OUGD502 - Creative Report - Ficciones Typografika

An article on ItsNiceThat described this project by Erik Brandt as being one of the 'best curated exhibitions around' despite the fact that it appears on the side of a garage in Minneapolis. Ficciones Typografika began in 2013. This was a new project for Brandt which was dedicated to public exploration of both applied and experimental subject matter. He constructed a 72" x 36" poster board, which can host three 24" x 36" posters at a time himself and attached it to the outside of his studio. The project has it's own Tumblr, Ficciones Typografika, where Brandt posts the recent updates of the ever changed, fluid 'exhibition space'. He pastes the imagery that he receives using wheat paste, a simple adhesive still used to put up fly posters on walls. 

The initial works that featured on the wall were extensions of an earlier project by Brandt, he soon began sending out invitations to designers and artists all over the world, encouraging collaboration and participation with the project. 

I find this concept very exciting and inspiring. I really like Brandt's open minded approach to displaying and championing artwork/visual communications. This platform for creatives is rarely found in such an accessible format. I would definitely jump at the opportunity to have my work featured on the wall, and this is something I would love to ask Erik about once a conversation has been established via email. 


Brandt describes the project in an interview: I have been working in this vein both as a designer and as an educator for many years. At the beginning of this project, I was simply thinking of creating a space for personal work but that idea changed as I was actually building the exhibition board. It occurred to me that it would be similar to the blog I used to run (geotypografika), just much more dynamic and engaging. the notion that the space would exist in pubic as well as digitally was also attractive. I liked the idea of inviting digital fictions, and making them real. the first posters were some of my original ficciones typografika and I simply started writing to people who’s work I admired and asked them to contribute. thankfully, the response was really strong and the project started to gain momentum. the decision to open it up publicly came almost spontaneously, and the response has been immensely gratifying.