I spent the winter of 2024 in a studio in Utrecht, surrounded by nothing but black tape, primary-colored paper, and a steel ruler. The brief was deceptively simple: design a visual identity for a new architecture journal using only rectangles and three colors. What I discovered in those six weeks dismantled everything I thought I knew about visual communication.
The Tyranny of the Curve
We are taught that beauty lives in the curve — in the arch, the spiral, the organic form. But curves are nature’s default. They require no decision, no intention. A rectangle, by contrast, is a deliberate act of will. Every right angle is a choice to impose order on chaos, to declare that the hand of the maker is present in the work.
The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel.
— Piet Mondrian, 1942