Since the mass adoption of the internet, people, governments, and businesses became progressively more interconnected. New ways of doing business started to emerge, sparking the interest of government entities and agencies. Many controversies have been unveiled, various regulations have been introduced, and some bans have been applied. However, the market around personal data is still expanding, and privacy and anonymity are becoming harder to actively maintain. Despite that, there are still ways of contrasting this trend, out of which one is via the use of ad-blockers, like uBlock Origin (uBO).

This one, specifically, lets the user view a log of all the requests that websites send to the browser when there’s the need to download or upload data. So, I decided to record one for 12 hours, and to store it inside a general journal of around 860 pages. The raw data has been processed through the weaponisation of closed-source services and software, such as Google Sheets and Adobe InDesign, and the format constitutes the physical enunciation of what is usually done with those same data. The only difference is that those requests, either redirected or blocked by uBO, have not made it through.

The book (18×24×6 cm, 858 pages) has been entirely set with Neue Haas Grotesk via a .jsx script which made use of the basil.js library.

It was first displayed during the 4th edition of Mediazioni Algoritmiche, and has won the BestBook award for design books at the 5th edition of Oggetto Libro.

View more photos and scans on Behance.

During the past few decades, the automotive industry seems to have taken some steps towards sustainability by increasing fuel efficiency and developing hybrid and ‘emission-free’ powertrains. Despite these developments, the industry is still often accused of greenwashing since many brands still don’t plan to cease the production of internal combustion engine vehicles nor to stop collaborating or lobbying with fossil fuel companies, even when their line-up is ‘fully electric’. And when it comes to batteries, there lays the problem of mining rare-earth metals.

We decided to investigate some of the communication strategies that car brands adapt to make their models appear more ‘eco-friendly’ in their video advertisements. More specifically, we analysed 30 internal combustion engine (ICE), 30 hybrid electric (HE) and 30 battery electric (BE) models – a total of 90 different vehicles – to see if the producers present the vehicles differently according to their propulsion.

Firstly, we focused on the landscapes surrounding the advertised models and the overall narratives. At the same time, we checked upon model descriptions to find out if the same rhetorical devices were used. Through these three research questions, we gained some understanding of the adverts we had collected, together with a series of curious and unexpected findings.

The outcome is presented in a publication named A Highway to Greenness. Formula (Pangram Pangram) was selected for the main titles, captions, and visualisations, as well as the diagrams, tables, and page numbers. Suisse Works (Swiss Typefaces) was chosen for subtitles, main copy, and running titles.

The publication was made as a student project at Politecnico di Milano – School of Design, and issued in a print version (20×27 cm, 64 pages). The open access digital version is available via densitydesign.github.io.

View more photos and scans on Behance.