Author Chelsey Ann Tompkins describes Curse & Spindle as –

a spicy Sleeping Beauty fairytale retelling novella with a Ravenfae Prince crashing her wedding to deliver her curse that is long overdue. From there they play what readers have dubbed as “Bridgerton Bachelorette” except the host cannot get enough of her and gets all adorably jealous.

It was published by The Crafty Bookstore.

Winterlock from Pixesia Studio is used for cover type, alongside Hermann Zapf’s Zapfino and the Stamp style of Aero Wolves by Septianto Nugroho. The author’s name is added in caps from ITC Bodoni Seventy-Two.

This skateboard was designed to make everyone a professional skater. In addition to featuring a reflective surface in the center of the mirror, a space allows you to write your own name to legitimize your status as a professional skater. This project was created for L’Appart Skateshop as part of a contest organized by Rave Skateboards during the first lockdown in France.

Exhibition poster in format 1185×1750 mm

Ränder dieser Bilder (“These images’ edges”) at Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken is Natalie Brück’s first institutional solo exhibition. Inspired by music albums, she produced the audiovisual album Ränder dieser Bilder, consisting of moving images, the sound of her voice, booming sounds, hard and soft beats and melodic passages between moments of silence, hesitation and doubt.

The album themes are order and chaos: simplifications of complex relationships and the nuances of language and images – online and offline.

Several fonts make an appearance for the tracklist to her album which is used as a key visual for posters, invitations and other media. Every song title gets its own typographical voice, sometimes kitschy, sometimes tough, and is intertwined with the others. “Love” is in Candlescript from Vast. “Movement” is set in an older version of Dykhotomos Italic by Jules Durand; Roslindale is used for “Parts” by David Jonathan Ross and distributed via his Font of the Month Club – as is his Bild which is used for “Treffen”. “Stimme” uses Arnold Böcklin; “Words” is set in Zapfino; “Brechen” in an unreleased typeface by myself.

The invitation and the mail signature additionally include Bradley DJR by David Jonathan Ross and WT Skrappa by Jacob Wise.

This exhibition is also the first to use the new identity of Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken featuring of ABC Diatype from Dinamo. The arched type of the logo is a reference to the architecture of the inner courtyard.

Kristin Rosch was involved with texts and layout for the invitations.

Exhibition poster in Format 3560x2520mm

Exhibiton Invitation, DIN A5, unfolding to A3

Exhibiton invitation, DIN A5, unfolding to A3

Exhibiton invitation, DIN A5, unfolding to A3

Exhibiton poster for social media

Email signature

A selection of pages from the A4 handouts printed for each exhibition

ISSUES is a contemporary art gallery in central Stockholm, initially set up as an ambulancing space in 2014 by Oscar Carlson, Johan af Geijerstam, Julia Eriksson and Peter Ström.

Between 2014 and 2021 the gallery produced thirteen shows around Stockholm, where the geographical location was of equal importance as the artist. For Issues #3 in 2015, Ryan Trecartin’s work CENTER JENNY was shown in the local Mediamarkt store on all 196 TV screens simultaneously. For Issues #4 in 2017, a group exhibition took place in an (at the time) empty space on Södermalm shaped like a display window, where the artworks were rotated every fifteen minutes in order to let that specific space come to its fullest.

Because of these new physical and geographical locations, the visual identity for the gallery was changed each time, adopting different typographic references to the current space.

In 2021 a more permanent space on Vattugatan 13 was found, turning the gallery into a commercial one in a fixed location – at least for the time being.

A permanent design system was introduced with the new space, where the location was less important – almost the opposite, as the new space was in a location almost unheard of even for the most hardcore Stockholmer, in an area filled with governmental buildings.

The design system takes its starting points in concrete poetry and early computer art (mainly ASCII) using Vincent Chan’s Quadrant Text Mono, complemented with the addition of a typeface and treatment picked for every artist – giving each artist their own visual identity connected to the space. Each typeface and treatment picked either refers to the artist’s practice or is connected to the idea of a place in downtown Stockholm – or in some cases, both.

The grid is based the word “ISSUES” written 16 by 10.5 times on an A4 sheet — because, you know, too many ISSUES…

The visual identity for ISSUES 4 took its typographic starting points in the typeface Eurostile found at the logo of a left over vacuum cleaner in the space.

The new space at Vattugatan 13 uses Quadrant Text Mono on all its signage and printed matter, as well as on the website and social media.

Insta stories using frame-by-frame tap animations, mixing ASCII and logo typography in ABC Honeymoon

Selected front and back covers from the A4-sized catalogue that comes with each exhibition.

Covers featuring Brush Script, Crowbar, Horizontal, and Jannon

Insta stories featuring P22 Arts and Crafts, Antique Olive Nord, Purple Haze, and PC Myungjo

For most of the shows, merchendise has been made in order to promote the shows with and to the local community and scene that ISSUES is part of. Reflective wests for Henning Hamilton using ABC Maxi Round, gym bottles for Hampus Wernemyr in Jannon, hats for Zoe Barca in Monaako, and candy, T-shirts and mugs in Quadrant Text Mono.

For DOWNTOWN ISSUES 2 in September 2023, one T-shirt with a typographic identity was designed for each participating artist printed in a single copy only. Seen here is a selection of the almost 70 T-shirts in total.

A few examples: The typography for Elis Monteverde Burrau with Tesla references the big amount of Teslas in the neighbourhood (and indicates where this Swedish poet might be heading in the future?). The typography for Georg Nordmark in Amsi references local pet food chain Arket Zoo because of Georg’s interest in animals in his art. The typography for Militza Monteverde Burrau uses Dinamo’s ABC Honeymoon and connects to her organic sculptures in glass. The typography for Ilja Karilampi links to his meme lord status via its use of Impact. Siri Carlén was treated with the never-to-be-released Småländsk Antikva by Konst & Teknik – which started around the same time Siri was a student of Konst & Teknik at Konstfack. Viktor Fordell got a Ford logo knockoff typeface because of... you know... Ford.

The non-personal T-shirts come with one front cover and three different back versions: The big 2 is based on the most downtown building Stockholm offers, parking house Parkaden and its beautiful brutalist numbering system and fascade. “DOWN TOWN” refers to local clothing brand Our Legacy WORK SHOP that is often seen on T-shirts around town. A version of the T-shirt with all the artist names overprinted was made in an extra limited edition of only five copies. All T-shirts printed in white ink on black fabric by Everynight Studios.

Fonts in USE!

Centre for R&D is an event that will take place at Spanners, South London, on June 14th, 2023. Promoted by odyXxey, it will include live performances by Varnrable and Florence Sinclair as well as DJ sets by mea0u and Virgina Waters.

At Plantain, we transform stories into bespoke books.

For this project, we were commissioned by the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) to help them capture the history of Uganda's railways.

Its story begins in the UK, where colonial authorities decided they needed a more efficient means to extract Uganda’s resources, particularly cotton. And so, starting in 1895, an incredible line was built, snaking from the shores of Kenya into the rift valley, and then climbing into Uganda to cross the Nile.

The railway impacted the region economically, politically, and culturally, well into independence.

This book, title Our Railways. Our History., tells the story of its birth and growth, and includes terrific visual archives shared by custodians worldwide. It also includes recent oral histories celebrating the very unique people and skillsets that worked the rails.

CCFU's objective was to craft a book that would raise awareness of this significant monument and of the country’s national heritage.

But the book was also developed to raise funds for Uganda’s first National Railway Museum.

The book’s design including its colours and stylistic devices is inspired by the story’s setting.

The “scarlet A” is a symbol used by atheists to recognize each other, started by the Out Campaign. It's a red capital A from the Zapfino typeface. The Out Campaign is a is a public awareness initiative for freethought and atheism in the United States, founded by Robin Elisabeth Cornwell, and endorsed by Richard Dawkins. From Wikipedia:

The campaign aims to create more openness about being an atheist by providing a means by which atheists can identify themselves to others by displaying the movement’s scarlet letter A […] an allusion to the scarlet letter A worn by Hester Prynne after being convicted of adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. It encourages those who wish to be part of the campaign to come out and re-appropriate, in a humorous way, the social stigma that in some places persists against atheism, by branding themselves with a scarlet letter.

A hard enamel lapel pin with the “scarlet A” was sold from Richard Dawkins’s website in 2007. The letterform here was made sturdier and less detailed.

“Scarlet A” button with the OutCampaign.org URL set in Cochin underneath.

Richard Dawkins wearing the “scarlet A” lapel pin at the 34th American Atheists Conference in Minneapolis, 2008.

First poster for the GD Lunch (1) at EKA.

Series of posters and social media posts designed by Moritz Appich and Aleksandrs Breže for GD Lunch at the Graphic Design Department of the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA) in Tallinn. In the GD Lunch course, MA students each introduced themselves and gave a short presentation on their work. In the course of the following weeks GD Lunch developed into a place for discussion and exchange, for talks by students, invited speakers and researchers.

The typefaces used throughout the series are G2 Erika Mono and G2 Ciao Shrill by Gruppo Due.

Social Media post for the GD Lunch (2) at EKA.

“Praktika-Programm” is set in all-caps Zapfino.

Social media post for the GD Lunch (3) at EKA.

Posters for the GD Lunch (3) at EKA.

Closeup of poster for the GD Lunch (3) at EKA.

An elegant website for Couteaux Ceccaldi, a craftsman family business from Corsica. The fonts in use are Operetta 18, Futura, and Zapfino.

The business logo uses Künstler-Schreibschrift.

Signal is a Sydney based curatorial project by Jarryd Lynagh and Orson Heidrich.

The identity by New Association makes use of Whyte Inktrap by Dinamo for the logotype and primary font, with each exhibition utilising a unique typeface for the artist’s name as a response to their work. Amongst these guest typefaces are Eurostile, Herman Zapf’s Zapfino, a stretched version of Times that goes under the alias of Xerox Serif Narrow, and Meyrin.

Of the many dubious uses of Zapfino, I contend that this is the Worst Of All Time.

Zapfino is paired with another typeface by Hermann Zapf, Optima Bold.

The website uses Supernett cn for most text. The photograph in the middle shows a sign in Optima with stacked glyphs.

Supernett cn is paired with Brandon Printed and Thirsty Script.

Catalog with works by students who graduated from Akademie der Bildenden Künste (AdBK) Nürnberg in 2018. The book includes 33 portfolios, each of which starts with a eccentric, erratic CV introduction page, followed by three clean double-spreads showing selected works.

The glossy dust cover showing Alpha and Omega as symbols for the ­beginning and end of studies, the duo-Pantone finish and plain imagery on the main cover (entrance and exit of the AdBK), as well as literary works on the topic of opening a new chapter / braving the unknown, all help to turn this catalog into an affirmative and endorsing way of waving our good-byes to student life.

Art direction & layout by Karin Kolb and Felix Neumann.

Precision All Natural is a Toronto-based manufacturers of proteins. Joe Clark rightly identifies their packaging as ”[s]till an infelicitous use of Zapfino”, complete with outline and shadow effects.

Double sided RSVP / food menu

For my fiancee’s and my upcoming wedding I’ve got to design invites, RSVPs and other printed materials, which is a new category of work for me. Most of it we have printed ourselves while only the RSVPs was sent to a company for production. Martin Majoor has designed some of my favorite typefaces and felt that the Questa family would be well suited for the occasion as well as the touch of Zapfino’s calligraphic heart and other decorative glyphs.

Name holders with sugared almond favors. All pictured are designed, printed and put together by us. In the baubles are peacock feathers, since that is our theme – based on our gemstones, sapphire and emerald. The females features the eye of the feather in the bauble.

Sugared almond wedding favors.

Drink menu

This is a retrospective of work by the late Hermann Zapf (1918-2015) in calligraphy, illustration, and especially typeface design.

Arguably too much Zapfino.