November’s highlights included Studio Brave’s graphic identity for property development Everlea, Zak Groups book for artist Fredrik Værslev as part of the exhibition As I Imagine Him and Here Design’s packaging for Teatulia. There were, however, five projects that stood out and have made it into BP&O’s Best Of Series. Between them, these typically balance a strong singular concept or an appropriate confluence of ideas with a compelling visual character and clear communicative intention that appropriately play with form, colour, type and layout, as well as material, texture, image and print finish.

BP&O, in this end of month review, tries to recognise both the smart use of small budgets—those that channel spending into the most appropriate assets—and those projects with a broad and holistic quality, establishing a continuity (conceptual and/or visual) across multiple touch points. Many of the projects share a concise aesthetic expression, yet there is nuance and strategic weight to these, so do click through and read more about each of these.

Throughout the month BP&O also continued to expand on its collections series as another way to jump through to older posts on the site. This included a collection of projects that feature spot colours and a studio showcase on Commission.

Schubertíada Vilabertran by Mucho

Schubertíada is an annual festival run by Associació Franz Schubert that celebrates the works of the 19th-century Austrian Romantic composer Franz Schubert. This takes place in the Spanish municipality of Vilabertran in July. The festival includes a programme of chamber concerts, lied recitals, instrumental solos and lectures.

Schubert is known, not just for his compositions, but for his contribution to Lieder; German poetry set to classical music, and for his reconfiguration of the classical concert, developing it into a more intimate experience with a smaller audience. This format is known as Schubertiades, and is where the festival derives its name.

With this historical context in mind; 19th Century romanticism, the smaller more intimate gatherings and pioneering view of Franz Schubert, design studio Mucho developed a visual identity for the festival that focuses on vision, enduring legacy, a continued relevance and the personable in the confluence of iconography, illustration, colour and print finish.

See more of this project here

Speculations On Anonymous Materials by Zak Group

Speculations on Anonymous Materials (2013), nature after nature (2014) and Inhuman (2015) is a trilogy of exhibitions, curated by Susanne Pfeffer, that took place at Fridericianum, Europe’s oldest public museum, located in the German city of Kessel. The exhibitions, which mark the institution’s turn towards post-humanist thinking, intended to demonstrate how current artistic practices shift the theoretical boundaries separating the natural from the artificial. London-based design studio Zak Group was recently commissioned to catalogue the trilogy of exhibitions, which was then published by Koenig Books. The catalogue is set in German and English, has 220 pages and features three metallic spot colours.

See more of this project here

Migrant Journal No.5 by Offshore Studio

Migrant Journal is a six-part exploration of migration in all its forms. It covers, as you might expect, the current and pressing political and socio-cultural implications of the mass migration of people, yet also delves deeper into the more abstract movement of ideas, power and information around the globe. Migrant Journal, in its breadth but a continuity of theme, intends to reclaim the word migration, to break free from prejudice and cliché.

This is a hands-on review of Migrant Journal No.5 its themes and how these manifest themselves visually and materially. This issue, Micro Odysseys, explores microscopic entanglements, invisible movements, tiny particles, imperceptible matter and antimatter. For thoughts on Migrant Journal as a total project, check out BP&O’s review here.

Migrant Journal began as a Kickstarter project and is edited by Justinien Tribillon, Michaela Büsse and Dámaso Randulfe, co-edited and designed by Isabel Seiffert and Christoph Miler of Offshore Studio.

See more of this project here

Nunchi by Bedow

Nunchi is an Italian startup and the vision of Cedric Naudon, a self-confessed gastronome. This follows his ambitious project to create an entirely new creative neighbourhood of restaurants, fashion boutiques and design stores in Le Marais, Paris.

Nunchi intends to frame and connect all of Cedric Naudon’s gastronomic projects. The first of which is a reimagining of Edouard Nignon’s classic cookbook L’Heptameron des Gourmets, originally published in 1919 and now a rare collector’s item. This new edition brings the unique collection of recipes and stories to a contemporary audience by way of a unique collaboration with box, textile and paper makers, engravers and printers. This is accompanied by a second book, La Dive Cocagne, which gives the reader valuable insights into the creation of L’Heptameron des Gourmets.

Nunchi’s visual identity, designed by Swedish studio Bedow, establishes a graphic framework and continuity for all of the projects that will fall under the Nunchi brand. Both L’Heptameron des Gourmets and La Dive Cocagne serve as the first surfaces in which identity begins to reveal itself, the former being a rigorous exploration of design and artist craft and collaboration, a form of Gesamtkunstwerk, and the latter providing insight into this unique confluence of skills, also brought to life through short-form documentaries. Bedow were responsible for visual identity and the art direction and design of both books.

See more of this project here

Unfolded by Commission

Unfolded is a design and print festival that celebrates the creative work happening across Europe in the disciplines of design, printing and brand communication. This was held by and at The Gmund Paper Factory in Germany on the 9th November 2018. The event created a space for sharing ideas and fostering dialogue between creative individuals, providers of printing services, brand managers and experts from the business and agency scene. Unfolded also hosted lectures, keynote speakers and panels around brand strategy, materiality and sustainability. An exhibition, running in parallel to these events, showcased the latest developments within the industry.

The innovative dimension of the event, its desire to develop industry discourse, and the potential of design, material and print to synergise, is expressed in the delivery, presentation and form of the Unfolded invitation, created by London-based design studio Commission. This is initially marked by the impact of colour and type, volume and robustness, form and mechanism yet, and in contrast, is followed by the framing of a delicately micro-perforated and block foiled invitation.

See more of this project here