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A striking monochromatic composition presents three substantial printed volumes arranged in a cascading diagonal stack against a pristine white backdrop, their crisp edges and substantial page blocks…

Shape Grammars Book by Jannis Maroscheck is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Golden A' Design Award in Generative, Algorithmic, Parametric and AI-Assisted Design Competition Category.


GoldGenerative· 2022

Shape Grammars Book

by Jannis Maroscheck

Client: Jannis Maroscheck

Golden A' Design Award Winner in Generative Category

232,558

Verified Award Winner

Verify Award Status for #130038

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The Design

About Shape Grammars Book

Shape Grammars is a designer's handbook on generative shapes. The book explores how unique pieces can be mass produced. Twelve production systems were designed and programmed to generate an unlimited number of individual graphic shapes. The soft-bound catalogue holds 836 pages and presents 150,000 generated shapes, sorted from the strictly geometric to the organically free. Both the content and the layout were produced with custom generative software. Shape Grammars shows some potentials and limitations of generative design and serves as a source of inspiration at the desk.

The Recognition

About the Golden A' Design Award

Shape Grammars Book is a Golden A' Design Award winner, an immensely prestigious recognition granted to first-rate, marvelous, and outstanding designs. Golden winners are exceedingly innovative, visionary, and glamorously dazzling creations that reflect the prodigy, wisdom, and prowess of their designers. Shape Grammars Book is expected to be a highly praised, trendsetting, and monumental invention that delivers unprecedented value. This Golden A' Design Award-winning design is a spectacular, respected project that highly benefits and advances the boundaries of art, science, design, and technology. Shape Grammars Book creates intense feelings of desire, evokes passion, encourages creativity, and fascinates us.

Where to Get It

Generative Design and Visual Identity Services

We create innovative visual systems through algorithmic and generative design methodologies. Our expertise spans print, digital, and spatial products for culture, technology, and finance sectors. With a research-driven approach to automation in graphic design, we deliver unique solutions that push creative boundaries.

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Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties
Shape Grammars is a study on generative shapes, asking: how can unique pieces be mass produced? 12 production systems that can generate an unlimited number of individual graphic shapes were designed and programmed. The result is a designer's handbook which, in addition to 150,000 generated shapes, shows some potentials and limitations of generative design.
Dimensions & Packaging
Soft-bound catalogue, digital print. 836 pages. 185x235x45mm
Tags
generative, shapes, book, massproduction, graphic production, shape collection, dictionary of shapes
Production Technology
The content as well as the book layout was produced with custom generative software.
Design Challenge
The main challenge was to create very simple rulesets, which are able to generate a high variety of shapes. Simple means, their logic can be expressed in a sentence, that is easily understood. Simple also means they make use of a core geometrical principle. Detailed decorations were not allowed.
Research
Graphic shapes and systems were collected, categorized and reverse-engineered. A broad range of geometrical principles for shape generation were translated into machine readable code.
Furthermore layout and sorting programs were developed.
Inspiration
Noam Chomsky has tried to formalize all sorts of languages that obey some rules. With Shape Grammars I have made a similar attempt for graphical systems. Of course, this could never be completed, but at least I wanted to try to cover as large a spectrum of geometric principles as I could.
Project Duration
The development of the book started in Wuerzburg in October 2019, was completed in Tokyo, and published by slanted publishers, Karlsruhe in July 2020
Operation Flow
The 836 page book is meant as a tool. The format is balanced between having enough space to show the shapes and being handy enough to be used during work at the desk. The weight and thickness of the book is a result of and communicates the sheer endless collection of shapes, that can be discovered, and used as a source of inspiration.
Patents
© 2020 – 2021 slanted publishers & Jannis Maroscheck
Team Members
Jannis Maroscheck
Image Credits
all images by Jannis Maroscheck

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