A well-crafted, shapeshifting print project celebrating 100 years of design manifestos

Art and design manifestos are some of the most interesting writing specimens to come out of the 20th Century. In no other 100-year period have styles and attitudes changed as dramatically or with such speed. All the ensuing isms, from Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto which called for all museums and libraries to be burned, to the De Stijl manifesto which endorsed only primary colours and grids, came with impassioned and single-minded viewpoints.

A lovely self-initiated print project from graphic designers Matt van Leeuwen and Joseph Han, respectively design principal at Interbrand and a designer at Pentagram, attempts to not only present key design writings like the Bauhaus manifesto, but also to embody them. All monochrome, with a typeface produced by Benjamin Critton and Colophon Foundry set in a single weight throughout, the design pushes its own limits, playfully stretching, skewing and turning its text upside-down.