A3 announcement poster depicting a floating genderqueer symbol, casting a shadow

The TGirlsonFilm Weekend Festival is a 3-day trans film festival organised by Trans Library Helsinki and TGirlsonFilm. The poster and graphics are designed and illustrated by me, falk schröter, and combine the typefaces Interlope by Gabriel Dubourg and my own madleen text.

Schedule for day 1 of the festival

Schedule for day 2 of the festival

Schedule for day 3 of the festival

Alternative poster

Bordonaro Vampire (Photo-Lettering, by 1971) is the godfather of all drippy horror typefaces. Lewell Bordonaro’s design can here be seen in use on the jacket of The Magic Power of Witchcraft. First published in 1976 in largely identical design, the images show a 1982 printing. The book was written by Gavin & Yvonne Frost, founders of the Church and School of Wicca.

The spine lettering taps into another trope of eerie typography. The blackletter used here is Goudy Text.

Lotmore’s logo is custom. It draws inspiration from the transformable nature inherent in the products. The negative space in each letter mirrors the way the furniture folds, while the form has been meticulously optimized for clarity and impact, performing seamlessly across both large and small sizes.

Lotmore is a furniture brand that aims to solve the problem of space utilization in small homes and apartments through highly engineered and functionally designed furniture solutions. Practical and form-changing, they are designed to solve real pain points, so that their customers can thrive in every moment and make space for life. We worked with them to coin the brand name, define a clear narrative that articulates its positioning, and create a distinctive identity and design system that truly embodies the idea of space-saving.

Typography is a foundational pillar in Lotmore’s visual language. Transducer was selected as the headline typeface for its mechanical construction and extended style, bringing dynamism to communication. To balance its boldness, we paired it with Acumin Wide, establishing a clear visual hierarchy and distinction.

Website detail

Website detail

Polymode designed This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance which accompanies the exhibition by the same title at the National Portrait Gallery curated by Rhea L. Combs. The catalogue was edited by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author Hilton Als together with Rhea L. Combs.

The book brings together artworks that feature James Baldwin alongside portraits of other key figures who had an impact on his life and situates him among a pantheon of culture bearers who were instrumental in shaping his life and legacy, particularly in relationship to his advocacy for gay rights.

La Grotesque (designed by Francesca Bolognini and Naïma Ben Ayed) is used as a core typeface on the book cover and for titles and captions throughout the book. La Grotesque embodies stories of queerness and migration which echos the life of Baldwin. More on the typeface design process at TPTQ Arabic. It is supported by Joshua Darden’s Dapifer.

The catalogue was published in hardback (9″×0.6″×12.5″, 112 pages) by DelMonico Books/National Portrait Galley.

The exhibition Porodica i domaćinstvo: lepršava svakodnevica Dušana Bekara (“Family and Household: The Fluttery Everyday Life of Dušan Bekar”), staged at the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum in Zagreb in the fall of 2024, presents for the first time numerous pieces from the rich œuvre of graphic designer Dušan Bekar.

Dušan Bekar (1931–2019) was an influential art director and one of the members of the development line of Croatian graphic design in the second half of the twentieth century. Raised on the foundations of international modernism, Bekar began his journey in 1949 at the Ozeha agency as an eighteen-year-old, and over the next five decades he developed a unique vocabulary made up of illustrations, typography, calligraphy, photography and three-dimensional objects.

The idea for the retrospective arose from the lesser-known fact that it was Bekar who created the visual identity of the first international Porodica i domaćinstvo (“Family and Household”) exhibition held in the fall of 1957 in the premises of the Technical Museum on Savska Street as part of the Zagreb Autumn Fair (and again in 1958 and 1960). In July 1957, in a juried competition in Belgrade, Bekar’s conceptual poster design was awarded the first prize”. The winning entry was a “meander-house” drawn in single stroke. It became the trademark of the event and served as a key visual in the promotional materials.

Thematically, the 2024 show relied on the exhibits that formed the backbone of the 1957 revue exhibition, which addressed the organization of family life within then newly created urban units and the general improvement of the quality of life of our citizens. As we can read in the magazine Čovjek i prostor (“Man and space”) from the same year, it dealt with topics such as furnishing and organizing living spaces, with an emphasis on furnishing the kitchen and preparing food, furnishing the bathroom and maintaining hygiene, clothing and maintaining footwear, and equipment for travel and leisure. A children’s fair was held as an integral part of, “oriented to meet the needs of the youngest citizens”.

The exhibition posters are based on the “meander-house” key visual which is primarily supplemented by illustrations made especially for the 1957 exhibition, as well as some later illustrations that complement the theme of the lifestyle of the time.

The choice of colors is directly based on the colors of the original billboards, while the typeface choice – Neue Plak – is based on using a modernized version of the fonts used at the time. The handwriting font – Flirt Script – was chosen to resemble as much as possible the calligraphy that Bekar used at that time when creating advertisements and similar materials.

Concept and design by Alira Hrabar Bekar and Dušan Bekar (junior) at BEKAR HAUS. See also the post about the exhibition catalog.

Ważne, niepoważne (“Important, not serious”) is a 44-page collection of 14 poems by Mateusz Skrzybalski, accompanied by illustrations by Paweł Mildner.

It is a noteworthy book for children and parents. The poems encourage exchanges of thoughts and comments from adults, fostering the development of young readers' imagination.

From the author (translated):

The rhymed poems, immersed in a world of pure nonsense, are intertwined with values I consider important and timeless. They touch on everything that surrounds, shapes, intrigues, and sometimes frustrates or fascinates us. They warn, observe, and call things by name in a lighthearted way, seasoned with a touch of hipster humor.

Paweł Mildner took care of the art direction, design, and illustration. The cover was letterpress-printed by Mutant Letterpress, while the interior was Riso-printed by X-Press.
Edwin Zapotoczny provided the binding.

The cover and titles are all set in Sudety by Threedotstype. The sans used for text is Mostardesign’s Sofia.

Poster and program for the 2024 edition of the Biennale des Musiques Exploratoires.

I created the graphic design and the photography for the visual identity, the official poster, and the program. The fonts used are Moderat and Moderat GRAME Display, designed by TIGHTYPE.

Biennale des Musiques Exploratoires is produced by Grame (Générateur de Ressource et d’Activités Musicales Exploratoires), National Center for Musical Creation.

In 2024, the brand agency DixonBaxi lead a complete rebrand of the streaming service Tubi. The project was a complete overall including a new logo, app UI, website, color palette, typeface, and overall brand attitude.

Although the Tubi wordmark is custom lettering, DixonBaxi collaborated with Central Type to create a brand typeface called Tubi Stans (yes, Stans not Sans). The design is a customized version of Central Type's superfamily Deacon. The name of the custom typeface is a play-on-words based on the slang term "Stan".

From DixonBaxi's website:

Working with Mark Butchko from Central Type, a Chicago type foundry, we tailored a confident typeface, Tubi Stans, to match the irreverent tone of voice that sets Tubi apart from competitors, with the name itself paying homage to the superfan culture that the brand embodies. Sprinkled across the typography, flipped glyphs and characters that subtly bend into the iconic Rabbit Hole shape help to convey playful oddity at every level of messaging.

Although the Tubi Stans family spans six weights, the brand mostly leans on the boldest (Black) weight. To help give the type more personality, a number of alternate glyphs were added. Some of the alternates mirror the design of the t in the wordmark, others are flipped upside down. In addition to the alternate characters, the spacing and kerning were optimized to better accommodate the “tight-not-touching” look the team was going for.

A still from a Tubi broadcast commercial.

A still from a Tubi UK commercial.

A still from a Tubi broadcast commercial.

A still from a Tubi broadcast commercial

Fonts from the Flea Market 1397

Two styles of Poell, Shaded and Medium Outline, in use on the German sleeve of a late single release by Union Express. The UK pop group was formed 1970 by songwriter and producer Paul Curtis and is probably best known for their 1972 hit “Ring a Ring of Roses”.

Poell is the only typeface credited to German designer Erwin Poell. It was released for Berthold’s phototype range in 1972.

[More info on Discogs]

Solitude was a French rock band active in the early 1970s. This single, released in 1973 on the Theleme label, comes with a typographic sleeve that features two typefaces available from Letraset. The song titles are in Desdemona Solid, a revival of a design that originated as Quaint at the Dickinson foundry in the 1880s, here used with inappropriate straight quotes. The band name is composed in Gary. The latter appears to be a Letraset original issued in 1970, when Art Nouveau was en vogue again.

The Theleme logo uses caps from Frankonia.

[More info on Discogs]

Wyncote was a short-lived budget label by Cameo-Parkway Records, Inc. from Philadelphia. It existed from 1964 to 1967. In their first year, they released a compilation of love themes recorded by the International Pop Orchestra. The title is set in stacked and staggered words from Filmotype Tailor. The orchestra’s name is set in Trade Gothic Condensed and the track names in Futura Condensed, both times in all caps.

[More info at Discogs]

In 2021 CRSL Carosello Lab was asked by Modena FC to work on a full rebranding with the goal of accompanying the Italian football club into a new era.

One of the main elements of the rebranding was the design of a bespoke typeface called Modena Sans, inspired by sport newspaper display fonts from the 1970s.

Since 2022 Modena Sans has been the most recognizable and strong brand assets of the team, being employed on printed matter, digital, social media, clothing, merch, etc.

On the website, it’s paired with DM Sans and Space Mono.

During a brand activation, Nubank brought Leslie David Baker to Brazil to star in an advertising film. In the story line, he moves to the country for retirement but ends up diving into entrepreneurship. That's how the “Planos no Papel” stationery came to life, later materializing into a pop-up store. Influenced by the character’s life, including jazz and bossa nova, the visual identity took shape. The event’s giveaways featured illustrations highlighting the balance between relaxation and work.

As Leslie himself would say: “a bit of work and a bit of rest.” To reflect this balance, we chose two main typefaces for the project: Ferpa, from the Brazilian foundry Typeoca, with its sharp edges and serious serif representing the work ethic, and Minute from PintassilgoPrints, mimicking a handwritten note, capturing the relaxed vibe of vacation.

Surrealizm. Inne mity / Surrealism. Other Myths is an exhibition shown at the National Museum in Warsaw. Organized in the centenary of André Breton’s publication of the famous Surrealism Manifesto, it abandons the orthodox way of thinking about Surrealism itself as a historical movement with a specific time and geographical framework in favor of treating it as a global, inclusive and diverse phenomenon. The historical narrative will begin with work from the interwar period and end with the works of artists associated with the one founded in the 1950s, and in the 1960s, the international Phases movement.

The exhibition is an opportunity to get acquainted with the works of over sixty artists, including Marek Włodarski (Henryk Streng), Aleksander Krzywobłocki, Marek Piasecki, Fortunata Obrąpalska, Jerzy Kujawski, Erna Rosenstein, Władysław Hasior, Zbigniew Makowski, Jerzy Skarżyński, Urszula Broll and Max Ernst.

The branding for the exhibition is by Hekla Studio using Wulkan Display as the title font with support from Neue Haas Grotesk.

The exhibition …lebt und arbeitet in Berlin / …lives and works in Berlin by artist and filmmaker Sonya Schönberger was shown at alpha nova & galerie futura.

…lebt und arbeitet in Berlin features stimulating conversations with several contributors including Annett Groschner, Barbara Panther, Christa, Dgenda, Elza Javakhishvili, Kallia Kefala, Theirstorian, Silvina Der Meguerditchian, Tanja Ostojic, Sonja Hornung, and is a part of the ongoing video archive Berliner Zimmer, in collaboration with Stadtmuseum Berlin.

The artistic concept is by Sonya Schönberger, with project management for Stadtmuseum Berliner Zimmer by Nele Güntheroth. The exhibition received curatorial advice from Katharina Koch and Sylv Inski, with assistance from Ari Blanchus. The camera work is by Cavo Kernich, and the exhibition screening is edited by Antje Engelmann. Translations are provided by Jesikha Divi and Lena M. Reinhold, with transcriptions by Annekathrin Walther. This project is a collaboration with Stadtmuseum Berlin and is supported by the Senatsverwaltung Kultur und Europa (SenKultEu).

The fonts used for the poster, leaflet and booklet are Kalice (designed by Margot Lévêque) paired with Neue Helvetica.

Half Sheet (22″×28″) poster

From Wikipedia:

Fear Over the City (French: Peur sur la ville) is a 1975 French crime film directed by Henri Verneuil and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. […] It was released in the United States and the United Kingdom as The Night Caller.

PLINC’s vibrating Tension in use on the posters for the Columbia Pictures release of the R-rated “psycho-dramatic film” with music by Ennio Morricone. Belmondo can be seen in the role of policeman Jean Letellier trying to track down a serial killer of young women.

Compare to the poster for Shivers from the same year, featuring typography that appears to emulate Tension’s effect.

36″×14″ poster

For his latest single, "All Star," in collaboration with IBE, Finnish rapper/singer T Swoop opted for a cover art inspired by the aesthetics of all-star basketball and a vibrant Los Angeles color palette. This design approach aligns with his previous EP, incorporating script typefaces like Inoxida into his artwork.

The primary title is elegantly rendered in Marvin Visions, lending a classic and nostalgic vibe while cleverly incorporating a star motif. Complementing this retro aesthetic, Inoxida literally underscores the minimalistic cover art design.

The current Kabuki Kids menu from Benihana, an American restaurant company that, according to Wikipedia, owns or franchises 116 Japanese-influenced restaurants around the world.

I was amused by the contrast between the rather intense Futura Display and good ol' Comic Sans. The handwriting-style font appears to be a grunged version of Tekton Bold.

Cover for the 1976 paperback edition of The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg, published by Fawcett Gold Medal.

The novel's title and author's name are tightly set in Allen Cubist, a typeface by John Allen for Photo-Lettering, Inc., first shown in the 1963 Supplement. The a’s seen on the front cover look to have had legs added. Additional text is set in Antique Olive.

Cover artist/designer currently unknown.

Artwork for Instrumentalities and Audible Volitions, the latest release from Luís Bittencourt. In his words: “Percussion is an art in which sonic plurality is celebrated, and the notion of a musical instrument is constantly challenged and reconfigured.”