• What first drew the two of you to graphic design, and how did your earliest experiences shape your practice?
  

We both loved drawing and writing as kids, inventing fantasy alphabets or drawing our favorite logos, whether it was the Wu-Tang Clan or Chicago Bulls. I convinced my parents to buy me a crisp white Chicago Bulls t-shirt, without knowing much about basketball at that time, but I was obsessed with their logo. We both shared a fascination with typography, clarity of space, and how visual form can shape meaning. Early flyers for club events taught us about constraints such as budgetary restrictions and the importance of economy of means, but also about the freedom that comes from working within limits.

• Can you describe the first commissioned project you took on after university? What made it memorable, and which decision made it work?

One of the most memorable and formative projects after university was the poster and exhibition identity for the double exhibition “!Mediengruppe Bitnik / Christian Waldvogel” at Helmhaus Zurich in 2013. The connecting element in the poster is the circle—the lens of a surveillance camera, a pinhole, a sphere, a planet or the structure of a cell—placed in pitch darkness and framed by an elusive glow. Matter and space become undefined and open. As both exhibitions presented and documented a process, the sloppy setting of the textual layer, which was derived from HTML word wrap with inelegant hyphenation of names and locations, became an irritating disruption, emphasizing a state of flux. It was formative in the way that we used a very early sketch of our typeface Monument Grotesk, which was released by Dinamo five years later.

• What was challenging about communicating with clients at the very start? Did anything surprise you?

To talk about money and value has been, and still is, challenging after all the years.

• How does the Jungle Books project fit into your practice? What space does it give you that other projects don’t?
  

As book designers we are considerate about the aesthetic, structural and functional aspects of a book, but the role of design also involves a responsibility for content. We became interested in the direct discourse with artists, the origination of ideas emerging from joint conversations and observations. We started to approach artists whose work we found fascinating and exciting to find a possible translation into the medium book. Thus, to create a material space for a personal and almost intimate fascination was our motivation to become a publisher.

• Your work stands out in black & white. How do you navigate an ever-changing visual landscape with something so timeless? What inspired you to stick with it?
  

We often limit the palette to force clarity of form. When color is needed we do use it, but we always want the architecture of the design to hold up on its own. 

• Are there any studio rituals, habits, or rules that help guide your work?
  

We always print, even the roughest drafts. Holding it in your hands and seeing it off the screen changes the way you notice space, proportion, and detail.

• When you need clarity or support in your creative practice, is there anyone or anything you always turn to?
  

To each other.

• Is there a rule or convention you always break, and why?
  

That typography must always be perfectly readable. We believe design should provoke thought and reveal something beyond the obvious. Perhaps a bit like solving a puzzle. Once you see it, you can't unsee it and that feeling makes you become an active part of the conversation. 

• When a new brief lands, what’s the very first decision you make together?
  

Usually it starts off with breaking down the timeline.

• Looking back, was there a small setback or near-miss that taught you a big lesson early on?
  

Failure has always been part of every process, but the biggest lesson was learning that by allowing failure into the process, we allow experiment and from that new ideas, emotions and realities emerge.

• Where do you see yourselves evolving next?
  

We would love to dedicate more time to drawing and developing typefaces. It’s something that, between all editorial projects, oftentimes gets sidelined.