Kusefa Novopeg: Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, 12 designers and Blurb create a micronation in a day

Date
16 June 2016

Is it possible to design a nation in a day? On 23 April 12 creatives, led by designer and artist Jordy van den Nieuwendijk, spent nine hours creating Kusefa Novopeg – a fictional micronation. The workshop, organised as part of self publishing platform Blurb’s UK Roadshow, saw participants develop a name and anthem for the new nation before going on to imagine what the fundamental elements of Kusefa Novopeg might look like.

Over the course of nine hours the fundamental aesthetics of the nation were established. From flags and passports to architecture and fashion, each exercise saw a surprising and colourful range of ideas created over a day of intense creative activity. Armed with pastels, paint, felt tip pens and pencils each brief was presented by Jordy before the participants were set free to interpret it however they felt was appropriate. The anthem for the nation was produced sentence by sentence, the transport was designed on a production line (mimicking Henry Ford’s pioneering methods of vehicle construction) with the design evolving throughout the task.

“I thought the day would be fun, and I was really happy I took part. I didn’t know what I was in for and didn’t have expectations,” says Alexandra Lunn, an illustrator who participated in the workshop. “It was so good and relaxing to be creating something so quickly. I usually work on the computer and it was a great contrast to be able to work freely and have no constraints on what was produced.”

The drawings and paintings from the day have been curated into a book, printed by Blurb that documents every idea from the day. The 250-page hardback book was designed and written by the It’s Nice That team and chronologically organises the designs into themed chapters to reflect the day. Kicking off with a declaration written by Jordy, readers can see every image that was produced by hand over the course of the workshop.

Above

All images: Tristan Cluett

Above

Craig Gibson

The independent nation of Kusefa Novopeg will live on in print. The participants on the day were:

Jordy van den Nieuwendijk
Tommy Spitters
Shannon Lea
Sara Andreasson
Philippine D’Otreppe
Lawrence Slater
Isobel Kate Scott
Eve Archer
Dillon Newell
Charlotte Trounce
Carol Bergin
Anna Skeels
Alexandra Lunn

Blurb is a book-making platform and creative community that enables individuals to create, publish, share and sell high-quality photo books, trade books, and magazines in both print and digital formats. Blurb is accessible across the globe with free, innovative book creation and layout tools.

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