How could visiting Seoul be described in a way that allows someone else to feel like they are right there? What to say? What perspectives to choose?⁠ ⁠ What Should I Say—About Seoul takes the reader on a path less traveled: The work and daily-life of Korean designers; but not just as a spectator. The book gives a glimpse into South Korean society that is not so common after all. ⁠ ⁠ But don't mistake this book as a travel guide. It is rather full of experiences, focussing on the work as creatives. From working conditions to social interactions.⁠ Buy

Every year we get a very special calendar. This time, it's from 83-year-old graphic design icon Karel Martens. "Everyday is a new day" has, you guessed it, a page for every day of the year. The 365 number compositions are designed in Martens' signature method of found and digitized metal pieces.⁠ ⁠ Buy

The Dictionary of Color Combinations is probably one of the most beautiful books we ever held in our hands! After it has been sold out for a year, we finally have it back in stock and are mesmerized as before.⁠..⁠ ⁠ The pocket size jewel offers 348 incredible color combinations by Japanese painter Sanzo Wada. The compositions of two, three, and four tones could not be more intriguing and with its index registering the CMYK code of every shade used it is an indispensable tool for every designer.⁠ Buy

You know the scenario: You just want to find a fitting series or movie on your streaming platform—but you can’t find what you are looking for and keep doom-scrolling—until you turn off the computer. The same often happens when looking for the perfect typeface for your design. You know, the one that not only conveys the mood you are longing for, but also needs to fulfil all necessary requirements.⁠ ⁠ In a mess of countless open browser tabs, bookmarks, lists, and folders, the right typeface and foundry—characterized by smallest details—is hard to find. The Yearbook of Type is a collection of the latest published typefaces that helps you find the one—from a browse through the book, or quick look in the index that neatly sorts typefaces by class, designers, and foundries. Each font and font family is presented on a double page. On the left page, the font is applied; inspired by this year’s theme of film and drama. To the right, the typeface is described in detail.⁠ ⁠ The publication is rounded off by a series of essays, interviews, and tutorials on the subject of type design and contemporary typography. An indispensable book for any graphic designer.⁠ Buy

A miniature manifesto for the infinite possibilities of the book form, by one of the most famous living book designers. In Book Manifest, world-renowned Dutch designer Irma Boom presents her vision on the nature, meaning and relevance of the book.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The 3rd edition of this classic is based on an in-depth study Irma Boom conducted in the Vatican Library. The result is both an overview of the history of the book and a retrospective of 350 books designed by Irma Boom during her career. Alongside reproductions, Boom extensively discusses the relationship between her work and older book forms. This 1000-page, richly illustrated book, wants to inspire and encourage to experiment this most enduring of forms.⁠⁠ Buy

After two years of a global pandemic and people hiding behind masks, FUKT explores and celebrates the human face. One of the most inspiring drawing magazines, at least in our opinion, looks with its 20th issue at the art of portraiture in drawing. ⁠ ⁠ Creating portraits is as old as humanity, but what does it mean today, especially in the age of selfies and social media? Featuring drawings by 34 contemporary artists, FUKT explores the face in contemporary art. Inside the magazine you'll find a range of perspectives and themes, from face blindness to courtroom drawings and Lockdown portraits to face recognition - a selection of drawing positions that offer a unique look at the face.⁠ ⁠ One particularly beautiful detail is the cover. While there are 24 different faces, if you unpack the magazine from its foil, you also detach the facial expressions. What remains is a cover with an outline of a face and space for doodling, portrait drawing, simple or elaborate, everything is possible.⁠ Buy

Have you ever heard of Concrete Poetry - a poetic movement that emerged in the early 1950s and sought to create a universal form of poetry that could be described as a mixture of poetry, art and graphic design? The basic principle of the movement is the idea that words are material. The Concrete Poets used words not primarily for their semantic qualities, but as constitutive elements. Through the relationship between the written text and its spatial arrangement on the page, they gave their poems another level of meaning. Their works led to a new kind of verse that abandoned the linear structure of poetry and resulted in a new form of poetry that could be read and looked at.⁠ ⁠ Bolivian-born Swiss poet, writer and publisher Eugen Gomringer is often described as the father of concrete poetry. From 1953 onwards, together with Dieter Roth and Marcel Wyss, Gomringer co-published the artist’s magazine spirale, that formed the starting point for his form of poetry. From an early stage, Gomringer wanted to blur the boundaries of poetry and the language of advertising. This publication combines original images and selected works from Gomringer’s long-standing collaborations as art director and copy-writer for various companies. It also contains the theoretical essay “vom vers zur konstellation” (from verse to constellation), Gomringer’s original manifesto published in 1954.
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In 2021 Martijn in't Veld made a series of illustrations for The New Yorker about books and vegetables. Nothing ever happened to them. He doesn't know why. In any case these images ended up expiring in a digital vegetable drawer somewhere in a fridge-shaped Manhattan skyscraper. This made Martijn in't Veld a bit sad. And because he doesn't like to throw away food he simply decided to cook up a New Yorker without The New Yorker!⁠ ⁠ Bon appetit!⁠ ⁠ Buy

This is a story entirely written in burnt matches. The longer the word, the longer the match. It is a story about big and small fires, love, death, intrigue and plenty of blisters.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The odd typeface in which it was encoded was developed by Martijn in't Veld and Johannes Lang through OpenType code whose ligature feature looks for the length of the typed word and replaces it with one of up to ten matches of the respective word length. Besides dozens of burnt matches—long, short, scorched or badly burnt—the character set includes two lighters and some extra long safety matches. ⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Happy reading. Don’t burn your fingers.⁠⁠ ⁠ Buy

Since the rise of social media, the heart symbol is everywhere. We click it to communicate that we "like" something, we use it at the end of a comment in place of a thank you, and to spread love across language barriers, especially in these times of conflict and increased attention to social and racial injustice. Afterall the harmless little heart is the universal symbol of love! But there's the problem: who claims love? The seemingly innocent heart symbol hides a much more complex story than its surface suggests.⁠ ⁠ With "hate groups" renaming themselves "organizations of love," heart symbols on AfD posters and other Alt-Right groups in Europe, it is becoming clear that the "love" in the heart symbol can just as easily be seen as "hate" by the opposing political view. And at the same time, we automatically project our own values onto the heart symbol. "Can't be meant badly, after all, it's in the name of love."⁠ With corporations putting heart symbols on their websites and plastic bags, and paying billions for targeted advertising based on our clicks on little heart-shaped buttons, it seems that love is being marketed, mass-produced and sold. The heart has become a button to click, an emoji to send, and a digital currency.⁠ It claims trust and good intentions without defining them.⁠ ⁠ This clever little book takes a hard look at the symbol of love from its origins to its uses to its meaning, and uncovers all the things that are done in the name of ❤️.⁠ Buy

In 2018 Dutch graphic designer Karel Martens received a package from artist-curator Pierre Leguillon that contained filled-in Japanese forms which Leguillon had found at a street market in Tokyo. Martens was intrigued by the collection of thin paper with a rectangular black-blue layer of carbon on the back. He started to print on these back sides, but because the overprinting on the carbon layer caused unwanted damage, he switched to printing them on the front sides, creating a beautiful correlation between his abstract forms and colour combinations and the ones of Japanese bureaucracy.⁠ Buy

After a visit at the artist poster exhibition Honey, I rearranged the collection from the Lempert Collection, Thierry Chancogne and Jérôme Dupeyrat kept on wondering: Why Graphic Design and art appear for most people still as apples and oranges? Art posters, artists posters, posters made by artist, posters made from artists...In four acts – before somebody is catching a train, at the water edge, during another follow up and after the plane has landed – Revue Faire's special issue takes you on a delightful voyage through the last 50 years of art – and of course, Graphic Design.