Mainstudio

What is the story of your Mainstudio? Mainstudio is a graphic design studio and was founded by Edwin van Gelder in 2005. After studying graphic design at the art academy in Utrecht I started out as an ‘utopian’ designer by isolating myself from bigger studios and therefore avoiding working for corporate clients. I wanted to explore the possibilities for cultural commissioners while also charting my own interests, in order to get to know what assignments would suit my ideology as a designer. Once I got the opportunity to re-design Mark Magazine (Frame Publishers) I found my interest in architecture and after I started specialising myself working more and more with architectural systems where typography plays the fundamental role. The studio is situated in an old Amsterdam school style building from the 1920s in the south of the city. Nowadays I work with one or two intern(s) and sometimes with another designer. The current commissioners of the studio are mainly from the field of art, culture and architecture such as MoMa, IIT School of Architecture Chicago, Wiel Arets Architects, De School Amsterdam and nai010 Publishers.

How important is it to combine your work with your sensitivity? Do you think every project can merge with your signature? It is important to have an interest in the content of a project which is, for me, mainly architecture and art. I see a lot of similarities in these two fields in relation to graphic design. When you have an interest in the project’s content, you are able to have a constructive dialogue with the commissioner having a mutual understanding. I do not see design as a signature necessarily but rather more as a problem solving attitude. To start with I would like to talk a bit about how I work conceptually. For example when I start working on a publication I first establish an editorial diagram. This is for me a tool to understand and structure the content that then leads me better towards the design-concept. Nearly all of my solutions to a project are translated directly into a grid using self-constructed systems. Within this grid I develop parameters to experiment with and to find a form solution fitting this concept. My inspiration to formulate these systems come from Karl Gerstner's and Sol LeWitt's works. So to summarise it, you could see my ‘signature’ in the specific way(s) of translating content and developing specific design parameters. Because I deconstruct the content the way I do, it is almost always possible to work for every project within my field of interest. As a side-note I would like to refer to an interview I once read of one of my inspirations, Charles Eames in where he said: ‘Design depends largely on constraints. […] The sum of all constraints. Here is one of the few effective keys to the Design problem: the ability of the Designer to recognise as many of the constraints as possible; his willingness and enthusiasm for working within these constraints. Constraints of price, of size, of strength, of balance, of surface, of time, and so forth. Each problem has its own peculiar list.’ (Qu’est ce que le design? at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, 1972.) These constraints/rules to set limitations in where you force yourself to find a solution. In fact here the limitations give you liberation and experiment.

Your work is very connected to typography, what is your approach when you have to choose a font? What are your references? A choice of a font depends mainly on the project but choosing a font can be conceptually and intuitively. Over the past years I have created a font library of favourite fonts which are classified for certain output purposes that, in my opinion, work very well. Together with this collection and font knowledge I try to find the best fitting font with the concept. A font should always stand out and contribute to the design direction. I am not interested in font trends. A typeface has to be timeless like a building. It does not mean I don’t like to work with new typefaces. For example at the moment I work a lot with Practice and Basis Grotesque. On the other hand I also like more neutral typefaces as Akzidenz Grotesk or Theinhardt because these typefaces give you the possibility to adjust more to your own form ideas. I am also a fan of The International Typographic Style founded in Switzerland. It is part of the graphic design history with the birth of the typographical grid and the sans-serif typefaces. The style is timeless in where you can extensively play within the limitation of the established rules. Especially in book design it is very important that a book does not loose its value due to trends. You could say that I see a book similar to a building. Its style should last through the years.

As a designer, what would be the craziest thing you would like to achieve? To get commissioned to design the identity for planet Mars. Interview conducted in February 2018 ©ktlg