Brand New Brand

The current situation may feel uncertain and unsettling, but while the pandemic has posed new challenges for brands in nearly every industry, social distancing also means that our need to connect is stronger than ever. It is vital for businesses to create communities centered around their brands, and the pandemic may well act as an accelerator to put values into practice that have become increasingly important to customers, such as a call for greater diversity, more social responsibility, better ethics and a stronger focus on sustainability. More than ever, brands need to think holistically.
It is true, branding can help businesses break through the noise, build trust and recognition, but it is so much more than just a look or a logo. Branding is creating the emotional reaction a company can elicit from its customers by sharing meaningful moments with people to create empathy, respect, satisfaction and delight–this is when the relationship with the brand really begins.

“Brand New Brand” is a compendium of the best visual identities recently created for businesses from all over the world. It shows how well-considered, holistic branding can take a bakery, a solar panel installer, a gym that serves as an inclusive workout space for all body types, a Black-owned social and wellness clubhouse, a physiotherapist or even a waste management business that is using circular solutions, from one of a crowd to one in a million. It shows how, in an era of pandemics and political and economic instability, creative, innovative thinking is the greatest asset.
In-depth case studies explore the ideas currently shaping the field of branding, such as the use of traditional techniques or the reinterpretation of local visual languages. This expertly curated collection with a foreword by Astrid Stavro, an internationally-renowned graphic designer and partner at Pentagram’s London office, explains the context, the thinking, and the inspiration behind the design. As many of the projects in this book show, if you have a good idea that has been well crafted, so much can be achieved with even the most modest of budgets. Whatever the scope of the project, there is always space for surprise and innovation, a way to do things differently, and push things further.

Who invented this?

Many of the things surrounding us were once nothing more than an idea.Things that on first glance may seem small and common, like the jeans we’re wearing right now, Post-its, toothpaste or fizzy drinks, just as much as things such as the light bulb, tires, the microchip or plastic that have become an integral part of our everyday lives, as well as still others that appear to be invisible, but have undeniably changed the world we live in forever like frequency hopping that is the basis of modern technologies such as Bluetooth and WLAN, radioactivity, alternating current, which is the electricity that comes out of our plugs, or the ubiquitous world wide web.

These things that make up the fabric of our everyday lives, did not just appear out of nowhere, though, they were conceived by talented inventors, scientists, and engineers. Some are the result of teamwork, some of many years spent alone in a laboratory. Other inventions grew out of everyday situations and some were simply the result of chance. “Who Invented This?” is a fascinating trip back through history that shows how now famous scientists and inventors like Marie Curie, Nikola Tesla or Ada Lovelace, as well as lesser known, but no less creative minds such as Adi Dassler, the inventor of football boots, George Beauchamp, who developed the first electrically amplifiable guitar, or Louis Braille, who as a 16-year old came up with the idea of using dots to create a form of writing that blind people could read with their fingers, have turned their ideas into great inventions.

How they seized opportunities, had faith in their ideas, and the courage to try something new. At a time when the lack of trust in science appears to be growing and controversies about facts are on the rise, “Who Invented This?” aims to inspire creativity and spark the interest in science and engineering by connecting groundbreaking minds from the past with modern technology, culture, and medicine.

Making her children’s literature debut in “Who Invented This?,” German author Anne Ameri-Siemens is using her experience as a journalist to tell engaging stories about human development and the world around us. She previously worked for Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung-Magazin, and German television networks.

Becky Thorns is the illustrator behind Little Gestalten’s acclaimed title The World of Whales that has been shortlisted for the World Illustration Award 2020. She graduated from Falmouth University with a Fine Art degree in 2015 and now specializes in children’s illustration, literary themed works, and calligraphic lettering.

 

Slanted ASCII Poster – Artificial Intelligence

On the occasion of Slanted Magazine #37—AI, Lars Harmsen designed a poster with a collage of ASCII quotes, inspired by the works of Douglas Coupland.

“ASCII art is a graphic design technique that uses computers for presentation and consists of pictures pieced together from the 95 printable (from a total of 128) characters defined by the ASCII Standard from 1963 and ASCII compliant character sets with proprietary extended characters (beyond the 128 characters of standard 7-bit ASCII).” Wikipedia

 

Can ‘Khan’ Oral – Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism) / the book

Can ‘Khan’ Oral’s book “Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” presents 84 digital prints of found internet imagery categorized in four thematic cabinets.
Logging onto a sex-dating page is like a promise, an overwhelming sea of imagery and data. Next to each other one finds fetish-addicts and ordinaries, “tops” and “bottoms,” “trannies” and “sissies.” Here, everybody can find a sweetheart. Digital flaneurism, an ongoing desire of searching and finding.
“Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” is a collection of found images from these virtual sex-dating pages that formulates a poetry of teasing. The images show particulars of the human, but the character or identity is obscured: A shape of a chest might count more than what’s written on a driver’s license. Nobody knows for sure which personality is hidden beyond the image: Is it a constructed identity or an authentic one, a bourgeois or a pervert?
Hierarchies of bodily forms, of beauty or nationality do not make the categories by which the collection is organized, but the various formal disguising, masking, blurring, or highlighting techniques that obliterate the notion of the natural and the real. Hiding is showing.
Khan is a professional in the fields of music, arts, and creative producing. Khan moves at the interface of the digital and the real. His creative way of expression is music, photography, and art itself. He is interested in new subcultural behaviors that result from our digital interaction and real life together. In his art, he overcomes this dichotomy.
“I’m interested in ideas, emotions, and bodily fluids.”
Khan has collaborated with Diamanda Galas, Julee Cruise, Kim Gordon, Brigitte Fontaine, Kid Congo Powers, J Mascis, Little Annie, Jon Spencer, Andre Williams, Jimi Tenor, Francoise Cactus, Alexander Kowalski, Dr. Walker, DJ Kaos, Rodion, Tiefschwarz, Adana Twins, Captain Comatose, International Pony, Air Liquide, Stereo Total, Terranova, Baba Zula, a.m.m.
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“Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” is also available as box set (containing the book, a CD, and a DVD), published in a limited and numbered edition of 100.

Ursula Bogner – Sonne = Black Box (complete box set: book + CD) / Jan Jelinek

Since 2008, when the public first heard of Ursula Bogner’s work, many rumors have been circulating about her as a person. Bogner’s graphic work has been featured in exhibitions, and her compositions have been performed in public (by Mo Loschelder, Andrew Pekler, Kassian Troyer, Jan Jelinek, and others). “Sonne = Black Box” combines all these aspects as a CD-and-book release.
The CD, released on Jan Jelinek’s label Faitiche and compiled by Andrew Pekler, presents Bogner’s early voice and tape experiments–a hitherto unknown emotional side is revealed here through her singing.
The 126-page book accompanying the CD contains drawings, photos, and other curiosities documenting Bogner’s life, an introduction by Jan Jelinek, texts by Momus, Andrew Pekler, Tim Tetzner, Bettina Klein, and interviews with the orgone researcher Jürgen Fischer and the ethnologist Kiwi Menrath.
“Sonne = Black Box” attempts to culturally and historically situate the work of the sound explorer Ursula Bogner. Special emphasis is given to the phenomenon of fake: How did the suspicion of fake in Ursula Bogner’s case come about, and what is a post-fake? Answers can be found in the book.
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The book is also available separately.

Can ‘Khan’ Oral – Angels of Disguise (complete box set: book, CD, DVD)

Can ‘Khan’ Oral’s box set “Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” has been published by Fantôme in a limited and numbered edition of 100 copies. It contains the book of the same name, the CD “Audiopornography”, and the DVD “Audio Porno Megamix (Come Into My Light).”
The book “Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” presents 84 digital prints of found internet imagery categorized in four thematic cabinets.
Logging onto a sex-dating page is like a promise, an overwhelming sea of imagery and data. Next to each other one finds fetish-addicts and ordinaries, “tops” and “bottoms,” “trannies” and “sissies.” Here, everybody can find a sweetheart. Digital flaneurism, an ongoing desire of searching and finding.
“Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” is a collection of found images from these virtual sex-dating pages that formulates a poetry of teasing. The images show particulars of the human, but the character or identity is obscured: A shape of a chest might count more than what’s written on a driver’s license. Nobody knows for sure which personality is hidden beyond the image: Is it a constructed identity or an authentic one, a bourgeois or a pervert?
Hierarchies of bodily forms, of beauty or nationality do not make the categories by which the collection is organized, but the various formal disguising, masking, blurring, or highlighting techniques that obliterate the notion of the natural and the real. Hiding is showing.
The DVD “Audio Porno Megamix (Come Into My Light)” contains a sound collage of found amateur audio from internet porn sites accompanied by video. The audio material is also featured, in alphabetical order, on the CD “Audiopornography.”
The investigation took its starting point with the question: Why is pornography mainly visual and rarely audio? The examination that followed ranged from professional and theatrically staged to nowadays predominant amateur porn videos, in which the visual and aural setting and the sexualized atmosphere has become as important as the actual sexual act itself.
The material for the “Audio Porno Megamix (Come Into My Light)” sound collage was collected during seemingly endless walks through cyberspace and in the same manner of flaneurism as in “Angels of Disguise.”
Video sex portals provide any fetishes and sounds imaginable. From outdoors to body sounds to electronic machinery or simply the next-door neighbours’ blaring television set. A major part of the sound mix are corrupted files, damaged by faulty up- or downloading or by improper use of recording equipment. Similar to the “Angels of Disguise” prints, the digital corruption becomes a mask that disguises or highlights the original document.
The “Audio Porno Megamix (Come Into My Light)” is accompanied by a silent and hardly moving short video recording of the moon, which digitally has been time stretched to a 42 minutes slow motion movement. The moon, earth’s face to face eternal companion, becomes a cosmic metaphor for the infinite and perpetual potentiality and quality of what man has created: the computer and the internet; the digital age as a symbol of a global and maybe even cosmic human interconnectedness?
Can ‘Khan’ Oral in his own words: “The idea for ‘Audio Porno Megamix’ started with a question: ‘Why is pornography mainly visual and rarely audio?’ I started looking for examples and only found some 60s flexi disc that was some kind of a phone-sex recording accompanied by a ye-ye lounge soundtrack. I came across ‘Porno for The Blind,’ a rather unexcited narration by someone watching porn, transcribing to the blind what he sees without using any porno slang nor much emotion. I’m not sure if that was just bad casting or on purpose. My next step was collecting audio off of pornographic video material I was looking up on the internet. I realized that the “old school theatrical actors porn” had almost been replaced by massive uploads of amateur video or that what pretends to be amateur. I found interesting that some clips are publicized mute, some original sound was replaced by music, most of the time Top-40, others were corrupted video up- or downloads, in and out of the internet, or simply malfunctioning recording equipment. My attention went towards video in which the erotic self-portrait managed without much moaning, growling, or talking. The room and the sexualized atmosphere became the main attraction. The street sounds, people next door, or the camera hum itself under my headphones opened a 3-dimensional room of showing and not showing, intimacy or in your face, corruption and innocence, a room in the room in the room, endless flaneurism.”
—
Khan is a professional in the fields of music, arts, and creative producing. Khan moves at the interface of the digital and the real.
His creative way of expression is music, photography, and art itself. He is interested in new subcultural behaviors that result from our digital interaction and real life together. In his art, he overcomes this dichotomy. “I’m interested in ideas, emotions, and bodily fluids.”
Khan has collaborated with Diamanda Galas, Julee Cruise, Kim Gordon, Brigitte Fontaine, Kid Congo Powers, J Mascis, Little Annie, Jon Spencer, Andre Williams, Jimi Tenor, Francoise Cactus, Alexander Kowalski, Dr. Walker, DJ Kaos, Rodion, Tiefschwarz, Adana Twins, Captain Comatose, International Pony, Air Liquide, Stereo Total, Terranova, Baba Zula, a.m.m.
—
The book “Angels of Disguise (The Abstract Aesthetics of Digital Flaneurism)” is also available separately.

Typographic Architectures

As a major figure in contemporary European graphic design, Wim Crouwel (1928-2019) has widely influenced the history of the discipline through his extensive practice of design, applied both to the cultural and commercial field. Over the course of his career, he has carried out simultaneously works in the range of typographic creation, visual identities, posters, book design, or scenography.

In the 1950s and for decades, Wim Crouwel, whose influence extends beyond borders of the Netherlands to a large extent, has managed to develop an approach to graphic design combining modernist heritage with pop fantasy.

Through two texts written by Catherine de Smet and Emmanuel Berard, and one by Wim Crouwel himself, this book testifies the diversity of his work and analyzes his wide range of production in diverse fields such as visual identities, publishing, or poster creation.

Abundantly illustrated, the book “Typographic architectures” focuses on the layout of the catalogues made for museums such as the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam, as well as on the genesis and presentation of the New Alphabet, created between 1964 and 1967.

Louise Bristow – European Park

The catalog “European Park” is published on the occasion of Louise Bristow’s exhibition of the same name at Berlin’s Laura Mars Gallery.
Louise Bristow composes horizontal oil paintings based on self-made models as well as different pictorial sources. In trompe-l’œil-like table or stage settings, heterogeneous pictorial ‘personae’ come together: photographs and reproductions that function as stage sets in the background, as it were, patterned prints, and architectural models and imaginatively designed stereometric bodies. Scenic details of children’s playgrounds can often be recognized; the evocation of the sphere of carefree play is frequently juxtaposed with the motif of the working world of adults. In addition, there are cultural artifacts that have come down to us, ranging from prehistoric hand-axes to folkloristic-looking objects to postwar design, Soviet monumental sculpture, and modernist architecture.
In her visual worlds, Louise Bristow utilizes miniaturization in order to sharpen, by this quasi-inverted overwhelming gesture, the view of what constitutes contemporary society and culture at their core. Bristow’s paintings of stage sets examine the state of today’s seemingly pluralistic culture. The compilation of artifacts ‘neutralized’ in their disparate composition shows features of nostalgia and at the same time of alienation, because the different ‘actors’ appear on the same stage but are not sure if they do perform in the same play.

Astrid Busch – Le Havre. Brasilia. Mezamor. Wolfsburg

The catalog “Le Havre. Brasilia. Mezamor. Wolfsburg,” published by Fantôme, presents Astrid Busch’s artistic work, in which she deals with places and the experience of them. She examines architectural designs for their sensual perceptibility and their effect on people. The central object of investigation of her project is the treatment of space and architecture in four planned cities built between 1938 and 1969 with regard to the key design areas of light, sound, and material.
Taking these aspects into consideration, the artist examined the cities of Metsamor (Armenia), Le Havre (France), Brasilia (Brazil), and Wolfsburg (Germany). The aesthetic experiences generated from the interaction of all the senses are incorporated into the works and are then transferred into site-specific installations. Astrid Busch uses the means that can also be found at the respective locations, such as lighting conditions, soundscapes, and materiality. In this way, her installations thematize the respective character of a place, while at the same time themselves creating new places.
Whereas visiting Astrid Busch’s exhibitions allows the direct spatial experience to become sensually tangible through the use of a wide variety of materials and ephemeral interventions, the catalog “Le Havre. Brasilia. Mezamor. Wolfsburg” opens up other possibilities of perceiving her collages and pictorial compositions. The sequence of images draws the eye to characteristic features of the four planned cities and their atmospheric differences.
—
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 Brazil of the federal state of 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).

Ursula Bogner – Sonne = Black Box (the book) / Jan Jelinek

The book “Sonne = Black Box,” published by Fantôme, attempts to culturally and historically situate the work of the sound explorer Ursula Bogner. Special emphasis is given to the phenomenon of fake: How did the suspicion of fake in Ursula Bogner’s case come about, and what is a post-fake? Answers can be found in this book.
Since 2008, when the public first heard of Ursula Bogner’s work, many rumors have been circulating about her as a person. Bogner’s graphic work has been featured in exhibitions (Laura Mars Gallery, Berlin 2009; CEACC, Strasbourg, France, 2011; xhibit, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, 2013; etc.), and her compositions have been performed in public (by Mo Loschelder, Andrew Pekler, Kassian Troyer, Jan Jelinek, and others).
“Sonne = Black Box” contains drawings, photos, and other curiosities documenting Bogner’s life, an introduction by Jan Jelinek, texts by Momus, Andrew Pekler, Tim Tetzner, Bettina Klein, and interviews with the orgone researcher Jürgen Fischer and the ethnologist Kiwi Menrath.
—
“Sonne = Black Box” is also available as special-edition box set (containing the book and a CD).

Cloisterfck—House of Common Affairs #2

The House of Common Affairs (HOCA) is a new, smashing journal about the Fourth Estate Utopias. It provides an opportunity to challenge the niche and yet popular field that exists in the overlap between the arts and journalism. HOCA invites a more diverse range of voices into the conversation with the aim to promote an international and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, as well as knowledge. It seeks to offer a space for critical thinking with the aim of provoking further developments in this field.

The Fourth Estate Utopias is the first issue of HOCA, and as such addresses the project’s subtitle, “fancy discussions about Fourth Estate utopias,” and is about the role of visual communication in relation to journalism.

Yearbook of Type 2021 / 22

Grab one of the last copies!

It’s great to see that more people than ever understand how important typography is. The choice of a typeface and the design of a text can have a dramatic impact on its meaning. Typefaces don’t need words to convey a message. The responsibility for graphic designers in choosing the right typeface is therefore crucial. But how do you find the right typeface in the infinite universe of possibilities? The Yearbook of Type 2021 / 22 makes it easy to get an overview of recently published typefaces from around the world while understanding their visual language.

Each typeface and -family is presented on a double-page spread. On the left side, a specimen gives an idea of possible applications and shows the beauty and character of each typeface. This year’s theme is music. As music conveys emotions through melodies and lyrics, typography does so through its form and balance of letters. The right page provides detailed information about the designers and foundries, as well as an overview of the typefaces’ features.

The Yearbook of Type is complemented by a series of essays that offer background information about typography, history, technical details and how-to guides, and the latest trends in current type design. An index sorts typefaces by classifications, besides listing designers, foundries, and OpenType features. Last but not least, an online microsite presents all featured fonts, so that users can test or purchase them.

Feel inspired and listen to type, the soundtrack of our lives!

The highlights in short:

  • Detailed presentation of 192 recent typefaces
  • Extensive background information
  • Index of typeface classifications
  • Index of all 201 type designers and 105 foundries from 33 countries
  • Explanation of all OpenType features
  • Introduction by Veronika Burian
  • Essays and tutorials by Murat Çil, Matthieu Cortat, and Eva Kubinyi
  • Online microsite, linking the typefaces to the foundries’ websites

Presented type foundries: 205TF, 29Letters / 29LT, 3type, A2-TYPE, Abstract Office, AG Typography, AinsiFont, Alexander Slobzheninov, Antipixel Type Studio, APK Type, ATS Type, Atypical, Binnenland Type Foundry, Blaze Type, Bonez Designz, BrassFonts, Bureau Roffa, Bureau Sebastian Moock, bvhtype, Canada Type, Cape Arcona Type Foundry, CAST, Cinetype, Collletttivo, CSTM Fonts, Degarism Studio, DSType, Due Studio, ECAL Typefaces, Fabio Haag Type, Floodfonts, Fontador, FontPeople Ltd, Fontwerk, FSdesign, Gradient Type, Gurup Stüdyo, HvD Fonts, In-House International, Jeremy Tankard Typography, Julien Fincker, Kanon Foundry, Kimmy Design, Kontour, La Bolde Vita, Laïc: Type Foundry, Latinotype, Lazydogs Typefoundry, Leo Colalillo, Letter Palette Foundry, lo-ol type, Los Andes Type, Lukas Diemling, Lux Typographic + Design, make type not war!, Manuel von Gebhardi, Mark Simonson Studio, Mark van Leeuwen, Michal Tornyai, Morisawa, NEW LETTERS, Nootype, Nort, Nova Type Foundry, Occupant Fonts, P22 Type Foundry, Pangram Pangram, Paratype, Peggo Fonts, Petra Wöhrmann, PSY/OPS, R9 Type+Design, Sacha Rein, Sandoll Inc., Schriftlabor, Sharp Type Co., Six, Stan Hema, Studio Rene Bieder, Sudtipos, sugargliderz, Superior Type, Synthview Type Design, The Foundry Types, The Ivy Foundry, TipografiaRamis, Tipografies, TipoType, Tour de Force Font Foundry, Typedifferent, TypeMates, Typerotation, Typetanic Fonts, TypeTogether, TypeType, Typogama, Typografische, Underscore, Vetterle Kommunikationdesign, Wannatype, WELTKERN, WiseType, Zetafonts Foundry

Awarded with Type Directors Club New York.

Architekturführer. Bauhaus–Welterbe Bernau

Far away from the city and hustle and bustle, the national school of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB) was to provide its members with education, recreation and a modern way of life.

Hannes Meyer and Hans Wittwer planned the building with their students from the Bauhaus workshops. No other building project documents the scientific design with a socio-pedagogical approach at the Bauhaus under Hannes Meyer as vividly as the Bundesschule. At the same time, the desired unity of teaching and practice in construction was fulfilled here. In Bernau, the Bauhaus became an experimental laboratory on a large scale. It is these qualities that convinced the UNESCO Commission in 2017 to declare the building ensemble a World Heritage Site. But the use and associated extensions and conversions of today’s UNESCO World Heritage Site are also part of the now more than 90-year history of this impressive modernist building. Federal school, Reichsführer school, military hospital, trade union college, boarding school for apprentices–today’s Meyer-Wittwer Building has had several functions since its opening in 1930.

The book ‘Architekturführer. Bauhaus–Welterbe Bernau’ offers insights into the eventful history of the construction and use of the former Bundesschule and accompanies visitors on their tour of the Bauhaus Campus Bernau.

Cercle Magazine #9 – Flowers

Insects are attracted to flowers because of their shape, color and smell. They gather pollen and then move it away from the reproductive organ. Beyond this evolutionary pattern, flowers fascinate another species: humankind.
Elevated to the rank of muse by science and the arts, they were dissected over the years, petal by petal, and remain an infinite subject for poets, researchers and lovers. Their beauty is only matched by their ephemerality, mankind continues to explore, categorise, preserve and reproduce the flower, or rather flowers. Because they express themselves in their diversity. Both as a universal language, symbol of revolts and passions or cautious diplomat of a protocol, they also bloom in the private sphere, and accompany life’s stages and events.
As spring begins, flowers blossom in the pages of this ninth edition, cultivated, ornamental, extracted and enjoyed for the pleasure of our senses. A pleasure to give, a joy to receive.

Interviews: Alain Baraton, Head gardener of the Jardins du château de Versailles, Charlotte Urbain, Maison de Parfums Fragonard, Sophie Rouart, heritage collections of Maison Pierre Frey, Sylvie Albrand Bolmont, edible flower producer
Portfolio: Alex MacLean (USA), Luiza Holub (United Kingdom), Akatre (France), Tristan Hollingsworth (USA), Phil Greenwood (United Kingdom), Johanna Rocard (France), Mike Willcox (USA), Mao Lizi (China), Santtu Mustonen (Finland)
Font design: Picaflor, Ariel Martín Pérez
Selection: Maison Lemarié, Lotus temple, William Morris, Thousands, Offrir des fleurs, Xavier Antin, Karl Blossfedt, Najia Mehadji, Macoto Murayama, Viv Lee…
Contributors : Stella Ammar, Sandra Bideau, Marion Cole, Louise von Cronenberger, Christopher Dessus, Christelle Dion, Emilie Fernandez, Simon Pages, Anna Philippi, Léo Puel

Jan Tschichold – Erfreuliche Drucksachen

Conceived by Tschichold himself for young typesetters, today ‘Jan Tschichold – Erfreuliche Drucksachen’ is an indispensable book for anyone involved in text design. A classic of typography. Facsimile of the edition whose printing Tschichold himself supervised.
Tschichold is one of the most important designers and typeface creators of the last century. Without being a member of the Bauhaus himself, Tschichold shaped Bauhaus typography theoretically with his famous works like no one else. Towards the end of his life, he reflected on the fundamentals of typography and wrote “Erfreuliche Drucksachen durch gute Typographie” as a handbook for young typesetters. His credo: “In a typographic masterpiece, the artist’s handwriting appears to be erased.”

Jan Tschichold, born in Leipzig in 1902, dedicated his life to the design of type and its legibility and to the craft of bookmaking. He sparked a revolution and shaped the typographic landscape of this century like hardly anyone else.

Phillipp Luidl – Die Schwabacher

Like every typeface, the Schwabacher has its history. The well-known typographer Philipp Luidl tells it with many pictorial examples, right up to the day when Hitler banned the Schwabacher Judenletter.

Philipp Luidl was a lecturer in typography at the Akademie für das Grafische Gewerbe in Munich and a board member of the Typografische Gesellschaft.

The Aesthetics of Ambiguity – Understanding and Addressing Monoculture

In “The Aesthetics of Ambiguity: Understanding and Addressing Monoculture” Pascal Gielen and Nav Haq argue that multiculturalism is paradoxically based on monocultural thinking. The publication explores this paradox by exploring monoculture in a variety of contemporary contexts.

The book sets out to analyse monoculture using a multifaceted approach, by bringing together historical, social, cultural and ideological perspectives, using the dual role of art as tool for reconciliation and division in societies. The Aesthetics of Ambiguity gives stage to artists, thinkers and institutional practices who dare to play with the rules of a broader society and thus generate ambiguity ‘at large’.

It represents a quest for (more) ambiguity in order to avoid rigid borders or black-and-white polarities between cultures, as well as between practices of art and scientific thinking. By doing so, the artists, activists and researchers featured in this book plea for a politics and aesthetics of ambiguity to deal with the complexity of our living together on Earth.

Pascal Gielen is professor of sociology of culture and politics. He is based at the Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA) of Antwerp University. There he leads the research group Culture Commons Quest Office (CCQO). He is editor of the international book series Antennae-Arts in Society, published by Valiz.
Nav Haq is Associate Director at M HKA, responsible for the development of its artistic programme. At M HKA he co-curated Don’t You Know Who I Am? Art After Identity Politics (2014). He was previously Exhibitions Curator at Arnolfini, Bristol and Curator at Gasworks, London. Haq has organized numerous monographic exhibitions and in 2012 he was the recipient of the Independent Vision Award for Curatorial Achievement, awarded by Independent Curators International, New York.

The publication coincides with the exhibition: Monoculture: A Recent History, on show at M HKA from 25 September 2020 – 25 April 2021.
The publication is presented in the framework of ‘Our Many Europes’, a four-year (2018-2022) EU funded programme organized by the museum confederation L’Internationale, that brings together seven major European Art institutions: MG+MSUM (Ljubljana, Slovenia); Museo Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain); MACBA (Barcelona, Spain); M HKA, (Antwerp, Belgium); MSN (Warsaw, Poland), SALT (Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey) and Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, the Netherlands). L’Internationale works with complementary partners such as HDK-Valand (Gothenburg, Sweden) and NCAD (Dublin, Ireland) along with associate organisations from the academic and artistic fields.

Willem Sandberg – Portrait of an Artist

With exceptional creativity and in close cooperation with artists and architects, museum director Willem Sandberg (1897–1984) transformed the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum after the Second World War into a dynamic center for modern and in particular innovative art and culture.
“Willem Sandberg – Portrait of an Artist” is based on interviews with Sandberg (from 1971-1981) and offers first-hand insight into questions he felt strongly about, such as: what does the task of a museum director entail? How does art criticism work? What is the essence of being an artist, and what does the ideal museum architecture look like? Many of Sandberg’s ideas about these issues are still intriguing and provocative.
Thanks to this English translation of the revised text, plus photographic material and typographic work by Sandberg, a broad international public can now get to know those ideas which have are still relevant to current debates.
Ank Leeuw Marcar (1939-2015) was a Dutch art historian. From 1966 to 1982 she was a curator at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

Berghain Novelle

The catalog Berghain Novelle presents works by Lukas Feireiss, Matias Bechtold, Alekos Hofstetter and Florian Göpfert, and MV.Stein. It was published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, which took place at Berlin’s Laura Mars Gallery and was inspired by Hermann Skadus’ eponymous Berghain Novelle (1954).
The drawings, cut-outs, sculptures, installations, and animated films documented in the catalog approach both Skadus’ novella and the internationally acclaimed Berlin nightclub, Berghain. They are presented in a variety of artistically interpretative ways, creating a diverse and complex array of meaning.
Berghain Novelle, Skadus’ first and only work, is regarded by Germanists and bibliophiles as a rare and much sought-after collector’s item. Today it is to be found almost exclusively in private libraries at home and abroad.
Only a few days before his disappearance in the spring of 1954, which remains unsolved to this day, Skadus himself published the novella in a limited edition of only one hundred copies. Skadus’ eloquent and profound narration follows the protagonist, an architect by the name of Alberich, on his dreamlike quest into the oppressive, labyrinthine shadow world of an abandoned cogeneration plant in the center of Berlin. In the Kafkaesque tradition, Skadus succeeds in presenting searching for the sake of searching as a gloomy scenario that mercilessly demonstrates to the reader the absurdity, hopelessness, and senselessness of the quest, and the inner despair of the protagonist. Pursued by voices and shadows of discord and doubt, Alberich roams the vast, deserted spaces of the industrial plant, presumably designed by himself. Echoes of a time long past or still to come? Memory or vision? Only hints give the reader clues in this dense textual network. In his interwoven, stylistically complex narrative, Skadus refers to German national epics and to the fantastic literature of E.T.A. Hoffmann and the writings of Gustav Meyrink, as well as to classics of Expressionist film.

Wicked Arts Assignments – Practising Creativity in Contemporary Arts Education

Wicked Arts Assignments are bold, unusual, contrary, funny, poetical, inspiring, socially committed, or otherwise challenging. Everyone who teaches art knows them: the assignment that is seemingly simple but which challenges participants, students and pupils to the max. Many artists and arts teachers have that singular, personal, often-used assignment in which everything comes together: their artistic vision, their pedagogical approach and their love for certain techniques or methods.
The almost hundred arts assignments collected in ‘Wicked Arts Assignments – Practising Creativity in Contemporary Arts Education’ connect to the visual arts, performance, theatre, music and design, but more importantly: they encourage cross-disciplinarity. They reflect themes and ways of working in contemporary arts, offering opportunities to learn about ourselves, the arts and the world.
The first part of this book provides a theoretical view on arts assignments from historical, artistic and educational perspectives, complemented by interviews with experts in contemporary arts and education. The second part consists of the actual wicked arts assignments. These can be carried out in various contexts: from primary schools to higher education, from home to the (online) community, and from Bogotá to Istanbul. They are meant to spark the imagination of both teachers and students, contributing to new, topical educational and artistic practices.
In cooperation with Amsterdam University of the Arts.
Selected by the Student Jury as one of the Best Dutch Book Designs 2020!

This is the Flow – The Museum as a Space for Ideas

In a series of thought-provoking essays on a wide variety of subjects, the contributors to this stimulating volume discuss the current artistic and institutional climate. From the difference between nightclubs and museums, to the (im-)possible ambitions of art and the fading distinction between high and low culture. From the response to the increasing artificiality of reality in contemporary painting, to the carefully constructed ambience orderliness and luxury in airports. From fashion’s power to seduce, to the question of whether art can develop symbols that express the values that bind us today. The underlying premise binding these various topics is the idea that art museums must re-establish their legitimacy and engage in a more explicit relationship with society.
In ‘This is the Flow – The Museum as a Space for Ideas’, the museum is redefined: no longer primarily as a place for art and artists, but as a space for ideas.
Award Dutch Best Book Designs 2008

Rafaël Rozendaal – Everything, Always, Everywhere

Rafaël Rozendaal’s artistic practice comprises websites, installations, prints and writings. His work takes shape through a range of transformations—from movement into abstraction, from virtual into physical space, and from website to print—with all of them informing each other. All of his works have one thing in common: they stem from a fascination with moving images and interactivity in its most basic form. Rafaël Rozendaal – Everything, Always, Everywhere, reflects on the change that his work has undergone in recent years; looking at both his own evolution as an artist, and the technological progress that has influenced digital art in general. How can the artist play with the ever-growing range of digital possibilities? What is his relationship with Japan and Asia and how does this reflect in his work?

Three essays; by curator and media scholar Christiane Paul; art historian Margriet Schavemaker, and curator Kodama Kanazawa, attempt to answer these questions while simultaneously deepening different issues surrounding the work, focusing on net art and digital art. Through a long interview with Rafaël Rozendaal conducted by Marvin Jordan, the voice of the artist can be heard and lastly his signature can be recognized in the multiple visual essays Rozendaal has created together with designer Remco van Bladel.

Supported by Mondriaan Fund, Jaap Harten Fund, Postmasters Gallery, New York, Steve Turner, Los Angeles, Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Upstream Gallery, Amsterdam

Best Dutch Book Designs 2017 Award, also selected by the Student’s Jury!

White Paper – On Land, Law and the Imaginary

‘White Paper: On Land, Law and the Imaginary’ is an experimental compendium to White Paper (2013–16), a project developed by artist Adelita Husni-Bey in collaboration with several organizations and bodies. Divided into three distinct chapters revolving around the relationship between legislation, property and agency vis-à-vis the right to housing in Egypt, the Netherlands and Spain, this publication chronicles the project’s tactics of representation and diverse methodological approaches across institutions and informal spaces. Ranging from workshops, film production and formal exhibition-making to public discussion, ‘White Paper: On Land, Law and the Imaginary’ provides tools for analysing and acting upon the expansion of speculative neoliberal urban policies, and for re-imagining the space of the commons.

With Beirut, Berlin; Casco, Utrecht; CA2M, Madrid | supported by Graham Foundation