Jean-Marc Klinkert

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BB Can you tell us a bit about the background of your project? How did you come up with the idea?
JMK I am a typography teacher at La Cambre (Brussels). I have already organized several exhibitions and graphic design/typography conferences in Brussels. The custom typeface is a particular branch of typography. It allows a wider public to understand the character design, a fact that the public is required to be confronted with more and more often (shoes brands, car, museum ...).

BB What is the role of custom typefaces in your own design practice?
JMK If possible, I love when my works have their own typography. This allows more customizing of the project to suit the client and the project. The customer can distinguish itself from its competitors. The problem in Belgium is that there is often little budget for typography.

BB How does the project you have prepared for the Off Programme fit into the larger context of your practice? Are you working on something related?
JMK In my teacher’s position I work daily creating characters and discovering the work of various design studios that create fonts. In my work, I work up with new fonts.

BB This edition of the Brno Biennial responds to the metamorphoses and the state of contemporary graphic design; its multitude, variety, vagueness and apparent superficiality. Can you identify some of the basic parameters, current themes or motivations of contemporary graphic design?
JMK I think in the 90s, in the book Typography Now: The Next Wave published by Booth-Clibborn, it was easier to classify graphics by genres. Currently, graphics mixes and applies to other medium. The genres are more difficult to classify. At present, a graphic style fades off faster than previously. A bit like the musical styles...

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.

Biennial News

Short interviews with collaborators of the 27th Brno Biennial, authors of its exhibitions, jury members and Biennial Talks speakers.

COLOPHON

Interviews and graphic design: Radim Peško 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., Tomáš Celizna 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., Adam Macháček 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.
Translation and copy editing: Alena Benešová, Kateřina Tlachová
Production: Miroslava Pluháčková
Printed by: Tiskárna Helbich s. r. o.
Print run: 2000
1st edition
Published by the Moravian Gallery in Brno, 2016