During this edition of ‘It’s All Graphic’, the four invited speakers discuss connecting (and conflicting?) roles in their hybrid practices as graphic designers, publishers, writers, researchers and activists. On 20 January 2025 the Wim Crouwel Institute kicks off the year again with a new ‘It’s All Graphic’, about hybrid graphic design practices, on the connecting roles of the publisher and graphic designer. For this edition, we have invited internationally operating publishers/designers, who not only combine the roles of publisher and designer in their singular way, but also write, research, and initiate activism and wider debate on graphic design and its possible role and impact. More and more, we see designers’ practices becoming mixed and interdisciplinary: designers can also be organisers, activists, gardeners, writers, mediators, artists, editors, teachers (and many more roles than this). If this is a useful way of moving forward, what can this galvanise, how can we specifically be inspired by this? Or does this bandwidth of activities ‘dilute’ the fundamentals and specific expertise of the graphic design practice?
Find out for yourself on January 20, and listen to, and exchange with:
Sara de Bondt has been a designer for and with many cultural organizations in both the UK and Belgium. Together with Antony Hudek she set up Occasional Papers in 2008, which publishes on design history and writing (e.g. an anthology of texts by Rick Poynor), and addresses other visual disciplines. Sarah has just finished her PhD, Off the Grid, on the histories of Belgian graphic design.
Nina Paim is a Brazilian graphic designer, who co-initiated Futuress, an online research and publishing community, ‘where feminism, design and politics meet’. She was co-editor and author of Design Struggles (on de-colonial perspectives on design, with Claudia Mareis) and in 2023 has started her own publishing house, based in Porto, called Bikini Books, issuing paper books with a focus on design and feminist practices.
Sacha Léopold & François Havegeer have a ‘triple practice’, all activities stemming from graphic design. With their interdisciplinary design studio Syndicat they have set up Empire Books and Revue faire. The latter dives into specific topics and histories of graphic design, with special issues on Wim Crouwel, Jan van Toorn, and much more.
With moderators Simone Trum and Astrid Vorstermans these designers engage in a conversation about what they do, how they understand ‘publishing’ and ‘designing’ (with many examples from their side), how this combination feeds into to their research, activism, writing (and vice versa), and how they see the future of graphic design.
About It’s All Graphic
‘It’s All Graphic’ is a series of events on graphic design, addressing its cultural and social impact. It is co-produced between the Wim Crouwel Institute and Pakhuis de Zwijger, and supported by NADD (Netwerk Archieven Design en Digitale Cultuur). The Wim Crouwel Institute investigates the heritage, current and future position of Dutch graphic design. The Wim Crouwel Institute is supported by Pictoright Fonds, Bijzondere Collecties/Allard Pierson, and the Amsterdam University Fund.
For more information, see www.wimcrouwelinstituut.nl
