In 2020, Wout de Vringer handled the book design for Borealis: trees and people of the northern forest. The project was initiated by photographer Jeroen Toirkens and journalist Jelle Brandt Corstius, who travelled to these forests, looking for the stories of the people living there. Their mission turned into eight very different journeys, to Norway, Scotland, Canada, Japan, Alaska, and Russia. The book was published in conjunction with the exhibitions Borealis, life in the woods at Fotomuseum Den Haag, the Netherlands, and Anchorage Museum, Alaska, United States. A limited cassette edition was produced as a crowdfunding project.

The light weight of the paper creates beautiful transparencies and makes the grid of images and text appear, reminiscent of the delicacy of snow. The typography pairs BVH Baldinger with Scala.

In 2011, Wout de Vringer designed Nomad, a book by photographer Jeroen Toirkens that documents nomadic lifestyle around the Northern hemisphere. The typography pairs Janson Text and BVH Baldinger, mainly used in its Thin weight.

From De Vringer’s portfolio website:

Since the beginning of time, nomadic people have roamed the earth, looking for food, feeding their cattle. Looking for an existence, freedom. Living in the wild, mountains, deserts, on tundra and ice. With only a thin layer of tent between them and nature. Earth in the 21st century is a crowded place, roads and cities are everywhere. Yet somehow, these people hold on to traditions that go back to the very beginning of human civilization. This strikingly beautiful and unusual photobook takes us on a multi-continent search for the last living nomadic peoples in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a remarkable journey, showing facets of modern-day nomadic cultures that are not quite what one would expect to find.

Window for an accompanying exhibition at the Vrije Academie / Gemak (now The Grey Space In The Middle) in The Hague.