Maximage
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Maximage is an award-winning design studio based in Switzerland.
It offers a large area of expertise including visual identities, digital solutions, books, posters, typefaces, artworks and consultancy. In its practice, tools and technology are constantly challenged, introducing a reflection on contemporary production processes. Over the years the studio has collaborated with institutions and clients in Switzerland and abroad. Long-term collaborations include art direction for the Zurich-based publishing house Edition Patrick Frey and the development of campaigns for Arsenic–Contemporary Peforming Arts Center.

Parallel to its work, Maximage offers numerous workshops and lectures at Swiss and international universities. Members of the studio regularly teach at HEAD in Geneva, ZHDK in Zurich, as well as ECAL in Lausanne, where they conducted a research project on printing technologies, which resulted in the creation of Color Library. Maximage also manages the type design platform Maxitype that offers retail and bespoke typefaces and encourages research and development in typography.

The work of Maximage received several awards from the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in recognition to their commitment to the field. In 2020, the studio was honoured the Jan Tschichold Award.

Contact us

Maximage | Maxitype Sàrl
Rue Fendt 10
1201 Genève
Switzerland

+41 (0)22 910 47 48

Team

David Keshavjee (Co-Founder)
Julien Tavelli (Co-Founder)
Daniel Haettenschwiller
Guy Meldem

Awards

2022

100 Beste Plakate

2022

INTL, International Poster Competition

2021

100 Beste Plakate

2021

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books

2020

100 Beste Plakate

2020

Jan Tschichold Award

2019

100 Beste Plakate

2018

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books

2016

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books

2014

Swiss Design Awards

2013

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books

2013

Swiss Design Awards

2011

The Most Beautiful Swiss Books

2011

Swiss Design Awards

2009

Swiss Design Awards

Exhibitions

2022

Ravisius Textor, Nevers

2020

Helmhaus, Zurich

2018

Moravká Galerie, Brno

2017

Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich

2017

Tallin Art Hall, Tallinn

2016

Cooper Union, New York

2016

Umlaut, London

2015

Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich

2014

Archiv, Zurich

2014

Samson Paper Gallery, Seoul

2014

Station, Beirut

2014

Weltformat 14 Plakatfestival, Lucern

2014

Istituto svizzero di Roma, Rome

2013

Marbriers 4, Geneva

2013

Galerie Kamm, Berlin

2013

G/P Gallery, Tokyo

2012

Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich

2011

Festival international de l’affiche, Chaumont

2011

Centre d’art contemporain, Geneva

2010

Milieu Galerie, Bern

2010

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston

2009

China International Poster Biennal, Shanghai

2009

EPFL/École polytechnique fédérale, Lausanne

2008

Designhuis, Eindhoven

Lectures

2023

Princeton University, New Jersey

2023

REDO, Prishtina

2023

Further Reading, Fachhochschule Potsdam

2022

Master Type Design ECAL, Lausanne

2022

Université Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis, Paris

2019

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee

2018

International Biennal of Graphic Design, Brno

2018

Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich

2017

La Cambre, Brussels

2017

Fahrenheit 39, Ravenna

2016

Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris

2015

Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

2014

Sitterwerk Kunstbibliothek, St. Gallen

2014

Grafill, Oslo

2014

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich

2014

Station, Beirut

2013

Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main

2013

Festival international de l’affiche, Chaumont

2012

École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Lyon

2011

Amsterdam Art Book Fair, Amsterdam

2009

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne

Workshops

2021

Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

2019

Haute école d’art et de design, Genève

2018

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig

2018

École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne, Rennes

2018

Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam

2017

La Cambre, Brussels

2017

Fahrenheit 39, Ravenna

2016

Istituto Svizzero di Roma, Milan

2015

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich

2015

Station, Beirut

2014

Power Station of Arts, Shanghai

2012

Swissnex, San Francisco

2010

Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe

Research Projects

2017

Workflow: Research Project on Printed Matter
ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne

2014

Studio Roma: Transdisciplinary Research Program
Istituto Svizzero di Roma

2009

Typographer: New Technologies and Type Design
ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne

Employment

There are currently no vacancies for interns or freelancers.
Unfortunately we are not able to respond to emails regarding internships.
Any open position will be communicated here and/or on social networks.

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Photographic reproductions by Daniel Aires. Coding by Tristan Bagot.
Typeface by Alexis Hominal. © 2020–2023, All rights reserved by Maxitype Sàrl and the authors.

Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
Les Urbaines – Edition 2012 - © Maximage
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A snapshot of emerging artistic practices – drifting identity

Between 2012 and 2015, Maximage designs Les Urbaines’ evolving identity as a laboratory for experimentations with different means of production generating new aesthetics. Les Urbaines festival takes place each year for a week-end dedicated to emerging artistic practices, with some forty-odd projects happening free of charge between Lausanne and Renens.

Project

Les Urbaines – Edition 2012

Type

Identities, Posters

Client

Fondation Les Urbaines

Director

Patrick de Rham

Photography

Nelly Rodriguez, David Wohlschlag, Greg Clément

Team

Ana-Belen Torreblanca, Thibault Brevet

Year

2012–2015

Location

Lausanne

Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
Experience in Offset Printing - © Maximage
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Experience in Offset Printing

In collaboration with artists, Maximage has been deconstructing the offset printing technology by combining high and low tech. Offset printing is now typically based on the “computer to plate” process, whereby the printing plates are generated directly on the basis of the draft in the computer. Maximage is taking a hands-on approach to the printing plates: they combine computer drafts with manual interventions straight on the printing plate where they use chemical developers, engraving, photo compositions or heat marking. The contrast between digital technology and analog intervention gives rise to a singular language. Since no step in the drafting process could be reversed, chance played a decisive role. They greatly benefit from their research on manual printing processes and play skilfully with the contrast between the precision of the draft on the computer and the crudeness of manual intervention.

Awarded by the “Swiss Design Awards 2011”.

Project

Experience in Offset Printing

Type

Books, Posters

Authors

Jean-Michel Wicker, Philippe Därendinger

Year

2008–2013

Location

Various

Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
Typeface as Program - © Maximage
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Typography and exercises in scripting

The project began with a simple question: is there such thing as a computer program capable of taking over the routine tasks of letter design? This issue, both artistic and digital, led the professors and the students of the Masters in Art Direction of the ECAL to imagine exchanges back and forth between digital type specifications and the actual shape of letters. They went into more general questions about the groups of shapes that make up our letters—stems, curves, and serifs—asking themselves how they could possibly simplify and further amalgamate these groups of shapes that monopolize the energy of schoolchildren, illustrators, and type designers alike. Calligraphy and hand-drawn letters comprise series of strokes and curves; mechanical typography does too, through the engraving process of punches and counter-punches. Digital typography, however, dematerializes this operation, leaving the choice of formal references open-ended. Does that mean novel forms of design could evolve through manipulating fonts' algorithmic data?
Several small scripting programs were developed and tested by the students during a series of workshops. From a set of typography experiments based on these simple scripts, Maximage designed a text typeface that is featured in this book and displays the characteristics of the tool that generated it. As an extension to this concept, mobile wooden characters were made as a materialization of a graphic application arising from scripting techniques; this enabled play with typographic equipment, hand setting, spaces, and printing. The intention of building project-specific, sometimes unstable tools was to be part of a quest for unity within a graphic project the initial design and production stages of which were characterized by the same approach: extending the scope of the typographic game.

Awarded by the “Swiss Design Awards 2009”.

Project

Typeface As Program

Type

Books

Client

JRP|Ringier, ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne

Directors

Lionel Bovier, Pierre Keller

Editor

François Rappo

Authors

Jürg Lehni, David Keshavjee, Julien Tavelli

Interview

Peter Bilak, Dimitri Bruni, Erik Spiekermann

Year

2009

Location

Zurich, Lausanne

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