In the spring of 2024 Johanna Ehde & Elisabeth Rafstedt (Rietlanden Women’s Office), Marie Mam Sai Bellier (Diorama Type Partners) and Raphaël Bastide & Quentin Juhel (Velvetyne Type) visited us online. In all lectures, they returned to the term neutrality in the field of graphic design. A term that can be relativized, questioned or criticized.
This publication can be seen as an annotation on those lectures and as a discussion point on the notion of neutrality. It consists of a visual part on the one hand and a textual part on the other hand.
You should indulge it, just like the wonderfull @lydialubs does in the last picture ♡
“Just before I left my father’s house one Sunday evening, I went to the bathroom. After my visit, I checked the bookshelf above the toilet. No one had touched those books in ages. I noticed a small patch of light blue between the Bible and another dusty book. I grab the light blue, open it and see random scribbles (from a child I imagine, me or my siblings). How can your perception of the book as an object be so scattered when there are scribbles from a child on it?”
This is some of the preface I wrote for my facsimile of a collection of short stories by Edgar Allan poe that I found. In our partnership with the seasonal school ORBI, we received an invitation to supplement their Greatest Hits Library with our editions. The practice of facsimile (and bootlegging) is perceived as the preservation and accessible dissemination of knowledge, fiction, literature, image and joy.
As much as I wanted to cite relevant and innovative essays or theories, I was told that not everything from the past was bad and misogynistic. That we should also preserve beautiful thoughts and stories of the past so that in ten years we can still read them around the campfire. Readers may add drawings because of my early self found scratches in the original book.
Going through this process has made me realize how relevant and interesting I find the practice of facsimilating. Since then I have also been much more critical and skeptical of my place as a graphic designer.
A review for three books, found in our amazing art library at school of arts ☀️
The front page is self written where I profile myself as a renowned critic. The following pages are visual comments on each book.
- GIRLFRIENDS, Sissa Marquardt
- Woody van Amen: crossing worlds
- Kunstwerkstatt, Birgit Brenner
POSTER DAIRY (22 nov): Jansen & Jansen propageren elektrische auto’s in de Morgen. Misschien eens kijken naar bestaande alternatieven, degene die rijden op waterstof bijvoorbeeld, die zo min mogelijk afval voor, tijdens en na het gebruik produceren.
