Ontwerpplatform
Our Polite Society
Our Polite Society is een grafisch ontwerpbureau in Amsterdam en Stockholm, in 2008 opgericht door Jens Schildt en Matthias Kreutzer, na hun studie aan de Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam en de Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht. In nauwe samenwerking met hun opdrachtgevers en met aandacht voor typografie, structuur en methodiek, ontwerpen ze typografische identiteiten, boeken, tijdschriften, posters, tentoonstellingen, platenhoezen en websites. Voor Het Nieuwe Instituut ontwierpen ze de grafische identiteit van de tentoonstelling Prix de Rome.
Prix de Rome
Deze tentoonstelling presenteerde het werk van de acht genomineerden voor de Prix de Rome Architectuur 2014. Acht (landschaps)architecten en stedenbouwkundigen bogen zich over een fictieve opdracht, gesitueerd in het gebied waar de Hoogstraat en de Binnenrotte in Rotterdam elkaar kruisen.
Our Polity Society: "The starting point for the exhibition design for Prix de Rome 2014 is the Roman Capitalis Monumentalis or Quadrata letter, which owes aspects of its shape to architectural applications. The letters were chiseled into stone, with serifs at the end of each stroke as a result. The construction of the letters follows basic geometric principles: they are drawn on a square matrix, that's why it's called Quadrata. We started drawing a font on a similar matrix, to see how a digital version of the Quadrata could look like. To emphasize the idea of the serifs, we followed the angle of the serifs all the way in the diagonals of the letters. This results in extremely wide letters, for example A, V and W. This is the font which was used for titling, to write PRIX DE ROME and the names of the participants of the exhibition.
Together with Bart Guldemond, we developed a system of panels which are either leaning against the wall, or are attached to a structure which is built around the walls. The panels display information about Prix de Rome, and archive material relating to the theme of the exhibition. The panel-structure is interrupted by 8 platforms where the architectural proposals were presented. Within this system, the title-lettering is fragmented by the format of the panels, creating a rhythm by varying the distance in between."