From OK-RM:

Frequencies addresses the notion of community through the lens of its making. For over a decade, it has involved members of Oscar Murillo’s family, studio team and collaborators, visiting 37 countries, over 400 schools around the globe, fixing over 50,000 raw canvas onto classroom desks, and inviting the students to freely mark, write and draw on them for a period of approximately six months.

Strings of ideas stem from a central concept, each performs its role to build the singular form: materiality, image, typography, structure and symbol. Exemplified by the cover, the diagram, extracted and optimised from our first presentation slide (in its original form designated to articulate the pace and structure of the book). In this context it symbolises the ‘frequencies’ of multiple participants, across the globe, in a central orchestration, in relation to the overall project.

The book was edited by Alessandro Rabottini, with texts by Mark Godfrey, Eleanor Nairne, Gabi Ngcobo, and Alessandro Rabottini. Frequencies was published by Hatje Cantz as a slip-cased softcover in July 2024.

Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty was published at the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met), New York, shown from 5 May to 16 July 2023.

From The Met:

The book, the first complete investigation into Lagerfeld’s (1933–2019) artistry, explores his extraordinary sixty-five year career, from the designs for Chloé and Fendi in the 1960s and 1970s to his celebrated leadership in the 1980s and beyond at Chanel and with his own label. Inspired by the ‘line of beauty’ theorised by eighteenth-century English painter William Hogarth, this publication pursues the straight and serpentine ‘lines’ and their intersections in Lagerfeld’s work as a means of understanding his unique creative process.

Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty was designed by OK-RM and is entirely typeset in Mercure (Abyme, 2021). The typeface is also used for the exhibition graphics and communication materials, designed by the museum's in-house team, as well as for the Met Gala 2023, which celebrated Lagerfeld’s legacy and the opening of the exhibition.

OK-RM:

Commissioned by the British Council; an international touring exhibition that illustrates how innovative contemporary architecture is enabling scientists to live and work in one of the most extreme environments on our planet.

Exhibition design in collaboration with We Made That.

The world order is gradually slowing down, and democracy is grinding to a deadlock. Global civilisation is sliding into stasis. But whereas this might have once led to outright World War, instead we are seeing high levels of universal domestic instability. From protest, unrest and insurgencies to proxy theatres and armed conflict, we have entered into a condition of global civil war.

Real Review #3 explores the general mood over the last few months that things were better the way they were before. There is a popular sense that blunders have been made and we should backtrack as quickly as possible. Exactly which past you are trying to recreate depends on your political persuasion. Disaffected with democracy, fed up with economic stagnation, even bored by new fashions and consumer electronics, ennui is pervasive. The search for something drastically different, a real alternative, has begun.

The ‘R’ marque is a revival from an alphabet created by Edward Wright, a British typographer and graphic designer, who was extensively involved in architectural lettering and signage in the mid 1950s, his letter forms becoming synonymous with the fabric of the built environment. The cover of each issue features an illustration by Nishant Choksi, an illustrator who’s work regularly appears in many of the leading current affairs publications.

— Real Review

Design of the magazine is handled by OK-RM. Their team member Seb McLaughlan also made the custom typeface named Gestalt. A riff on the contemporary Neo-Grotesk, it distinguishes itself by serving alternates that emulate the genre’s greats. For example, the uppercase R can be dressed with a tail in style of Arial, Helvetica, or Akzidenz-Grotesk.

OK-RM:

Strelka Institute is a pioneering architecture, media and design institute based in the heart of Moscow. At the centre of the visual identity is a grid which acts as a metaphor for public space. It promotes a democratic relationship between the institute, events and people that shape it. Dual language is employed throughout to portray a Russian institute with an international outlook whilst the varied mantra communicates an institute that is continually redefining itself. In application the grid is recognisable, efficient and flexible for the display of multiple levels of content across various formats — from printed materials and digital media to architectural scale signage and publications.
Website development with Studio Scasascia, motion development with Hudson-Powell and signage with 42 Architects.

Following the direction set by the refurbished building (and perhaps inspired by 8vo’s work of a few years previous), the Barbican identity uses only Futura. But not just any Futura. The brand guidelines (thoughtfully designed in 2004–07 by North) specify Futura SH from Scangraphic, a cut designed specifically for large sizes. It is quite tightly spaced and omits most of the ink traps and other compensations made in the text-optimized cuts. Also note that the round shapes remain circular in all weights, unlike some versions of Futura.

The brand guideines book really is a fine piece of work. Anyone building a new typographic identity — or just a brand book — can glean much from it. Download a PDF of the typographic section.

P.S. The original Barbican identity from the 1970s was created by Lloyd Northover. That logo featured the same cropped circle, but the type was Walbaum.

By OK-RM: Conceived in collaboration with curator Sharmini Pereira and published on the occasion of the 2011 Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Dubai. Footnotes to a Project* is a collection of images, citations and references that support and inform the creation of the five selected artworks. Informed by the books title, the headline concept expresses the historical traditions of footnoting and its relationship with reading and writing.