The Music Week Poland showcase combines a professional, industry-driven character with a wide range of musical discoveries and experiences, creating a unique platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration between artists and representatives of the music industry. The event's goal is to promote talented musicians with international potential, providing them with the space to grow and expand onto the global music market. This initiative evolves in line with the trends and needs of the contemporary music landscape, with music at its core, shaping its identity.

The concept behind the logo and visual identity of Music Week Poland highlights the key strengths that define the brand’s unique character and mission. Through its distinctive design, the logo captures the essence of connection and collaboration that lies at the heart of the event. The logo design draws inspiration from the idea of a network and hub – a place where diverse elements come together and amplify one another. It also references the image of a soundwave, a universal symbol of music that reflects its variability, diversity, and dynamism. Just as music continually evolves and adapts, the design reflects the energy and transformation of the music industry itself. This serves as a metaphor for a space that foster artistic development, accelerates careers, and helps gain wider recognition, offering a dynamic environment for both performers and industry professionals.

The emblem features a monogram of the letters M and W, representing the initials of the showcase’s name. The logo blends the dynamism and expression of music with a minimalist, professional aesthetic, creating a distinctive symbol that strengthens the recognition of the Music Week Poland brand and highlights its unique character.

The logo also forms the basis for the key visual, which, through its simplicity, offers flexibility and potential for further development in future editions of the showcase. Its universal nature allows for various adaptations and modifications, ensuring visual coherence while providing the flexibility to evolve with future needs.

The 2025 calendar by C’est par là is here, ready to brighten up your year (and beyond!)

The unique design consists of a cardboard sleeve made of three pieces, laser-cut and screen-printed by hand, plus six double-sided cards printed on 160g/m² recycled paper, covering all twelve months of the year. The sleeve is reusable: just replace the cards to keep it going year after year.

For the fonts, we used Signal Compressed by Production Type, Patron by Milieu Grotesque, and Ballpoint Script by Carmel Type Co.

As a bonus, a genuine vintage-style ad signed by the atelier is hidden on the back for the curious.

Made in Lyon in a limited edition, the calendar merges elegance, sustainability, and local craftsmanship. See it on our website and get yourself a copy in the shop.

Detail showing the typography

After a year, Trafo Gallery is returning to the collective exhibition Trafo Art Salon, which presents the current work of twenty artists: Michal Cimala, Andros Foros, Alžběta Jungrová, Jan Kaláb, Laura Limbourg, Pavla Malinová, Jiří Marek, Anna Neborová, Kateřina Ondrušková, Michael Rittstein, Jaroslav Róna, Lucie Rosická, Jakub Roztočil, Dana Sahánková, František Skála, Ira Svobodová, Zdeněk Trs, Vladimír Véla, Jan Vytiska.

The visual identity included a printed large facade banner, series of posters in three color variations, and exhibition details like the colophon and artwork labels. I am using LL Ruder Plakat in combination with Patron, the gallery’s standard typeface.

The goal? A bold, eye-catching design that also seamlessly incorporated the names of multiple exhibiting artists across all outputs.

Lu Yu is a designer working in visual communication, with a focus on interaction design and art direction. Raised in China, previously living and working in Melbourne, Istanbul, and Berlin, Lu Yu is experienced in working at the intersection of brand and product, bringing a heavy sense of graphic design into the digital work.

Lu Yu's portfolio website is using the display font Cosi Azure (Nikolas Type) for primary headlines, Cosi Times (also Nikolas Type) for secondary headlines, tastefully paired with Patron (Milieu Grotesque) for text.

F37 Stout by F37 Foundry is used by Marc Blanes Studio in a customized stencil version for 4-Football’s brand identity. Words are taken from their portfolio site (translated):

4-Football is a startup created for football, with the vocation to solve the great current and future challenges posed by this sport, in a collaborative way, with the creation of work areas that address these challenges.

In addition, 4F stands out for being the first innovation platform focused on the development of women’s football and grassroots football.

The bilingual website (Spanish and English) pairs headings in F37 Stout with Patron by Milieu Grotesque for text.

Magazine title set in SangBleu Empire, number in SangBleu Courtesan, subtitle in TheW Clan ODB and fine print in Suisse Int’l.

In the third issue of Type Life, Swiss Typefaces take a look beyond their own work and celebrate contemporary type made by others. The Swiss design studio compiled a selection of their favorite typefaces, licensed the fonts and used them to design a magazine. The resulting specimen of “Non-Swiss Typefaces We Like 1569–2018” comes with a text by Florian Hardwig (Fonts In Use) and is visually enriched with works by lettering artist Julien Priez (boogypaper).

Type Life 3 showcases 19 fonts from 19 international foundries: 29Letters, Adobe Type, Commercial Type, CSTM Fonts, Dinamo Typefaces, DSType, Extrabrut.Shop, Future Fonts, Hoefler & Co., Letters From Sweden, Linotype, Milieu Grotesque, Or Type, Production Type, Sharp Type, Sportsfonts.com, The Enschedé Font Foundry, Typotheque, and Velvetyne Typefoundry. The selection is a representative sample for the diversity in type design and gives an illuminating overview of the current scene. While the majority of the fonts was released in the past few years, many draw inspiration from all kinds of sources from previous eras. There is blackletter, script, slab serif, sans serif, and more. This – a stress on newness, historical references, and a vast stylistic plurality – reflects three major trends in today’s typography, as Florian Hardwig points out in his introduction. Other recurring themes that he identifies as being symptomatic for 2018 include highly conceptual projects and a quest for extreme aesthetics. At the same time there are functional fonts designed to solve specific problems. Just like the fonts, the type designers who created them have diverse backgrounds, in terms of geography, or how they entered the field. The represented distribution models range from traditional licensing to subscriptions, free and open-sourced fonts, as well as experimental or even unfinished releases.

Each issue of Type Life features a guest contributor. This time it’s the up-and-coming French lettering artist Julien Priez. A graduate of École Estienne, Paris, he’s a member of the international collective High on Type, best known for organizing the annual festival All Eyes on Type. Priez gives workshops at various schools and is an instructor at the prestigious TypeParis program. His work oscillates between the analog and the digital. Alphabets are first calligraphed, then cut in wood, and eventually digitized. Priez is just as comfortable painting meter-high letters with a triple brush on a wood fence as he is animating ornate pixel letters with kaleidoscopic patterns. Type Life #3 shows a range of his repertoire, starting with a still from his animated Nightmare Alphabet and two of his in-progress fonts Boogyroma and Boogylink on the cover. Mandinor Gothic is used to render the word “KING” on top of a kinetic gesture. The next page answers with “KONG”, in letterforms that pay homage to Jean Midolle’s Alphabet Lapidaire Monstre from 1835. With such historical references and the stunning stylistic versatility, Priez’ work is a perfect fit for the content of this issue.

At a whopping 40 pages, Type Life 3 is the most substantial issue so far. It’s printed in three Pantone spot colors plus silver and black, on two different paper stocks including transparent paper.

“Dream” set in Boogyroma and “Chasers” set in Boogylink, two in-progress typefaces by Julien Priez. Foundry names set in TheW Clan GZA by Swiss Typefaces. The caption that mentions the typefaces is set in Suisse Int’l Condensed.

Essay, set in SangBleu Republic (body text) and Suisse Int’l Mono (streamers, side notes). The green type on the left and at the very top of the right page is KOPYME As Uzual.

Galapagos (Felix Salut, Dinamo) and Xprmntal 01 (CSTM Fonts) visiting each other’s page. Typeface names (top) are in KRSNA. In the margins left and right, the foundry names are set in stacked letters from KOPYME (Swiss Typefaces).

Winner (Sportsfonts.com) × Quarto (Hoefler & Co.)

A pattern of Patron (Milieu Grotesque) with a guest appearance by Vincent (Letraset) is juxtaposed with a collage featuring elements from a Caslon Old Face specimen by H.W. Caslon & Co. from 1924.

On the left, a page from the book Il perfetto Scrittore Di M. Gio. Francesco Cresci, Italy, 16th century. On the right, (raster) pattern tiles are mixed with Frank Adebiaye’s Montchauve (Velvetyne).

Perfil (DSType) and Cardinal (Production Type). Cameo: Magnificat.

Julien Priez’ Mandinor Gothic in combination with his lettering.

Pattern by Julien Priez, printed in fluorescent and metallic ink.

Separat (Gunmad, OR Type) on the left, and Azal (Pascal Zoghbi, 29 Letters) as well as a tag lettering on the right hand.

Times Europa (Linotype) vs. Line (Letters from Sweden), with interventions by Good Vibrations and Block Up (Letraset).

Type that looks like it cannot be moved, and type that looks like it couldn’t sit still for a second: Berton Hasebe’s Styrene (Commercial Type) and Jérémy Landes’ Digestive (Triple Studio).

Thesaurus Display (Typotheque) × Respira Black (Sharp Type)

Feature page with Benoît Brun’s Shakotan (work in progress), printed in neon spot color.

On the left, a selection of A monograms (mostly dating back to the 15th and 16th century) shine through their overlying page with a big silver A set in Bram de Does’ Lexicon No. 2 (The Enschedé Font Foundry).

Pull quote in SangBleu Sunrise, printed in silver metallic ink.

Back cover with a sneak preview of the upcoming KOPYME and SuisseU.

Collins:

With over 2,000 stores worldwide, Aldo is a shoe and accessories brand that has become one of the largest fashion retailers in the world. The company has built a massive following of people looking for the latest in fashion at an accessible price.

COLLINS was invited to help accelerate that momentum by re-imagining the brand along its entire customer journey, addressing the rapid changes happening in tech and retail. With many new channels and players flooding the fast fashion market, being affordable and on-trend was no longer a meaningful point of brand differentiation for Aldo.

Our goal was to push Aldo away from discount retail and into a more premium position and expression. Every aspect of the experience now works to build the trust and enthusiasm consumers have for Aldo products. By introducing a new design system and fine-tuning key elements (like carefully re-crafting their famous logotype) we established a strong foundation that guided us through the development of every part of the brand experience — from packaging, in-store signage and digital displays to their digital advertising, web and mobile expressions.

“We also created a new communication program for Aldo based on layered, collage-based art direction and photography. It was launched with an in-house campaign shot by celebrated photographer Julia Noni.” — Collins

Aldo’s websites combine GT Sectra Fine (Grilli Type) with Patron (Milieu Grotesque).

For their “Arbeit” section, Zeit Online adds a third typeface to their palette. In addition to the standard pair of FF Franziska and Tablet Gothic (see the post about ZEITmagazin Online), there is Patron Bold by Timo Gaessner, “a sans serif influenced by type designers Günther Gerhard Lange and Roger Excoffon” (Milieu Grotesque).

Zeit Online Arbeit focuses on topics related to workplace culture, career, and income, including stress, discrimination, equal pay and more. Patron appears for headlines, subheadings and intro texts, but also for lists, boxes, tags and sharing buttons.

In some places, Patron is shown outlined, via the CSS property -webkit-text-stroke. More CSS trickery is used for underlines with skipped descenders. Still no proper quote marks, though.

Museum Unplugged – eine Selbstbefragung is a book published on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Marta Herford museum. Edited by Friedrich von Borries and Roland Nachtigäller, with contributions by Friedrich von Borries, Nicolas Bourquin (onlab), Eva & Adele, Johann König, Sarah Strassman. Book design by Cyrill Kuhlmann together with Ingo Offermanns. 170×240 mm, 216 pages. ISBN: 978-3-938433-23-2

Note the custom compact umlaut with the dots within the counter on the first line, and the mirrored question mark on the eight line. Both modifications help retain the legibility of the cropped type.

Dutch Design Week 2016 takes place from 22 to 30 October in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It presents the work and ideas of more than 2,400 designers to more than 250,000 visitors. The identity/campaign is designed by Fabrique, while the website is provided by Freshheads. Timo Gaessner’s Patron (Milieu Grotesque, 2014) is used across all media.