Tuesday, 12:00pm
26 October 2021
Graphic design live #1
Design history
Graphic design
Magazines
Posters
Typography
Visual culture
Events and exhibitions
Beautiful Swiss Books; Martens in Shanghai; MagCulture Live on Thursday
4 November; Typoteka; Chaumont
Here is a selection of current and upcoming events that piqued the interest of our editorial team. Read the Eye Events page for more exhibitions, conferences, talks and workshops.
On now
Behind the Books
21-30 October 2021
Location: London
‘The Most Beautiful Swiss Books’ dates back to 1943, when Jan Tschichold proposed this annual award. An exhibition of the 2020 awarded-winners is on display at Tenderbooks in London organised and hosted by graphic designer Mathias Clottu and design historian Jonas Berthod, with scenography by Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad. In addition to the exhibition, an evening of talks will be held at the Swiss Church in London on Thursday 27 October. Graphic designer Guillaume Chuard (Studio Ard) and artist Tenant of Culture will discuss the monograph Tenant of Culture; Mathias Clottu will present The Stars, the publication he designed for artist Richard Tuttle; and Matthew Stuart and Andrew Walsh‐Lister (Bricks from the Kiln) will give a lecture-performance on the book medium.
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books: award-winners.
Spread from the monograph Tenant of Culture, designed by London design studio Ard – Guillaume Chuard and Daniel Kang Yoon Nørregaard.
On now
Re-Production: Karel Martens
15 October — 15 November 2021
Location: Shanghai, China
At Shanghai’s IS A GALLERY, you can visit Re-Production – a book and site-specific exhibition curated by designer and educator Zhongkai Li. Presented on site is Uranus, a book designed by Dutch designer Karel Martens and co-produced with ROMA publications, which presents a systematic and geometric representation of the seventh planet’s atmosphere. It explores the intersections of the design of Chinese lunisolar calendar and Martens’ fascination with celestial bodies through repetitive patterns. The exhibition features a wall of 340 individual images over 21 square meters, and a multi-channel video installation.
Cover of Uranus, by Karel Martens, 2021.
More from Karel Martens, 2021.
![Karel Martens_Reproduction 13 [CROP]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51629931462_2bcdfce130.jpg)
Coming Soon
MagCulture Live
4 November 2021
Location: Conway Hall, London + online
For those whose mantra is ‘I love magazines!’, MagCulture is organising another all-day, real-life event celebrating all-things magazine: art direction, editorial design, photography, illustration, and typography. There is a diverse variety of mainstream and indie mag people, with Guardian creative director Alex Breuer and MacGuffin editor-in-chief Kirsten Algera as well as founder of Louche Gorgeous Michael, and Thiiird editor-in-chief Rhona Ezuma.
Also appearing are Terry Jones, founder, i-D magazine; Dan Crowe, editor of Port and new launch Inque; Olu Michael Odukoya, creative director, Modern Matter; Harriet Fitch Little, editor, Kinfolk and editor-in-chief, Kindling; Osman Bari, founder, Chutney; Sachini Imbuldeniya, Executive creative director, Studio PI; David McKendrick, creative director, Paperboy Magazine; Anna Bates, editor, Dirty Furniture; Christoph Amend, editor-in-chief, ZEITmagazin (see Eye 97). The afternoon session will be livestreamed.
MagCulture Live, 4 November 2021 at Conway Hall, London.
Coming Soon
Typoteka – Exhibition of Polish Typefaces 1474-2021
8 November — 10 December 2021
Location: Reading, UK
The Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading is to host this exhibition, a result of collaborative historical research cataloguing letters and scripts from ‘authors associated with Poland’.
Typoteka.pl is a digital index of Polish typefaces from 1474. The exhibition opens on Monday 8 November 2021.
Final weeks
Biennale Internationale de Design Graphique 2021
To 21 November 2021
Location: Chaumont
The celebrated four-month graphic design festival, whose theme this year is ‘viral’, aims to explore and investigate new technologies and alternative channels of dissemination. Highlights include Chantal Jacquet – Lettres Peintes where graphic designer Timothée Gouraud explores the vernacular, tradition and know-how of brushstroke sign making, and also DEMO festival (see ‘Liza Enebeis: Curious creative director’ in Eye 100) curated by Studio Dumbar, showcasing motion work by studios, designers, emerging talents and academies from around the world.
It is the final month of Biennale Internationale de Design Graphique 2021 in Chaumont, France
Out of home screens at DEMO, Amsterdam Central Station 7 November 2019. Exterion Media commissioned Dumbar to design motion screens that show the name of the city for train stations in the Netherlands. The custom variable typeface changes according to a script that animates every word. See Eye 100. Photo: Aad Hoogendoorn.
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.