Biodesign: From Inspiration to Integration was an exhibition of works of contemporary art and design that help us to reform our relationship with nature, moving it from a destructive to a more integrated, mutually beneficial model.

The exhibition marked the release of the 2018 edition of the book Biodesign: Nature + Science + Creativity, by William Myers, published by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and celebrated the RISD Nature Lab's 80th anniversary.

Gyrator and Lack were chosen to reflect the organic and technical aspects of the works in the exhibition, respectively. And their placement in the identity represents the conversation between the two realms throughout the exhibition. The poster additionally uses Reader.

Lead curator: William Myers
Co-curators: Lucia Monge and David Kim
Curatorial assistants: Julia van den Hout and Peter Rogers

Acclaimed (and infamous) designer duo Sagmeister & Walsh choose The Pyte Foundry’s Gyrator and Alias’ Harbour for this life affirming mural located in Aspern Seestadt, one of Europe’s largest urban development projects in the northeast of Vienna.

From the designers’ website:

For the development’s Beatification project, we were invited to design a mural spanning the 400m2 wall along the Asperner Seepark. Our goal was to turn a gray wall into a work that can be enjoyed on different levels. We wanted to create something with a connection to water both physically and metaphorically, so we used a combination of visuals & writing. You can perceive the mural through color and shape, or you can walk the entire length and read about humanity’s relationship with water.

Rodéo Studio designed the branding identity of platform Vins de Joie. An immersive ambiance is presented through an curious photographic series. Inspired by Dali, surrealism and a bit of extravagance, Vins de Joie (so far, the communication consists of a few social media posts only), aims to celebrate wine in all its forms and offers a dynamic selection of wines, crockery, vintage objects, books, etcetera.

While Gyrator (The Pyte Foundry) is used for the logotype, Inferi and Inferi Light Italic (Blaze Type) are displayed through the different visuals of the identity.

Images from the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for issue 09 of Pica magazine, using a number of Pyte Foundry typefaces to present the pledges. The logo of Pica magazine seems to use Alto by Thomas Thiemich.

Risk brings us back to the very sources of creation. To create is necessarily to put ourselves in danger, to take a chance. Creatives fail, and the really good ones fail often, writes Neville Brody. Indeed, taking a step towards the unknown allows you to see new perspectives, to leave your comfort zone and to explore new avenues. In the margin, there is a world of possibilities often forgotten, reduced to self-censorship. But to dare is also to risk losing. The risk is ambiguous, since it is always hypothetical, its product results partly from chance. The line is sometimes very fine between failure and success. –– Pica Mag

MOLD is “a platform about designing the future of food”, that recently completed a successful crowdfunding campaign to launch a printed magazine. The publication is being designed by Eric Hu and Matt Tsang, making promintent use of The Pyte Foundry’s Gyrator as well as Forgotten Shapes’ digitization of Gerstner Programm.

Eric Hu was interviewed about the project by Emily Gosling for AIGA’s Eye On Design blog, and explained some of the thinking behind the type-centric design:

“It’s about eating bugs and eating dirt—the subject matter is strange and we wanted to create a design that was equally as strange. We also wanted to avoid the tropes of the word ‘future.’ A few years ago it was the highly geometric sans serif, all clean slick lines; but when you think ‘future’ now, a lot of designers try to make it all very dark, or use a bunch of evil corporate logos. We wanted to hold a mirror up to the fetishization of food with its emphasis on happiness and tweeness.”

The Eye On Design article only references Gerstner-Programm as “a slick Swiss sans serif”, and it fails to name or link to The Pyte Foundry as the creator of Gyrator, but it continues with more info on the type choices:

Hu explains that he found the type through a process of “looking for the source of twee, whether that’s Americana or Victorian England. If we go past the 20th century, we can go way beyond nostalgia. It’s taking twee to its most logical conclusion—what do you do when you run out of reference points?”

The Kickstarter campaign for the magazine has ended, but you can still order or subscribe from MOLD’s online store.