Zak Group launches Group Object, a publishing house collaborating with Anne Imhof, Paco Robanne and more

Long-time readers of It’s Nice That will be well acquainted with the work of London-based design studio Zak Group. Over the years, we’ve covered its wide-ranging projects which include identities, exhibition design, books and websites. Now, the studio is embarking on a new avenue of its practice with the launch of Group Object, a publishing house for “cultural objects created in collaboration with artists, fashion designers and cultural producers”.

Each release, Zak Group explains, will be “a unique collaboration with an artist, designer or brand to create a range of cultural objects at the intersection of art, design and fashion”. Excitingly, the first release is a collaboration with revered artists Anne Imhof and Eliza Douglas. Coming at an apt time, as Anne just concluded her solo show Sex at the Tate Modern, the collaboration includes two hoodies and T-shirts screen printed with the word “FAUST” in the typeface Their Bodoni.

The group designed Their Bodoni as part of its work on Anne’s 2017 Venice Biennale show. “[We] first met Anne when the curator Susanne Pfeffer invited us to work together on the German Pavilion in the 2017 Venice Biennale. We created the design and art direction for the exhibition Faust which went on to be awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation,” the studio recalls.

Faust was four-hour production and a seven-month-long scenario combining performance, painting and sculpture and the now reproduced garments were worn by performers during the closing days of the exhibition. The T-shirts and hoodies, as well as being available on Group Object’s website, were sold at the Tate Edit shop at Tate Modern for the duration of Sex.

“At Zak Group we think of design expansively, as a way of engaging with the world,” the studio concludes. “We’re interested in creating objects and collaborating beyond the page or screen. In our cultural cosmos, every message we encounter and every surface we touch has been designed. As art directors and designers we can bring great value to other disciplines.”

For its next release, Group Object will feature a collaboration with Paco Rabanne and its artistic director Julien Dossena.