Atlas of Graphic Designers

Job:01254 Title: Atlas of graphic designers (Rockport)

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8 Introduction

Job:01254 Title: Atlas of graphic designers (Rockport)

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Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands

Aachen, Germany

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Ancona, Italy

Angers, France

Arendal, Norway

Arnhem, The Netherlands

Athens, Greece

Auckland, New Zealand

Augsburg, Germany

Baboul, Niger

Baoding, China

Barcelona, Spain

Barendrecht, The Netherlands

Barranquilla, Colombia

Bath, UK

Baton Rouge (La.), USA

Beijing, China

Beirut, Lebanon

Belgrade, Serbia

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands

Bergen, Germany

Bergen, Norway

Berlin, Germany

Besançon, France

Blerick, The Netherlands

Bloomfi eld Hills (Mich.), USA

Bogotá, Colombia

Boston, USA

Boulogne-Billancourt, France

Bowen Island, Canada

Breda, The Netherlands

Bregenz, Austria

Mapping Contemporary Graphic Design

“Finally the journey leads to the city of Tamara. One enters the city

through streets which are fi lled with insignia protruding from the walls.

The eye only sees images of things which mean other things… Your

gaze scans the streets as though they were written pages: the city says

everything that’s in your mind, it makes you repeat its message… What

the city is really like under this tight cover of signs, what it holds and

what it conceals is never unveiled as you leave Tamara without having

found out…”

Italo Calvino. Invisible Cities.

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Job:01254 Title: Atlas of graphic designers (Rockport)

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Introduction 9

Job:01254 Title: Atlas of graphic designers (Rockport)

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Bremen, Germany

Breslau, Poland

Brighton, UK

Brisbane, Australia

Bristol, UK

Brno, Czech Republic

Bucaramanga, Colombia

Bucharest, Romania

Budapest, Hungary

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Campobasso, Italy

Cape Town, South Africa

Caracas, Venezuela

Chengdu, China

Chicago, USA

Ciudad Quezón, Philippines

Clermont-Ferrand, France

Cologne, Germany

Columbus (Ohio), USA

Copenhagen, Denmark

Culebra, Puerto Rico

Curitiba, Brazil

Denpasar, Indonesia

Dijon, France

Dortmund, Germany

Drammen, Norway

Dubrovnik, Croatia

Duisburg, Germany

Durban, South Africa

Düsseldorf, Germany

Eagle Rock (Calif.), USA

Edam-Volendam, the Netherlands

Edinburgh, Scotland

Edmonta, Canada

An atlas is traditionally a book of maps – cartography. It is a system of

projections that reinterprets a space and provides possible routes. This

Atlas of Graphic Design is an invitation to travel, to explore the territory

of current graphic design by way of a selection of outstanding graphic

work carried out over the last decade around the world. It is a compilation

which covers the diversity of areas apparent today in the fi eld of graphic

design – taking the town, production, and consumption as a starting

point. It is a panoramic vision which invites us to consider the possible

relations that exist between design and the context in which it has been

produced.

In the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century we are witnessing how

cities are re-establishing themselves as centers of power. In a sort of

medieval – course and recourse – turn, we can see how the idea of the

“city” is reaffi rmed above that of nation-state and thus retakes its former

status of world-city, of cosmogony, of a center which generates signs and

feelings. The contemporary city unfurls itself before us like a book, a

space full of information and codes whose interpretation determines our

comprehension of reality and which acquires form, generally, as a result

of graphic design.

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