We are happy to announce, that we are now able to save our international customers the Austrian VAT. This is possible thanks to the Reverse Charge System (Sec. 19 (1), Sec. (1a) and (1b) VAT Act 1994).

Only business customers can benefit from this advantage. EU customers need to supply a valid VAT ID.

This guy called Michael Hockleitner seems to have won a TDC award for his typeface called – now hold on – also Ingeborg! What the hell? Does anyone know this guy?

This is as far as I know the first appearance of our typefaces on skin. My dear friend and colleague Dan Rhatigan (London, UK) decided to have Ingeborg Block’s 2 as a tattoo on his right biceps.

Austria’s one and only Hip-Hop magazine The Message received a delightful redesign by Benjamin Buchegger and Oliver Hofmann. They converted a greasy teenager magazine into something stylish but elegant. The text typeface of their choice is Premiéra. We very much like what they did!

Our charming colleagues from the West, Zeughaus, had the opportunity do design the most important poster design competition there is – 100 beste Plakate Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz. One reason that this project is so great, is that the guys from Zeughaus combine humor and professionalism in a good way. The other reason is, that they used Ingeborg for the whole thing.

Besides a mailing, the website and several smaller printing matter they design this lovely book.

Oliver, thank you for sending us these awesome goods. My heart already jumped when I saw the packaging!

June 21 the first TypeTalks symposium took place in Brno, Czech Republic.

I was invited to do a lecture for this purpose and I was happy to do so. 

Czech type design hero and organizer David Březina did a great job. The one-day symposium including further lecturers like Dan Reynolds, Veronika Burian, Florian Hardwig, Rob Keller, Dan Rhatigan and Tomáš Brousil was a full success for my taste. I can therefor only encourage everyone living anywhere close to the Czech Republic not to hesitate, when David is calling for the next TypeTalks in (most likely) 2012.

David, thanks for having us.

Learn more about TypeTalks at typetalks.com or read this article by Florian Hardwig

Fortunate as we are, Lenzing Papier has confidence in us. Thanks to that we enjoy a lot of freedom to be creative. And since we are often referred to as the “young wild” we try to live up to our name. At our last big meeting with CEO Ernst Brunbauer, we brainstormed for their new recycling copy paper range. For other products we used motifs from nature and animal life, but for the office paper we wanted real people. So what’s the result of copy plus people? Yeah, funny faces!

We had a lot to laugh at the shooting. Thanks again to Susanne, Lena and Maggie. We’re very happy with the first two papers. And there will be more!

For me, one of the most touching moments of Typo Berlin 2010 was the lecture of Julian Zimmermann and Togbui Ngoryifia Kosi Olatidoye Céphas Bansah, king of Ghana. Julian did a new corporate design for the majesty, who – absurdly – lives in Friedrichshafen am Rhein, Germany.

They told the story about the king’s life, his work in Germany, his royal duties in Ghana and they showed the design process of the new visual identity. Read in detail at Typo Berlin Blog. 

Really charming and important to mention is the signature of King Bansah. He does not write his name as the most of us (more or less), no, he draws a symbol – expressing him as a person, a character, an african king. He starts with vertical lines, displaying his legs/him, ten loops for the ten tribes, big circles portraying him and his family. Then loops for activity on the right, diminishing in size, ending in his lifeline.

I was so impressed by that, so I accepted the pain I had to go through, while being sandwiched between fifty others, to get one of that emotionally laden signatures. He tried to draw the Typejockeys logo, but I think he abandoned after the p. : )

See and read more about the king and support his social engagement: www.koenig-bansah.de

On May 30 the book typeface family Premiéra received a silver medal by the European Design Awards 2010. The European Design Awards, also known as the ED-Awards, are annual awards presented to European designers for outstanding work in the communication design field.

This is the second mayor price for one of our typefaces after the TDC Award for Ingeborg in march.

Get more information on the European Design Awards at www.europeandesign.org