PROJECT DESCRIPTION

On the occasion of the ten-year anniversary of its artist residency program at Villa Kamogawa, the Goethe Insitute in Kyoto invited former residents to submit “connecting pieces” (Japanese: “tsunagu mono gatari”, German: “Verbindungsstücke”) of Japanese-German cultural exchange for an exhibition and a bilingual catalog.

The visual concept and multi-script typography are centered around a playful, unconventional approach to the different directions of reading: from top to bottom, left to right, and vice versa. The catalog consists of 73 artist cards and a 60-page brochure of bilingual essays, held together by two wrappers.

Oftentimes, bilingual publications tend to lean towards a primary language. In this design however, both languages are treated equally in every detail: e.g. the catalogue does not have a front and a back, but two front covers and two spines. While the Japanese text in the brochure starts on one side, the German text starts on the other and they meet in the middle very conveniently. The typographic arrangement is different on almost every artist card and the two languages are never on the same baseline.

All text is set in Alessio D’Ellena’s Laica (Dinamo) and in Akira Kataoka’s MaruminKatura (Kinuta Font Factory), typographically adjusted to complement each other. In addition to this convergence, the titling face Ribaasu offers a connecting element between the two languages. Type designer TienMin Liao exclusively donated her unreleased yet award-winning typeface for this project; Ribaasu’s character set covers the Japanese systems Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana as well as the Latin alphabet.

BOOK INFORMATION

Trim Size: 5 1/8 x 8 1/4

Number of Pages: 60 pages and 73 cards

Binding Method: Saddle stiched brochure and cards held together by wrappers

Paper: Covers in 350g Colorplan lockwood green, lavender and factory yellow, text on 100g Arena Natural Smooth

Typefaces: Ribaasu (unreleased), Laica, Marumin Katsura

CREDIT INFORMATION

Creative Director:

Art Director: Toshiya Izumo & Ferdinand Ulrich

Book Designer: Toshiya Izumo & Ferdinand Ulrich

Jacket/Cover Designer: Toshiya Izumo & Ferdinand Ulrich

Illustrator:

Photographer: Yukie Beheim; Kazuo Fukunaga

Picture Editor: Daniel Klotz, die Lettertypen

Production Director:

Production Coordinator:

Production Artist:

Other Credits: Nari Haase - color advisor; Norman Posselt - photographer of the printed book

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