Hats-and-tales-8 — B-SIDE FESTIVAL 2011: Hannake Minten as part of Holy Grey

Work / Graphic Design

Assertive design from Hanneke Minten and Saskia Pouwels as Hats & Tales studio + more

Words by Bryony Quinn, Monday 18 June 2012

Assertive and bright, Hats & Tales is the dynamic studio partnership between Rotterdam-based designers Hanneke Minten and Saskia Pouwels. Much of the confidence of the work arrives from a solution-based rethink of the initial question and shape of the projects. The collaborative outcomes include many worthy self-initiated projects like The Right to Answer which allows responses to a poster slogan to be worked directly onto the graphic or cultural designs for institutes and magazines, like the identity and print collateral for B-Side Festival. Strong work from a conscientious studio with a mind for education as well as execution of design.

Hats-and-tales-9 — B-SIDE FESTIVAL 2011: Hannake Minten as part of Holy Grey

Hats-and-tales-7 — B-SIDE FESTIVAL 2011: Hannake Minten as part of Holy Grey

Hats-and-tales — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels

Hats-and-tales-10 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. AMPERSAND stop motion / collage. Made at Studio Dumbar in collaboration with: George Lambermont

Hats-and-tales-6 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. THE RIGHT TO ANSWER Poster project. In collaboration with RAAF Rotterdam.

Hats-and-tales-5 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. THE RIGHT TO ANSWER Poster project. In collaboration with RAAF Rotterdam.

Hats-and-tales-4 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. THE RIGHT TO ANSWER Poster project. In collaboration with RAAF Rotterdam.

Hats-and-tales-3 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. THE RIGHT TO ANSWER Poster project. In collaboration with RAAF Rotterdam.

Hats-and-tales-2 — Hats & Tales: Hannake Minten and Saskia Pouwels. THE RIGHT TO ANSWER Poster project. In collaboration with RAAF Rotterdam.

Work / Graphic Design Balmer Hählen takes a traditional Swiss design approach to its projects

Balmer Hählen’s approach is influenced by the Swiss graphic design tradition. “The emphasis on typography plays an important role in our work,” says the Lausanne-based studio. “We always try to simplify the messages, our goal is to go for the essential.” Founded in 2011 by Priscilla Balmer and Yyo Hählen, the studio was previously named A3 studio, but this year changed it to Balmer Hählen. “As a duo we want to highlight our personality with this new identity, which is made up of our respective names,” says the studio.

Rebecca Fulleylove — 20 October 2017
Work / Graphic Design Tatiana Ermolaeva's coherent “but not too slick” work for the Strelka Bar

After graduating from Central St Martins last year and studying contemporary phiosophy, graphic designer Tatiana Ermolaeva returned to her native Moscow to work at the Strelka Institute. Mixing the artistic and the academic has allowed the designer to develop her very own approach to design, “although I am still figuring out how to combine it all,” she tells It’s Nice That.

Lucy Bourton — 19 October 2017
Work / Publication Paul Sahre chats to us about his new book Two Dimensional Man: A Graphic Memoir

As a designer who once built and destroyed a life-size monster truck hearse; contributed to the New York Times; and having taught at the School for Visual Arts for the past 13 years, Paul Sahre is regarded as one of the most influential graphic designers of his generation. Two Dimensional Man: A Graphic Memoir is his unique take on a traditional design monograph – “part memoir, part art book, part mediation on creativity.”

Ruby Boddington — 18 October 2017
Work / Graphic Design Seoul-based Shrimp Chung’s dynamic designs are bright and full of impact

Seoul-based graphic designer Shrimp Chung became intrigued by design after playing “tons of computer games and surfing the internet” as a child. The digital world for Shrimp seemed unlimited and unrestricted by boundaries unlike the physical world. “I was fascinated by the concept of being able to manipulate all visual materials and create my own world within the screen through graphics tools,” she explains. “In my early teens I used Photoshop to make photographic collages and moving images. Later I went on to study visual communications at university and have been working in it ever since.”

Rebecca Fulleylove — 18 October 2017
Work / Publication Pentagram designs Francesca Gavin’s Watch This Space, dissecting the screens impact on society

“We wake up and check our screens for messages. If we travel to work on public transport, more than half of us are on our phones. We stare at screens for work and communication throughout the day. Travel home, and watch a screen again for entertainment or swipe it to hook up. Sometimes with a second screen on our lap. Then we go to sleep with our screens next to our beds,” reads the back cover of Watch This Space, a limited edition collaboration between author Francesca Gavin and Pentagram partners Luke Powell and Jody Hudson-Powell.

Ruby Boddington — 18 October 2017
Work / Publication Books From The Future's experimentally collaborative and investigative publishing

Books From The Future is a London-based publisher working at the intersection of research, education and publishing founded by educators Yvan Martinez and Joshua Trees. The pair started Books From The Future as a way to explore the models used to structure contemporary art and design education that are “no longer relevant yet have become so institutionalised and internalised that alternatives can seem wildly idealistic and unrealistic by comparison.”

Ruby Boddington — 17 October 2017