Don’t Believe the Type

Don’t Believe the Type was established as an alternative to existing design festivals. At the time, such festivals were either incredibly expensive, too far away or very traditional, especially when focused on typography. Don’t Believe the Type (DBTT) was an opportunity for inhabitants of the The Hague and surrounding areas to meet other creatives, learn from and be inspired by international leading talents and have some fun, all at an affordable price.

Coinciding with the Ship of Fools gallery (also initiated and run by the studio) the festival featured lectures, workshops and exhibitions. The first edition took place in 2010 in The Hague, after which the festival was invited to the Shanghai World Expo in the same year. For the third and final edition, DBTT returned to The Hague in 2011.

Each edition centred on typography but pushed different themes. The final edition focused on sign painting and following this theme the identity used the talents of traditional Dutch sign painting, cheese signs. In cheese shops across the country and even into Belgium and Germany, hand painted signs adorn the various types of cheeses in thick, black lettering. All the promotion and signage for Don’t Believe the Type 2011 was hand painted by the actual, original cheese shop owner who made this practice notorious.

Don’t Believe the Type has hosted:

Luca Barcellona, Job Wouters, Yomar Augusto, Alex Trochut and Martijn Sandberg, 44 Flavours, Alina Günter, Alex Trochut, Alex Purdy, Andy Rementer, Autobahn, Chris Piascik, Daan Knirim, Hansje van Halem, Janno Hahn, Job Wouters, Jonathan Looman, Lennard Schuurmans, Luca Barcellona, Marta Cerdà Alimbau, Martijn Sandberg & Underware.

Social Signals

Social signals are used everyday. By ‘liking’ and ‘tweeting’ social media indicates our interests. In 110 flags the Social Signals of Valkenberg Park in Breda are presented as a collaboration between Graphic Design Festival Breda and Trapped in Suburbia. The project explores how the park can be seen as a reflection of society. Information was gathered about the different ways in which Breda’s main park was used by city dwellers. Vakenberg Park is a main artery through the city as everyone has to pass through it on their way to the central station or city centre. In the summer months the park becomes a leisure staple for Breda’s residents. As the park is so widely used by many different people it becomes a micro-society. The data gathered about the park explores how this society functions. Social Signals gives a visual representation of the collected data. The flags are positioned throughout the park and show how important the park is for the city. The flags were also part of the I Love Breda exhibition in the Museum of the Image.

Diligentia Theater

Humour is not always universal. Different people find different things funny yet this poster campaign for comedy theatre Diligentia had to be humorous for many people. Reminded of childhoods spent drawing on photos in gossip magazines this seemed a common experience. This campaign takes that idea to the streets.

Using a portrait of the theatre director a simple poster was designed and printed. Colleagues, fellow designers, friends and students were then invited to join in with the fun. Just like those magazines the posters were customised into unique designs. Over 150 different posters were created and displayed around The Hague.