Typotheque Celebrates Its First 10 Years

We decided to do something special to celebrate Typotheque’s first 10 years. No, not a self-congratulatory book or retrospective exhibition, but something simple and useful. We asked four of our colleagues to design t-shirts for the occasion. The project brief was carte blanche, no strings attached: design a T-shirt that you yourself would like to wear.

We sent the brief to Irma Boom, Max Kisman, Karel Martens and Catherine Zask, four designers who have had exceptionally long and successful careers, but more importantly, who produce their work themselves, rather than putting their names on the work of anonymous employees. This is a principle which we admire, and which governs our work as well.

We hoped that if the authors designed t-shirts that they’d like to wear, we might enjoy wearing them too. We now present these t-shirts in a limited edition.

Let's have a look first at the sketches:

Catherine Zask (sketches)

Irma Boom (sketches)

Karel Martens (sketches)

Max Kisman (sketches)

And now, the actual T-shirts:

Catherine Zask used Indian ink and with rough gestural brushstrokes spelled the name T Y P O T H E Q U E. The simplicity and brutal power of black and white makes this type composition an intriguing and powerful image.

http://www.typotheque.com/tshirts/catherine_zask

Irma Boom used the recurring theme of her work, and created a ‘colour bar code’, of her favourite colours. Printed in 5 colour silkscreen on Navy blue t-shirts.

http://www.typotheque.com/tshirts/irma_boom

Karel Martens revisited his Mecano games on the t-shirt spelling T 10 made from a single Mecano part.

http://www.typotheque.com/tshirts/karel_martens

Max Kisman used his signature style to reduces complex symbols to its most minimal form, spelling our number 10 as a result.

http://www.typotheque.com/tshirts/max_kisman

All t-shirts cost €30.