In large public buildings graphic symbols, lettering and signs are often used to help people find their way around. In the case of the orientation system for the newly built Schendlingen School in Bregenz the designers of Atelier Gassner, a studio whose reputation has long spread outside the region, have succeeded in a coup. The signage here is made up two words placed prominently on the glass partition walls to important areas and rooms. However, these words do not simply stand beside each other, they run over each other. In addition they are connected by the cross-hatching called for by the building regulations in full-height glass walls to prevent people from walking into them. Out of these normative constraints Atelier Gassner has succeeded in generating a communicative and artistic added value. As you walk by these typographies, depending on the particular location one word or the other appears clearly legible, as if by magic, but in-between the interferences of the overlaid letters and lines create their own delightful, constantly new game. The signage outside the building varies this connection of cross-hatching and letters and interprets the graphical elements in the interior in a way that is appropriate to the materials used outdoors. The relief-like lettering is cast directly into the specially made exposed concrete parapet walls at the approaches to the building. Here the play of light and shadow creates a texture that changes during the course of the day. The focus is on the phenomenon that perception is always related to space and time. The submission by Atelier Gassner, which was chosen by a sizable margin in an ideas competition, convinced the jury above all through this lively game played with perception for a building in which conveying things worth knowing and seeing to around 600 children and young people is a main focus.

The Eine-Welt-Gruppe (One World Group) Schlins | Röns was set up with the aim of aiding people in the southern highlands of Tanzania and, together with them, taking steps towards the kind of development that makes careful use of resources, is close to nature and sustainable. Their goal is the development of communal organization structures for cooperation, self-determination and responsibility. The aim of the exhibition is to raise consciousness with regard to a theme that affects all of us but which we are all too happy to ignore. The basic concept for the exhibition is based on paperhanger tables, which are laid on the floor, used as tables or erected vertically and can then be folded together again like an oversized folder. The tables are an interesting size, measuring 70 cm wide and 300 cm long. At the back the frame is visible and resembles tangled branches or a fragile improvised construction. The exhibition is light, mobile and adaptable. The organigram of this development collaboration is a graphical leitmotif that provides user guidance for the entire exhibition. Each panel documents a single project in the form of brief, authentic, textual descriptions.

This book is more than just a corporate publishing project. On a total of 288 pages it not only shows the exciting results of work carried out over the last 20 years but also presents in a highly impressive way the paths and processes that led to these results. The book describes the work of the Atelier, which has achieved recognition beyond the region, along with the design approaches taken and the consistent orientation on the contents and the communication aims. The 15 projects presented illustrate spatial and graphic design that focuses on applied communication – book design and scenography, signage and facade graphics. The book itself is a testimony to the creative work. The cover recalls a concrete façade graphic design on the theme of skin and surface and surprises our perception in that it shows what first becomes visible through the relationship between two different surfaces. The challenge of presenting the medium book in a book is successfully met by, on the one hand, placing the illustrations on the pages almost as facsimiles so that, for the viewer, a further interference between reality and representation develops. On the other hand the “filmic” sequence of the wrap and the dramaturgy of the book’s design are shown at a single glance in miniature illustrations. The descriptions provide information about the various design approaches taken by the team, about interesting sources, and about different ways of engaging with the creative process. Alberto Alessi, Walter Bohatsch, Köbi Gantenbein, Otto Kapfinger and Roland Jörg wrote the accompanying texts. Architect Alberto Alessi writes in his essay: “The work of Atelier Gassner is a demonstration of this deeper spatial perception. The goal of their work is to convey a value and not just formal results.”

The first visit to the air-conditioned “strong-room” in the Stifts-archiv (monastery archive) of St. Gallen with the monastery archivist Peter Erhart was a very special moment. We encountered a fascinating organizational system with chests, drawers, boxes and portfolios for artistically made cards and documents, which may only be handled by those wearing gloves. Then there were the books in the full-height shelving – with the appropriate respect we took down the handwritten originals and the first examples of printed material. The books are medium size, not constrained by any kind of current day standardization, in bindings made of fantastic materials, cardboard, linen and leather. The thread-stitched, hand-bound books could be easily opened and the individual details of the binding conveyed a great understanding of functionality. We were surprised by the unusual form of the areas of text and the layout. In many cases pages were divided vertically in the middle, the outer columns were empty or used only marginally, whereas the columns of text that run into the gutter margin were covered from top to bottom with precise calligraphies in small lettering and with an animated but yet rhythmical expression. The archivist explained to us that this “half-page” system was adopted to leave room for later entries, commentaries and additions. Peter Erhart then showed us the finds that he had selected, which were to be the actual focus of this project: four original diaries kept by travelling monks. The two curators, Peter Erhart and Jakob Kuratli Hüeblin, wanted to present these rare documents of the Benedictine culture of travel to the public for the first time. They planned an exhibition in the culture space of the Stiftsarchiv, an exhibition catalogue and academic publications, with translations of the Latin texts into German and Italian. These diaries are about travels in southern Europe, which in those days were often undertaken by aristocrats, musicians and men of letters, in this case with a religious background and the appropriate travel goals: first of all Rome as a spiritual centre, then on to Naples, regarded at that time as the world’s most beautiful city. “Vedi Napoli e poi muori – Die Grand Tour der Mönche (“See Naples and Die – The Grand Tour of the Monks”), was the title of the project that refers to travels and life, the secular and the spiritual. Reinhard Gassner

The art book seems ethereal, as delicate as the artist’s abstract work cycles themselves. The reproductions on smooth but uncoated natural paper are restrained, they deliberately do not present any exaggerated contrasts. The book core begins and ends with a thin material, almost like tissue paper, which provides a fine tonal and tactile contrast to the rest of the paper. Its light transparency means that the large depictions of the drawings are overlaid polyphonically. The book cover is covered with gauze that is printed on the back. The cover image extends from the title across the spine to the back cover. It is a concept sketch for the biographical work “Einschnitte”. Opaqueness is consciously addressed, not just in the artist’s work or in the book core itself, but even on the cover.

The two-volume edition is based on the four original travel diaries of the St. Gallen monks, which had already been addressed in the exhibition describing the grand tour to Rome from the period 1696 – 1749. Whereas volume one deals with the entire journey of the four monks to Rome, volume 2 describes the stay in Rome and Naples as well as the return journey. Originally written in Latin, the diaries were translated into German and Italian. Facsimile pages of the diaries in the original size, printed on thin opaque paper, which are bound in the middle of the book, represent a bibliophile specialty. The columns of text are shifted towards the middle of the book forming a narrow gutter margin and leaving wide outer margins. The publishers commented upon and augmented the text lavishly with quotations, text references or full versions of names. In the volume “Itinera Italica I” we used a deep indigo blue as a decorative and distinction color, for “Itinera Italica II” a dark porphyry red. The hard covers are also lined with material in these colors. The handwritten pages of the diaries, which are printed with a low light-dark contrast, display a discretion that is intended as a reference to monastic secrecy – at the time only the abbot was initially allowed to read the diaries.

A book for practical work and information. The main focus is on the many years of experience that this builder in clay has acquired, organized according to the themes: floor, wall, opening, ceiling. These four chapters in the middle of the book are deliberately designed in black and white, structured by generously sized introductory pictures and axonometric plan drawings. The plans, which were produced especially for the book, play a leading role in the explanations. Thin strips running along the edges of the pages at different positions in the core book guide the reader. In the volume of the book itself the strips create a striking sectional image – in the list of contents they form thematically based pictograms. Colour illustrations surround the core content: a series of pictures of completed buildings at the front, photos of building processes and the workshop at the back. The horizontal texture of layers of rammed earth is cut into the dust cover. You feel tempted to run your finger across this image in order to make the cut paper and the lettering printed on it move. On the cover the tactile quality of this building material is both echoed and honoured.

This hard cover book, which has a transparent dust cover and printed on ecru-coloured natural paper documents building with wood as applied research: the new building Illwerke Zentrum Montafon. Alongside the end result it also presents the basis for and the development of the building; the achievement of the planners is given as much space as the completed building and even the cover puts the systematic before the naturalistic. Easily legible plan graphics, some of them on fold-out pages, are harmonized with each other in terms of scale and form an entity with further explanatory and diagram graphics. The text in German (Foundry Form serif) and English (Foundry Journal) is differentiated in typographical terms, the line wrapping is dense but at the same time generously formed.

Under this title the Stiftsarchiv St. Gallen presents an exhibition about the travel culture of the Benedictines. It offers a view of the monks’ surprising high level of mobility, and their interest in the language and culture of the south at a time when travelling was still an art. The objective is to structure the theme itself as well as the large amount of valuable exhibits (texts and images) and to present them scenographically in a space measuring 600m². The exhibition area is transformed into an urban space with lanes, corners, squares and interiors. The contents are structured and divided up between four boxes that you can walk into. At one and the same time they could be both containers for transport (outside) and studioli (inside) and are ascribed to the four thematic areas Peregrinatio, Instructio, Recreatio and Memorabilia. Essentially, the life of the pieces on display develops inside these boxes. Using specially developed patterns, colours and signets made up of initials the studioli are immersed in a baroque, semiotically charged atmosphere. The design work was preceded by research in the appropriate places and in Rome itself. The interplay between density and calm is developed in a way that is similar to the contrast between the travels of the monks and their usual life based on contemplation and stabilitas loci.

The contributions in this book deal with Lech as a place to live and an economic unit, with its natural setting and with the history and identity of the Walser people. The various authors were allowed to decide on the focal points of their contributions. The major design challenge lay in finding a uniform design framework for the scientifically-based contents and the variety of visual material. The strictly flush alignment of the double page ensures coherence. The generously sized edge column allows a variety of uses and provides the space needed for very different combinations of text and image. The Trinité family of fonts, a modern book antiqua by Bram de Does, determines the typography of the continuous text. For the marginalia and function texts Foundry Sans by David Quay and Freda Sack is used in a reduced size. The type design is differentiated and, despite the considerable density, can be read with comfort. The strict basic modulor is never a shackle but rather a support for an open book design that makes skilful used of the white area. The book core, which is worked through from the smallest detail to the large scale, is produced in excellent lithographic and print technique and finished and bound in a bibliophile manner. The book core is packed in a newly developed concept for the full linen front and back endpapers and in a dust jacket that can be “worn” on either side. It shows a photographic winter or summer motif from the Lech area, both of the same size.