《AGI New Members 2007–2017》新书限量发售ing

4 min readJul 28, 2018

夏季雷雨过去有几天了。我去Aral洗车，竟然忘了及时下车，清洗机器已经启动了，我被迫留在车里。刚好是苦思冥想，没有任何设计进展的几周。觉得自己很容易给设计定下愿景，却鲜少能轻松找到创意，来实现自己的愿景。几周来，我魂不守舍地，再下去，应该就是喃喃自语的奔溃阶段了吧。刚才，我肯定又走神了，竟然停好洗车位后，忘了下车。这可是一个新的记录。在上下左右四处喷水的轨道上，巨大的蓝色清洗滚筒已经旋转，发出轰鸣声，令我的头脑发胀。眼睛却聚焦在前面挡风玻璃上，从来没有那么近距离看清这个清洗滚筒，圆柱体，有着细长又密集的扁平橡胶软带，那些柔软的橡胶带子，应该有50厘米长，3厘米宽，成千上万的，随着机械动力操纵的滚筒，温柔而密集地摩擦着外车身。这很像什么？好像妈妈在我童年时清洁地板的布拖把。一条条布带被困在一起，沾了水，温柔摩擦地板的记忆，突然都涌上心头。这是启示吗？我为什么突然想到，单页纸张，如果被切成一条条的纸片，装订成一本书会是什么形态？就算像一个清洁滚筒，抑或布条拖把，也该是一个够冒险的实验。我被突然闪过的念头惊醒。心心念念、气血上涌，心脾飓飙。

“失败是有限的，冒险则是无限的。” 狄更斯（Charles John Huffam Dickens）也许正是这样写出“双城记”的吧？那我就在无限中任性一回。我请一家上海印刷厂帮我做一本白样，三周后，当我看到书桌上那本白样，我觉得狄更斯真不愧是我最心仪的作家。我甚至已经在期待，经常翻阅后，小纸条部分脱落后，书的上端蓬松、凌乱、卷曲，而再次呈现的不同形态了。于是，我就把每位设计师都提供的头像和简历，放入这个6x20厘米的小纸条切割区域，让每个人的过往经历再次增加一个冒险。

第三次，为AGI设计新会员的专辑。从2007年至2017年，时间跨度有11年，期间新会员有231位，这该是AGI历史上最人才济济的时代。每人三页，全书超过700页，该是蔚为大观的一本书吧。感谢所有为这本书的出版作出支持的人，感谢AGI主席 Nikki Gonnissen；Erik Brandt，我多年的好友, 他也是AGI新会员的责任委员；Frenzi Biedermann AGI秘书处的负责人；为本书提供摄影图片的赵清、曹方、Tommy Li、Uwe Loesch、Niklaus Troxler 等朋友们；还有Scott Williams & Henrik Kubel (A2/SW/HK+A2-TYPE）, 他们为本书免费提供了自己设计的字体。Enjoy Design!

何见平

2018年5月

It has been few days since summer thunderstorms have gone. I went to Aral to wash my car, but forgot to get off in time. The cleaning machine has already started and I was forced to stay in the car. It was just during the weeks when I was stuck in the design. I always set a vision for my design work, whereas hardly find an idea to achieve it easily. I almost lost my mind in the past few weeks; perhaps crazy self-mumbling phase would be soon started. Moreover, I have just refreshed my records as to be locked in the car while the washing machine has already started. Water sprays in all directions on the track, the giant blue cleaning roller was spinning, the noise made me dizzy. My eyes focused on the front windshield, and it was my first time to have seen this cleaning roller so closely. It was a cylinder with slender and dense flat-rubber soft belts. There were approximately thousands of soft belts, each about 50cm long, 3cm wide, dancing along with the engine of the spinning machine, gently scrubbed the outer body of the car. What was it look like? It was like the mop my Mom used to clean the floor when I was young. Several cloth stripes were bounded together and moistened, and scrubbed the floor softly. The old memories suddenly crowd upon my mind. Why was it in my mind, was it a hint? How would a book look like if part of each paper being cut into strips, and the cutting pages be bound together? Even it looks like a cleaning roller, or a strip mop, it must be an adventurous experiment. The sudden flashing thoughts made me awaken. I kept thinking about it and it was exciting.

‘Failure is limited, while venturing is endless’. Maybe this is how Charles John Huffam Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” came out. And I will also follow my heart in those ‘endless’ adventures. I asked a print company in Shanghai to make me a blank sample of this book. After three weeks when I saw this sample on my desk, I thought Dickens was truly and indeed my favorite writer. I started to yearn how it will look like after some of the paper strips came off by flipping throughs. The top part of the book will become fluffy, messy and curly, it will look totally different. Therefore, I put each designer’s headshot and biography in this 6x20cm paper strip area, and each of their pasts will experience one more adventure.

This is my third time to design a new members’ book for AGI. It has been 11 years from 2007 to 2017, and during this time, AGI has 231 new members. This is the best time of AGI as to have so many new talented designers in. Each designer has 3 pages in this book, the total volume is over 700 pages, this is a huge project. Thank you everyone who has always been so supportive, thank you Nikki Gonnissen, the AGI president; thank you Erik Brandt, my dear friend for years, who is also member of International Executive Committee, AGI New Member’ Chair; thank you Frenzi Biedermann, the secretary of AGI; thank you my friends Qing Zhao, Fang Cao, Tommy Li, Uwe Loesch, Niklaus Troxler for providing photos for this book; and thank you Scott Williams & Henrik Kubel (A2/SW/HK+A2-TYPE) for donating your fonts for this publication. Enjoy Design!

HE Jianping

May, 2018