Computer graphics, 50×70 cm. The text is Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Poster selected among the winners of Poster4Tomorrow’s international competition on the theme of freedom of expression.

Cover for issue 7/1966 of Typografia, the technical journal of Czechoslovak printers.

The design is by Oldrich Hlavsa (1909–1995) who contributed cover designs to the periodical already in the 1930s. For the one shown here, Hlavsa arranged the letters of the title in five lines, working with caps from a display cut of Times New Roman and utilizing repeating glyphs and the crop-and-repeat technique. The small text at the top is set in italic and bold styles from Empiriana Antikva, Grafotechna’s version of ATF’s Bodoni.

Launched on January 1, 2022, the new graphic identity of the ArtEZ Business Centre marks a significant visual transformation aimed at aligning the institution’s image with its forward-thinking role in supporting students and alumni in the field of cultural entrepreneurship. From the second half of 2021, designers Dongbin Han and Benjamin McMillan were tasked with reimagining the visual identity of this vital part of ArtEZ University of the Arts.

At the heart of the new identity is Ok Kake, a bespoke typeface designed by Dongbin Han. This custom typeface is a modern reinterpretation of a historic lettering style originally created by Henk Peeters for the ArtEZ Hogeschool’s former name, Arnhemse Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten (AABK). Peeters’ distinctive approach to letterform design involved the creative manipulation of negative space, making each character both readable and visually dynamic through the interplay of positive and negative areas. This method not only defines the shape of the letters but also ensures that they are viewed as a cohesive whole, with each letter expanded into its own space. The accompanying typeface is Times New Roman.

The result is a design language that blends the past and present, using the legacy of Peeters’ innovative typographic work while charting a new course for the ArtEZ Business Centre's visual identity. The project reaffirms the institution’s commitment to fostering a thriving community of cultural entrepreneurs, all while maintaining a link to the rich artistic heritage of ArtEZ University of the Arts.

In its very first issue, Bebe Magazine offers a broad constellation of possibilities for queer understandings, beyond identity-based reduction. Using the prefix trans- (across, beyond, through), each of our eight co-curators chose a term and formed mini collectives to destabilise its accompanying pre-established, societally accepted, conceptions—from transversal lines to transactions.

Bebe Magazine is a publication born out of the Ghent-based collective Bebe Books, focusing on collaborative and experimental approaches to cultural production. It provides a space for contributors to work together in exploring fresh perspectives and questioning established norms.

With a strong emphasis on collective creation, Bebe Magazine brings together curators, artists, and thinkers to navigate complex ideas and reflect on the shifting boundaries of contemporary culture. Each issue is shaped by the diverse voices and shared efforts of its contributors, making it a dynamic and evolving platform.

An exploration of state and institutional archives related to the Old Melbourne Gaol. The Archive of the Bureaucracy exists as a series of notations, inventories and photographs, representing the unique internal systems of the Institution. It is deeply impersonal, reducing the histories of those who move through the system to a series of data points.

Publication designed to accompany RMIT University’s Master of Communication Design exhibition, 14 Days to Go. Supervised by Fayen d'Evie.

97×420 mm, 20 pages, bound with silver pins (pictured unbound).

Poster design for Rings of Light, an event by research-inspired jewelry brand Open Archive in collaboration with Rauric. Music by John Heaven.

Identity design for Poetic Array, a swimwear brand based in Barcelona. We used Times New Roman for the logo.

OEI #84/85: cover

From the OEI website:

OEI is a Stockholm-based magazine for extra-disciplinary spaces and de-disciplinizing moments – experimental forms of thinking, montages between poetry, art, philosophy, film, and documents; critical investigations, editorial enunciations, aesthetic technologies, non-affirmative writing, speculative archaeologies, new ecologies and counter-historiographies.

For each issue, a new typographic treatment is commissioned by different (typo)graphic designers, with the actual production of each issue being done by the OEI editors themselves.

For the two double issues #84/85 (2019) and #86/87 (2020), the same treatment was used twice – for the first time. The issues originally were supposed to be one issue but as the number of pages by far exceeded the maximum, the publication was split into two issues, each counting around 640 pages.

For #84/85 and #86/87, Konst & Teknik / Peter Ström was commissioned. Below is a text that was included in OEI #86/87 on the typography, translated into English from its original Swedish.

14 TIMES TIMES — On the typography in OEI #84/85 and #86/87

Times New Roman is one of the most well known Roman typefaces in current times, originally drawn in 1931 by Stanley Morison for the Times newspaper in London.

During the century that has passed since, the technical conditions of typesetting and type design have drastically changed on multiple occasions. From the metal type that Times New Roman originally was drawn for, via phototypesetting, to the digital typography of the computer era.

Today typefaces are drawn and programmed to work straight on digital screens, either in layout software such as Adobe InDesign (for later reproduction on, for example, paper), or to work exclusively within the computer; in software, on web pages, and apps.

Times New Roman found its way into the personal computer quite early, as it was distributed with the operating system Microsoft Windows 3.11 in 1993. Since then a number of new versions and interpretations have surfaced: Everything from hand-drawn and mirrored versions, via conceptually interesting sans serif versions, to professional interpretations by established typeface designers. Worth noting here are Tiempos by Kris Sowersby (2010), LL Bradford by Laurenz Brunner (2018) and GT Alpina by Reto Moser (2020).

Times New Roman has in a way become as close to a “non typeface” as a typeface can ever be — rivaled only by other Microsoft-distributed typefaces such as Arial and Courier New.

Or, as the typographer (and lawyer) Matthew Butterick phrases it:

When Times New Roman appears in a book, document, or advertisement, it connotes apathy. It says, “I submitted to the font of least resistance.” Times New Roman is not a font choice so much as the absence of a font choice, like the blackness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Roman is to gaze into the void.

Today there are more than 20 digital typeface families that, in one way or another, draw references to Times New Roman. The initial idea for OEI #84/85 and 86/87 was to use all of them as a way to create an index of the evolution of printed matter over the last one hundred years. But as many of the fonts lack Swedish (or Danish) characters, are incomplete for other reasons, or are simply illegible, the amount was reduced to 14. All 14 come in both Regular and Italic versions, with a few selected exceptions where the italics have been emulated by manually slanting in the layout software — a homage to the era of early digital typography where italics weren’t always available.

The different versions of Times New Roman used are everything from professional versions, such as Times Ten, to unpublished interpretations used in earlier projects by Konst & Teknik, such as Times MMM Roman, a remix version of Moderna Museet’s own Times MM Roman, to free amateur versions like Tiny Times, a pixelated version based on the appearance of Times New Roman when rendered on low-resolution screens.

The 14 versions:

Times New Roman Regular & Italic
Dutch 801 BT Roman & Italic
Times Regular & Italic
Times MM Roman Regular & Italic
Times MMM Roman (K&T remix) Regular & Italic
Pantasia Regular & Italic
Times Ten Regular & Italic
Happy Times at the IKOB Regular & Italic
Times CG ATT Regular & Faux Italic (13 deg)
Times NR MT Pro Regular & Italic
#PCMyungjo (K&T edit) Regular & Faux Italic (13 deg)
Tiny Times (K&T edit) Regular & Faux Italic (13 deg)
Times LT Regular & Italic
Times ET Regular & Italic

In every project we take on as Konst & Teknik, the research and final decision of the typeface selection is crucial – often to such an extent that we have difficulties returning to the same typefaces more than once. The typeface selections reflect the project and its content so much that it becomes difficult to apply the same typeface selection on later projects.

Times New Roman in its different versions seem to be an exception, a typeface family we have returned to more times than once. Maybe thanks to its rich technical and visual history, making it easy to apply conceptually to different projects and commissioners. It is by far the typeface I have the most different versions of in my computer, making it easy to find a suiting visual expression within the framework of a "clear" typography. Because of this, it has for a long time been an interesting thought to apply all the different version at the same time to a bigger printed matter project thus making it possible to in detail compare the different version properly. OEI #84/85 and #86/87 offered that possibility, both content wise, conceptually and technically.

Peter Ström
Konst & Teknik
January 2020

OEI #86/87: cover, spine, and back

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

OEI #84/85: spread

Concept and design of the publication poetry of the week by Myriam Holme.

In poetry of the week, Myriam Holme processes excerpts from various issues of German weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT. The work is ongoing and reflects the Mannheim artist’s interest in language and poetry. The book is perforated in the middle, allowing the reader to remove the individual works in postcard format. It was edited by the City of Rastatt/Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle and published by Einraumhaus c/o.

The typefaces used in this publication are Waldenburg Schwarz accompanied by Times New Roman.

F37 Bella by F37 Foundry in use for Dunhill Magazine, designed by StudioSmall. Words from StudioSmall's portfolio post:

The name Alfred Dunhill is intrinsically linked with ‘Britishness’ and British style, and proudly so. It has stood the test of time and remains today a globally recognised brand that defines masculine luxury. We partnered with the brand to define its identity — its way of doing things is masculine and direct, often communicated through a single symbol or image. We developed a simple principle for all designed communications, the same principle as expressed by Mr Alfred Dunhill himself: “It must be useful, it must work dependably, it must be beautiful, it must last, it must be the best of its kind.”

The all-caps sans serif used for subheads and page navigation seems to be Futura, and the serif used for body text looks like Times New Roman.