ABOUT
Typogaráž is an alternative space for contemporary type design, typography and book design, combining gallery space, laboratory, offering various workshops and events in a mentioned field. Typogaráž wants to fill the gap in exhibiting, experimenting, discussing and thinking about book design, type design, typography and graphic design of publications and printed matter. Another aim is to inform the public about the areas of production they encounter, but which they do not have the awareness about. Typogaráž will introduce new typefaces and books, organize talks and masterclasses, discussions and typo-parties. There are various reasons why we find the place of a garage suitable. First of all, we want to recycle and revitalize public spaces that are not used anymore. Secondly, we see a strong connection between DIY that is strongly connected to garages and a detailed work of type designers, typographers, and designers.
We are open during the events.
THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT:
UPCOMING EVENTS
29th SEPTEMBER 2023, 18:00
LECTURE & INSTALLATION
BY TAKE TAKE TAKE (CZ)
Take Take Take, an independent publishing house operating from Prague, was founded by graphic designer Nikola Janíčková and illustrator Jindřich Janíček (the similarity of surnames is not a coincidence). They do beautiful books together and their portfolio consists of books for children, little-known or almost forgotten classics and literary gems, comic books, work of young promising new voices of Czech literature, books on running, or even things like illustrated constitution or books of historical photography by unknown, anonymous photographers. Both vivid creators working besides TTT on many projects of their own, they managed to not only run the publishing house but for a brief (but legendary) time also the bookstore (which we miss very much). The focus of their talk will be on living and working together.
(The lecture will be in Czech.)
The Q&A and aftertalk will be moderated by Robert Finkei & Michal Baláž.
29th SEPTEMBER 2023
PROJECT PRESENTATION
BY ROBERT FINKEI (SK/NL)
Robert Finkei is actively involved in digital product design and type design projects. Currently, he is launching a type foundry called Contextype in collaboration with Michal Chrastina. Robert is based in Amsterdam, NL where he graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Academy. He was also part of the launching event, installation, and presentation in Typogaráž (vol. 1), providing some of the funniest insights into cantinas of graphic design universities around Europe.
He will present his ongoing research on the connection between UX (User Experience) and type design. In the project, he looks at UX design methods and explores the ways of their application in the type design process. The objective of UX Typography is to develop fonts that are more inclusive and user-oriented.
SOUND BY ALICA VOLF
Alica Volf plays as a DJ and forms one-third of the techno project NDS, in which she shapes noise effects using software tools Pure Data and VCV Rack. In her solo project, she tries to experiment more and create sound collages that resonate in space.
https://soundcloud.com/alice-volf/tracks
21st OCTOBER 2023, 18:00
LECTURE & INSTALLATION
BY ATELIER BRENDA (BE)
Who is Brenda? For us, the generation raised in the nineties, the firsthand answer is the cheeky female half of probably the most famous pop culture twins in the history of TV. But not this BRENDA. Consisting of two female graphic designers Nana Esi and Sophie Keij, this BRENDA is a graphic studio and atelier based in Belgium and focused on the interactions, intersections, and penetrations between things and phenomena verifiable by the senses and subconscious. Their work is infused and tinted by zeitgeist, nostalgia, role play, method acting & tradition, and their general themes list consists of topics like spatial design, playful typography, dreams, spirituality, experience, and many more.
(The lecture will be in English.)
SOUND BY KODIKI
after the talk
Suddenly – Kodiki is everywhere. And it is good that way. This energized soundmaker is one of the most visible and vital forces on the Slovak club scene. According to the brief text borrowed from Sensorium web: “A performer with an eclectic range from futuristic ambient to jersey club to fragments of jungle, nightcore, and others.” (End of plagiarism.) His sound is rave and big, his energy is addictive and unstoppable and his music is surprising and just cool. He will fill our 16 square meters of Typogaráž with grandeur and flare!
PAST EVENTS
23rd APRIL 2022, 18:00
LECTURE & INSTALLATION
ASTRID SEME (AT)
FIGURES FOR DASHING
Dash. You know it. Every graphic designer has a quarrel with it. But what is it, exactly? And what else can it be? What can it represent? How does one use it properly? And is it necessary to use it only properly? Could it be perceived as an autonomous, independent figure?
Astrid Seme—graphic designer, art director, and author, active in a multitude of graphic design-oriented fields, genres, and practices, born in Graz, alumnus of University of Applied Arts Vienna and Werkplaats Typografie (Arnhem, NL), currently based in Vienna with her eponymous studio—examines the phenomenon of DASH in its full and complex depth (and width) in her experimental installation combining bold brushes of broad variations of dashes and sound recordings, both blending into a unique audio-visual exhibition of sound and space design.
From contemplative to mind-bending, philosophical to poetic—Seme’s insights into the dash is surprisingly versatile yet intimate. Neo-Malevichian black lines and inviting spoken word in juxtaposition form a minimalistic but intellectually and aesthetically challenging journey to the infinite land of typography’s enfant terrible of signs and figures.
Besides this dashing installation, Astrid will talk about her studio, works, practice, and experiences as a prolific graphic designer and artist.
(The lecture will be in English.)
NOISE BY JOE GLASS & EAZY FEE
Beware, this is not Philip Glass! Emerging from the Slovak graphic design scene, Joe Glass with his friend-in-sound Eazy Fee will play their techno-appropriation and dirty-electronica funtasies in their debut live performance and fear and floating improvisation. Be prepared for some graphic sounds and dirty noise. Their music is like their monikers: glass is tender material, but broken into shards it can cut you deep. It can be easy for your ears, but it can be strict and severe like a fee you need to pay in order to live. Dusty post-techno that needs to be handled with care.
https://soundcloud.com/user-32152943
7th MAY 2022, 18:00
LECTURE & INSTALLATION
RADEK SIDUN (CZ)
MANUAL OF DIACRITICS
He either loves, or hates, or both… but he definitely has some issues with diacritics. Without further ado: Radek Sidun is an expert on diacritics, its perils, specificities, idiosyncrasies, and manners. Radek graduated from UMPRUM (Prague, CZ) with a thesis which dealt with diacritics in world languages. Shortly after, he co-founded Briefcase Type Foundry and now he serves as teacher of typography, consultant to font designers, and is a member of editorial teams for publications, books (Typo 9010) and magazines (Komfort) focusing on typography. He has received several awards for his various projects, such as a Gold Medal at the European Design Awards 2013 and recentlythe Certificate of Typographic Excellence 2015 by Type Directors Club for BC News which he designed and edited. After years of diving into the deep waters of diacritics, UMPRUM published his book Manual of Diacritics last year. Using Radek words, his book “is a pictorial textbook which my students and I could have used on many occasions in the Type Design and Typography Studio at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. The Manual is intended for them, as well as for other type designers who I assume have knowledge of typeface structure and other requirements.”
(The lecture will be in Czech.)
https://manualofdiacritics.eu
https://www.briefcasetype.com
NOISE BY ONDREJ ZAJAC
Ondrej Zajac, besides being an architect and urbanist in his Dr. Jekyll mode, on the other side of his moon he is an experimental guitarist who moves between and explores unconventional fields of music. Spanning from ambient through minimalism to jazz with an unprecedented sense of unorthodox handling of his instrument, he bends, stretches, redevelops, and deepens its sound.
24 JULY 2021, 19.00
TALK & SLEEPOVER
ZUZANA KOSTELANSKÁ (SK/NL)
EDITORIAL DESIGN AS A TOOL TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.
Zuzana Kostelanská runs her practice for graphic design and typography in Amsterdam. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2018 and since then has worked with artists, curators, researchers, and designers, focusing mainly on printed matter and digital works. Since 2018 she has been working as a graphic designer for Warehouse—a place for clothes in context, an Amsterdam-based fashion platform that aims to create and facilitate a critical discourse that goes beyond treating fashion as a commodity. She works with and for Valiz, de Appel. Casco Art Institute, Onomatopee Projects, Corridor Project Space, etc. She is currently a visiting tutor at ArtEZ Arnhem.
Zuzana’s talk will revolve around a performance project, various works in and around printed matter, as well as other typographic and editorial endeavors she encounters as a graphic designer.
She will also present the results of her (and Typogaráž’s second) sleepover—the very unfamiliar yet popular format of two-day residencies at the garáž, where invited designers can do whatever she/he/they want in the and with the garage, as long as it is related to graphic and type design… in some way. (The talk will be in the English or the Slovak language depending on the audience.)
NOISE BY ORINOKO (CZ)
Orinoko (a.k.a. Adéla Konečná) spawns from soil and roots of the electronic scene of Olomouc. She moves smoothly and playfully between the fruitful fields of ambient electronica and IDM, spreading and reaching in exploratory ways to the borders of nu-house and club-infused post-rave with groove, that will unleash your imagination and move you both literally and figuratively. Her music will soften you, melt your outer shield, penetrate kindly into your mind and then pull your body on the dancefloor (no matter if the actual floor is pillow-like mushrooms-covered meadow or stark and dirty garage ground). Discover limits of your capability to tender-dance and rabid-meditate at the same time.
WORKSHOP (24.–26. JUNE)
TALK 26. JUNE 2021, 19.00
ANDREE PAAT & AIMUR TAKK (EST)
EXPERIMENTAL TYPE DESIGN EXPLORING THE NOTION OF “QUALITY” IN LETTERFORMS.
Andree Paat is a graphic and type designer who runs his own type foundry named Kirjatehnika, which in Estonian means something like “technique of writing”, but Google Translate translates it as “stationery” (papiernictvo), which is also fine for us. Fresh off his stint in type design at ECAL (Switzerland), Aimur Takk is a graphic and type designer just like Andree Paat. They know each other not only because they share a mutual interest in progressive design and experimental typography, but mostly because they are both from Estonia, and to our knowledge, everyone in Estonia knows each other—especially in the field of graphic design and typography. The outcome of their workshop will be displayed at Typogaráž on the evening of their talk. (The talk will be in the English language.)
For the workshop apply via email info@typogaraz.sk
https://www.kirjatehnika.ee
https://aimurtakk.tumblr.com
PERFORMANCE BY INFLAMED HEAD: STORIES OF THE INFLAMED HEAD
In the performance and video installation Stories of the Inflamed Head, Dorota Brázdovičová focused on the effects of the information pressure of the post-digital presence and its impact on mental and physical health. The phenomenon of a head-on fire indicates a state of a distracted mind, inner fragmentation, inability to concentrate, jumping from one activity to another. Procrastination, constant online activity, meaningless mental work. Overflowing with information content compares to overflowing with food. The process of digesting food works here as an analogy of digesting information, both of which require qualitative selection and the necessary time to process.
24. SEPT 2020, 19.00
TALK AND SLEEPOVER
KOMETA TYPEFACES (CZ)
I AM NOT FROM BRNO AND I AM NOT A HOCKEY FAN
Christian Jánský is really not from Brno and according to him, also not a hockey fan, which is exactly why he named his type foundry after the most legendary hockey club from Brno. A great mystifier, typography cynic, and most of all, a skilled and experienced designer, this sets the tone for his talk and one can only imagine the topics he will traverse and also the fruits of his sleepover—the very first of the series of mini-residencies at Typogaráž. (The talk will be in the Czech language.)
NOISE BY DOMINIK SUCHÝ
Dominik Suchý is Slovakia born but for a long time now around-the-world based electronic musician, composer, and producer, who makes and performs music as part of several projects (Weltschmertzen, Tittingur) but also under his own name. His solo act is more intimate and deeply personal and introspective dive into multilayered electronica ranging from dark and doom ambient, through drone and minimalist noise to experimental techno.
27. SEPTEMBER 2019, 19.00
EXHIBITION OPENING: THIS IS AN EXHIBITION ABOUT FIVE ASPECTS OF EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF STUDYING GRAPHIC DESIGN IN EUROPE AND IT TAKES PLACE IN A GARAGE, OKAY?
DISCUSSION WITH AUTHORS
LIVE MUSIC BY TYBOR A CHRASTINA
Tybor and chrastina is a boyduo, that you have probably never heard of. Unless you are from Trenčín, unless you like to go to chill to the riverside, unless you like to play hakis and you like mustard crisps. Because that’s where most probably the idea to start running experimental electronic music project was created. This project reaches exactly the scale and number of the audience that fits into one garage of a size 6×2 meters.
3. OCTOBER 2019, 19.00
KINOGARÁŽ
Guilty pleasure cinema in a garage! Secret selection of movies about cars, garages and auto mechanics selected and presented by Baláž. One of the possibilities for a garage is to become an underground cinema. One of the possibilities for an underground cinema is to screen guilty pleasure movies. One of the guilty pleasures of Baláž is cars. He doesn’t understand cars, cannot repair or take care about them, he is barely capable of driving one (as a mediocre driver obeying every rule and law), but he is fascinated by them as an objects of fetish, power tools, killing machines, representations of speed, freedom and escape. And therefore he loves movies with cars in them. And garage as a sacred place and temple of cars can be now also temple of movies.
17. OCTOBER 2019, 18.00
LECTURE: VARIABLE FONTS BY MARTIN PYŠNÝ
Bit of mathematics, bit of geometry and moving letters as a result. Come to get some new knowledge to this talk that is mainly for students.
24. OCTOBER 2019, 18.00
TALK: SCHOOL TYPE BY JÁN FILÍPEK AND MARTINA ROZINAJOVÁ
The current written script, which has been used in Slovak schools for almost 100 years without significant changes, is known to every teacher, pupil and parent. In a modern approach to teaching, however, it is reaching its limits: it is not suitable for left-handed as well as pupils with learning, reading and writing disorders. The current script is not digitized, which complicates the work of teachers and publishers in the preparation of teaching aids. For these reasons, we have digitized and modernized the school script together and adapted it to the left and pupils with learning disabilities. In order to make it easier for teachers, parents, graphic designers and publishers we decided to make our new school script available to everyone for free.
www.skolskepismo.sk
27. SEPTEMBER–15. NOVEMBER 2019
THIS IS AN EXHIBITION ABOUT FIVE ASPECTS OF EDUCATIONAL PROCESS OF STUDYING GRAPHIC DESIGN IN EUROPE AND IT TAKES PLACE IN A GARAGE, OKAY?
The exhibition focuses on typography and graphic design studies from a student’s point of view at different European universities. The exhibition describes and compares the whole process–starting with an assignment (in some cases self-developing of an assignment or a research area) ending by a result. The exhibition wants to analyze the factors that influence the student during his studies the most. The whole school (not only university) system is a long process that screws every student through. At the beginning of studies, every student starts more or less from the same position. The main goal is to name and investigate the differences of the processes at different universities offering typography and graphic design education. We have chosen five main keywords that influence the student while working on the assignment and that give structure to the exhibition: space, time, people, resources and methodology.
Exhibited works are the result of a selection made according to the answers to the questionnaire that we have sent to the students. Texts can be found in the exhibition catalogue.
CONTRIBUTORS:
Liza Borovskaya (Die Angewandte, Vienna), Cellophan magazine collective (Designskolen, Kolding), Laura Csocsán (Moholy-Nagy University, Budapest), Robert Finkei (Gerrit Rietvel Academie, Amsterdam), Andrej Barčák, Aurélia Garová, Michal Chrastina (VŠVU, Bratislava), Kristýna Krejčová (VUT, Brno), Matyáš Machat (UMPRUM, Prague), Hannah Sakai (Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem), Robert Radziejewski (University of Arts, Berlin), Matej Vojtuš (UMPRUM, Prague).
