Photobooks & is a critical inquiry into the topology of the photobook and the photobook community. Written by Matt Johnston, it looks at the way in which photobooks are developed, viewed and made public. The book is designed as a compact reader-sized format, in which references and notes are placed in the margin. As seen on the cover, a dotted pattern of tiny diaphragms creates a gradient like effect that blurs the letters and numbers it is applied to.

For the exhibition ‘Post - The Poster’ by Onomatopee, ‘Selling Nothing’ playfully contrasts the visual vocabularies seen in sales ads (e.g. primary colours, bold typography, repetitive graphic elements) with baroque-like patterns and adornments. Depending on how you look at it, this poster is either an odd looking advertisement that is selling nothing, or a decorative object that only advertises its uselessness. It is not trying to sell anything, but it is for sale.

The visual identity and the campaign for the 2021 Graduation Show takes the concept of indexing as a starting point. Based on the project descriptions an elaborate index was compiled for the 2021 project catalogue — a set of several hundred terms, concepts and themes derived from the graduation project. This compiled index is clearly visible in the communication in an around the show. On each carrier the index are visible, showing small glimpses of the conceptual framework of the show.

In Light of Recent Events is a scrapbook that serves as a personal reflection on the visual topology of news reporting and the aesthetics with which news images and headlines communicate a sense of urgency and immediacy, that marks the state of alertness today. Through colour, composition and typography In Light of Recent Events tries to visually distort the familiar use of these building blocks and aims to create an even bigger and more outrageous spectacle of news reporting.

Truth’s Triptych is a series of three silkscreen prints about the moving of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018. A move that was seen as a political statement of the former United States president Donald Trump acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — and hence taking sides in the lingering Israel-Palestine conflict. Together, these posters demonstrate the misty reality in which these posters come to represent parallel realities.

The 2020 catalogue features all the 184 graduation projects of the 2019/2020 academic year. The catalogue is structured by an algorithm that generates an infinite amount of hypothetical news headlines based on a dataset consisting of all the project texts. These generated headlines such as ‘2020 Dictator Fights Exclusion’ and ‘Drone Signals Disrupt the Self’ serve as a structure for the book, while they also reveal the overarching themes and interests of the graduates’ work.

Every year the Design Academy Eindhoven Graduation Show is held during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. The visual identity and the campaign for the graduation show are structured by an algorithm that generates an infinite amount of hypothetical news headlines based on a dataset consisting of all the project texts. These generated headlines reveal the overarching themes and interests of the graduates’ work and describe a future world according to the next generation of designers.

Club90 is an Utrecht based pop-up music venue organising only one event per month. Over the course of 2019 and 2020, the pop-up venue organised club ‘nights’ with house and dance music at the Filmcafé Utrecht during the afternoon — always on the last Sunday of the month. The visual identity for Club90 uses clear typography and a simple lay-out structure, which is contrasted with an outspoken and recognisable set of shapes and colours that evolves for each new event.

François Duquesnoy created a special hotel room for the Volkhotel Amsterdam, for which he only made use of discarded materials that he found throughout the city of Amsterdam. This book serves as both an overview of the collection of the products and objects that François assembled as well as an extension of the room into the city and its neighbourhoods. You can use to discover a different side of Amsterdam. The side that usually stays hidden.

Gardening Amelisweerd in a cultural program and exhibition initiated and organised by Creative Coding Utrecht. The program focuses on how technology mediates a renewed relationship between human beings and nature. The identity of Gardening Amelisweerd revolves around the theme of ‘growth’ and borrows visual elements from both technology and nature. A custom designed typeface ‘Garden Display’ forms and deforms as small bits and pieces grow together and form letters.

Visual identity and lettering for the amsterdam based creative studio Post Neon.

Meanwhile in 2020 is a series of three prints edited and sold by Pieza Art. The series is inspired by the year of 2020, in which news reporting was mostly focused on the Covid-19 pandemic, while other news-events got less attention. By simply highlighting three other news-events that took place during the pandemic, series of prints shows how our daily information channels were, not surprisingly dominated by a very specific type of news, and how informational news value is a relative phenomena.

Obelisk Loops is a series of three prints edited and sold by Pieza Art. The series is inspired by marble and minerals, taking as its starting point the century-long process of layering and growing rock formations. The illustrations abstract the textures of this process through flowing lines and colours, that change based on the distance to works. The prints are made up from different combinations of three colours and each features a different composition.

Paradise Recalled is a magazine about the future of holidays and travelling, visually illustrated with imagery of young artists. The magazine revolves around a short story by Josh Mansell, specifically written for the magazine. Inspired by the 1990 film ‘Total Recall’ it takes the virtual spaces and worlds that Post Neon created for past projects and interprets them as future holiday destinations in a world in which humankind enjoys their vacation virtually.

In the summer of 2021 the new courthouse in Amsterdam South, designed by Kaan architecten, was inaugurated. The design of the building is intended to be welcoming and open to its visitors. The design of the symbols that are part of the wayfinding system within the building, maintains a similar openness and simplicity. It respects the welcoming aesthetic of the architecture and blends in with building, while still making sure the it communicates clearly.

Tijs Gilde is a designer based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He designs and produces furniture and products such as chairs, tables, lighting and smaller decorative objects. Guilty Display is a bespoke typeface designed for the new visual identity of Guilty Studio, the design practice of Tijs Gilde. The features of Guilty Display are based on the form language of the Tijs’ work. Its bold and robust forms are combined with cylindrical forms, and rounded edges and corners.

This object in aluminium commemorates the stepping down of the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Theresa May. Made in collaboration with designer and interior architect Arno Hoogland, the project started as an exploration of typography, texture and three-dimensionality. The object integrates type without using any sort of printing techniques. Instead the typography is integrated in the object itself, which turned into a sculptural tombstone in metal.

This three-dimensional decorative panel in MDF board, painted in bright marine blue, highlights the Oscar win of the South Korean film production ‘Parasite’ in early 2020. Made in collaboration with designer and interior architect Arno Hoogland. The panel is part of an ongoing series of objects called ‘Never Forget’ that each refer to specific news events in recent history.

All Over the News is an interactive installation that helps to critically examine the news we are presented with. When reading a questionable news article the audience can use this decision making tree to decide whether they trust the news or not. Through a touchscreen they work through a 30 step program to shape their personal opinion about the article. In doing so, it emphasises the fact that a critical attitude is imperative amongst news readers in a saturated online context.

The Filmcafé is a cultural hotspot based just outside of the centre of Utrecht. Housed in an old industrial warehouse it functions as a cinema, bar, club, beer garden and event venue. Besides the many free movie screenings at the venue, the Filmcafé organises many events and activities. The visual identity for the Filmcafé refers to film rolls that are rolled out and used as banners. It is an extensive, but simple system of visual elements and colours that can be combined in many different ways.

The project Immersive Journalism investigates the increasing popularity of virtual reality within the news industry and the apparently imminent transition that virtual reality technologies bring about. In three installations the project speculates about the future applications of virtual reality technologies in journalism. While going beyond traditional media and accepted news formats, they propose a type of journalism that is theatrical, playful and performative.

The term “Never forget” was originally coined to reference impactful events throughout history. Later it was used to mock overly abundant news coverage on seemingly insignificant events. Within an overly crowded news landscape offering an avalanche of news reports every day again, many reports are barely read, seen or listened to. This carpet repurpose news that did not make the headlines and turns them into objects for the home and speculates on the function of redundant news reports.

Through a play on materiality, adornment and advertising this ongoing series of pavement signs translates discarded news headlines into lavish objects. By means of abundant compositions, vivid colour combinations and a modern marquetry technique, these headlines are isolated from their original journalistic context and freely translated into ornamental objects that contrast the temporality of the news industry. This project was made in collaboration with designer Laurids Gallee.

Stereotypes in visual culture can create singular visual representations for very hybrid groups of people, practices and ideas. However, in the design of storefront sings stereotypes are often used to establish a visual order that help customers navigate. This project researches the use of stereotypes in the design of storefront signs by contrasting them. Different socio-cultural connotations in typography, colour and composition become apparent when these signs are placed next to each other.

Youngblood Jewelry is an Amsterdam based jewelry brand. Starting as a high-quality, but accessible brand for signet rings for both women and men, they now produce a wide range of jewelry. The typography for the Youngblood logo is modern and functional, while it also subtly refers to the name and essence of the brand. In the letters Y and B the inner corners are rounded as if the letters become liquid, representing the idea of flow and youth that the brand stands for.

De Tribune is an Utrecht based event platform for screenings of sports events such as football matches, speed skating tournaments and tennis games. The name ‘De Tribune’ refers to the stands in sports stadiums where fans get to cheer on their team. Taking this name as a starting point, the visual identity mimics a tribune by cutting and displacing the typography in a stair-like manner. It unfolds in a dynamic system for posters that can be hung in and around the venue to announce future events.

Arno Hoogland is an Amsterdam based product designer and interior architect who works independently since 2014. The visual identity for his independent design studio, is based on the visual quality and motion that Arno incorporates in almost all of his work. As a starting point it takes a few shapes and compositions from his form-language and turns them it into a graphical system that works statically on print, as well as dynamically on screen.

De Optimist is an Amsterdam based platform for young poets and writers, organising events and performances and publishing magazines and other types of publications. For this riso-printed poetry zine they invited 10 poets to write a poem, or short text on the topic of humour. The design of the magazine reflects the theme as it plays with the unusual positioning of the typography, forcing the reader to bend and twist to be able to read the texts.

What is the role of design in the visual representation of for example the supposed migration crisis, Euro crisis, Brexit and the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership? In and Out of Europe questions how visual and verbal languages sustain public perception of migration on the one hand and the movement of products, information and capital towards and from Europe on the other. This set of stamps are a mini-protest.

Q Square Consultants is an agency with over thirty years of experience within the bicycle industry. They consult clients on the design, positioning, development and production of their mobility-related products in a 360 approach to the industry. The agency operates in categories ranging from electric mobility, to high-end professional bike racing. The visual identity for Q Square subtly visualises mobility and dynamism in the casing of the typography, as well as its colour setting.

South Point is a bicycle brand specialised in compact electric mobility, that makes cycling a better choice of transport for more journeys. The visual identity and website for South Point break with often seen aesthetics and communication within the bicycle industry. Through colour, typography and composition it positions the brand as outside the cycling industry, and defines a new image around compact electric mobility.

This poster series lays out the different elements that play a part in the mobility from and towards Europe. The series takes the concept ‘The Contradictions of Globalisation’ by Zygmunt Bauman as a starting point. It highlights how specific types of mobility within and towards Europe are perceived and treated differently — such as the transportation of goods, migration, and money. The communal perspective on mobility causes these contradictions and the inequality that flows from them.

When it comes to the role of technology in everyday human life, the tone of the public debate is increasingly pessimistic as machines and digitalisation seem to de-socialise people. This thesis investigates free and open source software development and at the individual and communal learning methods that flow from these technological practices. Read Between the Lines {of Code} calls into question how technology is potentially flowing from, towards and in between individuals.

In 2013 Edward Snowden published thousand of documents on the NSA surveillance program, PRISM. Snowden’s case illustrates the current trend towards short-lived news sensations. News reports go viral and accumulate massive amounts of attention, while this attention is often short-spanned. News for eternity discusses the value of news and the attention with which we take it in. It does so in relation to the value of art and the way we admire art pieces.

News for eternity discusses the value of news and the attention with which we take it in. It does so in relation to how we admire art pieces. This virtual museum forces its visitors to look at recent news events in a different way, as it turns news into art. It lets audiences explore a chronological exhibition from the year 2000 onwards. For every year 20 ‘paintings’ are on display, which calls into question what news is essential, and what news is not.

This interactive news feed (developed in collaboration with media artist Ruben van de Ven) visually investigates the subjectivity of news reporting. By layering, integrating and contrasting different news elements it calls into question how news is presented in existing formats. The feed makes use of user-defined variables to animate news headers, texts and images, which are directly sourced from over two hundred news websites world wide.

Waterdagen (dutch for ‘Water Days’) is a short movie of director and media artist Ruben van de Ven, with Misha Hulshof and Sanne Langelaar. The phycological drama revolves around the mental state of main character Adam, and his way of processing the death of his wife in a tragic car accident. The design fo the poster refers to the important and symbolic role that water plays in the film, while deforming and twisting it to show the phycological turmoil the main character is going through.