Å
Åbäke (GB)The first time Francesco Spampinato heard the word Åbäke dates back to 2002, and is associated with electronic music label Kitsuné, which is also a quintessential Parisian fashion brand. In fact Kitsuné is just one galaxy – collateral and not even representative – of the Åbäke universe, a Londonbased design studio behind which lurk Patrick Lacey, Bennjamin Reichen, Kajsa Ståhl and Maki Suzuki. Active since 2000, the Royal College of Art alumni count clients like the British Council and the Serpentine Gallery, and collaborations with fashion designers such as Hussein Chalayan and Maison Martin Margiela, artists such as Ryan Gander, Johanna Billing and Martino Gamper, and bands such as Air and Daft Punk. As the term Åbäke suggests, however, the Swedish word for a large and cumbersome object, Francesco suspects that the group supports the burden of design on commission only to learn rules and conventions that it is happy to deconstruct at other times. Åbäke, indeed, is also responsible for meta-design projects, independent, transdisciplinary, strictly collective and often participatory: the dialogical digital platform for architecture Sexymachinery (2000–2008), the relational culinary events of Trattoria (2003), the publishing project Dent-De-Leone (2009), the propaganda for the imaginary Victoria & Alferd Museum (2010), and the spy agency Åffice Suzuki (2010). For Åbäke constantly attracts the attention of the art world: most of its projects do not certainly meet criteria of functionality, but raise questions about how design conveys the forms of transmission of culture. Publications, curatorship, talks and workshops, indeed, are integral part of their activities. So when Spampinato invites the group to be part of his book on art collectives, Åbäke agrees to contribute if Francesco writes in exchange this biography, inserting himself, ‘so it isn’t authorless,’ in third person, putting thereby in crisis the role of the critic and the conditions under which he normally associates intellectual values to cultural phenomena. A
Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm (NL)Anuschka Blommers (1969) and Niels Schumm (1969) both studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. They started working together in 1998. Blommers and Schumm question the status quo of fashion photography by operating in a grey zone between fashion, art and photography, with shifting perspectives, where images move back and forth between different meanings. A state of uncertainty thus emerges in which merely an expression or a small detail seems capable of turning an image upside down. Their photographs have been published in magazines such as Fantastic Man, Gentlewoman, Another Magazine, Purple, Interview, ID, Dazed & Confused and NY Times Magazine. Meanwhile their work has been exhibited in museums and galleries, e.g. The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Groninger Museum, Foto Museum Foam, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, ICA in Boston and Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. B
David Bennewith (NZ)David Bennewith, 1977, Takapuna (New Zealand)
A graphic designer and design researcher based in
Amsterdam, David works on both research-oriented and
commissioned projects under the name Colophon – with
a particular interest and focus on the disciplines of type
design and typography. He has done extensive research
into New Zealand type design, particularly the work of
Joseph Churchward, publishing a monograph on him
in 2009. Recent work includes: Identity, editorial and
catalogue design for Secret Power, New Zealand’s entry
to the 2015 Biennale d’Arte in Venice, identity and
graphic design for Casco – Office for Art, Design and
Theory in Utrecht, and Taught. an essay about graphic
designer Karel Martens teaching career, published in
reprint karel martens by Roma Publications. Since 2015,
he is the head of the graphic design department at the
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. Rachel Berger (US)Rachel Berger is a graphic designer in Oakland, California. She is chair of Graphic Design at California College of the Arts. She holds an MFA from Yale. Emilia Bergmark (SE)Emilia Bergmark is a visual artist from Sweden. She takes as her source material the narrative of the everyday, and in her work rewraps phenomenological observations into poetic visual anecdotes in the form of writing, installation, film, and printed matter. Combining studies in art and graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, she graduated in 2012 with a honors degree in art and research. Emilia co-designed the exhibition Taking a Line for a Walk at the 26th International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 2014 and she is currently working with Nina Paim and Corinne Gisel on the publication Taking a Line for a Walk which will investigate assignments in design education. The book will be published by Spector books and released in the summer of 2016. Guus Beumer (NL)Guus Beumer, who studied social sciences, has been director of Het Nieuwe Instituut since January 2013. In the 1980s Beumer was a journalist for publications including Avenue, Marie-Claire and HP-De Tijd and in the 1990s he was art director of the fashion labels orson + bodil and SO. From 2005 he was director of Marres, House for Contemporary Culture, and Bureau Europa/ NAiM, both in Maastricht. Guus Beumer is artistic director of the Temporary Fashion Museum, now on view in Het Nieuwe Instituut. Andrew Blauvelt (US)Andrew Blauvelt is Director of the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which organizes and hosts exhibitions, presents public programs, and collects objects in the areas of modern and contemporary art, architecture, craft, and design. Prior to Cranbrook, Blauvelt served in a variety of curatorial and administrative roles at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for nearly 18 years including as design director and senior curator of architecture and design. He has organized numerous exhibitions and edited and designed several accompanying catalogues, including: Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life (2003), Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes (2008), Graphic Design: Now in Production (2011), and most recently, Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (2015). His research and writing integrates critical theory and cultural history into analyses of the humanbuilt environment. Blauvelt has taught and lectured at numerous universities in North America and Europe. Goda Budvytytė (LT)Goda Budvytytė is a Lithuanian graphic designer, currently running her practice between Amsterdam, Brussels and, occasionally, other cities. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, NL) in 2008 and the following year became a participant at Werkplaats Typografie where she concluded with her Master degree in 2011. She works in a wide range of formats within the cultural field, exploring how different types of content can be translated into books, publications, identities, exhibition designs and other legible narratives. She develops her projects in close collaboration with artists, curators, photographers, architects, and fellow designers, often being involved with editorial design. C
Tomáš Celizna (CZ)Tomáš Celizna (1977) is interested in graphic design in connection with new technologies. He is a founding partner of design studio dgú in Prague (2001 to 2005), recipient of J. W. Fulbright Scholarship (2006), and holds MFA in graphic design from Yale University School of Art (2008). He currently lives and works independently in Amsterdam. Collaborations include, among others, OASE Journal for Architecture, Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Since 2011 he is a lecturer in graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, and a member of the curatorial team of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno. Shu-Hua Chang (TW)Shu-Hua Chang, product designer from Taipei, Taiwan. She came to Switzerland and met Maki and Ingrid at school. As a product designer, she is fascinated by different applications and combinations of materials and making process. She currently engaged a lot her work in scenography design. By mixing her addiction of human touch of art crafts into rational production process, her works discover both side of human society, industrial and natural sides. Jean-Marie Courant (FR)Graphic designer. Born in 1966. Lives and works in Paris. He devotes himself to editorial and visual identity projects. He is teaching and head of the graphic design Master’s of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Lyon (France). Ines Cox (BE)Ines Cox is an independent, Antwerp-based, graphic design studio founded in 2014. She graduated at Luca School of Arts (Ghent) in 2009 and received a second master’s degree from the Werkplaats Typografie (The Netherlands) in 2011. Around 2010 she founded the studio Cox & Grusenmeyer, with Lauren Grusenmeyer. After 5 years of working together Ines Cox started her individual practice. Cox’s experience comes from a wide variety of projects including publication and book design, exhibition design, brand identities, web design, installations, teaching and workshops. Clients range from independent artists and galleries to brands, schools and museums. In 2014 she started teaching typography at the Royal Academy of Antwerp. D
Wayne Daly (IE)Wayne Daly is a London-based graphic designer, focusing primarily on publishing, editorial and visual identity work. Recent projects include the catalogue for Hayward Gallery’s major exhibition Carsten Höller: Decision (2015); Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist’s The Age of Earthquakes for Penguin (2015); and the visual identity for artist Sean Lynch’s Irish pavilion Adventure: Capital at the 2015 Venice Biennale. He is co-founder of Bedford Press, a publishing imprint at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, which publishes books and e-books at the intersection of architecture, visual art, graphic design and theory. Collaborators include artists Gustav Metzger, Joseph Grigely, Emma Smith and Can Altay, architects Kersten Geers, Jack Self and Shumi Bose, and photographers Giovanna Silva and Bas Princen. Bedford Press has exhibited numerous times at international book fairs, including the New York Art Book Fair at MoMa PS1, LA Art Book Fair at MOCA and Miss Read at KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin. He has contributed texts to the journals AA Files, The National Grid and A Circular, and lectured at various British and international schools and institutions including the Royal College of Art, Werkplaats Typografie, Whitechapel Gallery, the Architectural Association and the American University of Beirut. In 2015 he was an invited consultant to the Swiss Federal Office of Culture for the appointment of the designer for the 2016 Most Beautiful Swiss Books exhibition and publication. Sofie Dederen (BE)Studied at Kunsthochschule Weissensee Berlin and Vrije Universiteit Brussel: Freie Kunsten & Communication Science. Curated exhibitions for Storm op Komst / vzw Festivalitis, De Warande, vzw Mooov, Middelheim Museum & bolwerK, Artforum Berlin (until 2010). Since 2010 she is a director of the Frans Masereel Centre. Collaborates with Dutch Design Week Show your Colour, Z33 All the knives, any printed story on request (with Åbäke). Publications and editions includes Jef Geys, More Publishers, An edition in fragmented print(making) attitudes, Gert Verhoeven. Design Displacement Group (NL)Design Displacement Group (DDG) was founded after a discussion with a group of designers and a social scientist from various disciplines, levels, cultures and nationalities in July 2014. Design Displacement Group is a collective exploring the future of design, both in practice and in thought. Collaborating on different, often self-initiated projects in changing compositions, DDG claims imaginative fictional design territory in order to open up the fields of design thinking and doing. RÉCALling The Artist Placement Group lead by John Latham and Barbara Steveni, in the 60’s, DDG finds their notion of ‘placement’ to reposition the role of the artist within a wider social context. DDG shares an interest in this approach, but instead considers the idea of ‘dis’-placement. They exploit the axes of time, space and location to critically reflect back on the practices of (graphic) design today. Design Displacement Group is interested in design’s collective thinking and in developing new ways and methods of working collaboratively and simultaneously, mainly while working online. This process leaves behind the ‘autograph’ of the graphic designer to a collective kaleidoscopic junction. DDG constantly lets things go and accepts failure by doing so. This gives an enormous amount of freedom which is difficult to find in an individual practice. DDG uses graphic design as a tool for communication but more importantly as a playtool, with which they try to challenge an own discourse. Humour is a sort of subversive strategy in the visual language of DDG. Design Displacement Group is an elastic formation, the amount of people contributing and the ways of working and attacking a project of assignment, is always changing. Brice Domingues (FR)
Linda Dostálková (CZ)Blurring the lines between disciplines, Linda Dostálková challenges accepted distinctions, in questioning of identity. Through her projects, she visualises self-doubt developed in art and in counterculture in simplified and commodified forms, delivers a specific input for a specific situation. Argues that the spectator is always already active. Linda Dostálková is the vice-chair of the Board of the Brno Biennial. Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (US)Born in Brooklyn of Polish immigrants, educated at Barnard College and Yale University Sheila Levrant de Bretteville has constructed a social practice. She started with print graphics for Yale Press, Chanticleer Press, Olivetti, the International Design Conference in Aspen, Arts in Society, American Cinematographer. Influenced by Paolo Friere, Sheila’s pedagogy first took place in 1970 at CalArts where she created the first Women’s Design Program, leaving to create the Women’s Graphic Center in the Los Angeles Woman’s Building. Much of her work from that period is on exhibit in Hippie Modernism at the Walker Museum in Minneapolis, Now Dig This: Art and Black Los Angeles at the Hammer and WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution at LA MOCA and P.S. 1 in NYC and Elles@centrepompidou. Among her awards are the AIGA’s gold medal, Barnard College’s Distinguished Alumna, honorary doctorates from CalArts, MICA and various other Institutions of art and design. Since the mid 1980’s Sheila’s practice has focused on site specific installations in a wide variety of cities and communities. Even her named professorship at Yale Street Professor reflects the sites of her work permanently installed in New York, New Haven, Boston, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Yekaterinburg, Russia. Embedded in each public place her designs reflect and support passersby and often extend an invitation to each person to participate in the signification of the work itself. E
Experimental Jetset (NL)Experimental Jetset is an Amsterdam-based graphic design studio founded in 1997 by Marieke Stolk, Erwin Brinkers and Danny van den Dungen. Focusing on printed matter and site-specific installations, Experimental Jetset have worked on projects for a variety of institutes, including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Centre Pompidou, Dutch Post Group and Whitney Museum of American Art. Their work has been featured in group exhibitions such as Graphic Design: Now in Production (Walker Art Center, 2011) and Ecstatic Alphabets / Heaps of Language (MoMA, 2012). Solo exhibitions include Kelly 1:1 (Casco Projects, 2002), Two or Three Things I Know About Provo (W139, 2011 / Moravian Gallery, 2012), Provo Station (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, 2016) and Word-Things in Time-Space (Riot, 2016). In 2007, a large selection of printed matter by Experimental Jetset was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Other institutes that have collected work by Experimental Jetset include Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam), SFMOMA (San Francisco), Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), Museum für Gestaltung (Zürich), Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Paris), and Cooper Hewitt (New York). In 2015, Roma Publications released a monograph titled Statement and Counter-Statement: Notes on Experimental Jetset, featuring essays by Linda van Deursen, Mark Owens, Ian Svenonius and Jon Sueda. Between 2000 and 2012, Experimental Jetset have been teaching at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam). They’ve also been teaching at Artez (Arnhem), and are currently tutors at Werkplaats Typografie (Arnhem). F
Émilie Ferrat (FR)Émilie Ferrat (1992) is a graphic designer. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2015. She is interested, among others, in how images and stories are constructed, produced and circulate, and in how codes of representation can be appropriated and de-contextualized / re-contextualized. She currently works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Among her collaborators is François Girard-Meunier. Kurt Finsten (DK)Art historian and architect. Engaged in graphic design, lighting design and painting. Since 1991 director of Krabbesholm Højskole, a Danish art college specialized in art, photography, architecture, design, and graphic design. Chris Fitzpatrick (US)
Roland Früh (CH)Upon completing his studies in art history in Zurich, Roland Früh focused on research in the fields of architecture, book design and the history of publishing. He then moved to London to work as assistant to Robin Kinross at the publisher Hyphen Press, and later to Arnhem to work at Werkplaats Typografie as programme coordinator. He occasionally maintains a practice as an art and design historian and critic writing for publications and curating exhibitions. Since 2009, he has worked as a lecturer in art and design theory at design schools in Lausanne, ÉCAL and Zurich, ZhdK. In September 2014, Roland Früh was named the head librarian of the Art Library at the Sitterwerk in St. Gallen. G
Paul Gangloff (FR)Paul Gangloff (1982) is self-employed graphic designer working in Amsterdam. Interested in deviant practices of writing. Made books on punk self-publishing (Punk: periodical collection, 2012) and Lettrist’s hypergraphy (Rules of Hypergraphy, 2014). Next to self-initiated work, designs for authors, artists, companies and cultural organizations. Studied at ÉRBA (Valence, FR), Le Quai (Mulhouse, FR), Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, NL). Has been affiliated to the design department of the Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, NL) from 2010 to 2012. Teaches at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and HfG Karlsruhe (DE). François Girard-Meunier (CA)François Girard-Meunier (1990) is a graphic designer. He graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2015. He is interested, among others, in visual culture, with an strong interest in the questions of authorship and representation. He was recently invited to the Canadian Center for Architecture in the context of the Call for Captions residency (supported by the Andrew Mellon Fund). He currently works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Among his collaborators is Émilie Ferrat. Tetsuya Goto (JP)Tetsuya Goto is a self-taught graphic designer, editor and curator based in Osaka, Japan. He is the founder & director of OOO Projects and full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Literature, Arts and Cultural Studies, Kindai University. Goto edited a serial interview with graphic designers in Asia entitled Yellow Pages in Idea magazine from issue 365 to 373 with Javin Mo (Hong Kong) and Sulki & Min (South Korea). Also, he was the editor in chief of the Japan Typography Association’s Typographics ti: from issue 263 to 270. He was the curator of Type Trip exhibition in Osaka (ddd gallery, 2013) & Hong Kong (K11 Art Gallery, 2014). Also participated in Seoul International Typography Biennale Typojanchi 2013 & 2015 as one of the curators. Catherine Guirral (FR)
H
Anna Haas (CH)Anna Haas works as freelance graphic designer and illustrator in Zurich. After graduating from HSLU in 2007 she worked as a freelance illustrator in Berlin. From 2009 to 2011 she was a participant at Werkplaats Typografie and received her Master in 2011. Having worked in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, in 2011 she chose Zurich to set up her studio. Since then she works in a wide range of cultural fields, with a specific focus on book design and editorial illustration. Since 2014 she has taught at Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts (HSLU), department of visual communication. Vít Havránek (CZ)Vít Havránek (1971) is a curator and art organiser based in Prague, Czech Republic. Since 2002 he has been working as a director of the initiative for contemporary art tranzit (tranzit.org). He curated and co-curated exhibitions amongst which are: Ján Mančuška First Retrospective, City Gallery Prague, Muzeum Sztuki Łódź, Moravian Gallery in Brno; Report on the Construction of a Spaceship, New Museum HUB, New York; Adaptation, Steirischer Herbst; Encyclopedia of Failure, Jakarta Biennale 2013; Manifesta 8, Spain; Monument to Transformation, Centro Monthermoso; City Gallery Prague; tranzit workshops, Bratislava; tranzit – Auditorium, Stage, Backstage, Frankfurter Kunstverein; I, Secession Wien; Jiří Kovanda, Brno; Otto Piene, City Gallery Prague; action, word, movement, space, City Gallery Prague, and others. Edited and co-edited books and catalogues Eva Koťátková, Pictorial Atlas of a Girl…, H.U. Obrist Czech Files; Atlas to Transformation; Autobiographies; The Need to Document, Lanterna Magika; action, word, movement, space, and has written for contemporary books, catalogues (Green Room, Sterneberg Press, Promesses du passé, Centre Pompidou, Voids: A Retrospective, JRP Ringier), art magazines (Umělec, Springerin, Flash Art, Manifesta Journal, trouble and others). He lectured at the AAAD Prague, North Carolina University Prague Institute and had guest lectures and talks at various occasions (MIT Boston, Amsterdam University, Documenta 12, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, and others). Jiří Hlušička (CZ)Art historian. He headed the art gallery of the Moravian Museum in Brno from 1959 and organised the establishment of the Moravian Gallery. He was gallery director in 1961–1989, laying out the research, collection and educational programme for the institution; he personally contributed to its implementation in the sphere of Czech 20th century art. He curated a large number of exhibitions for Czech and European art museums and exhibition centers, and co-founded the International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno, of which he was the commissioner-general until 1989. Has written many texts and catalogues on art, as well as twenty eight monographs and comprehensive publications (Modern Czech Painting in the Moravian Gallery, Contemporary World Graphic Design: Ten Brno Biennials). Has recently established himself as a professional art consultant helping to build gallery and private collections in the Czech Republic and abroad. I
Catherine Ince (GB)Catherine Ince is senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum where she is developing the curatorial programme of V&A East, a new institution planned to open in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London in 2021. Until October 2015 Ince was a curator at the Barbican Centre where she produced major survey exhibitions and publications including The World of Charles and Ray Eames (2015), Bauhaus: Art as Life (2012) and Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion (2011). Prior to joining the Barbican she was curator, and subsequently co-director, of the British Council’s Architecture, Design and Fashion department where she organised touring exhibitions and collaborative projects about contemporary design and architecture, and commissioned the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. J
Scott Joseph (GB)Scott Joseph (1983) is a designer currently based in London and is a graduate of the graphic design department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, NL. His work as a graphic designer is held in the MoMA Library, New York and in the Stedelijk Museum archive, Amsterdam. Recent projects include: Seeing What Is Seen, As What Sees Can Not Be Saw, 27th International Biennale Graphic Design, Moravian Gallery, Brno, CZ (2016); Found When Out, Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London, UK (2015); The Tone Is Theirs, Offprint Artist Book Fair, Tate Modern, London, UK (2015); Under The Sign, P/////AKT, Platform for Contemporary Arts, Amsterdam, NL (2014); Titles, The Session Magazine, Goethe Institute, Amsterdam, NL (2014); The Torch In My Ear, Mute Written Orchestration, Deep Cuts, Marres, Centre for Contemporary Culture, Maastricht, (2013); Rong–Wrong (printed anthology), self-published; Various Contexts (2012). Scott Joseph has also taught within various institutions including University of Creative Arts, UK, University of East London, UK and during 2016 has been a guest tutor within the graphic design department at ArtEZ Institute of Arts, Arnhem, NL. K
Pauline Kerleroux (FR)French graphic designer, co-founder with Adéla Svobodová of the Adela & Pauline studio. She currently works as an Art director at Media Arts Lab London, and collaborates on graphic design and illustration projects on a regular basis. Emily King (GB)Emily King is a London-based design historian with a specialism in graphic design. After a first degree in philosophy and economics, she completed an MA in design history with a thesis on film title sequences and a PhD concentrating on the design of type in wake of the digital revolution. Since then she has written, curated and, occasionally, lectured. Her books include monographs on Peter Saville, M/M Paris and the legendary 1950s art director Robert Brownjohn. Among her exhibitions is ‘Quick, Quick, Slow: graphic design and time’, which she curated for the Lisbon design biennial Experimenta, and monographic shows on Alan Fletcher and Richard Hollis. She has contributed to numerous magazines including Frieze, The Gentlewoman, Plant and Apartamento. Increasingly she appreciates design in the broadest sense and her current projects touch on food, scent, clothing and literature.’ Freja Kir (DK)Freja Kir (1989, DK) works within graphic- and culturally engaging design. After being enrolled with Art History at the University of Copenhagen she continued her studies at the Graphic Design Department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, class of 2015. Next to her studies she studied at the honours programme in Art and Research and worked for the lecture series Lunch Bytes. Together with Lotte van de Hoef she runs the graphic platform fanfare which they initiated during their graduation year. Besides of fanfare, Freja works as a freelance graphic designer and is currently occupied with running the wandering and wondering project Chives Archives together with designer Celina Yavelow (CH/US). Oliver Klimpel (DE)Oliver Klimpel is a designer, currently based in Berlin after living and working in London for more than 15 years. He has worked on numerous publishing and identity projects in the UK and abroad, combining design projects and research on visual culture and art. He frequently writes, and lectures internationally. From 2008 to 2015 he had been professor at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB) comprehensively re-positioning the System – Design class. Most recently, he was invited by the Taipei Contemporary Art Center to develop a design research project, which seeks to explore and define the idea of a more active and critical identity for arts and cultural institutions. In May he is to undertake a project on narrative structures in Tokyo. Jean-Marc Klinkert (BE)Jean-Marc Klinkert (1969) studied visual design and typography at the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts visuels de La Cambre (ENSAV) in Brussels. Active as a freelance graphic designer mainly in the cultural domain. Conference organization Lick my type with
Dirk Segers and exhibitions around typography and book. Since 2005 teaching activity at the l’ENSAV in departments visual design & typography. Denisa Kollarová (SK)Denisa Kollarová lives and works in Amsterdam, where she and Anna van Lingen began their collaboration after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2013. Ruins, public spaces, social architecture, city mapping and utopian architectural planning are core topics which keep her curiosity alive in various books, exhibitions and lectures. In addition to Seventeen Playgrounds her ongoing projects include Under My Own Construction of Ruins and Migration of Form. L
James Langdon (GB)James Langdon is an independent graphic designer and writer. He is one of six directors of the artist-run gallery Eastside Projects in Birmingham, UK; and founder of the itinerant School for Design Fiction. In 2012 he received the Inform International Award for Conceptual Design, presented by Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany. He is presently working on a biography of English designer Norman Potter (1923–1995) as a teacher. Ian Lynam (US)Ian Lynam is a Tokyo-based designer operating at the intersection of graphic design, design education and design research. Originally hailing from New York, Lynam has a BS in Graphic Design from Portland State University and an MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts. He is Chair and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA Graphic Design program, faculty at Meme Design School and at Temple University Japan. He is a co-founder of Néojaponisme, a critical cultural online journal. M
Adam Macháček (CZ)Adam Macháček (1980) is a graphic designer. Following studies at the AAAD in Prague, Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and ÉCAL in Lausanne, he co-founded in 2004 studio Welcometo.as in Lausanne and is a member of 201∞ Designers collective. His work includes publications, exhibition catalogues, illustrations and identities. Collaborations include, among others, the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Théâtre de Vevey (seasons 2003–2012), Galerie Rudolfinum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Chronicle Books, Editions Pyramyd, Museum of Czech Literature, Brno House of Arts, California College of the Arts, Airbnb. For Brno Biennial he initiated and organized exhibitions Work from Switzerland (2004) and From Mars (2006, together with Radim Peško). Since 2011 he is a member of the curatorial team of the International Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno. He lives and works in Berkeley. Hélène Meisel (FR)Hélène Meisel is an art historian, art critic and curator. Since 2013, she is assistant curator at the Centre Pompidou-Metz and contributed to the conception of the group exhibition Sublime. Tremors of the World, in 2016. She is currently completing her PhD at the Sorbonne, Paris. Her research is an inquiry into romantic issues in conceptual art. She was the 2011 recipient of the Art History – Centre Pompidou Scholarship. At the Centre’s Kandinsky Library, she specifically worked on the Paris Biennial Archives. In 2012, she was selected as resident at the Pavillon, the Palais de Tokyo’s Research Lab in Paris. Hélène Meisel writes for various contemporary art magazines and academic journals amongst which 20/27, Les Cahiers du musée national d’art moderne, Volume, Palais, 02, Semaines, etc. Dan Michaelson (US)Dan Michaelson is a partner in the New York-based design studio Linked by Air, which specializes in the production of public space, online and in the world. Prior to founding Linked by Air, Dan was a designer at 2 × 4 and at Pentagram. He holds an MFA degree in graphic design from Yale University, and a degree in American history from Columbia University. Dan teaches the Networks & Transactions, Mobile Computing, and thesis studio courses in Yale’s graduate graphic design department. Fraser Muggeridge (GB)Fraser Muggeridge is director of Fraser Muggeridge studio, a graphic design company based in London. Throughout a wide range of formats, from artists’ books and exhibition catalogues to posters, marketing material, exhibitions and websites, the studio prioritises artists’ and writers’ content over the imposition of a signature style. By allowing images and texts to sustain their own intent and impact, each project is approached with colour, typography and materials playing a key role in arriving at a sympathetic yet subtly alluring object. Fraser Muggeridge founded and is a tutor at Typography Summer School, a week-long programme of typographic study in London for recent graduates and professionals. The exhibition Willem Sandberg: From type to image is currently on display at the De la Warr Pavilion curated by Carolien Glazenburg, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in collaboration with Fraser Muggeridge and De La Warr Pavilion. Kiyonori Muroga (JP)Kiyonori Muroga is an editor, writer and lecturer. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he has edited Idea magazine and books on graphic design, typography and visual culture since 1999 as well as contributing essays on the topics. He also teaches at various design schools including MEME Design School, Musashino Art University and Tokyo University of the Arts. N
Jan Nauta (NL)Jan Nauta (1982, Rotterdam) is an architect and organiser who divides his time between London and Rotterdam. In 2012 he founded Studio Nauta, a design and research organisation for the transformation of space. The studio specialises in delivering projects that establish new and bespoke relationships between humans and space. It produces physical designs, strategic and programmatic solutions. Studio Nauta works in the fields of architecture, urbanism, geography, media and culture. The studio operates as a collaborative network for spatial transformation, promoting change through design, research and writing. Nauta studied at the Amsterdam University of Applied Science (BArch – Ing.) and graduated from the Architectural Association’s Diploma School in 2011 (AAdipl), winning the AA Prize. He was nominated for AA Diploma Honours, the Dennis Sharp Writing Award and was awarded a prestigious scholarship from the Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
Previously Nauta has worked for Markus Miessen in Berlin, was a researcher at the AA and consulted Beyond Entropy for the Venice Biennale’s 2010 and 2012. He is the co-founder of the Public Occasion Agency and a visiting lecturer at the University of Brighton as well as the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture.
Jan Nauta has been a guest critic and lecturer at various institutions including the AA, the Bartlett, Cambridge University and the Berlage Insitute. He has contributed to numerous publications as a writer and editor, including Cosey Complex (ICA London, 2010), Architecture d’Aujourd ‘hui 378 (Archipress & Associés, 2010), Manifest (Bedford Press, 2009), Cedric Price Ephemera (AA, 2011), Architecture on Display 2 (AA, 2011), Waking Up From The Nightmare of Participation (Expodium, 2011) and Critical Spatial Practice (Sternberg, 2012).
Jan Nauta is a registered architect in the Netherlands. Corina Neuenschwander (CH)Corina Neuenschwander is a graphic designer based in Zurich where in 2014 she and Simone Koller founded the graphic design practice Studio NOI. After graduating from Zurich University of the Arts in 2006 she has worked from 2007–2009 as a senior designer for the studio Value & Service in London and as an independent graphic designer in London, Amsterdam and New York. From 2010–2012 she was a participant at Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem where she has concluded her Master degree. Corina Neuenschwander’s work ranges from editorial design to visual identities, digital applications and exhibition design in the fields of art, culture and commerce. Her work was awarded twice with the Swiss Design Award, she was nominated for INFORM: Award for Conceptual Design and shortlisted for the Walter Tiemann Award. P
Radim Peško (CZ)Radim Peško (1976) is a graphic designer based in London. He works in the field of type design, editorial and exhibition projects. In 2010 he has established his RP Digital Type Foundry that specializes on typefaces that are both formally and conceptually distinctive. His work includes identity for Secession Vienna, typefaces for identities of Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Aspen Art Museum, Fridericianum, Berlin Biennale 8, various work for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, Bedford Press London or a long-term collaboration with artist Kateřina Šedá. He has lectured at many schools including Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, ÉCAL Lausanne, HFK Bremen, KISD Cologne, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Lyon, Sint-Lucas Ghent, University of Seoul. Since 2011 he is part of the curatorial board of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno. R
Manuel Raeder (DE)Manuel Raeder is founder of Studio Manuel Raeder and the publishing house Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite, based in Berlin and Mexico City. The studio’s works have a wide range of formats exploring the boundaries between exhibitions, ephemera, books, type design, editing, publishing, to furniture design, approaching them as carriers of information, or experimental devices to document or conceit narratives. The studio has developed long standing collaborations with artists such as BLESS, Eran Schaerf, Mariana Castillo Deball, Haegue Yang, Nora Schultz, Leonor Antunes, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Danh Vo and Sergej Jensen. It has been responsible for the communication strategies and graphic identities of several cultural institutions including Kölnischer Kunstverein (2007–2011), Para Site, Hong Kong (2013–2014); k.m, Kunstverein Munich (2010–2015); and Artists Space, New York (since 2009). In 2011, Raeder founded the publishing house Bom Dia Boa Tarde Boa Noite together with Manuel Goller (who left the publishing house in 2014). Since then it has been run by Studio Manuel Raeder, which currently consists of Migle Kazlauskaite, Enno Pötschke, Manuel Raeder and manager Annette Schryen. Serge Rompza (DE)After graduating from Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam, Serge Rompza has co-founded the Berlinand Oslo-based design studio NODE in 2003, together with Anders Hofgaard. The two offices collaboratively focus on identity, print, exhibition and interactive work. Clients include MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), ZKM Karlsruhe, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). Since 2004 he has been teaching regularly at art and design academies across Europe and the US. William Rose (GB)William Rose is a Leeds-based producer, curator and researcher working mainly in the field of artists’ moving image. He is currently completing a book of writings and lectures by the American avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Recent production projects include To the Editor of Amateur Photographer, a long form film by Luke Fowler and Mark Fell which has been screened at venues including MoMA and at the International Film Festival Rotterdam; and Little Birds and a Demon, a sound work broadcast from a lighthouse in Shetland by artist Grace Schwindt. Ingrid Rousseau (FR)From a graphic design background, Ingrid Rousseau decided to move to Switzerland in order to do an interdisciplinary master, with interior architects and product designers. Graduated in June 2016, this master was a good opportunity to extend her vision of design. Graphic design is not only something looking good but it is also based on a concept of communication. Recently, Ingrid Rousseau co-founded with Ghida Bahsoun a production-company based in Switzerland and called Guffetsch. Tereza Rullerová (CZ)Tereza Rullerová (1987) was an unsuccessful artist. At present she works as a graphic designer in studios The Rodina and Moniker. She is dedicated to intersection of action art and graphic design in both theory and practice. She works, gives lectures, organises happenings and encounters wherever good people seek for contact between design and art. Graduated from the Intermedia Atelier at BUT Brno, and from Graphic Design Department at KABK, The Hague. Lives in Amsterdam. S
Willi Schmid (AT)After studying at the Federal Training and Research Institute for Graphic Art and Media in Vienna, the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, and Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem he established his own studio in Vienna. His graphic design work concentrates on book design. From 2008 to 2015 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna; he currently teaches at the Federal Training and Research Institute for Graphic Art and Media in Vienna. His teaching practice is focused on the medium of drawing in its broadest sense. Ľubica Segečová (SK)Ľubica Segečová was born in Slovakia. She lives and works in Bratislava as a freelance graphic designer. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (VŠVU); she got her BA degree at the Department of Visual Communication (2009) and her MA at the Department of Design (2011). She has founded SELF, an independent festival of graphic design (2012), and the artist’s studio trivjednom (2012). She also worked as a teacher at the Graphic Design Department of Ostrava University, studio Text Form Function. Jamie Shovlin (GB)Jamie Shovlin was born in Leicester in 1978 and graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2003. His rigorous and rational language effortlessly combines conceptual complexity and playfulness with a wideranging use of textures and techniques in order to draw the viewer into an atmosphere rich in allusions and associations. Previous exhibitions include Hiker Meat 2014, Cornerhouse, Manchester and MACRO, Rome, How most of what you know is reconstruction 2013, Southampton City Art Gallery, Various Arrangements 2012, Haunch of Venison, London and In Search of Perfect Harmony, Tate Britain, London. Jon Sueda (US)Originally from Hawaii, Jon Sueda has practiced design everywhere from Honolulu to Holland. After earning his MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts in 2002, he was invited to North Carolina State University to serve as a designer in residence, followed by an internship in the Netherlands with Studio Dumbar. In 2004, Sueda founded the design studio Stripe, which specializes in print and exhibition design for art and culture. He is also the co-editor of Task Newsletter, and the co-organizer of AtRandom events. In 2007, Sueda relocated to the San Francisco area where he served as director of design at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts for seven years, and is currently the chair of the MFA Design program at California College of the Arts. Most recently, he curated the exhibitions Work from California at the 25th International Graphic Design Biennial in Brno, Czech Republic, and All Possible Futures at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. Sulki & Min Choi (KR)Sulki Choi and Min Choi are graphic designers working in Seoul, Korea. They met at Yale University where they both earned their MFA degrees. After working as researchers at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, they returned to Seoul in 2005 to start their own practice. Since then, they have created graphic identities, promotional materials, publications and websites for many cultural institutions and individuals in Korea and abroad. From 2010 until 2013, they worked as graphic designers of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, a collaborative project initiated by the Guggenheim Foundation and BMW, for which they created an interactive identity system based on online participation. In 2006, they held their first exhibition at the Gallery Factory in Seoul, for which they received the Art Award of the Year from the Arts Council Korea. They have participated in many group exhibitions, including the ones at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Plateau, Samsung Museum of Art; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York. In 2014, they created a publication called Off-White Paper and an exhibition of the same name as part of the Brno Biennial 2014. They were among the three candidates for the Hermès Foundation Misulsang 2014. Sulki Choi teaches at Kaywon School of Art & Design and Min Choi at the University of Seoul. Maki Suzuki (FR)Maki Suzuki, member of Åbäke, which is a transdisciplinary graphic design collective, founded in 2000 with Patrick Lacey (UK), Benjamin Reichen (FR), Kajsa Ståhl (SE) in London, England, after meeting at the Royal College of Art. Adéla Svobdová (CZ)Graphic designer and artist. Currently focused on graphic design and design of books. Together with French designer Pauline Kerleroux she founded studio Adela & Pauline in 2005. She lives and works in Prague. Marta Sylvestrová (CZ)Graduated in art history and history from the Faculty of Arts of Masaryk University in Brno (1981). From 1986 curator of the graphic design collection, curator of the Brno Biennial 2000–2010. She focuses on contemporary poster design, graphic design and research into the corporate identity of totalitarian regimes. In 2002 head of the international project Identita/Integrita – Brno, hlavní město vizuální komunikace 2002, with support from EU Culture 2000.
Since 1996 a member of the AICA – International Association of Art Critics, Paris. Selection of exhibitions and publications: Český filmový plakát 20. století (MG & Exlibris, 2004), Art as Activist – Revolutionary Posters from Central and Eastern Europe, travelling exhibition under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (with Dana Bartelt, Universe Press New York & Thames and Hudson London, 1992), Political Posters from Eastern and Central Europe 1945–1995 (head of project James Aulich, Manchester University Press, 2002), Alfons Mucha – Czech Master of the Belle Epoque, NHK Production Kyoto, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Kushiro, Yokohama, Miyazaki 2006–2007, Szépművészeti Múzeum Budapest & MG Brno 2009 (with Petr Štembera), Life With Posters 1880–1920, NHK Production Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya 2010–2011 (with Petr Štembera), Horizonty modernismu – Zdeněk Rossmann (with Jindřich Toman, MG 2015), Sign from Iran – Contemporary Iranian Posters, L. A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art Jerusalem (with Yossi Lemel, 2016). Member of the team of authors: Vídeňská secese a moderna, MG Brno & Obecní dům Praha, 2005–2006, Bruselský sen (Arbor Vitae, 2008), Designing Democracy: Posters and the Political Transformation of Europe 1989–1991 (head of project David Crowley, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2009), Retromuseum Cheb (head of project Daniela Kramerová, 2016), etc. Š
Frantisek Štorm (CZ)František Štorm (1966), typographer, designer, graphic artist, musician (Master’s Hammer, Mortal Cabinet) and writer. In 1993 he founded a type foundry in which he manufactures his own type designs and historical alphabets by outstanding type designers; so far he has designed or produced around a thousand typefaces. He worked as lecturer in the studio of Type Design and Typography at the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design, between 2003 and 2008 as head of the studio. He publishes and exhibits in the Czech Republic and abroad and has received several foreign and local awards. In 2008, Štorm’s book Essays on Typography was published as the 33rd volume of the Revolver Revue Edition, and it was nominated for the Magnesia Litera award. He is the laureate of the Revolver Revue Prix for 2005. V
Rostislav Vaněk (CZ)Rostislav Vaněk studied at the Graphic School Prague and at the Studio of Illustration and Graphics with prof. Karel Svolinský AAAD in Prague. Between 1971–1976 lecturer in the Studio of Applied Graphics and Poster with prof. Eugen Weidlich, AAAD in Prague, 1976–1985 head of the art editorial office of Československý spisovatel Publishers in Prague, and since 1985 he has worked as freelance graphic designer in his own studio. In 2001 he has been appointed professor in the Studio of Graphic Design and Visual Communication, the AAAD in Prague, and has been working there until 2014.
Rostislav Vaněk is the chair of the Board of the Brno Biennial. Adrien Vasquez (FR)Adrien Vasquez is French graphic and type designer working in London with John Morgan. He has contributed texts and translations to the journals .txt, Azimuts and From–To. Linda van Deursen (NL)Linda van Deursen lives and works in Amsterdam, where she began a collaboration with Armand Mevis after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 1986. Mevis & van Deursen have produced identities for Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, for Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and recently for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Next to that they have designed numerous books for artists such as Carlos Amorales, Aglaia Konrad and Ryan Gander and photographers Geert van Kesteren and Rineke Dijkstra. They also made exhibition catalogues for the Venice Architectural Biennial 2010, for In and Out of Amsterdam at the MoMA New York. Their work has been shown in museums and educational institutions throughout the world. Their long and prolific collaboration has been documented in the book Recollected Work: Mevis & Van Deursen, published by Artimo in 2005. Linda van Deursen served as head of the graphic design department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam from 2003 till 2014 where she also taught. She was appointed critic in graphic design at Yale School of Art in 2005. Anna van Lingen (NL)Anna van Lingen is a graphic designer working on a number of self-initiated projects which investigate
town planning, architecture and the ageing of cities and buildings. She works closely with Denisa Kollarová,
on an ongoing project centered on children’s play and playspaces. At the beginning of 2016 Seventeen Playgrounds, a guide to Aldo van Eyck’s designs for children in the centre of Amsterdam was published by Lecturis as a result of their research. Anna van Lingen finished her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2013 and lives and works in Amsterdam. Lotte van de Hoef (NL)Lotte van de Hoef (1990) is a dutch graphic designer living in Amsterdam. After graduating at het Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht she continued her graphic design studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie where she graduated in 2015. During her graduation year she co-founded the graphic platform fanfare together with Freja Kir, which they have been running together ever since. Besides of this she runs her own independent studio as a freelance graphic and fabric designer, working mainly in music- and cultural related fields. Z
Alan Záruba (CZ)Graphic designer, art director and design publicist. He graduated from the Czech Technical University (1989) and London College of Printing (MA, 1999); has lectured at the Prague Academy of Art, Architecture and Design since 2003. Member of Typo Design Club, ATypI (since 2004), ADC (since 2014), Promax BDA (since 2012) and of the Organisation Committee of the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno (2003–2010, since 2015). Since 1996 he focuses on graphic design of books and catalogues, poster design and information systems for exhibitions and congresses, corporate design, interactive, TV and motion design. He writes design essays, curates exhibitions and publishes in his own studio Alba Design Press. After graduation in the United Kingdom he became an intern in the Dutch multidisciplinary studio Total Design Amsterdam (2001–2002). Between 1996–2003 he was editorin-chief of the graphic design magazine Deleatur. Between 2007–2011 he was head designer for visual presentation and visual identity of Czech Television channels ČT24 and ČT4. Since 2012 he occupied the same position within TV Nova, and in 2014 he became creative director of the Nova Group. He holds a number of Awards, as for instance Typo Design Club Award (1998), Prestige Award of the 21st International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno (2004), the award for promoting design from the National Competition for the Best Product of the Year (2005), and the Golden Award for TV Promo and Design at Promax BDA Europe (2016). He participates in international symposia and conferences, as well as in specialist jury proceedings in national and international graphic design competitions. Zdeněk Ziegler (CZ)Zdeněk Ziegler (1932) graduated in architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. He realised his first commissions in graphic design in the late 1950s. In 1963 he made the first of a long series of his film posters – Křik (The Cry). In the following years, he worked with a number of film directors, such as Jaromil Jireš, František Vláčil, Karel Zeman, Karel Kachyňa, Jiří Menzel. His posters won several awards, e.g. Typomundus honourable mention in Montreal, prizes at the International Film Poster Exhibition in Karlovy Vary, the Brno Biennial, the Golden and Bronze Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival, a honorary mention in the Hollywood Reporter Annual Key Award competition, a medal at the International Film Poster Competition in Colombo. Besides posters, his artistic work includes hundreds of book designs, editions, catalogues and bibliophiles, a number of exhibition graphic designs, post stamps designs, logotypes and visual identities. He was professor and rector at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 1990–2005; and visiting professor at universities in Mainz, Stuttgart, Paris and Istanbul. He obtained a honorary doctor’s degree from Miami University. Since 2006 he has been lecturing in graphic design at the Institute of Art and Design, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, CZ. O
officeabc (FR)‘Form is research, research is form.’ French design studio, officeabc, is led by Brice Domingues, graphic designer, and Catherine Guiral, graphic designer and researcher in history of design. Brice and Catherine also work on parallel projects that investigate the margins of graphic design. They co-founded the online magazine Tombolo with graphic design theoretician Thierry Chancogne. Together with critic and art historian Jérôme Dupeyrat, they launched the Agence du doute, a research platform exploring the editing gesture. The Agence du doute practices a research with a strong focus on books, edition and everything that may be connected to it, be that literature, graphic design or cinema. Its original mode of transmission is a display device called Crystal Maze, which combines the forms and principles of the conference, the montage, the screening, the exhibition and the edition. Officeabc has been invited to present work at Bold Italic in Ghent, the Chaumont Festival or the Strelka Institute in Moscow amongst other venues. Recent commissions include catalogues for artist Lisa Beck and for artist Justin Lieberman. Crystal Mazes have been presented at the Centre Pompidou and the Rosa Brux gallery in Brussels.