“Regnum defendo…” Book

It’s crazy how behind we are with sharing our current (and less-than-current) projects. We have some of them photographed, some even edited, and tons waiting to be photographed (anybody wants to intern with that? It’s super boring so probably not). But. This book absolutely needs to be shared because it’s one of our favorite projects from the last year. It is titled Regnum defendo ense et alis tego stricto and it is a second book in a series, after Sapientia aedificavit sibi domum that we designed before (you can see it here). It accompanied the second in a series of exhibitions on the history of the Malbork Castle – this one showing the history after the Teutonic Knights, when Malbork became a part of the kingdom of Poland.

The design of the book is at its core based on Sapientia… but the color scheme, elements of the typography and layout were updated to match the second exhibition. The strong typographic arrangements are inspired by books from the period and appear not only on the cover but also on the title pages and in the introductions of all the articles. The title on the cover is debossed in golden foil. The half dust-jacket with a crest – from a document whose motto was used to title the exhibition – unfolds to a double-sided poster. This books is less minimalistic than the first one (or, appropriately, more “baroque”) and as such was a different kind of challenge and fun to work on.

You can find a few more images on our website.

Vegetable Letters Workshop: Results

A while back we told you about the workshop we ran where people had a chance to create their own food lettering. Today we’re finally sharing some of the really cool results.
Disclaimer: because of the data protection (and because we don’t really have the names of all the authors) we’re not signing any of the designs. But if it’s yours and you want credit, please let us know!

Before it all started, some of the materials we prepared.

And as it was happening.

And finally, some of the works:

A super impressive, confident work with a smart use of the natural veggie curves.

A classic theme. And look at this ingenious heart.

This is by our youngest participant who designed his name.

And another name piece, this time by a slightly older author.

Just initials, but with a creative, varied use of apples.

The beginning of a cool leek alphabet.

This one impresses us a lot, we love the varied Os and the use of seeds. It means “calmness.”

This fun, rich work says “Your choice.”

There was definitely a common theme for some of the works. This is another example of confident decision-making.

Some people chose to do illustrations instead of letters, and how could we mind if the results are so awesome.

Thank you, everyone, for participating, it was more fun than we expected and the effects really impressed us. And for those of you who might worry, we salvaged what was salvagable (most of it ended up in a soup) and composted the rest. See you next time!

The Night in a City Mood

We had a busy Night of Museums last Saturday. One of the events we took part in was the opening of an exhibition at the Museum of Gdańsk whose graphic elements we designed. The exhibition, titled “In a City Mood,” shows paintings of pre-war Gdańsk, created by artists who often lost their Gdańsk home. The image of the city is idealized, nostalgic but despite that, perhaps surprisingly, familiar to anyone who knows the city.

The exibition is arranged quite charmingly in a new exhibition space in the Artus Court in a way that recalls old, cozy salons, with dark blue walls, golden frames for the paintings and actual furniture: chests of drawers to open and see etchings inside and armchairs for visitors to rest in. Our designs correspond with the coziness of the interior design: with slightly old-fashioned ornaments and decorative serif typography they add to the exhibition’s sentimental atmosphere.

Sort of News Interlude

So this week let us share some news from the recent weeks.

First, we’re happy to share that two of our books from last year were shortlisted in the Most Beautiful Books of the Year competition! One of them, The Blell Inventory, we already shared, the other one, The Colors of Gdańsk, we’re still photographing! (We’re so behind with that…)

And second, during this year’s European Night of Museums we will participate in the event organized by the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where we will conduct a tiny little typographic workshop. With the participants we will create typographic posters made of vegetable (and maybe fruit) letters. Hope to see some of you there (the space is limited but if you happen to be around Gdańsk and feel like that’s an interesting way to spend an hour, you can sign up here)!

It says “The Night of Museums” and our older son had a lot of fun helping with the letters. It seems he’ll learn strange typography before he learns to write properly.

50 Years and Counting

We already teased this project but didn’t yet show you the result. For the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Gdańsk we were invited to design the anniversary medal that would be presented to people who were important for the Museum’s history. We worked on the graphic design while the 3D design and production supervision were superbly done by Biuro Kreacja: Dorota Terlecka.

One side of the medal shows the Museum’s logo surrounded by a shape inspired by an architectural detail from one of the museum’s buildings. It is, in fact, an interpretation of a gothic ceiling with its characteristic spiky forms. On the other side there is a typographic design with a Latin motto chosen for the occasion, which translates as “To Each Their Own.” For this we chose a modernised serif letter inspired by Roman capitals. The medal is packed in a simple box with silver print.

This was a new and exciting experience but we are particularly grateful for Dorota’s expertise because object design is a very different animal than the regular flat work we do…

Paper Works Preview

Every two years we get a chance to play with paper birds, letters and poets and the time has come for a new version to emerge. This is, of course, only an in-work photo of the elements, with the actual art to follow soon.

Blell Inventory Book

Today we are sharing one of our most challenging and satisfying projects from the last year. The Castle Museum of Malbork owns a hand-written document that lists all the exhibits owned by the Museum at the end of the 19th century, created by Theodor Blell. In an attempt to study the history of its collection the Museum researchers have deciphered and translated the document so that it could be published in a book format.

The book consists of several parts: introductory essays, the translation of the document with numerous footnotes, photographic illustrations and the transcription of the original text. Most of the book only uses two colors: black and red, with the exception of the colorful photographic insert which we printed on glossier, more creamy paper. The main challenge of the design (that, to be honest, we loved) consisted of translating the looser spacial arrangement of the original lists into very strictly organized modern tables so that all the various (and not always consistent) distinctions used by the author wouldn’t get lost. Of course, a huge part of this was done by the translator but we enjoyed doing our part as well.

With the colors inside quite limited, we went for a minimalistic cover without actual print: the title is debossed and then hot-stamped with silver foil on bright gray canvas. Because of the nature of the text that consists mostly of ordered lists, the whole book – including the cover, the contents page and more – uses table-like arrangements that hover stylistically between the old and the new.

This photo from the colorful insert shows a spread from the original inventory: this is what all those tables looked like hand-drawn.

Jidyszland Logotype

Recently we’ve designed a logo for the upcoming publishing series by Jewish Historical Institute. The series, called Jidyszland (ייִדישלאַנד / Yiddishland), will be popularizing the literary heritage of the Yiddish language. The mark combines the first letters of the name in Latin and Hebrew alphabets.

This was an exciting logo to work on because it gave us the opportunity to get familiar with a non-Latin alphabet – always a fun challenge – and to work with a purely letter-based sign.