"We sought to find a visual language that could embody the unique traces of his art."—Gustavo Pique, design director
Creating an art catalog is probably every designer's dream. But when quantity and budget are limited and the art in question is somewhere between sculpture and installation, you're in for quite the creative challenge. That's the situation that the team at Brazilian design studio Casa Rex faced when crafting an art catalog for that country's Rodrigo Sassi. They ended up taking their inspiration from the art itself, using substantial materials and a unique perspective along the way.
The catalog is on the brief side—just 20 pages featuring photographs of Sassi's work—and simply printed offset 4/4 color, but...on a 65-lb. cover stock, making it feel quite substantial—not unlike the artist's sculptures. The pages were then saddle stitched. And here is the fabulous twist to this catalog.
A super-thick cardstock—88 pt. to be precise—was diecut with the unique and recurrent shape of Sassi's works of art, cut 5/8” (1.5 cm) shorter than the catalog, and mounted onto the actual piece. The cardboard was literally used to create a 'window' into the art. Another piece of equally thick cardboard on the back of the catalog rounds out the piece. The final touch: a custom rubber stamp that adds the artist's name to the cover.
Casa Rex created a very stunning, substantial and memorable piece that offers us a window into one artist's unique vision.
Sabine Lenz is the founder of PaperSpecs.com, the first online paper database and community specifically designed for paper specifiers.
Growing up in Germany, Sabine started her design career in Frankfurt, before moving to Australia and then the United States. She has worked on design projects ranging from corporate identities to major road shows and product launches. From start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, her list of clients included Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG.
Seeing designers struggle worldwide to stay current with new papers and paper trends inspired Sabine to create PaperSpecs, an independent and comprehensive Web-based paper database and weekly e-newsletter. She is also a speaker on paper issues and the paper industry. Some refer to her lovingly as the "paper queen" who combines her passion for this wonderful substrate called paper with a hands-on approach to sharing her knowledge.