first cuts –
harald f. müller
öhningen, 2013

the book is upside-down, turned-around, topsy-turvy. in a word, it’s all mixed up. 

here, top is bottom, back is front, it’s all twisting and turning. the numbers look like they’ve been scattered randomly about the margins, the images – all of them – are tipped at right angles to the text. and the text is set in a wild and crazy way. why? is this art’s intrinsic anarchy breaking through into book design? not at all. In fact this wild (dis)order is coolly calculated – everything’s in its place. type, image and text are one – inter-related, equally valued, forming a unity. 

 

the mono images are printed twice for extra depth. a limited edition was produced with the artist harald f. müller in which 120 uncut printed cover sheets were painted by hand before being bound and trimmed to the book blocks. this process generated new and unique cover designs: first cuts.  

projectdata

client: 

harald f. müller 

 

project team: 

carolin himmel (project management) 

angela klasar 

andreas uebele 

 

editors: 

gerd blum 

johan f. hartle 

 

text: 

gerd blum 

mike guyer 

johan f. hartle 

harald f. müller 

 

publisher: 

lars müller publishers 

 

principal typeface: 

monotype grotesque 

 

photo: 

daniel fels (1) 

mats kubiak (2–13) 

 

18 × 24 cm 

192 pages 

35 monochrome images 

paperback 

ISBN 978-3-03778-408-2  

english / german 

eur 32.00 / usd 42.00 / gbp 27.00 

 

awards

german design award 2015, nominee