“Music Today: Into the Sound” was a concert featuring Takashi Matsudaira (bariton) and Hideaki Isobe (electronics). Organized by Miyuki Shiraishi Lab, it took place at the Musashino Art University Hall in July 2023. For the bilingual flyer, I paired Portrait and Hon Mincho.

Maregraphe by Yury Ostromentsky is featured in two projects by St. Petersburg-based publisher Pollen fanzine, which are dedicated to the work of William Gaddis.

The first is William Gaddis’ novel The Recognitions, the story of the son of a priest who forges the paintings by Flemish and Dutch masters by making a deal with a fraudulent New York art dealer. The second project is Cole Fishman’s essay on the philosophical aspect of William Gaddis’ novels. Vladimir Vertinsky designed both editions.

The secondary typeface is Berton Hasebe’s Portrait, for which Ilya Ruderman designed the Cyrillic extension.

Writer Jonathan Littell finished writing his book on distorted and fragmented memories about the Babi Yar massacre and Ukrainian nationalists in World War II two days prior to Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine. It became impossible to publish this text the way it was at the moment — not least because Putin’s propaganda started using these nationalists as one of the arguments to justify the actions of the Russian government.

In May 2022, Littell teamed up with Antoine d’Agata, a member of Magnum Photos agency, and travelled to Ukraine where he wrote a series of news stories. In November of the same year, he got back to his text and placed the events described in it into the context of the ongoing war.

The book, originally written in French, was published in Russian by Meduza in June 2024, under the title Неудобное место.

In his rundown “Book covers designs of the year 2023” for Creative Review, Mark Sinclair writes:

No stranger to great book covers, Na Kim has managed to design one that almost begs to be touched with the back of your hand, just to test its temperature. Sweltering colours and a blurry haze that’s just starting to obstruct the type make for a fantastic, sensorial design.

Portrait plays the leading part calmly but with determination. Berton Hasebe’s distillation of French Renaissance forms with sharp, triangular (“Latin”) serifs is here cast in a single big size. Kim gives it enough space to unfold its enigmatic effect. Portrait’s beautiful W that’s formed from two overlapping V’s takes the center stage at the top.

Fiona McFarlane’s “many-voiced, many-sided story of a boy lost in colonial Australia” was first published in Australia by Allen and Unwin in October 2022. This is the American edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux from February 2023.

From Thames & Hudson:

At the suggestion of Picasso’s widow Jacqueline, the distinguished art historian Pascal Bonafoux began researching Picasso’s self-portraits more than forty years ago. This meticulously researched book presents the fruits of his decades-long project. From the first attributed painting in 1894 as a thirteen-year-old boy, until Picasso's final self-portrait in 1972, a year before his death, Bonafoux charts the evolution of the artist's life and art.

Alias Harbour is used for the title with Portrait used for the subtitle and author’s name.

The stage of visualising a property – an ordinary CGI or a full-on VR experience – has an extremely high impact on how much interest the development generates long before its foundations have even been laid. Highly aware of this fact, we crafted an exquisitely simple visual identity for Visual Square that remains both elegant and in line with the contemporary nature of the client’s work. Rendering a property in 3D demands a conscious way with textures and lighting and our work on the client’s printed assets reflects that – elegantly decorative, expertly embossed, and richly textured choice of paper adds a noble – if understated – dimension to Visual Square’s portfolio. The proportioned layouts evoke a sense of calmness with their sectioned gridded structure while imbuing the project with the brand’s prestigious charm.

For the textual layer, we’ve used three different types of lettering, all right on the client’s classy vibe. We used Commercial Type’s Portrait for the logo itself, a contemporary rendition of classic French Renaissance type of sorts. Both nuanced and straightforward in its unobtrusive detailing, the typeface went perfectly with Visual Square’s quietly luxurious works. For all the headers, we chose the timeless elegance of Socio Type’s Gestura Display, whereas all the primary body copy has been rendered in Monotype’s Neue Haas Unica, which, with its sans-serif simplicity, is pretty much geometric perfection incarnate.

The magnificent Wiener Ringstraße, a grand circular boulevard surrounding the historic first district of Vienna, serves as the famous setting for the restaurant Dstrikt, part of the five-star hotel Ritz-Carlton, Vienna. Dstrikt is all about the best cuts of beef and a first-class culinary experience.

Based on different cuts, the branding uses the marbling of the meat and shape of the steaks in an abstract way to create a pattern for various touchpoints, partially refining printed matter with elegant hot-foil finishes. A clear-cut, minimalist look stands for the essence of the brand: steaks of the highest quality. The premium dining experience is picked up in the expressive typographic system, which is a memorable component of the branding.

The type combination of Eksell Display by Letters from Sweden, Portrait by Commercial Type and Aperçu Mono by Colophon Foundry represents the upscale feel of the restaurant and expertise on all levels.

Convoy is a financial focused company from Hong Kong. Their new headquarter was designed by Toby Ng Design:

The signs use a number of different typefaces, with Lausanne (designed by Nizar Kazan) being the primary choice.

“Communication is the key” in all-caps Portrait.

“Work Hard / Eat Well / Love Truly” in Founders Grotesk.

ITC New Baskerville for “Integrity is everything”.

“Today is another chance to get better”, presented in a matrix of Gill Sans caps.

We are fortunate to have Wellington’s premier QT hotel as a client, and since mid 2017 we have printed the wine & bar menus for their award-winning Hippopotamus restaurant. The menus are set in Portrait, in roman and italic styles, paired with Engravers Gothic for headings. The Hippopotamus logo is custom drawn.

Print by Colourcraft - Wellington Print & Graphics

Reflections celebrates a milestone 140th year for the Columbus Museum of Art, and the culmination of years of work from their curators and directors. In its 705 pages, it includes 160 essays on 222 pieces of art, across nine sub-collections, by 72 writers and contributors.

The book is divided into sections for the museum’s main collections, individual works, and intersections essays, featuring two essays on one significant piece of art, set in parallel, written by authors from totally different backgrounds. All of this is focused on creating a balance between academic discussion and an accessible entry point to the art world.

Chosen for their stylistic references to American graphic design, Post Grotesk and Sentinel (Comicraft) do the heavy lifting for the majority of the book, used as body text and headlines. Their hierarchy simply flips when we finish the collections sections and move on to individual works. All of the other typefaces listed are for intersections, introductory pages and pull quotes; and they are meant to match the style of the accompanying piece of art—or to contribute to the discussion around the piece.

Spread about Edna Andrade, using ITC Avant Garde Gothic.

A selection of chapter openings.

Goudy Oldstyle was used for a section about George Bellows. Body text uses Post Grotesk.

Identity and website for Manila-based Artifact, the freelance design practice of Liam Andrew Cura:

Artifact Studio is an independent freelance design practice. The brand draws heavy inspiration from archaeology, history, and early 20th century graphic design. We wanted to present the brand as a bureau of design and an archive of curiosities long lost.

Around the time we started developing Artifact as a brand, we were also exploring an illustration style we could incorporate into the brand to give the old typographic direction some bright contrast. We found this strange mix of graphic illustration and design that was also inspired by medieval art, occult symbols, and American traditional tattoo art.

The bright red studio identity has three logo variations. The main logo is based on Berton Hasebe’s Portrait Bold (Commercial Type), which is also used for bigger text on the website. The secondary logo and most smaller text are set in GT Pressura Mono (Grilli Type). A third logo uses Oil Can. A complementary typeface used on the website is LL Circular.

Logo variations using all three typefaces used for the identity, plus a loosely spaced Oil Can.

Archiving is a natural process. Our brain constantly collects memories and groups them in sections that help us to understand and relate to what surrounds us. We autonomously collect information from dialogues, visual input, actions. For each memory we relate a series of key words and facts.

The website collects all texts that the writer produced and it divides it in keywords and quotes. The users can interact with one or the other side of the archive. The transversal dialogue is aiming to generate new ways to discover the content and information.

Sebastian Groes is a scholar of modern and contemporary literature and culture, writer and musician.

C&G Partners (with a team led by Daniel Rodriguez) was tasked with the exhibition design, graphic design, and sound & media production for Comeback Season: Sports After 9/11 at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City.

The emotions of sports crowds at various points after 9/11 is an effective way to frame the story arc, using design gestures to take visitors back to those key moments in stadiums and portray the changing emotions of a whole nation.

Working closely with the museum staff, the exhibition was divided into nine sections, with additional stations dedicated to stories of victims and their families. Each section includes dramatically large images, custom short documentaries, objects from the museum’s collection or on loan for the exhibit, and poignant quotes.

A varsity-inspired typeface commonly found in sports stadiums — in this case Octin Stencil — is used in the identity and exhibition materials. The letters appear to be stenciled, similar to those that appear on stadium turf and are reminiscent of “Do Not Cross” emergency warnings to reflect the seriousness of the time. Green is a focal color, alluding to grass in sports stadiums as well as being a sign of hope and regrowth.

Detail of an information panel , combinging text and captions set in Replica, and pull quotes set in the sharp-angled Portrait.

Outsider do things differently. Sourcing rare botanicals from producers across the world; fermented, distilled or pressed into non-alcoholic beverages for discerning drinkers. Highlighting the importance of discovery and the sourcing of premium botanicals, whilst creating impact and shaking up the market became our brief.

Quinnipiac: The Lahey Years is a deluxe book designed by Pentagram that commemorates the work of John L. Lahey in the Quinnipiac University over the past 30 years:

The design employs a mix of typefaces from the new identity system, including the neoclassic serif Grifo, the modern san serif Atlas, and the text font Portrait.

Designed by Kenneth Deegan, Jack Collins at Pentagram
Eddie Opara — Partner In Charge/Designer
Brankica Harvey — Associate Partner/Designer
Pedro Mendes — Designer
Xingwei Huang — Design Intern

Wundern über tanawo‘ is a festival for contemporary Iranian art & culture. See the full project and design concept on Behance.

Souvenir isn’t a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual publication. It isn’t a travel guide and does not intend to recommend places, hotels, bars or restaurants. Souvenir is an object that serves as a memory of the visit to a certain place. The tourist will remember a memorable vacation every time he looks at that object.

Pre-order a copy now through the shop.

With the release of its new bottles and labels in 2017, Sandeman asked VOLTA to help them communicate this change and create a trade presenter that reflected this repackaging.
This is a brand with a long and rich history, spanning more than 225 years of non-stop innovation, creativity and craftsmanship. So we decided to “write a book” where one can learn about Sandeman’s past, present and future. A book-shaped box was designed, containing two of the new bottles. It also included a brochure where we can learn about the brand’s history and product range.
Special care with premium finishings, like textured stock paper, foil stamping, spot gloss varnish, leather straps, Singer sewn binding and a large debossed Sandeman logo, were used in this pack to add a feeling of true craftsmanship and to reflect the dedication we can find in the making of Sandeman’s Porto fine wines.

New York based Anna Sheffield offers couture wedding rings using high quality metals and rare stones. The boutique’s website features some nice use of Pegasus, the often forgotten text sibling of typographic classic Albertus — here it’s Fabian Harb’s interpretation. Together with Styrene A (funky headlines) and Maison Neue (web 2017 favorite), it forms a nice image where personality and function meet in harmony. A curious dash of Portrait is spotted as italic accent in the webshop.

Detail: Portrait Italic is used to complement Pegasus

The Outline is the latest online venture from now seasoned publisher, Josh Topolsky following his founding of The Verge and run with the web edition of Bloomberg Businessweek. The website foregoes a more traditional web format in favor of “the stack”, a non-linear feed of articles, notices and advertorials.

The experience provides a wide typographic palette, centered around Göran Söderström’s Eksell Display and Phil Baber's lively Maria for rich headlines and supporting elements. The body text is set in Fakt by Thomas Thiemich, with Portrait by Berton Hasebe rounding out the mix, appearing in a bunch of unexpected places.

Seasoned type designer Stéphane Elbaz is credited as design director, with technicalites handled by Code and Theory.

On moblie, Portrait appears as byline a role filled by Fakt in wider versions.