Eye Magazine

The Palace of Typographic Masonry
to 18 June 2023
Location: Breda, The Netherlands

Graphic Matters presents ‘The Palace of Typographic Masonry’ by designer Richard Niessen, a collection of objects characteristic of visual communication; from signs to ornaments, from methods and techniques to the history and practice of graphic design. Described as ‘an (imaginary) institute for the splendour and variety of graphic languages’, the palace provides a physical space to explore the ever-shifting elements of visual culture and to challenge its limitations and new possibilities.

Poetic and unconventional, the exhibition showcases the imagination of graphic designers through nine categories: sign, symbol, ornament, construction, poetics, play, order, craft and practice. Included in the exhibitions are works by Karel Martens (see ‘Let the object speak’ in Eye 11), Hansje van Halem (see ‘Strategy of excess’ in Eye 98), Wim Crouwel (see ‘Electrifying the alphabet’ in Eye 62), Harmen Liemburg, Experimental Jetset (see ‘Thesis & antithesis & synthesis (& EJ)’ in Eye 92), Thonik (see ‘Designing with urgency’ in Eye 99), Moniker, Irma Boom (see ‘Reputations’ in Eye 88), Ott Metusala, Farah Fayyed, William Jacobson, Edgar Walthert, Benjamin McMillan and Åbäke (see ‘Walk in book’ on Eye blog).

Currently on
The F*Word: Guerrilla Girls and Feminist Graphic Design
to 17 September 2023
Location: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

For more than three decades, the activist group Guerrilla Girls (see ‘The myth of genius’ in Eye 38) has dedicated itself to creating thought-provoking, humorous and antagonistic works that lay bare the foundations of sexism, racism and discrimination. In particular, the collective’s focus is to shine a light on the abuse of power and corruption entrenched within the art world.

In this exhibition, the group developed work that takes a critical look at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe’s own collection, focusing on the noticeable under-representation of female designers. Starting off with some of the posters designed by the collective, ‘The F* word’ includes some 400 works dating from 1870 to the present day. Alongside the exhibition there is a display focusing on women type designers as well as participatory art education stations.

Coming Soon
Typographics 2023
12-22 June 2023
Location: New York, US and online

Now in its ninth year, ‘Typographics’, an annual design festival for people who use type, presents a rich schedule of online and in-person events. The programme includes an array of workshops and local tours on everything from hand lettering to creative coding, including ‘Library show and tell’ with Tobias Frere-Jones (see ‘Forensic types’ in Eye 54), Nina Stössinger and Fred Shallcrass or ‘The modern letter’ with Ken Barber (see ‘A house that type built’ in Eye 94). TypeLab, an informal,typographic hackathon coordinated by Petr van Blokland (see ‘Variable grunge’ on the Eye blog and ‘The digital wave’ in Eye 7 ) will include a series of informal workshops, demos, interviews, and experiments. There will also be a design book fair.

As ever, the pivotal point for the festival is the Typographics Conference, which takes place on 16 and 17 June. An international cohort of speakers this year includes Pascal Zoghbi (see ‘Beyond Latin’ in Eye 90), Muk Monsalve, Craig Ward, Jonathan Barnbrook (see ‘Reputations’ in Eye 15), Tasheka Arceneaux Sutton, Ximena Amaya, and many more.

You can read Eye’s detailed coverage of Typographics 2021 in Eye 102.

To feature your event on Eye events page, please email us with details.

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.