TYPO Talks » Blog Archiv » TYPO meets design from Poland

We will kick off with Grzegorz Laszuk. He is a graphic designer, poster maker, organizer of urban cultural events, a film director, activist, and the boss of Książki+Strony Studio. He produces for the Centre For Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, TR Warsaw, the National Philharmonics and the Nationalmuseum in Warsaw, and is the director of komuna/warszawa, a renowned, independent theatre group in Poland.

»Why I killed the Polish poster school« is his confession in the form of a musical revue on Friday, at noon, in the TYPO Hall.

← Poland’s most well-known poster designer and theatre group director, Grzegorz Laszuk, allows us an entertaining look at his life and work.

Then Jacek Utko will hit the stage. Jacek Utko is a newspaper, magazine and web designer and has redesigned dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites in Poland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Austria, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Pakistan. Newspapers are not his only area of interest; some of his other projects include the redesign of Lonely Planet travel guides in Australia. At TYPO he will explores the question what forms an outstanding newspaper design.

Rene Wawrzkiewicz is not only the curator of our Design Special, he is also the founder and curator of the Graphic Knowledge Fair, the first Polish festival for graphic design, and co-founder of the only Polish association of graphic designers.

← Poster of the Freedom Design show, a travelling exhibition curated by Rene Wawrzkiewicz and Agata Szydłowska.

With Agata Szydłowska he established the Design Criticism Studio, the first Polish think tank dealing with design culture in Central Europe. Agata Szydłowska will open the TYPO Design Special Poland on Saturday at 11 a.m. Under the title of Patriots or hipsters? New places of Polish graphic design she will present current trends and approaches in the industry.

A typographer born and bred will follow: Marian Misiak studied typography in Warsaw and Reading, and worked for Neville Brody. Misiak will look back at Polish typography in the Communist era.

Typography in Poland: History and trends in Communist Poland and beyond. A report by Marian Misiak on the TYPO Stage.

Aleksandra Mizielińska & Daniel Mizieliński have received several awards for their series of children’s books, on architecture, design and art. Their Warsaw-based studio designs sumptuously made publications which include hand-drawn fonts and web games. A soft crossover from the analogue into the digital world and back is the focus.

Have received numerous prizes for their children’s book designs: Aleksandra & Daniel Mizieliński

What used to be Communism is retro chic today. The fashion label and publishing house PanTuNieStał has revived Fajne Chlopaki’s graphic style with retro motifs of the visual and linguistic culture of the Polish Communist era. The t-shirts of the company from Łódź, former home of the textile industry, have become cult. Justyna Burzyńska & Maciej Lebiedowicz have turned their hobby into a genuine enterprise, including an outlet, and one of the trendiest fashion and design labels in Poland.

PanTuNieStał, fashion label and publishers, sell t-shirts with retro motifs inspired by Fajne Chlopaki’s graphic style. The brand is becoming an international hit, too.

For “Jak jsem potkal dábla” Honza Zamojski received the bronze medal of the 2011 Leipzig Book Fair competition for “The most beautiful book in 2010”. Zamojski is a co-founder of the STARTER Association and Gallery (2005-2010) and currently the director of his independent publishing house MORAVA. At TYPO Honza will talk about his three-year experience publishing artists’ books, and will describe the organisation, management and expansion of a small publishing house.

Awarded the Leipzig Book Fair Bronze Medal for the “Most Beautiful Book of the World”: Zamojski’s “Jak jsem potkal dábla” (How I met the Devil)

Piotr Rypson, university professor and research director of the National Museum in Warsaw, will conclude the »Design Special: Poland«. Rypson’s monograph about grapic design in Poland from 1919 – 1949 (Against all Odds, Karakter, 2011) has attracted international attention. Rypson is an excellent observer of the development, roots and trends of contemporary design in Poland.