typohypergraphicobject
p r o t a g o n i s t
about the book
typohypergraphicobject is a teachable agenda for conscious graphic design.
Written, edited, designed, and published by James Langdon.
Contributions from
Brad Haylock
Bryony Quinn
Caleb Klaces and Daisy Hildyard
Gilbert Again with Michael Fowler
Karl Nawrot
Sam Rolfes
Susanne Kriemann
The cover shows one of the book’s protagonists, the Banasura Chilappan, whose declining population is currently estimated to be as low as 530, endemic to southwest India. This number determines the edition size. Book: bird. Art by Sam Rolfes.
The cover is overprinted onto sheets from a bootleg English translation of Der Wert Eines Vogel (what a bird is worth) by Frederic Vester, which was produced as a gift for presale buyers of typohypergraphicobject.
content
A message from the last laughingthrush; a hallucinatory history of typography and the last empty page; a “facile leftist conspiracy” which self-respecting business-as-usual designers should certainly not read; a boyhood memoir consumed by graphic design’s sumptuous, foil-blocked, ultra-carcinogenic aesthetic allure; an essay about the utility of waste; and an afterword on the matter of this book’s near-futures.
Reclaimed paper for the book at die Keure. Photograph by Stuart Whipps.
design and production
typohypergraphicobject is approximately 32×24cm, 52 pages, printed and overprinted in multiple offset and silkscreen inks on make-ready sheets and leftovers from four other books.
Produced with the technical co-operation of die Keure, Bruges; Spreedruck, Berlin; DZA, Altenburg; Kajsa Ståhl, London; OK-RM, London; and Stina Gromark, Stinsensqueeze, Paris.
Sheets from A Meaningful Order by OK-RM overprinted in offset.
Further overprinting in offset and silkscreen.
Print test sheets from Undesigning the Bath by Leonard Koren overprinted in offset and silkscreen.
buy the book
The presale of 250 copies is sold-out. The remainder of the edition of 530 copies is available through this website, at the Ghent Art Book Fair, and other fairs to be announced.
Buy 1 book for 30 euro
Buy 3 books for 80 euro
Overprinted pages from A Meaningful Order by OK-RM and Keep Smiling! The Printed Universe of Pontus Hultén by Stina Gromark.
launch
typohypergraphicobject launches at the Ghent Art Book Fair (3–4 May 2025). Presale copies ordered through this website can be collected at the fair.
distribution
I expect to begin shipping orders from Berlin in the week of 5 May.
I want to encourage social distribution and group-buying. If you are able to collect your copy from a book fair or one of the organisations listed below, or if you are able to coordinate a group-buy with friends and colleagues, I offer you some extras.
The following publishers and organisations will have copies available for collection, with more to be confirmed:
• 019 (Ghent)
• Bricks from the Kiln (Offprint London, 16–18 May 2025)
• Céline Condorelli Studio (London)
• Syndicat Studio (Paris)
• Werkplaats Typografie (Amsterdam)
• LOOM (Berlin launch, 30 May 2025)
• Trust (Berlin)
Collection times must be arranged with me by email.
thank you
With artistic, editorial, and practical support from Vanessa Boni and Farrah Langdon, Andre Fuchs, Céline Condorelli, Geoffrey Mak, Johanna Schäfer, Laurent Benner, Na Kim, Rory McGrath, Simon Knebl, Stuart Whipps, Thomas Bossuyt, and Tim Bartel.
The cuckoo, from Thomas Bewick’s A History of British Birds, 1797.