Raccogliere magazine focusses on the Venetian intertidal zone and community through the lens of a more-than-human actor and plant called salicornia. It grows in the fragile salty marshlands known by the locals as the barene. There, the salt-loving plant solidifies the soil beneath with its intricate red roots and thereby creates the conditions for itself and other plants to thrive.

Over the last decades salicornia has become an indicator for the manifold challenges present within the lagoon. Spotted by local farmers on their land, the plant indicates the rising levels of salinisation and thus the loss of agricultural land due to global warming. Recent years saw the plant growing even further up the sweet-water river Po, which is alarming to ecologists and climate scientists alike. Some say that Venice could be regarded as the forefront of global warming today, as flooding and salinisation threaten the ecosystem and livelihoods of many.

Both UNESCO’s protection of the marshlands as well as the MOSE construction have affected the fragile intertidal zone even further. While the former may unwittingly contribute to the loss of marshlands since privately managed sites are kept up better, the latter has been met with scepticism as it failed to protect Venice from flooding meaningfully, whilst having been a rather extensive financial investment in a city that struggles financially (see Alberto Barausse’s interview). The challenge of mass tourism and cruise ships have had further impacts on the local community, leading many to leave the city due to lack of housing.

The list may go on yet bearing this in mind, we wondered on how these different agendas in this fragile ecosystem might be mediated, if at all? What might be actions of regeneration that local Venetians may consider or already practice? We talked to scientists, NGOs, chefs, artists and designers about combating these challenges and their individual long-term efforts and responses in the face of global warming. The magazine features these conversations and their respective projects, all of which promotes resilience and regenerative actions. Not at last they suggest a different vision and understanding of Venice and its crucial ecosystem.

The design of the zine takes visual cues and references from the Venetian lagoon landscape and it is printed on RISOgraph (rice-based inks) with three colours on recycled offset paper. The typography combines Rainer with Lacrima’s Serif and Senza styles. Body copy is set in Lacrima and ABC Whyte. Printed in Germany with Herr & Frau Rio.

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Raccogliere magazine was designed and edited by Sigrid Schmeisser. This originally emerged out of a bigger project (Project Raccogliere) conceived with design duo Daniel Garber and Amalia Magril.

The limited magazine is sold through independent bookshops and by Sigrid Schmeisser. The core of the magazine which is to map and featuring resistance practices and regenerative projects (BluePages) continues online.

Rainer, Obviously and Renika, accompanying a cute 8-bit animated illustration of the White House.

Vote Save America (VSA) is a platform for organizing voters and volunteers for progressive causes in the USA. Started by the people behind the popular political podcast Pod Save America for the 2018 midterms, they’ve raised more than $55 Million for progressive causes and helped volunteers sign up for more than 211,000 volunteer shifts — and that’s all before this massive 2024 election kicked off.

With 2024 poised to be the biggest yet, Vote Save America rolled out a super energetic brand, designed to pull in volunteers of all ages and make getting involved in the political process fun. This year, VSA split their volunteer base into two teams — East and West — to compete to see who can contact the most voters before November.

VSA brings in a few outspoken display typefaces for its 2024 campaign; an eclectic mix of styles, all coming together (like we all should) for a good cause. Most are on or have graduated from Future Fonts:

– Rainer (Philipp Neumeyer, released by Vectro), used in all caps, leads the brand and makes a huge impact for headlines. Its backslant appropriately leans to the left.

– Obviously (OH no Type Co) lightens up the palette a bit, its corpulent curves contrasting with the stark linearity of Rainer. Its Normal width is used for headlines, subheads, body text and some “call-to-action” text inside buttons in a variety of weights.

– Metamor Bit (Masahiro Naruse), stands in as an 8-bit video game font, a reference to the new East-vs-West gamification theme. The wide, monospaced forms of Metamor Bit serve as a great 1-2 punch with the super condensed Rainer when used together in headlines. Metamor Bit is not quite used to its full potential here, however — it has hundreds of icons and emoji, variable widths, CJK support, multiple serif options, and a neat texture feature — but it is still a great choice. Metamor is so integral to the 2024 VSA branding that the cute, 8-bit animated illustrations peppered around the edges of the site are based on the style of Metamor Bit’s emoji.

– Renika (Graphix Line Studio) is a handwriting font that adds a personal touch to the very type-heavy brand. It is the only typeface in this group that is not connected to Future Fonts.

Rounding out the brand is a new logo with blocky letters that stack together, which might be custom lettering.

Rainer leaning left, along with Obviously in the "call-to-action" button.

Metamor Bit making a statement below the arrow.

Rainer, Obviously and Metamor Bit helping to gamify the landscape.

From the website of Korak Studio:

Not many foods can boast the status of a cultural heritage. One of such proud delicacies is “ajvar”- the traditional roast pepper spread or a homemade jam made of healthy and sunbathed fruits adored throughout much of Southeast Europe. Strongly embedded in the Balkan’s gastro culture, both ajvar and jam have become symbols of the region’s well-known gourmet cuisine, loved and enjoyed in households across countries and in all seasons. Kopex is a micro brand that brings these domestic condiments to the table straight from the heart of Serbia’s famous Kopaonik mountain.

Most commonly, the colorful jars of cherished spreads are either found in vernacular packaging (i.e. reused jars with handwritten stickers) when made in a domestic setting or wrapped up in labels with traditional patterns and decorative motifs in a commercial context. This was our initial thought when coming up with the identity direction for the Kopex brand, deciding on the one that would bring a fresh prospect to the customary food niche.

Our first clue was to change how the jar is perceived- from a commonplace object to a more conceptual item by applying an eye-catching label with a thick oversized typography prompting a rotational gesture. The main information is noticeable even from the last aisle- that Kopex ajvars and jams are exquisite domestic products. As a counterbalance to the heavy typography, we doodled a few light sketches in the style of newspaper comic strips, with lively characters interacting with fruits and vegetables. For the website, we additionally animated this cheerful troupe to perform acts such as juggling peppers to entertain the visitors. The overall idea was to diverge from the conventional representation of traditional food products and offer a more daring design, the one that makes these fine products stand out of the crowd.

The primary typeface used is Rainer, paired with Manrope for the information on thes labels and illustrations by Nina Hadživuković Mrvoš⁠. Motion and photography by Nataša Stamatović⁠.

Back cover

People Who Aren’t There Anymore is the new studio album by Future Islands, released on 4AD today. It was named after a painting by Albuquerque-based artist Beedallo. A different painting of hers, Fading Memory of a Face, is featured on the front cover.

The creative direction and album design is by Nolen Štrāls, who’s been working with the Baltimore-based band for years. For the band name, he started with caps from Philipp Neumeyer’s Rainer and connected the letters of the two words in a way that evokes the rippled surface of the sea surrounding the nominal Islands.

The title on the back cover is set in Regrets. One’s tempted to assume that Ohno’s 2023 release was chosen for its name – which happens to be a perfect match for the album’s title. But Štrāls used Regrets before, for the video to Future Islands’ “Deep In The Night”. The typewriter font used for the track names and the lyrics is Klim’s Pitch.

[More info on Discogs]

Front cover with inner sleeve and vinyl record

Compact disc

Promotional banner

Regrets with hyper-extended initials that form an interlinear ligature for the “Dancing” sweatshirt

A variant of the band logo, with the two words not aligned to each other

The “Figures” shirt features Rainer’s Slanted style.

The compressed, high-waisted caps of Rainer are the star of Grace Han’s jacket design for The Faraway World. Tracked out, the long-legged letters stride through the flock of city doves as if on stilts.

The novel by Patricia Engel, best-selling author of Infinite Country, was published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster:

Two Colombian expats meet as strangers on the rainy streets of New York City, both burdened with traumatic pasts. In Cuba, a woman discovers her deceased brother’s bones have been stolen, and the love of her life returns from Ecuador for a one-night visit. A cash-strapped couple hustles in Miami, to life-altering ends.

Art direction by Alison Forner. The small type is in Neue Helvetica Extended, with Bulmer used for Lauren Groff’s praise.

From the Tracteur Blues Festival website (translated from French):

The Tracteur Blues Festival is a rural, family and musical festival in the heart of the Yvelines, on a human scale, accessible to all. Faced with the storm of the pandemic, we have kept our course and will be happy to welcome you during these three days. This edition will be placed under the sign of sharing, friendship, simplicity and happiness to be together to share these festive moments. The program of this edition will allow you to discover artists coming from France and elsewhere. TRACTEUR BLUES is an invitation to travel on the territory of Yvelines through the richness of a musical genre and its heritage.

The festival logo is set in Rainer (by Rüdiger/Vectro) and Chaumont Script (by ANRT).
Copy and headlines are composed in Mort (by Matthew Hinders-Anderson).

From Bauderfilm’s website:

Two years after exposing the Panama Papers, journalists at Germany’s largest daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung are probing a new slate of equally alarming cases. For the first time in its history, cameras are allowed into its world-renowned investigative unit to share the perilous work its reporters undertake in pursuit of truth.

When they receive a secret video involving Austria’s Vice-Chancellor, tense verité reveals the painstaking legalities and unflinching nerve required to break yet another history-changing story. Behind the News is a grippingly personal look at the complex forces exerted on democracy's fourth estate.

Written words being the core and theme of the movie, design studio Serious Play decided to use the original articles set in Akzidenz-Grotesk as a backdrop for the two protagonists faces, overlaid by the film title set in Rainer by Philipp Neumeyer. The credits in the top left corner are set in Antwerp.

The cover employs Rainer in two places in an extreme size contrast.

A large-format “time capsule” book commissioned by Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, Ohio, to commemorate the college’s 140th anniversary. Large photographs of faculty and staff are punctuated by 70 text-heavy pages of musing on the college’s legacy and influence on Columbus and the world, provided by a cast of 140 faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Rainer, used for all headings, introduces each contributor and provides a big punch at a very narrow measure, interrupting the monotonous flow of text set in Calibre.

On-screen graphics, set design and advertising for HBO Max’s Legendary –

a voguing reality competition web series, exploring the world of ball culture. It premiered on HBO Max on May 27, 2020. The series follows LGBT house members – predominantly from eight houses – as they navigate through nine balls (dancing/voguing/walking events), with US$100,000 prize for the winning house.

The logo is based on Rainer, with a custom barless A. The show additionally uses a range of other recently released typefaces for the names of the eight houses.

The contestants belong to eight houses, each of which has a typographic logo set in a different typeface, in all caps. From top to bottom: Lanvin (Marle), Ebony (Cosi Times), Balmain (Monarch, identified by Jay), Gorgeous Gucci (Cosi Azure), Escada (Love), West (Brutal), St. Laurent (Grand Slang), Ninja (Tina and Ben, identified by Jay).

Stage graphics with outlined Rainer.

… plus on-screen graphics in loosely spaced caps, also from Rainer.

Poster. The secondary fonts are ITC Avant Garde Gothic and the similar Gilroy, which is HBO Max’s corporate typeface.

The Spring 2020 issue of Max marks the return of the iconic magazine that was first launched in Italy in 1985. From their website:

The MAX is back! We are delighted to present the first global issue of MAX Magazine. [Its] return fits perfectly with our time’s fascination for retro-chic with a fresh new vision, transformed look and sheer creativity.

The first issue of MAX offers spectacular photography and a wide range of topics – exclusive interviews and photo editorials with amazing actresses Noomi Rapace, Katheryn Winnick and Paola Nuñez. MAX focuses on legendary photographer Peter Lindbergh, lets you explore magnificent art and architecture, gives you tips for places offering relaxation for body and mind, and much more.

The typography pairs Flecha from R-Typography with Rainer and Arnold (both by Rüdiger) and Rois (New Letters).

Series of posters made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the renowned Edificio Steinvorth, or Steinvorth Music Hall, in San José, Costa Rica. The typography uses several weights from Rainer. The ultracondensed face is paired with News Gothic for smaller type.

Foam is an international photography magazine published three times a year by Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam.

The guest typefaces used for this issue are Philipp Neumeyer’s Rainer and Jérémy Landes’ Digestive, which are mixed to create striking headings. L15 (Or Type) and Adrien Menard's Haarlem (2018, available from Edition Studio) are used for texts.