How one school changed the world forever
The latest issue of Printed Pages celebrates the legacy of Bauhaus — the art school founded 100 years ago in Weimar Germany by architect Walter Gropius. Telling the story of how one school “changed the world forever”, this edition explores the way Bauhaus instilled faith in a generation of makers and thinkers that creativity could be a way to conquer borders, between both countries and disciplines.
As ever, this bi-annual publication is a curated view of the best work seen by renowned design website It’s Nice That in the past six months. A lush, satisfyingly thick publication, this edition features Texan musicians, a creative “boot-camp”, and a photo-editorial of American teenagers with their firearms. Most urgently, Printed Pages calls on the legacy of Bauhaus to ask a question: in our current tumultuous political climate, can we find hope in the principle of creativity?
The It’s Nice That editorial team talked us through the issue via their five favourite images.
“This image is taken from our cover feature celebrating 100 years of the Bauhaus. As well as unpacking what we can learn from the institution to apply to today’s tumultuous socio-political landscape, we spoke to graphic designer Sascha Lobe about his work designing the identity for the Bauhaus Archiv, and how he channeled its enduring impact. Based on our conversation, we worked with Lobe to produce a trio of covers which showcase a few of the 550+ glyphs that make up his font Bayer Next.”
“This striking image is part of Sharif Hamza’s series Young Americans. A British photographer, Hamza travelled throughout America documenting an array of teenagers who shoot guns for sport. An eye-opening and somewhat divisive series, this image, in particular, stood out to us due to its extreme juxtapositions: a girl young enough to carry her toy wherever she goes, with a shotgun held confidently by her side.”
“During the summer of 2018, we headed to Offenbach to spend a week at Eike König’s revered — and free — boot camp for budding creatives, After School Club. Offering a series of workshops including VR sculpting and how to embrace melancholia in your work, this camp has everything a design student could ever need: from top-quality equipment, to advice from industry-leaders.”
“In this feature, we caught up with Texan musician, artist, and Grammy nominee A. Savage — best known for his role in American rock-indie band Parquet Courts, he also creates the group’s artwork. This image makes our list of favourites from the issue as it typifies the fascinating dual career the New York-based creative has carved out for himself; comfortably straddling both music and art.”
“Every year, we highlight the most exciting students graduating from all creative courses, and this year Alva Skog was one of the illustrators included in the line-up. Originally from Sweden, Skog’s work caught our eye because of its distinctive style, characterised by bright, vivacious colours, oversized hands, shrunken heads and always strong, powerful female or genderless characters. This image which she created for our International Women’s Day Instagram brief, is both energetic and touching, full of life and colour.”
