See you soon Copenhagen, Leipzig and Oslo. 

We are very happy to announce that the P.A.P.P exhibition showed at last years’ New York Art Book Fair in September will go on a small tour over the coming months:

• February 20: Copenhagen (DK), at Motto/Charlottenborg.
• March 16–17: Leipzig (DE), at «It’s a Book, it’s a Stage, it’s a Public Place» (Leipzig, DE)
• April 20: Oslo (NO), at Torpedo Books / Grafill.

(via publishingasparttimepractice)

My view now is — everything is shit! Hopeless! The skein is too tangled to be unravelled. It can only be sheared. The edifice is too solid to be pulled down; it must be blown up. And it shall be!
— August Strindberg, Christmas Eve, 1884

Andperseand is proud to announce the publication of August Strindberg’s Small Catechism for the Underclass, a venomous political tract from Sweden’s ‘national author’ directed against his country’s entire establishment.

Strindberg self-identified as ‘the son of a servant’ and his sense of enmity with the Swedish overclass is palpable throughout his oeuvre. In Small Catechism for the Underclass, Strindberg directs his ire at the overclass and the tools and techniques they’ve developed to exploit and repress the underclass, including morality, law, religion, and culture.

The book is exemplary as a vitriolic and iconoclastic attack on everything existing by the ‘father’ of Swedish literature. As inequality has emerged once again as a central political issue, Strindberg’s screed is remarkably relevant for the present, precisely one hundred years after its author’s death.

Small Catechism for the Underclass was written sometime during 1884 and 1885. The text would go unpublished in Strindberg’s lifetime, not appearing until 1913 when his 55-volume complete works were published in Sweden by Bonniers. This is the text’s first publication in English (as far as we can tell) and has been translated by Jeff Kinkle and Janina Pedan. The first small print edition is sold out, but it is currently available as an eBook with a second print edition to be released in the near future.

• Buy the book here: For Kindle (via Amazon) or as a package with both E-pub and PDF (via Andperseand).
• More info on the book can be found here. 

• August Strindberg (1849–1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, essayist, poet and painter.
• Jeff Kinkle is a writer and translator based in New York and a founding member of Andperseand.
• Janina Pedan is an artist based in London.

Andperseand is a small-scale publisher set up in 2009 by design studio Konst & Teknik (Stockholm), writer Jeff Kinkle (New York) and artist Emanuel Almborg (London). www.andperseand.se

Two years ago we designed the graphic identity for Mr Mudd & Mr Gold, a clothing  store located a couple of blocks away from our studio in Stockholm. The identity — completely set in Radim Peskos beautiful typeface Larish Neue — was more or less finished when the production of most units was canceled. The one part of the identity we were the most sad not being able to see for real, was the paper bags we designed for the store; on one side the logo, on the other all the nouns in the lyrics of the song that gave name to the store. As Menno (we miss you!), who worked with us at the time, made a few amazing mockups of the bags, we decided it would be about time to give the identity a certain — if completely photoshopped — life, here below… Enjoy.

En svensk version av den här texten kan läsas här.

We were invited to pitch on (compete for) a new project earlier this year. Over the years of running the studio, we have participated in a couple of pitches, always feeling slightly awkward with this method of working. This time the conditions were rather unreasonable; no less than seven other designers/studios had been invited, the pitch was unpaid, it came without guarantee of any of us eight would actually win the commission, and the copyright of everything presented would belong to the commissioner.

We felt that the situation was a result of an insecure relationship between commissioner and designer, rather than a result of a well thought through way of working. That the pitch-approach came from it being the expected way to work, rather than the right way to work. Instead of turning the pitch-offer down, we decided to reply with an explanation of why we can’t work under these conditions, and suggest other solutions.

We didn’t win that pitch (for obvious reason), but we believe that what we wrote could work as a foundation for discussions on the working conditions of freelancers and small studios (graphic designers and others); a conversation we think should happen more frequently and publicly. We have therefor decided to publish a (slightly modified) version of our reply here below.

If you have opinions on pitches, experiences (good or bad) or just think we are right or wrong, don’t hesitate to write a comment on Facebook or Twitter or send us an e-mail. You definitely don’t have to be a graphic designer as we are interested in hearing all kinds of voices, regardless of profession and context. We have also started a linklist with a few articles on the subject for further reading on the topic.

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[…] We guess the culture of pitching is something that has reached us via the worlds of advertising and architecture. There it is often considered a natural part of the working process; in many cases an agency has to pitch on several projects every year and even though they probably will loose most of them, once a pitch is won it comes with great margins and easily compensates the time put into previous pitches. The difference is huge compared to the kind of commissions we as graphic designers get, as our budgets and margins often are quite small. Advertising agencies often work with accounts rather than projects, and a won pitch could mean a secured income for a long time. With graphic design, our experience is that these kind of accounts are less easy to come by — with a lot of insecurity as result.

When we try and picture why one would decide to initiate a design pitch, we can see the following reasons:

• It seems difficult to commission a designer before having an idea of what the final result will be — the commissioner wants to see different directions before deciding on who to proceed with.
• The commissioner wants to make sure the commissions are divided democratically. The projects should be shared equally and many designers should have a chance to show and compete for a commission (this option is probably mainly applied on Swedish state-run institutions).

With the first reason, we find it difficult to reply with an idea of a relevant direction before we’ve had the time to completely research and engage in the project. The discussion and collaboration with the commissioner is a very important part of the process for us, and we don’t think we can do a proper and great job until we’ve completely dug into everything together. When asked to reply to a pitch, it feels like working in the dark, and the likelihood for nailing bulls eye is rather slim. The working process becomes somewhat randomized — something we have a hard time relating to. The chance of our knowledge becoming reduced to only form and taste is also bigger. We would never claim to not having certain aesthetic preferences and guidelines, but we aim to challenge and adjust our way or working to each project. The risk of us making the wrong decisions due to not knowing our commissioner and project properly is so big that we doubt it’s worth the time and energy we need to put into it.

We also believe that it is problematic giving away the part of our work we have invested most (time and money) into; the actual ideas. We would claim that what differs us as professional designers from the self-taught ones many times is critical relationship to ones work and ideas. Graphic design otherwise easily becomes just eye-candy. Our working method is built on research, analysis and development of ideas and in many projects this is where the most time is put. By giving away this work for free, we actually devalue the work we think we can contribute with, which goes against what we stand for.

When it comes to the democratic selection processes and the idea of sharing the projects, we completely support this idea — but it has to be done under the right circumstances.

As we see it, there are two possible ways of working that should result in interesting, long-term exchanges and collaborations, where neither designer nor commissioner feel exposed or mistreated.

A. Ask one designer

If a commissioner asks one design studio and initiates a collaboration from the start, the risk of misunderstanding and speculation becomes smaller and the chance of a giving, long-term exchange many times bigger. If one feels insecure on how to ask the right designer/studio, a suggestion is to add an expert to the working group. It could be a designer who previously worked on a related project, or a design teacher who based on his/her knowledge and network more easily can make a decision on who to commission.

B. Payed pitch to a small amount of designers

If one necessarily wants a few different proposals, we’d like to suggest a few guidelines:

1. Ask a maximum of three designers. The chance of one winning the commission is bigger, and the chance of engagement becomes greater.
2. Play with open cards. Let everyone invited know who the others are and for what reasons they have been asked to pitch.
3. Pay everyone who is pitching. Better symbolic then not at all, as it is incredibly important to feel that ones work is valued, regardless of outcome.
4. Guarantee that one of the invited designers wins the commission.
5. Make sure the rights to the ideas belong to the designer, not the commissioner, especially in the cases of symbolic compensation.
6. Invite the designers to come and talk about the pitch after it’s done, even the ones who didn’t win. We believe that many designers would then feel that they at least got something out of the situation, as we do like to talk about our work and hear about how it is perceived.

A version of this text in English can be found here.

Tidigare i år blev vi inbjudna att pitcha på (tävla om) ett nytt projekt. Under åren har vi deltagit i ett par pitchar och alltid känt oss aningen olustiga inför arbetssättet. I det här fallet var omständigheterna extrema och för oss orimliga; hela sju andra designers/studios var inbjudna, utan ersättning, ingen garanti att någon av oss åtta skulle få jobbet och rättigheterna till allt vi förväntades presentera skulle tillfalla uppdragsgivaren. 

Snarare än ett genomtänkt upphandlingsbeslut, upplevde vi att situationen var ett resultat av ett osäkert förhållningssätt mellan designupphandlare och designers; att det kom från en kultur där man som designbeställare ’förväntas’ agera på det här sättet, istället för att föra dialog med formgivare om hur man ’bör’ jobba. Så istället för att tacka nej (eller ja) till pitchen beslöt vi oss för att återkomma med en förklaring till varför vi inte kan jobba under de här villkoren, samt att föreslå ett par andra arbetssätt vi tror skulle vara mer givande för alla involverade.

Vi vann (naturligtvis) inte pitchen men tror att det vi skrev skulle kunna fungera som diskussionsunderlag för arbetsvillkoren för frilansare och småstudios (grafiska designers och andra); ett samtal vi tycker bör föras oftare och mer publikt. Därför har vi valt att publicera ett (något omskrivet) utdrag av vår respons här, med just den ambitionen.

Skriv gärna en kommentar på Facebook, Twitter eller via mail om du har åsikter om pitchar, egna erfarenheter – bra som dåliga – eller tycker att vi har rätt / fel. Du behöver verkligen inte vara grafisk designer; vi är intresserade av alla åsikter och erfarenheter, oavsett sammanhang. Vi har också startat en länklista med mer att läsa på ämnet.

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[…] Vi gissar att pitch-kulturen är något som har smugit sig in in i våra sammanhang via reklambyrå- och arkitekturvärlden. Där har den ofta blivit en naturlig del av arbetsprocessen; i många fall måste man pitcha ett visst antal jobb varje år och även om man förlorar de flesta så vet man att när man väl vinner är marginalerna så pass stora att det kompenserar tiden lagd på tidigare pitchar. Vi upplever att det är en väldigt stor skillnad mot de jobb som vi som enskilda grafiska formgivare får, då våra budgetar och marginaler oftast är ganska små. Inom reklambranschen jobbar man mycket med konton, då kan en pitch innebära att man har en säker inkomst under i många fall ett par år, samma sak gäller inom arkitekturen. Vår erfarenhet är att det är väldigt ovanligt för formgivare att uppdrag löper så länge – med osäkerhet som resultat.

När vi försöker föreställa oss varför man bestämmer sig för att genomföra en pitch så ser vi följande större anledningar:

• Man är osäker och tycker det är svårt att upphandla en tjänst innan man fått en uppfattning om hur slutprodukten kan tänkas bli. Uppdraget är helt enkelt ganska öppet och man vill få in fler olika förslag på vägar att gå innan man bestämmer sig.
• Man vill försäkra sig om en demokratisk urvalsprocess. Jobben ska fördelas lika och man vill se till att många får möjlighet att visa upp sig och få chans att få ett visst uppdrag. 

När det gäller första anledningen så upplever vi att det är väldigt problematiskt för oss att lämna ett förslag på en relevant riktning och idé innan vi verkligen har fått tid att sätta oss in i ett projekt på djupet. För oss är diskussionen och samarbetet väldigt viktigt då vi inte tror oss kunna göra ett bra jobb förrän vi har vänt på alla stenar tillsammans med våra uppdragsgivare och kommit fram till bästa sättet att gå vidare på ihop. När vi blir ombedda att göra ett förslag utifrån en brief är det som att jobba i blindo, och sannolikheten att man träffar rätt är minimal. Det blir ett väldigt slumpartat sätt att arbeta på och något som vi har svårt att förhålla oss till. Vi upplever också att vår kunskap på så sätt lätt reduceras till smak och estetik. Vi skulle aldrig hävda att vi inte har vissa estetiska preferenser och generella visuella riktlinjer, men vi strävar alltid efter att anpassa våra estetiska val till varje enskilt projekt. Risken att vi ’väljer fel’ bara på grund av okunskap från vår sida, på grund av att vi inte lärt känna vår samarbetspartner och projekt tillräckligt väl, är så stor vid en pitch att vi är osäkra på om det är värt tiden och engagemanget för oss.

Vi tycker också att det är svårt för oss att ge bort den del av vårt arbete som vi faktiskt har investerat mest (tid och pengar) i själva; själva idéarbetet. Vi skulle vilja hävda att det som just utmärker oss som professionella formgivare från de självlärda många gånger är sättet att analytiskt förhålla sig till sitt arbete och sina idéer. Formgivning tenderar annars att bli endast form. Vårt arbetssätt bygger mycket på research, analys och idéarbete och i många projekt är det just där den mesta tiden läggs ner. Genom att ge bort det arbetet gratis nedvärderar vi det arbetet vi faktiskt tror oss kunna bidra med, vilket går emot vad vi vill jobba för.

När det gäller demokratiska urvalsprocesser och principen att dela på jobben (gäller främst statliga institutioner) är det något vi absolut stödjer fullt ut, men det måste göras på rätt sätt. 

Som vi ser det finns det två vägar att gå, som borde resultera i mer intressanta, långsiktiga utbyten och samarbeten, där varken designer eller beställaren känner sig utsatt eller utnyttjad.

A. Fråga en designer

Om man vänder sig till en designstudio och inleder ett samarbete från början blir risken för missförstånd och spekulation mindre och möjligheterna till ett givande, långsiktigt utbyte många gånger större. Känner man sig osäker på hur man frågar rätt studio/person kanske det kan vara ett bra tips att ta med en sakkunnig i arbetsgruppen, som kan göra research och fatta beslut kring vem förfrågan ska gå till. Det kan förslagsvis vara en designer som tidigare jobbat med ett motsvarande projekt, eller en lärare inom ämnet som baserat på sin kunskap och nätverk kan göra en bättre gallring och granskning kring vilka som bör tillfrågas.

B. Betald pitch till färre antal designers

Vill man nödvändigtvis få in ett flertal olika förslag skulle vi vilja föreslå ett par riktlinjer:

1. Fråga max tre olika formgivare. Chansen blir större att man får jobbet, vilket ger större chans till engagemang.
2. Spela med öppna kort – låt alla tre få veta vilka de andra inbjudna är och anledningarna till att just de tre är tillfrågade.
3. Betala skissarvode. Hellre symboliskt än inte alls, men det är otroligt viktigt att känna att ens tid värdesätts.
4. Garantera att någon av de tre får jobbet.
5. Rättigheterna till idéerna tillfaller designern, inte kunden, i alla fall om ersättningen är främst symbolisk.
6. Erbjud ett samtal efter presentationen för alla inbjudna, även de som inte vann. På så sätt tror vi att många formgivare ändå skulle känna att de får ut något av att delta. De flesta är intresserade av att prata om det man gör och höra om hur det uppfattas.

Yet again, we are very happy to invite you to a ‘Publishing as (part-time) Practice’ event; this time at the New York Art Book Fair!

Konst & Teknik & Matilda Plöjel — with the support of Iaspis — are bringing an exhibition with books from 12 small-scale Swedish publishers to show at the fair; A5 Press, Andperseand, B-B-B-Books, Drucksache, GUN, Museum Paper, Nilleditions, Orosdi-Back, Tree Fruit Press, Oyster Press, Pionier Books and Sailor Press; over 40 titles in total, as well as four of the publishers present in person.

Besides looking at some of the best of small-scale designer-run book publishing currently happening in Sweden, an extensive catalogue that brings together the exhibition with the previous seminar in Stockholm will be distributed (for free!), with essays by Sara Teleman and Andrew Blauvelt (Walker Art Center) and a keynote by Georg Rutishauser (Edition Fink). K&T&Matilda have also invited 3 international designers / publishers — Project Projects / Inventory Books (US), Markus Dressen / Spector Books (DE) and Onomatopee (NL) — to contribute a question to an interactive poster project, also shown at the stand.

A new title by our own small-scale publisher Andperseand will be shown for the first time at the fair; ‘Small Catechism for the Underclass’ by August Strindberg, translated by Jeff Kinkle and Janina Pedan. The book has never published in English before, is produced as a not-for-sale-yet edition of six hand-made books, soon to be released to a broader audience as e-book. Keep an eye at the Andperseand website for future updates on the book.

• Friday 28 September – Sunday 30 September 2012
• D:11, MoMa PS1, 22–25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue, Long Island City, NY, USA

More info on PAPP can be found at www.publishingasparttimepractice.se

Hope to see you there!

Iaspis together with graphic designers and small-scale publishers Matilda Plöjel (Sailor Press) and Mattias Jakobsson & Peter Ström (Konst & Teknik / Andperseand) would like to invite you to a seminar on independent publishing:

Over the last few years, a wide range of new publishing initiatives have developed within the arts and design fields. New book fairs are emerging in major cities, small publishing houses and independent presses are frequently initiated and the alternative bookshop seems to recurrently be reborn in new forms. Something that seems to tie these activities together, is that they are run by practitioners themselves — photographers, artists, authors and graphic designers — often with a visionary idea of how to redefine the world of publishing.

On May 25th 2012, a few of these interesting and inspiring practitioners have been invited to Stockholm to take part in the seminar ‘Publishing as (part-time) Practice’. Confirmed participating publishers are: Elin Maria Olaussen / Karen Christine Tandberg from Torpedo Books and Press (NO), Georg Rutishauser from Edition Fink (CH), Matthew Stadler from Publication Studio (US), Anna Gerber / Britt Iversen from Visual Editions (UK), Nille Svensson from Nilleditions (SE), Jacob Grønbech Jensen / Rikard Heberling / Emi-Simone Zawall from Drucksache (SE) and more to be announced. Andrew Blauvelt from Walker Art Center (US) will introduce the event as well as provide a concluding reflection at the end of the evening.

• What: Publishing as (part-time) Practice — a seminar on independent publishing
• Where: Iaspis, Maria Skolgata 83, Stockholm
• When: May 25th, 15:00–20:00
• How: RSVP to info@iaspis.com before May 16th 2012

A more detailed programme and information about the participants will be announced on the Iaspis web page.

Hope to see you there!
Matilda, Mattias & Peter

Järvaprojektet is an artistic research project that investigates different stories with the starting point in Järva area north of Stockholm; Rinkeby, Tensta, Hjulsta and Kista, Husby, Akalla. The project was initiated as a collaboration in 2009 between Fredrik Ehlin, Patrick Kretschek and Erik Rosshagen.

The website — conceptualized and designed by Konst & Teknik — presents the collected research material of the group, stretching from their work with the book ‘Att ingen någonsin visste exakt vad de talade om’, to the current and ongoing film project ‘Fish’. All material, old and new, is published on the website with the help of the Stacey CMS connected to a shared Dropbox folder. The content on the site is a direct mirroring of the groups’ archive in real time, regardless of whether the material is considered as public or private. The ambition and aim is to invite others to share their research material through the site and to make an expanding archive and map over the Järva area. More on the project in Swedish here.

A HUGE thanks to Anthony Kolber for not only programming the Stacey CMS but also tirelessly supporting us with the Dropbox connection!

Join us for the launch of the website and the book ‘Att ingen någonsin visste exakt vad de talade om’ (designed by Mathew Newton) on Rutger Fuchsgatan 9 in Stockholm on May 4 between 16.00 and 21.00.

The city of Stockholm is currently building a huge new hospital, estimated to be finished in the year 2016. It’s one of the biggest constructions in the city at the moment, and will result in a ~13 million Euro (118.000.000 SEK) art acquisition and commission before 2017, thanks to a rule introduced in 1965;

‘One percent of the total cost for constructions, conversions and extensions shall be devoted to artistic decoration.’
— About the one percent rule

We strongly believe that public space these days extends beyond the physical. As people socialize, hang out, shop, and play both online and offline, many websites too should be considered public spaces. And with many artists working with the Internet as their only medium, why not translate the idea of public art from the physical space to the web? 

Konst & Teknik would like to propose that 1% of development costs of new websites shall be devoted to the acquisition or commission of Internet art works, to be installed on those very websites, so that ‘all the people of Stockholm, regardless of who they are or how they live, should have the opportunity to experience art in their immediate environment.’

A few mockup proposals

Rafael Rozendaahls ‘Aesthetic Echo’ in the background of the Karolinska Institutet front page.

Olia Lialinas self-portrait gif animations on the 404 (not found) pages of the city of Stockholm.

Oliver Larics ‘50 50’ placed in the footer of the Swedish Arts Council website.

In opposite to physical art, Internet based art works usually don’t exist in a fixed place; they get copied, shared and re-distributed, most times without any control of the artist. This is part of what makes Internet art unique, and we would never want to propose something that changes that idea. This proposal is not about a work being showed exclusively on these websites, but rather about them being showed there too.

Interested in discussing this proposal further? Don’t hesitate to get in touch.

This Saturday ‘That Which Follows’ opens at Konsthall C in Stockholm, a solo exhibition by our collaborator and friend, Emanuel Almborg. The exhibition includes works from a two-part project: ‘The Rest is Silence’ (2009) and ‘Nothing is Left to Tell’ (2011), which investigates the relationship between community and communication. ‘The Rest is Silence’ is focusing on the experimental community project in Hackney in the 1970s, while ‘Nothing is Left to Tell’ was performed as a social experiment. At Konsthall C the project will be presented in photography, film and text.

The book Nothing is Left to Tell, designed by us and published by Andperseand, will be released as a part of the exhibition, as well as a poster/catalogue specifically designed for the show. 

More info: Konsthall C, Show & Tell or Facebook.

The exhibition runs between March 24 and May 6 and opens on Friday March 23, 17.00–21.00 — hope to see you there.

hen we read about the letter W being included as an official member of the Swedish alphabet a few years back, we thought such a special occasion deserved proper recognition. We contacted Svenska Akademien — the institution responsible — to see if we could find out the exact date when the decision was made, to organize a yearly celebration. And we did: March 3rd — which is soon, so lets celebrate!

March 3rd, 13:00–16:00, at Rönnells in Stockholm

• Confirmed presentations, from 13:00:
• Anders Djerf, artist
• Jörgen Gassilewski, poet
• Henrik Nilsson, terminologist
• Martin Högström, poet / graphic designer
• Mattias Heldner, phonetic expert
• Nina Ulmaja, graphic designer
• Örjan Nordling, type designer

There will of course be cake and coffee too. More information (in Swedish) can be found at Wdagen.se.

Wälkommen to come celebrate with us!

On a rainy October night, Konst & Teknik & (mainly) Martin finally added the last pieces of code and together hit the deploy-button (over iChat screen sharing) of the long awaited, too long taken, new version of CopyPasteCharacter.com — the one website for copying and pasting all those characters we never knew where to find in the computer.

Here is a rundown of all the new features:

• Tons of new characters; from ~100 on the old version, to 3894 on the new one!
• Because of ⇧, we have introduced a new feature: sets. In nine carefully sorted — and one messier — categories, the characters can easily be found and copied.

• An option to sign up for an account, or use Facebook to sign in, to save and edit your own character sets, for easy access of the letters and symbols most often needed.
• Easy sharing on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere, using the new, shorter URL char.nu.
• A handy resize bar in the bottom right corner of the site.

More new features and sets will be added over the coming months.

We will host a small release party and presentation in Stockholm at some point over the coming weeks; keep an eye on our Twitter feed and/or newsletter for further info.

* * *

We truly hope and believe that this is the last update on this old website of ours… in fact, we won’t do another update here even if it takes us years finishing the new one. So see you on our new, shiny — and probably quite awesome — website over the coming months.

PℰƮ⊏☈ & ♏⏏✞ⓣ▒ª$

After a nice and interesting spring working on a few really nice projects, we are off on a summer break, enjoying the few weeks of sunshine we (hopefully) get here in the north. This fall it’s also five years since we started the studio (!), something that askes for a bit of contemplation over the summer. But before we go, we would like to share a few links, images and snippets of text:

Over the last couple of months we’ve had the privilege to work on a catalogue together with and for super cool artist Fia Backström and her participation in the Scandinavian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Fias work is titled Borderless Bastards (multi-culti abc) and consists of ten sculptures spread out over the Giardini, an audio guide and the catalogue, all dealing with nationality and national representation. The catalogue naturally features the lion of Gripsholms slott on the cover (stuffed by a taxidermist who had never seen a lion in 1731) and is published by Moderna Museet and Sternberg Press. It can be ordered here, and a few spreads can be seen here. The exhibition shows all the way until November, so don’t miss out if in the area.

And, and, and, and, and, and & and:

• We just got our hands on the first copies of R U International?, a report we designed for Riksutställningar, printed and published by Publit. We don’t know how or even if it’s possible to order the printed books, but there should be a digital version published on Issuu pretty soon…
• The new, fifth, book in the Excerpt series, Konsten att handla – konsten att tänka: Hannah Arendt om det politiska edited by Ulrika Björk and Anders Burman, features the typeface Extencil by Göran Söderström for its cover typography and will be published by AXL Books later this summer.
• A new book, still a bit secret, published on our Andperseand publisher is at the printers’ too! More about that in September.
• Here is a little video we made when asked to make a 5 minute presentation of ourselves for AIGA Chicagos International Small Talkseries a while back.
• We collaborated with artist Tris Vonna-Michell on a stereogram print for the exhibition Outrageous Fortune: Artists Remake the Taro, on show between 4 July to 27 August 2011 at Focal Point Gallery in South Essex, the UK.
• Last but not least, we (well, actually Martin) are putting the last pieces of code into the new, updated version of our Copypastecharacter.com website, to be launched over the coming weeks. Keep an eye on it or its Twitter feed to find out the latest news on that.
• Speaking of Martin, here’s a tote bag we designed for his WWDC visit a few weeks back, featuring 26 abbreviations of programming related… things… we have no idea what most of them mean, and the original WWW logotype turned upside down:

Have a great summer!
Peter & Mattias

Ps. We have an intern position open from September 1st and for 2–4 months; drop us an email with the subject ‘Praktikant september 2011’ if interested.

It’s been a very busy start of 2011 and we already have no less than 4 projects debuting today…!

We Have the Technology is a project initiated by our long term collaborator, the awesome New York based curator Laurel Ptak, and is a residency program and platform for communication, research, and knowledge production online. We have been involved in the project for almost a year, and finally some things start to take shape… a simple website is online but way more is to come — don’t forget to sign up for the newsletter and be notified when the complete site is launched: www.wehavethetechnology.org

48 timmar (Konsten att hålla öppet), a 48 hour workshop starting today at the Museum of Architecture in Stockholm;

‘Fifty invited practitioners and critics in the fields of architecture, crafts and design, transform the museum into a 48-hour workshop and forum for investigations and discussions of the contemporary roles of professional practices and institutions. 48 Hours: A museum about a museum inside a museum.’

The workshop takes place during the same week as the Stockholm Furniture Fair and is part of a seven week program titled Arkitekturmuseet Live. We have designed the website and identity for 48 timmar, based on a paper version of the commonly used ‘kioskflagga’ (kiosk flag). The kiosk flag is a sort of flag that more or less every small tobacco store uses to show that they are open (‘öppet’) for business — and a flag that actually looks more like an icon of a flag with its slanted top, rather than a ‘normal’ flag. Our flags — made out of paper but using the original plastic poles — are partially used as signage system for the workshop and partially as a way for the participants (both invited and the audience) to interact and inform on what is going on in the space. The plastic poles are mounted on a wood contruction designed by splendid furniture designer Fredrik Paulsen. All info can be found at www.arkitekturmuseetlive.se/48t and all the lectures and events have been added to www.showandtell.se.Don’t miss out if in Stockholm this week!

The very same Fredrik brings us to the next project; A folded down poster, showing many of his projects, designed for his booth V01:19 at the Stockholm Furniture Fair that opens today! The poster also functions as a wallpaper for the booth and contains more or less no text at all (we know, we can’t believe it either) — and can be picked up for free at the fair.

And yet another project can be found at the fair; a catalogue for Småland based lighting manufacturer Örsjö Belysning, that we designed a few months back. As we don’t have any proper photos of it, we encourage everyone to check it out at the fair instead, as it looks quite stunning… Örsjö can be found at booth A07:21.

All these projects and everything else we’ve been busy with the last year will of course be shown and explained better on our new — soon to be launched — website, featuring so—much—new—stuff—! Sign up for our newsletter to find out when that happens.