Estúdio Lógos

A very specific graphic design was devised for this catalogue of visual artist sesper.

sesper creates collages in a range of mixed materials, techniques and procedures that are saturated with information—glued cutouts from books and magazines, snatches of drawing and painting, bits of stapled wood, nailed-on traffic signs and all sorts of electronic trash...

he also produces small publications, such as zines and booklets, etc.

The fact that he self-publishes suggested that we explored the form of the book as an object, while the characteristic visual quality of his work led to an original binding solution—the book is hole-punched and bound with aluminum wire, visible on the left-hand side of the cover (shown here).

To avoid having single works displayed on double-page spreads spoiled by the binding, we opted for an accordion book format, with the first and last panels longer than the others and perforated with punch holes.

as a result, the two inner pages open as a continuous spread, with only a fold to tell them apart.

on the right is the first spread in the book, featuring the introductory text in portuguese.

each accordion has 6 panels, i.e., two double-page spreads and two single-leaf pages.

the first accordion contained the introductory texts in portuguese and english, while the second ran a series of photos from the ‘rejected’ exhibition held at galeria logo in 2013.

the photo on the right shows the division between the second and third accordion spreads, which feature the first works. The single-leaf pages were used for details and captions.

the 3 pictures on the right are details from the work on the following page (below).

The format of continuous double-page spreads (225 x 300 mm) was designed to suit that of most of the artist’s works, so they could be presented in full-page images, without any clutter

On the following page, another example of a continuous double-panel unit.

here is the division between this first works accordion and the next one, with photographic details and the captions for the previous (upper page) and following (lower page) works.

all the rest of the book fits this same system.

as the aluminum wire is flexible, the book can be unbound and re-bound with ease.

the backs of the opened accordions form large, tripartite black-and-white reproductions from one of sesper’s sketchbooks, showing works in progress and the artist’s method for sorting materials.

this montage reveals the book’s production form: 18 accordions measuring 960 x 225 mm printed in groups of three on 1000 x 700 mm sheets.

Back to the cover—seen here unbound and opened out. it was conceived of as a sort of cannibalistic ‘revenge’ of design against sesper.

the artist uses a wealth of material drawn from modern graphic design in his collages, which dilute order in a sea of chaos. besides magazines, he uses advertising, record covers, details from manuals and technical tomes, generally employing a clean, modern typography.

we were ‘victims’ of such feasting ourselves: the blue area on the right-hand side of the cover was made out of calendars produced by nu.

as such, squeezing sesper’s work into the modern typography of the cover was our way of devouring back what he had devoured from us.

bamboo published a small note on the book, which you can read here.

you can buy the book here.