Notes on Book Design is a collection of 50 texts by Amanda-Li Kollberg and Siri Lee Lindskrog of Formal Settings, based on books from the collection of the Hopscotch Reading Room in Berlin. The texts draw parallels between the book as a design object and the cultural movements, political landscapes and economic conditions under which it was created.

The 50 texts are paired with our intro­duction, a foreword by Hopscotch Reading Room and an afterword in which designer, author and educator Prem Krishnamurthy offers additional framing and perspective to the project.

The book was published by Onomatopee in an edition of 2,000 copies and is distributed worldwide through onomatopee.net. The back cover illustration is by John Seung-Hwan Lee.

What We Could Have Become. Reflections on queer feminist filmmaking “explores the radical potentials of care and speculative fiction in the context of queer feminist collective filmmaking.” Headlines and titles are sets in Amagro and Mouron, with Chivo used for text. Designed by Berlin-based author and artist Malu Blume themselves, it was published by Onomatopee.

This book looks back at fifteen years of 126 Artist-Run Gallery, which was established in Galway, Ireland, in 2005. All the events and exhibitions are presented in a long timeline, represented by an image, title, and the artist’s name.

The timeline is the core of the book: each year is marked on the left side of the page making a visual pattern on the outside pages. As the gallery was changing location five times over the years, that occurrence is visualized in the background color of the timeline: green, pink, beige, etc. Together with the editor we wanted to distinguish the location on the timeline.

The rhythm is disturbed by the essays written by the gallery directors, who share their insights and memories, including of their favourite shows. Exactly those exhibitions are represented with big pictures and occupy way more space than the regular timeline show. This treatment allows playing with the rhythm, image scale, and depth of information (small images, long text, big images, and so on).

The back part of the book showcases locations, various logos and their applications, lists of members and directors, and pictures from members' events – this makes the appendix data-oriented.

In terms of typography, layouts are simple and blocky – resembling image placements on the timeline. Text block placement is rhythmical and plays with indents.

For paragraphs and headlines, Basier Circle was selected as it is well-legible and has an extended family of cuts. Basier Mono accompanies the main font, as a timeline year indicator, activating the page edge and making a decorative and effective pattern visible from outside when the book is closed.

The roundness of Basier’s characters is well aligned with the 126 Gallery logo, which is based on YWFT Ultramagnetic Regular. This bulky round font was used for the statistics numbers in the appendix and for the essay footnotes. Book sections were divided by black pages, with bold, big typography. As some section titles are long, Formula Condensed Bold was used, to ensure impact and legibility. It’s also visible in the table of contents.

The book was edited by Jim Ricks and designed by Gabriela Baka, with texts by Austin Ivers, Aideen Barry, Alwyn Revill, Jeroen van Dooren, Anne-Marie McKee, Shelly McDonnell, Lucy Elvis, Rita McMahon, Meadhbh McNutt, Simon Fennessy Corcoran, and Neil Mulholland.

Learn more about Artist-run Democracy: Sustaining a Model on the website of the publisher, Onomatopee.net. The proceeds of this book go directly to support the gallery – essential Galway arts infrastructure.

Words from the publishing house Onomatopee:

This book is an artist’s guide to copyright, written for makers. Both practical and critical, this book will guide you through the concepts underlying copyright and how they apply in your practice.

Titles and footnotes are set in Glacial Indifference, and body text in Charis SIL, both free and open source typefaces.

In 2006, SIL International developed Charis SIL that supports over 2,300 characters from the Unicode standard, including Latin and Cyrillic scripts. Their shapes are based on Bitstream Charter, a typeface designed by Matthew Carter in 1987, itself based on Pierre-Simon Fournier’s characters from the 18th century.

Avara and Söhne are paired in Rights of Way. Avara, as the main typeface, is floating around the publication, symbolizing movement. From publisher Onomatopee:

The movements of our bodies through cities and space carry with them pivotal social, political, and cultural potentials. Despite the typical association of bodily movement with the everyday and the seemingly mundane; when considered at length, our ability (or inability) to move through space offers us the ability to transform from bystanders, into witnesses and activators of our cities.

Rights of Way, The Body as Witness in Public Space takes our bodily movements as a departure point to cross into the terrains of art, culture, architecture, sociology, literature, and politics, to envision varied forms of witnessing, and apply them to our direct environments. When many must still campaign to claim their stake in the public realm; when hate crimes and acts of institutional violence persist in the public sphere; when cities continue to grapple with the effects of mass surveillance, precarious citizenship, widespread gentrification, and divisive body politics, we seek to question, challenge, and re-envision who have the rights of way.

This publication comprises a collection of essays, interviews, texts, and images from a range of artists, researchers, academics, architects, and historians. Together, the contributions question our positions of access and in-access in space, and, in doing so, orchestrate the act of witnessing as a vital component in providing meaning to our cities.

Arial and Times New Roman used for the graphic design of Design in Conservative Times.
We aimed to create a very conservative design, mixed with modern influences.
The book has two chapters: Graphic Design and Fashion Design. This is the reason why the book has a cover on each side. From publisher Onomatopee Projects:

Design in Conservative Times tackles conservatism in and around design, challenging both designer and user to actively engage with, and reflect upon their positions within our current, politically charged landscape. The focal point of this reflection at large ranges from hands-on issues within specific practices, to the broader, more fundamental motivations that fuel them.

Within this book, Onomatopee wishes to explore the conservative currents and cadence in and around design(ed) culture. By inviting both graphic design and fashion design professionals to comment, reflect, promote, critique, provoke and/or contemplate on conservative culture in relation to their own visions, design practice and designed goods, we wish to lay bare the intricacies and dynamics of design(er) in society today. As a result, issues of feminism, decolonisation, queerness, engagement, ecology, production and preservation in relation to conservatism today come to the forefront of conversation.

Editor: Joannette van der Veer
With contributions by: Ramon Tejada, Huda Smitshuijzen-AbiFarès, Annelys De Vet, Yamuna Forzani, Studio PMS and Marjanne van Helvert

From the publisher Onomatopee Projects:

Sixteen culture makers who are Zeitzeugen (contemporary witnesses) of the COVID-19 pandemic sketch how things can be different in the future. Their visions for the future came about as a reaction to the disruption of their plans for 2020, and have one thing in common: the ambition to change and to widen the limits of our imagination.

The visions and recipes of these writers, academics, philosophers, singers, visual artists, theatre makers and designers working in the Netherlands and Germany, paint a heterogeneous picture. They develop through themes such as real utopias, sustainability, the new domesticity, and the role of cultural institutions in our society.

This collection is flavoured with the food recipes that every maker has contributed. The menu ranges from eating earth to corona ice cream, from French toast to Mushrooms at the end of the world, and tastes like more.

This book comes in three languages — English, as main language and a Dutch or German translation. To find a way to combine all the very diverse contributions we decided to make use of a font face that does not want to stick too much in the foreground, but to create a very subtle but nice layout.

Editor: Lene ter Haar, Valérie-Anne Houppermans, Astrid Kaminski, Beate Gerlings.
With contributions by: Cees Nooteboom, Chloé Rutzerveld, Eva Meijer, David Duindam, Claudia Martinez Garay & Arturo Kaneya, Jonas Staal, Impakt Festival (Lancel/Maat, onseconds & Ali Eslami), Tim van der Loo, New Heroes Foundation, MVRDV, Miloš Trakilović, Kinke Kooi & Lisa Klosterkötter, Ariëlla Kornmehl, Sabine Kühlich & Guests, Annemie Vanackere & Walter Bart & Jeroen Versteele, Rolando Vázquez, Melken & Lies Mensink, Sanne Blauw.
Made possible thanks to the Consulaat-Generaal van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden.

What Bungalows Can Tell is the result of extensive artistic and architectural research on the village of Kaliurang (Yogyakarta region, Indonesia). It brings together different essays and a series of photographs that critically explore the spatial, transformative effects of globalisation and heritage formation on a local scale. It looks specifically at the colonial bungalows and the stories in and around them. What can they tell?

The essays are written in Indonesian and English. The main typeface used, Frasa, was made by Tokotype — an Indonesian type foundry. For us it was important to not split the two languages but to have them run next to each other, with highlighting the Indonesian text as the main language.

Editor: Mira Asriningtyas, Paoletta Holst, Brigita Murti
Text; Editor: Amy Gowen, Paoletta Holst
Translator: Dito Yuwono
Made possible by: 900mdpl, Marinus Plantema Foundation
Publisher: Onomatopee Projects

In the Name of ♥︎, published by Onomatopee, wishes to reveal the intricacies and problematics surrounding the heart symbol. The book explores how technological, political and historical dominance has impacted the development of communication and our access to (online) information today.

The main text is set in Marya from Margot Levêque, the chapters are a mix of Marya and Bolid from Arthur Schwarz and Maël Bächtold, the bibliography, legends and footnotes are set Hind from Manushi Parikh.

See also the post about the poem of the same title, which uses different typefaces.

Do It with Others was held in August 2018 at Onomatopee, Eindhoven:

A festival delivering new directions in independent get-togethers and alternative education; including talks, book launches, food, drinks, exhibition-openings and performances.

The visual identity includes 3D models, animations, social media, posters, and foldable invitations.

Letter Gothic and Franklin Gothic, the brand typefaces of Onomatopee, are used throughout.