2024-09-18 10:30:29
As part of the Identity project, the book Identity – the story of Czech graphic design is published. The comprehensive monograph was seven years in the making, created by a team around design theorist and editor Linda Kudrnovská. For the publication of more than five hundred pages, she approached dozens of experts and institutions from the field of graphic design, as well as sociologists or cultural anthropologists from the Czech Republic and abroad.
Together with the graphic designer and typographer Filip Blažek, Linda Kudrnovská is the author of the extensive project Identity, which, in addition to the book, also includes a TV series, a feature film and a planned exhibition. The publication is published by the Paseka publishing house.
A seven-year study of the history, present and boundaries of the field confirmed to the authors that graphic design and typography are vital disciplines and that contemporary Czech art can stand up to the quality of other European countries.
“Just as Czechoslovak society accepted its independence at the beginning of the 20s of the last century and there was no need to further thematize it, a hundred years later the current generation of creators automatically accepted their Europeanness, they find sources of inspiration all over the world, and although digital platforms are a matter of course for them , according to them, the end of printing is definitely not near,” summarizes Kudrnovská.
The monograph is divided into six chapters called Public Space, Everyday Life, Statehood and Propaganda, Media, Books and Education, and Beyond. Each contains interviews, profiles, studies, draws attention to phenomena or interesting industry projects.
The reader studies, for example, orientation systems in architecture and the Prague subway, changes in the Czech film poster, the history of the Brno Biennale, or the original Czech script.
Among the essential projects, the book mentions, for example, the design for the National Technical Library, the film festival in Karlovy Vary or the magazine Živel. Readers will learn who graphically edited the first Czechoslovak constitution, how fonts are created or why a spoon appeared on the poster for the movie Beds. They can also compare the visual styles of Czech cities.
Texts and essays were written by 22 authors. Kudrnovská also caught up with the renowned typographer Zdenek Ziegler for an interview, so the publication offers the last interview with him taken just before his death last year. Identity also includes previously unpublished visual materials, original sketches, models, photographs and documents from private or public collections.
Together with Filip Blažek, Kudrnovská is the author of the entire extensive project Identity, which, in addition to the book, includes a television series, a feature film and an exhibition. The seven-part series, created by artist Aleš Najbrt, began broadcasting on Czech Television last January. In October, a film about graphic design directed by Kateřina Mikulcová will be released.
This will be followed by an exhibition that people will be able to see on three floors of Prague’s Kamp Museum from October 12 to February 2, 2025. The book also serves as its catalog.
Design theorist, editor and author of the book Linda Kudrnovská was the editor-in-chief of the magazine Typo focused on graphic design, typography and visual communication or a member of the board of the international typographic organization ATypl. He contributes to European periodicals and sits on the juries of international competitions.
Video: Czechs had gray taste, now we live in confusion, says Najbrt and also comments on Černý mótyly (May 2, 2024)
Renowned graphic designer Aleš Najbrt also commented on David Černý’s design for the Prague department store Máj in the Spotlight show. | Video: Team Spotlight