In the last three decades, creative practice disciplines, such as art, design, architecture, creative writing, fashion, and others, have undergone a ‘research turn’, strongly stimulated by doctoral programmes to deepen artists’ reflections on the roots, relevance and urgencies of their work. There are many reasons why an individual practitioner might decide to undertake a PhD: a desire to uplift one’s practice, to contribute to the intellectual artistic climate, to teach, to pursue an academic career, or some combination of these, or other reasons.
The rise of artistic research or practice-based research is subtly transforming these disciplines. The integration of research into practice, however, has not always been smooth, and the transformations not unequivocally positive.
For this book an open call was issued to ask artists how PhD research has influenced their making and thinking. The questions were: What are the impacts, urgency, and significance of the PhD for creative practitioners? How are these understood, captured, communicated? How did it change your practice? They were even asked: should creative practitioners undertake a PhD in the first place?
Through its thirty contributions Thinking Back, Making Forward tackles these questions in an open way, to acknowledge, equally, the advantages and disadvantages of the creep of the PhD into artistic practice. At the same time, this book shows a wide range of possibilities of what research in artistic practice can entail.
Contributors: Annie Bellamy; Nicholas Boyarsky; Jeremie Brugidou; Jessica Bugg; Carla Cruz and Nina Hoechtl; Lionel T Dean; Anne Douglas; David Gates; Ismini Gatou; Joost Grootens; Graeme Harper; Andrew Hodgson; Alexander Hunter; Jessyca Hutchens, Naomi Vogt and Nina Wakeford; Åsa Johannesson; Eduardo Kairuz; Roger Kemp and Anthony Fryatt; Ilona Krawczyk; Victoria Lynn; Clare McCracken & Pia Johnson; Fraser Muggeridge; Yogan Muller; Libby Myers; Gerrie van Noord; Kateřina Olivová; Alvin Pang; Cecilie Sachs Olsen and Matthew Dalziel; Benjamin Sheppard; Alice Twemlow with Anja Groten, Maya Rasker and Andrea Stultiens; Chanda VanderHart
Partner: RMIT University, Melbourne
Queer Flora, Fauna, and Funga – A Radical Forage Through Arts and Writing
Queer Flora, Fauna, and Funga is an eclectic, transdisciplinary and versatile anthology, highlighting the sexual and gender diversity in nature. Queer theory and natural history intersect through visual art and creative writing.
This publication gives attention to roughly forty case studies, which inspire us to reimagine the world and our place in it. Each contribution dives into questions such as: How does acknowledging the queerness of nature inspire us to compose the world otherwise? How can we rewrite history to make a place for ourselves in the story? And what is the role of an individual in a symbiotic community? The arts, poetry, scientific and speculative writing spark this imagination, and give readers tools to shape the world differently.
Queer Flora, Fauna, and Funga asks to expand our knowledge about sexual and gender diversity, and to reconsider our relationships with each other and our more-than-human companions in the natural world.
Contributors: Clover Ajamie, Eve Alexandra, Giovanni Aloi, Céline Baumann, Suzette Bousema & Ingeborg Klarenberg, Nickole Brown, Connor Butler, Frances Cannon, CAConrad, Sam Cohen, Anna Colin & Rob Crosse, Tom Comitta, Kat Consler, Isa DeMarco, Joost Emmerik, Astro Escudero & César Jumpa (Zooa Creativa), Melissa Faliveno, Ros Gray & Carle Gent, Donna Haraway, Daisy Hildyard, Lars Horn, Sabrina Imbler, Jonah King, Johanna Koen, Gary A. Krupnick & Frances Cannon & Sarah Prager, Marjolein van der Loo & Zheng Bo, Jessica Maccaro, Andrés Ordorica, Siôn Parkinson, Anna Phaidra, Erik Peters, Alyssa Quinn, Catriona Sandilands, Nina Scott, Sophie Seita & Naomi Woo, Amy Beth Sisson, Lorena Solis Bravo, Emily Strasser, Orchid Tierney, Jonmar van Vlijmen & Samar Nasrullah Khan, Charlotte Woolf, Sixto-Juan Zavala
Valiz supported by Creative Industries Fund NL
PHOSPHORUS
These are not illustrations, but existential cries.
Everyone experiences moments in which a rupture becomes visible in what once felt like a unified perception of the world. This project of 80 works exists at exactly this threshold, between the self and the will of the world. Between long forgotten ideas, a sense of experimental responsibility, personal history, and an overarching void.
Through deliberately reduced means and strict formal constraints, the attempt is made to approach something that resists linguistic definition. Fragments of analogue film photography, shards of language, philosophical concepts and abstract patterns come together as a fractured portrait, quietly breathing within the overwhelming turbulence of the world.
What cannot be spoken remains in silence. And it is precisely this silence that the static image begins to approach.
This visual book is an attempt to capture a state that cannot be translated into language. Emotions are compressed to such an extent that they lose their recognizable form. Not a narrative, not a process, but a point of pressure where everything turns into electric current. Image and humanity cease to function. What remains is an inner scream transformed into silence. The residue. The distilled sediment of human experience.
Created at the lowest point of a life, this book becomes a form of self therapy, an attempt to survive and translate personal pain into visual language. Each work follows the real chronology of that period, tracing the slow movement from collapse towards reconstruction. What begins as a silent dialogue with despair gradually becomes an act of healing.
Not only a document of inner rupture, but also a trace of self redemption through image.
Photodarium 2027
The popular classic Photodarium is now appearing for the 15th time and will delight us again in 2027 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!
Limited Special Edition Digital Tools: Art Prints + Slanted Magazine #47
The first edition of the magazine is sold out, the second edition is expected to be released in late October!
In collaboration with Metapaper and Gallery Print, we are thrilled to present a special edition of Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools. In addition to the magazine, this edition includes ten art prints by various artists representing the theme of the issue by showcasing diverse digital tools.
The 23,5 × 15.5 cm art prints are each printed on a different high-quality Metapaper paper, using varied printing techniques such as foil, varnish or debossing.
The following prints are included:
Encrypted Archives by Lena Weber
Iso Drawing by Nahuel Gerth
Moon Cycles by Dounia Rebeiz
Introverted by Karl Sims
Superpower by Philipp van Laar
Dot to Dot to Dot to Dot by Matthew Clark
Typozone/6/Typo Biomimetics by Dora Balla
Root by Ana Maria van Dierendonck
The Warmth by Roselena Ramistella
Downtown Egg Fishing by Victor Verhelst
The set includes a poster—listing all prints, their artists and tools and techniques used—as well as a sleeve, both designed by Lars Harmsen.
About Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools
Spring/Summer 2026
Slanted Magazine #47–Digital Tools examines the instruments that shape contemporary creative practice. This issue offers a diverse insight into the global creative scene and uses numerous examples to show how digital tools are used to create, question, and rethink design itself. By introducing new workflows and technologies, Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools inspires both experienced designers and beginners to explore the creative potential of digital design. Find out more about the issue here.
PLOP #02—Polish Design Revue
What is the Polish poster today: a monument to past glory, a decoration for apartments, a tool of struggle, or zombie design? The second issue of PLOP—Polish Design Revue takes on one of the biggest legends of Polish graphic design: the poster.
PLOP #02 does not offer another polite story about masters, the canon, and the golden age of the Polish Poster School. Instead, it asks what the poster is today and where it is going. Does it still work as a tool of communication, a form of artistic expression, a medium of protest and presence in public space? Or has it become a ritual repeated by the design scene, almost like a para-religion?
Published by Slanted Publishers in collaboration with Three Dots Type Foundry and the Polish Graphic Design Foundation, the second issue of PLOP looks at the poster between street and gallery, protest and decoration, paper and screen, legend and real life.
The issue features a conversation with Ola Jasionowska about the poster as civic practice, an essay by Katarzyna Matul on the poster as an export product, identity, and the legacy of communist-era Poland, a conversation with Karolina Pietrzyk about typography, collaboration, and controlled experiment, and Paweł Starzec’s photographic record of the visual aspects of protests. PLOP also gives voice to international curators and organizers of poster events, who discuss AI, biennials, festivals, and the myths of national design schools.
The issue also includes illustrations by Klaudia Kozińska and the typeface Dioda, designed by Jan Estrada-Osmycki.
PLOP #02 is an issue about the poster and the post-poster. It asks difficult questions and gives no easy answers—but it still loves the poster.
100 Beste Plakate 25
The new yearbook, 100 Beste Plakate 25, once again features a wealth of outstanding posters selected through the annual competition.
In addition to large-format images with detailed image credits, ten renowned experts from three countries offer their perspectives, exploring the role of posters in today’s media landscape and how traditional posters can continue to thrive alongside ubiquitous digital communication methods. They are René Grohnert, Peter Klinger, Julia König, Anita Kühnel, Christian Maryka, Philipp Messner, Bettina Richter, Helene Roolf, Christina Thomson, and Sylke Wunderlich.
100 Beste Plakate 25 is further enhanced by a contact directory of all award-winning designers, as well as a list of clients and printers.
The yearbook’s concept and design are developed by Ira Ivanova and Lou Hillereau, Berlin-based designers. Reflecting on their design approach, Ivanova and Hillereau describe the concept as follows: “100BP 25 transforms the language of packaging and logistics into a metaphor for communication. The book is conceived as a container, a parcel that reveals its contents while bearing the traces of its journey through labels, tape marks, and stickers. Through this design, the publication celebrates the act of communication, the way in which messages, like parcels, reach their destination.”
UN/SEEN—Women in Graphic Design up to the Bauhaus
If we want to rewrite the history of design, we must take its beginnings into account. The period before the Bauhaus, the importance of “arts and crafts,” and, above all, the achievements of women in graphic design have long been neglected in the presentation of German design history. UN/SEEN brings together previously unknown material and sheds light on the lives and work of female designers in the fields of book design, poster design, typography, illustration, and packaging.
In ten chapters, UN/SEEN documents the latest research findings and uses numerous examples to show how successful and self-confident the first generation of female graphic designers was and which discourses from that time still shape the discipline today. UN/SEEN questions traditional narratives and contributes to the discussion about design and gender with new role models. The book is accompanied by the project platform ↗ www.unseen-women.design.
The publication is available in both an English and a German edition.
New Design from Düsseldorf 2026
New Design from Düsseldorf, organized by the Faculty of Design of the Peter Behrens School of Arts at Hochschule Düsseldorf–University of Applied Sciences in collaboration with design (from) düsseldorf, presents around 50 nominated projects by graduates of the programs in New Craft Object Design, Communication Design, Retail Design, and Exhibition Design. The exhibition takes place at NRW-Forum Düsseldorf, and the accompanying catalog documents and reflects on the presented works, highlighting the innovative design thinking emerging from Düsseldorf.
The projects engage with contemporary social issues—such as identity, gender, feminism, sustainability, education, and science—through experimental and artistic approaches. In doing so, the role of design and the impact of its methods are continuously examined, critically reassessed, and reinterpreted within a rapidly evolving society, with the aim of addressing societal questions and creating new spaces for reflection.
The catalog includes forewords and an essay on the exhibition design process, in which students developed and realized sustainable exhibition furniture specifically conceived for the presentation. In addition, it features project descriptions by the exhibiting graduates, offering insight into their individual concepts, methods, and positions, while celebrating the breadth and quality of design being developed in Düsseldorf today.
Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools
Please note: This is a backorder, the magazine is being reprinted at the moment and will be shipped approximately in October.
Slanted Magazine #47–Digital Tools examines the instruments that shape contemporary creative practice. This issue offers a diverse insight into the global creative scene and uses numerous examples to show how digital tools are used to create, question, and rethink design itself.
The spectrum ranges from experimental open-source projects and custom scripts to indispensable utilities that shape creative digital and analog workflows, continuously expanding and redefining creative boundaries. Slanted Magazine #47–Digital Tools covers disciplines such as graphic and type design, illustration, 3D, web, generative design, and creative coding. Designers, artists, and developers share their insights in interviews and articles, explaining how digital tools shape their aesthetics, imagination, and authorship.
By introducing new workflows and technologies, Slanted Magazine #47—Digital Tools inspires both experienced designers and beginners to explore the creative potential of digital design.
Alongside the magazine, a dedicated online platform has been launched, featuring an extended directory of digital tools. In addition to all tools included in the print issue, the website gathers further projects, discoveries, and resources identified during extensive research. Structured by category and continuously evolving, the platform invites exploration, experimentation, and a rethinking of the role of digital tools in creative practice.
Pixel Rugs
Combining early pixel-art aesthetics, glitch culture, and the optical warp and weft of woven carpets, Travess Smalley builds “rugs” from thousands of coloured pixels. Subjected to layering, tiling, and compression, these compositions become a distortion of colours and textures, familiar patterns broken down into something luminous and hypnotic.
Rooted in the generative pieces he released on the Tezos platform hic et nunc during the explosive spring of 2021, and continues to release on Teia, the book follows the project’s evolution through studio sketches, code snippets, and essays that situate Pixel Rugs beside Harold Cohen’s plotter drawings, the procedural maps of early roguelike games, and the optical dynamism of Op Art. The result is a body of work that feels at once hand-knotted and digitally generated – a meditation on how images travel from loom to bitmap and back again.
The book also includes essays by Casey Reas, artist and Processing co-creator, and Anika Meier, curator and writer.
Pixel Rugs is printed using Quadrifluox, an experimental fluorescent-ink printing technique that imbues each page with vivid luminosity and chromatic depth. The pages are reactive under UV light, creating a unique, collectable publication.
Travess Smalley (b. 1986, USA) works in Rhode Island. His practice spans algorithmic drawing, scanner-based collage, and generative publishing; his work has been shown at institutions including Kunsthal Rotterdam and International Center of Photography, New York City, and his art is in the collections of High Museum of Art, MoMA Library, and the Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Centre Pompidou in Paris. Pixel Rugs is his first full monograph.
New New Typography
New New Typography is not an encyclopedia. Not a manual. New New Typography is messy, uncertain and unstable. It is ambiguous and open-ended.
One hundred years after the proclamation of the so-called “New Typography” in Central Europe, the somewhat ironic prospect of a “new” New Typography emerges—less as an update, more as a question that challenges universal rules. In consequence, this book seeks to unsettle established paradigms by opening typography to an expanded, more inclusive vocabulary. “New New” means not innovation and progress, but rather a reorientation, a new relational standpoint between past and present, to bring forward practices that have been neglected, marginalized, or excluded.
With 243 figures and six theoretical proposals, the book is an overview of the impossibility of an overview. It invites readers to engage in diverse renegotiations and re-visions of typography, intertwining texts and quotes with historical and contemporary documents, diagrams, and images. It embarks on speculative adventures that are open to the unforeseen and may not lead anywhere.
New New Typography contains works and thoughts of: Adel Faure, Alec Vivier-Reynaud, Alex Walker, Alexandra Arènes, Bänziger Hug, Barbara Brownie, Benoît Bodhuin, Boot Boyz Biz, Bruno Latour, Bye Bye Binary, Caspar Reuss, Charlotte Rohde, Chris Lee, Clara Sambot, Daniel Wenzel, David Small, Deborah Enzmann, Dennis Hoelscher, DIA, Dinamo, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Edgar Walthert, Emigre, Espen J. Aarseth, Farah Fayyad, Filip Blažek, full auto foundry, Garine Gokceyan, George Herbert, Gruppo Due, Guillaume Apollinaire, Hackers & Designers, HAL Typefaces, Heikki Lotvonen, Isabel Lewis, It’s Nice That, James Langdon, Janneke Adema, Jenny Holzer, Johanna Drucker, Johnson/Kingston, Jürgen Spitzmüller, Kamau Brathwaite, Kasper-Florio, Katharina Koch, Kevin Larson, Kiösk, Kushtrim Hamzaj, Lamm & Kirch, Lea Giesecke, Lena Weber, Lewis Carroll, Lisa Huang, Man Ray, Marcel Saidov, Marco Land, Marek Nedelka, MIGLĖ, Mirtha Dermisache, N. Katherine Hayles, Neo Neo, Nicolle Rager Fuller, Nigel Cottier, Nikolai Grube, Nina Flaitz, Oliver Häusle, Ott Metusala, Patricia Reed, Paul Gangloff, Paul Soulellis, Paula Heinrich, Peter Biľak, PrePostPrint, Primitive Hut, Raffard-Roussel, Rick Poynor, Sarah Hyndman, Shannon Ebner, soju.studio, Sophie Kraft, Source Type, Stéphane Mallarmé, Steve Woolgar, Studio HanLi, Studio Hugo Blanzat, Studio November, Syndicat, Tessa Meeus, The Missing Scripts Project, Thorsten Fleisch, TienMin Liao, Tobias Hönow, TypeTogether, Typotheque, Vaibhav Singh, Vera van de Seyp, Vocal Type, Wolfgang Weingart, Words of Type, Workbyworks, among others.
Categories Game Pad
Categories Game Pad – The tear-off pad for fun.
Perfect for children, adults and anyone who loves a quick word battle. Whether in a café, whilst travelling, at a games night or during your lunch break: thanks to its handy size, the pad fits in any bag and is ideal for on the go. With our City, Country, River tear-off pad, this classic game is always to hand.
Each pad contains 30 sheets printed on environmentally friendly uncoated paper with plant-based colors!
Design Unlimited. Visual Communication and Storytelling with Generative Design and Data
In a world driven by major changes in technology and society, it’s time for marketing and design to realign. But how much room remains for transformation in an industry driven by speed, efficiency and immediacy?
Design Unlimited is a guide for creative professionals, aiming to help finding a place in a changing creative environment. Focused on issues that concern both emerging and established creatives today, this book introduces a new era of branding where storytelling, brand identity, and generative design intersect.
Learning to craft experiences, building meaningful emotional connections, and positioning ones creative voice in a world overflowing with content and noise through our approach on generative branding. This book challenges to break boundaries, to embrace a different creative mindset, and to create truly outstanding work. It raises the question who one wants to be in a changing world of creativity. Let’s find out what would happen if we resist the attention economy’s downward spiral, and open ourselves to broader creative possibilities.
Olympic Games. Paris 2024. The Design
Each Olympic Games venue boasts a unique and distinctive identity, blending local and national character with international trends and the Olympic spirit. The design for Paris 2024 stands out with its clean, symbolic aesthetic, deeply rooted in the city’s cultural and historical heritage. Hosting competitions at iconic locations was a key element in the success of this approach.
Markus Osterwalder has meticulously curated examples from fields such as graphic design, typography, and product design to showcase the design identity of these extraordinary Games in their entirety. Through interviews with numerous contributors, the passionate Swiss collector vividly documents the creative process behind the Olympic image – from the initial proposal to its final realization. This book is a must-read for design enthusiasts, Olympic historians, and anyone fascinated by the interplay of sport, culture, and creativity.
Grafikmagazin 02.26
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 “Design & AI.” 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. 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.
Grafikmagazin 01.26
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 “Signage for Museums.” 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. 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.
Unfollow the Leader
Student perspectives on the graphic design canon. Edited by Hugo Puttaert.
In a culture driven by speed, visibility and algorithms, what does it mean to design today? Unfollow the Leader explores the changing position of the graphic designer in a world shaped by digital platforms, economic logics and artificial intelligence. Developed in an educational context and rooted in student work, the book traces the tensions between craft and technology, autonomy and dependency, tradition and disruption.
Moving between history and contemporary practice, it argues that the essence of design lies not in form, but in attitude: the willingness to question what seems self-evident.
Breakout #2—100 Posters
Breakout #2 takes Tamti’s early explorations into real-world projects from 2022 to 2025, building on the success of Homebound, New Wave, and Breakout—100 Posters. Cihan Tamti originally started Breakout as a personal experiment—treating Instagram like a graphic design gym and creating a poster every day. Without briefs or constraints, he explored typography, lettering, illustration, layouts, and bold visual ideas. Some of these early works won awards and attracted clients, eventually leading to the publication of Breakout—100 Posters, a book compiling 100 formative pieces.
In Breakout #2—100 Posters, these early experiments evolve into a wider range of projects: commissioned work for clients, community initiatives like the “Local Support Posters” launched during the covid pandemic, and collaborative projects with other designers. The book presents all posters equally, showcasing a broad spectrum of graphic design techniques and approaches. Breakout #2—100 Posters gathers 100 selected works that demonstrate how thoughtful, original design can communicate powerfully across contexts and inspire creative freedom.
Alongside the standard edition of Breakout #2—100 Posters, a small number of exclusive limited bundles are available. Each bundle includes the book paired with additional pieces that extend the project beyond print—such as a screen-printed tote bag and, in the full edition, the custom Yolcu typeface. With only 50 bundles produced, this is a one-time release. Explore the limited bundles while they are still available.
Limited Bundles: Breakout #2—100 Posters
Two exclusive limited bundles accompany the release of Breakout #2—100 Posters, offering a rare opportunity to experience the project beyond the book itself. Strictly limited to only 50 pieces, these bundles extend the visual language of the publication into physical and digital forms—each one designed as a collectible for those closely connected to the work.
Breakout #2—100 Posters
Breakout #2 takes Tamti’s early explorations into real-world projects from 2022 to 2025, building on the success of Homebound, New Wave, and Breakout—100 Posters. Cihan Tamti originally started Breakout as a personal experiment—treating Instagram like a graphic design gym and creating a poster every day. Without briefs or constraints, he explored typography, lettering, illustration, layouts, and bold visual ideas. Some of these early works won awards and attracted clients, eventually leading to the publication of Breakout—100 Posters, a book compiling 100 formative pieces.
In Breakout #2—100 Posters, these early experiments evolve into a wider range of projects: commissioned work for clients, community initiatives like the “Local Support Posters” launched during the covid pandemic, and collaborative projects with other designers. The book presents all posters equally, showcasing a broad spectrum of graphic design techniques and approaches. Breakout #2—100 Posters gathers 100 selected works that demonstrate how thoughtful, original design can communicate powerfully across contexts and inspire creative freedom.
Tote Bag—Breakout #2
Limited Bundle Book + Bag
Screen printed in Bochum by STICE using a two-color silkscreen process, only 50 bags were produced. The tote bag features a composition of graphics taken directly from the posters included in Breakout #2. Developed for cultural institutions, initiatives, companies, and socially engaged projects, these works originate from real-world contexts and, in many cases, were placed in public space. For the bag, selected fragments are extracted and combined into a new layout, printed in red and blue.
The result is a direct transfer from poster to object, maintaining the visual language of the publication. Produced as an oversized tote, the bag offers generous capacity and is suited for carrying books, prints, and daily essentials.
Size: 47 × 40 × 17 cm
Capacity: 31 litres
Material: Cotton / Canvas
Handle length: 72cm
Print: 2-color silkscreen (STICE, Bochum)
Weight: approx. 560g
Typeface Yolcu
Limited Bundle Book + Bag + Font
Yolcu is a grid-based display typeface defined by rounded forms within a strict underlying structure.
Each letter is constructed on a rigid grid, resulting in a clear and controlled appearance. The shapes are inspired by racetracks seen from an aerial perspective, translating curves, turns, and continuous paths into typographic forms. The name Yolcu, Turkish for traveler, reflects this idea of movement and direction. Letters follow paths rather than fixed outlines, creating a visual language that suggests flow and navigation. The contrast between strict construction and soft, rounded shapes gives the typeface a precise yet dynamic character. This balance makes it suitable for both digital applications and physical contexts such as print and streetwear.
Designed as a display typeface, Yolcu is best used for headlines and logotypes.
Design: Cihan Tamti
Format: OTF
Style: 1 weight
Trauma and Affect – (Mis)Understanding Pain in Art and Culture
Trauma and Affect: both concepts have become increasingly important in the critique of art, literature, and of culture in general, since the 1990s. In those years, a turn to trauma and a bit later also to affect took place. The concepts were being used in a great variety of ways, and in many disciplines and domains, such as queer studies, feminism, cultural analysis, art critique, literary studies and postcolonial studies, as well as in disciplines such as sociology, and even in economics. Although the gain of this turn to affect and trauma is interesting, it has also resulted in major confusion; the terms have been overused and exhausted, and thus lost their power.
Ernst van Alphen looks at both trauma and affect through the lens of visual artworks and literature, drawing from many sources and disciplines. In the first part of this book, devoted to trauma, he explains how trauma originates in the past and what explains its re-enactment in the present. This assessment of trauma, of how it originates and manifests itself, is necessary in order to restore its critical power as a concept. The second part is devoted to the transmission of affect. In order to prompt reflection beyond affective responses that result in immediate strong emotions, he discusses artists who develop strategies that process affect into critical making and thinking.
Artists and writers discussed: Vasily Aksyonov, Armando, Francis Bacon, Christian Boltanski, Tadeusz Borowski, Dmitry Bykov, Charlotte Delbo, Carl Friedman, Yevgenia Ginzburg, Félix González-Torres, Eva Hoffman, Roni Horn, Ram Katzir, Zbigniew Libera, David Levinthal, Steve McQueen, Ronald Ophuis, Roee Rosen, Douglas Sirk, Andrew Wyeth, Artur Żmijewski, Andrey Zvyagintsev, and many others.
nomad 16 — Traveling
This issue of nomad delves into the profound impact of travel, exploring personal choices and inspirations. With two striking covers by Lord Norman Foster and RELVĀOKELLERMANN, the edition illuminates how travel shapes our worldview.
Inside, readers will find insights from Lord Norman Foster, whose pioneering work at the Norman Foster Institute on Sustainable Cities continues to redefine urban living spaces. Provocative perspectives from Matteo Thun on the future of design and Liam Young’s futuristic expeditions with the Unknown Fields studio offer thought-provoking insights. Claus Sendlinger discusses the importance of slow travel and sustainable tourism, while the Vianello family shares their eco-friendly camping ethos on the Adriatic.
Educational journeys with Chris Taylor’s Land Arts of the American West and Kalyani Tupkary’s alternative conceptions of time provide further depth. Swedish architect Helena Glantz explores the enduring appeal of brick, emphasizing its sustainability and the human connection to this timeless material. Camilla D. Fischbacher candidly shares the trials and triumphs of transforming a traditional family-run textile business, and Rolf Benz celebrates a 60-year legacy.
Ana Relvão and Gerhardt Kellermann advocate for an outsider’s approach to design, prioritising user needs and problem-solving over personal taste, and embracing the dynamic nature of the design field. Through these compelling narratives nomad showcases how travel fosters deeper connections between people, nature and culture.
What was design? Declarations and definitions from a century of creative quest
What was design? is a quick starter to one of modernity’s most contested terms. In its brief but meteoric career, “design” was subject to vast controversy. Celebrated as an engine of change, denounced as a driving force of commercialization, and regularly lamented as overused, design remains a concept whose true meaning is still being sought. While answers to the question “What is design?” are constantly shifting, the time has come for a retrospective. This book looks back, presenting a century of design thinking in its most compact form: a collection of bold quotes.
What was design? Declarations and definitions from a century of creative quest pits 87 historical one-sentence answers from practitioners, theorists, and philosophers against one another. The result is a web of radical short-form definitions that remain strikingly contradictory in their references. This selection is accompanied by an essay from Florian Walzel, exploring the deeper reasons behind the conceptual ambiguity of design.
25 JAHRE OBERFLÄCHLICH MIT TIEFGANG
For more than two decades, DIE TYPONAUTEN have been designing with depth. They accompany companies—especially in the energy and utilities sector—as strategic partners for communication and design. DIE TYPONAUTEN develop compelling concepts, make complex content understandable, and execute it with the highest standards of quality and precision—from corporate design and brand communication to quality-assured document management.
25 JAHRE OBERFLÄCHLICH MIT TIEFGANG presents a selection of their previous projects. It tells the story of what drives DIE TYPONAUTEN: a profound commitment to design, a love for the craft, and the conviction that communication must follow a clear line.
–
1st edition: limited and hand-numbered (300 copies); 304 pages; over 900 illustrations