis, about raw ideas and the search for new perspectives between art, ecology, and politics. For T. J. Demos, the current climate emergency is first and foremost a political crisis that must be managed through an intersectional approach if a future worth living is to be shaped.
In the conversation about “Art and the Global Environmental Crisis,” ”world” turns out to be a key concept, evoking the most diverse meanings—parallel, anthropocentric, post-human, utopian, dystopian, future, capitalist, extinct, and constructive. This was the inspiration for a visual essay accompanying the German and Greek versions of the text: 16 collages of images illustrating iterations, fragments, potentials, and evidence of worlds and their transformations.
T.J. Demos writes about contemporary art and global politics. He is a professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the founding director of its Center for Creative Ecologies. He researches the intersection of visual culture, radical politics, and political ecology, and is the author of numerous books, including Beyond the World’s End: Arts of Living at the Crossing (Duke, 2020); Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and Political Ecology (Sternberg, 2016); and Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today (Sternberg, 2017). He recently co-edited The Routledge Companion on Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change (2021), was a Getty Research Institute Fellow (Spring 2020), and directed the Mellon Foundation-funded Sawyer Seminar research project Beyond the End of the World (2019-2021). Demos is also chair and chief curator of the Climate Collective, providing public programming related to the 2021 Climate Emergency > Emergence program at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Maat) in Lisbon. He is presently working on a new book on radical futurisms.
p o s t documenta: contemporary arts as territorial agencies was an educational and artistic research program of the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig and the Athens School of Fine Arts, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the frame of German-Greek Academic Partnerships 2020-2022.
The book is accompanied by a visual essay by Andrea Garcia Vasquez in collaboration with Brigita Kasperaite, Maria Zervoudaki, and Magdalena Zotou.

The New Beauty

In recent years, the beauty industry has shifted the conversation towards individual expression like never before. While people, and women in particular, have historically faced pressure to conform to rigid ideals set by society, nowadays brands and consumers are embracing uniqueness and celebrating identity. Creating a platform for conversation and deconstructing taboos in the process, The New Beauty captures an essential moment of transformation in the business of beauty by exploring the industry from historical, scientific, and journalistic perspectives.

From using makeup as a means to challenge gender, to the link between hairstyling and community-building, or rituals as a form of self-care, The New Beauty is positioned to appeal to anyone with an interest in feeling well in their own skin.

Seven Logics of Sculpture—Encountering Objects Through the Senses

Sculpture as a specific medium is rarely investigated within a deeply cultural, philosophical context, nor within visual art itself. Whilst discussions about installation art, performance art, or other 3D art forms are widespread, the discourse on sculpture seems to be stuck in historical, material, or thematic frameworks. This is a loss for our understanding of art in general, and of sculpture in particular. In order to assess contemporary art practices, one should have a better understanding of the logics that are at work within sculpture as a medium, and how they differ from other art forms.

This book explores ‘seven logics’ of sculpture—not as a historical overview, but with a contemporary analytical approach, drawing from literature, philosophy, psycho-analysis, architecture, and mundane daily culture—that help understand specific manifestations of sculpture and the active perception by the viewer. It relates to aspects such as the senses, the skin, the body, objecthood, narrative dynamics, the shaping of space, fragmentation, and montage.
Seven Logics of Sculpture opens up new ways of looking at, understanding, and appreciating sculpture, placing the medium at the heart of art’s experience; how sculpture can be shaped, assembled, encountered, seen and embodied.
Ernst van Alphen (b. 1958) is a cultural analyst and a professor emeritus of Literary Studies at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. His publications include Shame! and Masculinity (Valiz, 2020); Failed Images (Valiz, 2018); Staging the Archive (Reaktion Books, 2014).

Featuring work by: Carl Andre, Aldo Bakker, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brancusi, Anthony Caro, Joseph Cornell, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Jeannette Christensen, Lygia Clark, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Alberto Giacometti, Dan Graham, David Hammons, Raoul Hausmann, Barbara Hepworth, Heringa/Van Kalsbeek, Eva Hesse, Hans Hovy, Ann Veronica Janssens, Donald Judd, Maria van Kesteren, Per Kirkeby, Katarzyna Kobro, Jannis Kounellis, Geert Lap, Sol Lewitt, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Michelangelo, Henry Moore, Bruce Nauman, Meret Oppenheim, Pablo Picasso, Giuseppe Penone, Robert Rauschenberg, Charles Ray, Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso, Fred Sandback, Marien Schouten, Richard Serra, David Smith, Alina Szapocznikow, Johan Tahon, Didier Vermeiren, Rachel Whiteread, and many others.

Posters Can Help

Global dramas can lead us to question our own credibility and the significance of our own lives and/or actions. Recent events in Ukraine have led us, the Slanted team, to ask what our work is really for? Can we accelerate the transition to a sustainable, fair, and just society through the power of design?

With a global call, we invited the design community to contribute with a piece of work and a donation. 434 people from all over the world participated in this project and almost 700 posters were submitted. All the proceeds have been donated to two select organizations that we appreciate for their work: ARTHELPS and MSF—Médecins Sans Frontières.

We believe in the problem-solving power of design. We want to work every day towards a vision of the world that is sustainable, inclusive, equitable, and safe. This book is an effort to bring the global creative community together to take a small but valuable step towards solving the big problems of our time.

Container Atlas

Container architecture has become an essential part of our twenty-first century surroundings, with it being used to create modular structures for pavilions, brand showrooms, retail premises, and even residential homes. Ten years after the first publication of Container Atlas, this eagerly anticipated follow-up charts how this movement has evolved into an essential part of today’s architectural vocabulary. Container Atlas serves as a practical and inspirational reference not only for architects and engineers, but also for all creatives eager to learn about the rich and diverse language of container architecture and modular building.

The Story of Eames Furniture

In The Story of Eames Furniture, Marilyn and John Neuhart tell the story, to paraphrase Charles Eames himself, of how Eames furniture got to be the way it is. The Story of Eames Furniture is a biography—not of an individual person, but of arguably the most influential and important furniture brand of our time.

Brimming with more than 2,500 images and insider information, this two-volume book in a slipcase sheds new light on the context in which the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames was created. It documents in unparalleled detail how the design process in the Eames Office developed as well as the significant roles played by specific designers and manufacturers.

Volume 1 presents the early years of the Eames Office and its method of furniture design and development. It introduces not only Charles and Ray Eames, but also key members of their design team including Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Herbert Matter, and others. This volume also focuses on Charles Eames’s early work with plywood and how he adapted plywood-molding techniques into a system to mass-produce furniture.

Volume 2 features the period from the aftermath of the Second World War through 1978, the year of Charles Eames’s death and of the effective, functional end of the Eames Office. It provides incomparable insight into how new technologies served as the genesis for the most interesting pieces of Eames furniture. This volume also focuses on the role of the Herman Miller Furniture Company in the evolution of furniture design at the Eames Office and investigates the influence of Don Albinson, who was Charles Eames’s primary designer and technician from the mid-1940s to 1960.

A Poor Collector’s Guide to Buying Great Art

Today’s art market is incredibly dynamic. There are so many compelling works, shows, and exhibitions to choose from. Because there is so much to discover and see, many people are getting interested in collecting art. But since it’s impossible to keep track of all developments, becoming an art collector is not easy.

A Poor Collector’s Guide to Buying Great Art provides relief and offers sound advice to those who want to buy art but don’t know how or where to do it. They might have preferences in terms of styles or techniques, but they’re not familiar with how the buying process works. Perhaps they already have specific pieces in mind but don’t yet trust the rules of the art market—if such rules actually exist. What does someone actually need to know to prevent their personal tastes from leading them to make the wrong investment decisions?

A Poor Collector’s Guide to Buying Great Art illuminates all aspects of becoming an expert at buying art that one will enjoy for many years, such as how to get started, how to take one’s tastes seriously, how to do a targeted search for pieces, how to learn to appraise prices, and how to find trustworthy partners.

Soft Electronics

The fascinating world of product design that emerged between the 1960s and 1980s symbolized the birth of a new age in human behavior. From coffee grinders to electric knives to blow-dryers, each home appliance was intended to help in the daily household routines—but they were also masterpieces of style.

Based on Jaro Gielens’s collection, Soft Electronics explores a nostalgic and unique set of products from a very distinct period in design. Each object possesses a sense of longevity, quality, and innovation that has been hard to match since planned obsolescence redefined our relationship with consumer goods. Soft Electronics pays homage to an iconic era of product design.

Temples of Books

Libraries are so much more than collections of books. They are archives of knowledge, spaces of study, sources of inspiration, and connection. Among the world’s most universal and democratic places, they are also outstanding icons of architecture that represent the societies that built them. Temples of Books celebrates the world’s oldest and grandest shrines to the written word, as well as new and tiny ones: from baroque palaces to micro-libraries made of recycled plastics, and the unlikely ones in between.

Looking at the diverse architecture of global libraries throughout the ages, Temples of Books goes further and explores the very idea of libraries themselves. This is a book about the beauty of books, a book for book lovers, and for those who believe in the power of ideals.

Photo credits
P. 138 top Photo BC architects & studies, Temples of Books, gestalten 2021
P. 159 + 264 Photo Reinhard Görner, Temples of Books, gestalten 2021
P. 276–277 Photo Courtesy of Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Temples of Books, gestalten 2021

Urban Farmers

We are what we eat, but do you know what you’re eating? As our world becomes increasingly defined by urban structures, exploring inner-city agriculture has become an important tool in enriching quality of life for many. From underground mushroom farms to rooftop beekeeping, Urban Farmers explores the fascinating and diverse world of planting, growing, and harvesting.

Equipped with the right know-how and the proper tools for growth, we are well on our way to ensuring the spaces we inhabit evolve in a healthy direction and a passion for nature is nourished. A must-have manual for city-dwellers who dream of a greener life, Urban Farmers offers an opportunity to learn best practices from experts and encourages you to get your hands dirty, be it in your balcony or beyond.

High on Design

The cannabis industry has become a thriving activity. Consuming the plant and using its derivatives have become legal in several countries and paved the way for a new generation of design-savvy and diverse consumers and entrepreneurs.

High on Design showcases the new brands, designs, and creators behind this revolution. Meet the creative minds behind Gossamer, a biannual print magazine for casual weed smokers and curious mind. Learn everything you need to know about pot and weed as a medium for cultural understanding with Mia Park and Dae Lim, creators of Sundae School. Expand your culinary horizon with Michelin-Starred chef, Claus Henriksen who will give you an insight into his haute cannabis cuisine and gourmet herbs. Have a look inside Broccoli, a female-run magazine about cannabis culture and discover the most exciting cannabis businesses around the world from High Road, an award-winning dispensary design studio to Tokyo Smoke, a Canadian cannabis retailer.

While reflecting on the novel aesthetics and trends of contemporary cannabis culture, High on Design also gives a profound view of the phenomenon regarding politics, history, legalization, and society. This is your guide to the best brands, the most stylish dispensaries, the slickest products, and the most creative entrepreneurs.

The Intelligent Lifestyle Magazine

Francesco Franchi is the art director of IL: Ideas and Lifestyle, the monthly magazine supplement to the Italian daily newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. From its typography concept to its infographics, its striking editorial design makes a significant contribution to the high brand recognition that IL enjoys worldwide. The Intelligent Lifestyle Magazine is the first comprehensive monograph about this magazine. From an insider’s perspective, it tells the story of how IL’s consistent visual and journalistic quality developed. Numerous examples are used to explain editorial concepts and branding elements. The book offers inspiration for art directors, designers, media professionals, and anyone who ever wished they could learn more about this groundbreaking Italian publication in English.

What Should I Say—About Seoul

How could visiting Seoul be described in a way that allows someone else to feel like they are right there? What to say? What perspectives to choose?

What Should I Say—About Seoul takes the reader on a path less traveled: The work and daily-life of Korean designers; but not just as a spectator. The book gives a glimpse into South Korean society that is not so common after all: Some of the insights into the Seoul work experience appear grim at places, colored by the ongoing pandemic that forced people to cut down on social interactions.

The experiences of Korean-German designers are also included in the book, and as a result, one could see that there is really no reason to think of Germany as a country that “has it all figured out.” The modern workplace can be a very mixed bag at times and bad working conditions plague the creative industry worldwide. Speaking about these experiences allows us to feel less isolated and work towards change—so it is not all doom and gloom.

Bloomerang Game Kit – The Branding Game

Bloomerang Game Kit is a powerful branding game designed to help you develop a clear and aligned brand — whether it’s personal or business. Through a playful, gamified process, you’ll define your brand’s core elements: mission, values, positioning, audience, and more. At the end you’ll gain clarity, confidence, and momentum to keep building your brand with purpose and ease.
Use this kit solo, with your team, or with clients.
Watch a video 👉 https://youtu.be/0dggIpsaHdk?si=r454A56Au3Kl85HT
With this branding game kit, you’ll embark on a creative adventure to explore and shape your brand.
Guided by proven branding and entrepreneurship techniques, you’ll lay the foundation to launch or elevate your brand — all through a structured, gamified process.
This playful yet powerful kit will help you:
✦ Clarify your vision and brand essence
✦ Define your ideal audience
✦ Crystallize your key value propositions, sales points, and lead generation channels
✦ Refine your positioning, messaging, and creative direction
✦ Get inspired by latest branding designs and next-generation ideas.
By the end of the process, you’ll walk away with a crystallized brand core — giving you clarity, confidence, and momentum to keep building your brand with purpose and ease.
WHAT’S INCLUDED?
✦ Playbook
✦ Brand Canvas
✦ Brand Strategy Cards
✦ Word Cards
✦ Content Cards
✦ Style Cards Vol.1 + Vol.2
✦ Superpower Cards
✦ Next-Generation Cards
✦ Avatar Cards
✦ Dice
✦ 6 Game Pawns