Brilliantly adaptable printed matter from studio Designbolaget
Copenhagen-based studio Designbolaget works predominately in printed matter, recently designing publications for Bang & Olufsen and artists Laurence Weiner and Per Kirkeby. Their work is consistent in its quality but flexible in aesthetic, adapting to the themes and context of each project. This includes a breadth of formats and references that go to prove that in print you can communicate far more than what is possible on a screen; through the inks, scale, binding and weight.
The Art of Impossible – The Bang & Olufsen Story , was published by Thames & Hudson to celebrate 90 years of Bang & Olufsen product design. The book embodies and reflects the design principles of Bang & Olufsen, referencing their singular aesthetic and leaving ample space for the work to speak alongside writing on their ideas and processes. The publication accompanying Laurence Weiner and Per Kirkeby’s installation at Galleri Susanne Ottesen hints to the artwork, which was installed on a brick wall, through its “poppy” red-brick cover and endpapers set against an otherwise predominately black-and-white publication, which has interviews by curator Hans-Ulrich Obrist.
Designbolaget’s work proves that when done well, printed matter can be as valid as an artwork as that which it contains; and as well as their projects with Thames & Hudson and Galleri Susanne Ottesen, their work includes commissions from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and The National Museum of Denmark amongst many other artists and institutions.
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Billie studied illustration at Camberwell College of Art before completing an MA in Visual Communication at the Royal College of Art. She joined It’s Nice That as a Freelance Editorial Assistant back in January 2015 and continues to work with us on a freelance basis.