Investigating Decentralized Action in Art was designed for Baltan Laboratories, a cultural institution based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

The publication is the result of ARTeCHÓ, a European initiative connecting five institutions to support artists exploring art, crypto art, blockchain, and NFTs. It explores how AI and NFTs intersect with art, economy, and politics, questioning their sustainability and equity.

Through essays and artworks, the book challenges centralized systems, colonial legacies, and extractive capitalism, proposing decentralized, autonomous alternatives for a fairer digital future and new forms of collective knowledge and creativity. It was edited by Marlou van der Cruijsen, Lorenzo Gerbi, and Julia Kassyk, and published by Lecturis.

The design is built upon the concept of digital brutalism, to recall the material foundation (the hardware) that sustains any software. Harber and ABC Monument Grotesk, along the material qualities of the book, contribute in creating such “digital-brutalist” aesthetic.

CRSL also designed the visual identity of the related exhibition Decentralized Futures, held at Koelhuis in Eindhoven, during Dutch Design Week 2024, see this previous post.

Arie Vervelde (1951–2014) was so much more than one of the most talented and international renowned illustrators. He had a very keen eye for fashion and trends, but always focused on the human side. The men and women of all colours and shapes in his art are always strong and sensual and sometimes outspoken sexy. He was always looking for new techniques and materials. Humor and a certain lightness gave his work an optimistic freshness. His vibrant illustrations were over the years published in many fashion magazines and national newspapers.

In designing this book, we worked in close collaboration with Melvin Anderson and Martijn Homan. In the 192-page book that was printed in fullcolour with fluorescent ink as an additional colour for the large font, we used HTF Didot by Jonathan Hoefler in combination with Programme from Optimo.

Text: John de Greef, Anne Marie Commandeur, Marianne van Heusden, Win Catermans, David R Shah, Nicole Uniquole, Melvin Anderson
Translation: Tom Johnston

The book was printed by robstolk and published by Lecturis.

Co-emerging Economies: Exploring radical perspectives on post-anthropocentric economies is a publication by Lecturis, 2021. The book is a collection of poems, thoughts, illustrations, stories, discussions, and live sessions from Baltan Laboratories workshops reflecting on the need for a new economic future.

Co-emerging Economies was an online storytelling workshop to inspire people and to unravel what could radical economic change look like. Participants were invited to develop and share ideas collectively during this intense online session to co-develop narratives and ideas through fictional world-building, speculative fabulation, and interactive brainstorming sessions.

The aim of the workshops was to contribute to two narratives in the co-emerging futures, inspired by the post-anthropocentric view; a perspective where the human identity is diffused into a larger eco-system. Here, we distinguish two fundamentally different sub-directions:
• Gaia is the eco-centric direction, in which we see ourselves as an integral part of the natural ecosystem (and not on top of nature).
• Etheria is the sentio-centric direction, in which we value intelligence (sentience) as the ultimate virtue.

The publication interrogates those two opposing perspectives about “kinship” in an economy which no longer puts the need of humans first. How will the relationships we develop affect the way we deem nature, other species, technology, and even our own bodies?

The structure is divided into four parts: the introduction, Gaia and Etheria perspectives, the workshops brainstorming sessions, and the conclusion. The color palette follows the cover illustration, with light pink being the main color for the general chapters, the binding thread, and the inside cover color. Other colors like blue, green, and orange are used as spreads to divide the chapters. The book is pocket size, featuring various types of texts, like more extended essays, quotes, poems, and statements made by participants.

Graphik from Commercial type is a brand typeface for the Baltan identity. In this publication, I decided to use it for massive quests going across the spreads and essays. It is juxtaposed by Editorial New from Pangram Pangram, to add playfulness and to add contrast between the text forms. This precise and elegant narrow serif is used for longform copy. As the heavier weights have more personality, they were used to make statements, such as titles and quotes.

This project is an initiative by Baltan Laboratories in collaboration with Philips Experience Design & Avans University of Applied Sciences

Chapters are written by Reon Brand, Godelieve Spaas, Lisanne Buik, René van Peer, and Olga Mink, as well as contributions by workshop participants; Cynthia Hathaway, Bea Xu, Yannik Güldner, Elise Talgorn, Michal Mitro

Contributing artists: Leif Czakai, Sunjoo Lee, Sixtine Blandin, and Cecille Parnasse are responsible for depicting the discussions in compelling drawings

Edited by Olga Mink and Reon Brand
Text editing and translations: Radboud University Vertaal and Marisa Miller
Graphic design: Gabriela Baka

50 Ik puber ook (“50 I reach puberty, too”) is about a turbulent phase of life for women. This becomes clear in the thirty-five portraits included in this book. Thirty-five photos and thirty-five stories. Thirty-five differences and some striking patterns. Four essays provide context.

In this 156-page softcover book that is printed in black and white we combined the sans serif type Logical, designed by Edgar Walthert in 2018 with the classical serif Collis, designed by Christoph Noordzij for the TEFF library.

Interviews: Bernardine Walrecht
Photography: Ellen Martens
Production: Door Fransen
Publisher: Lecturis