Shape Grammars Liber by Jannis Maroscheck

Shape Grammars Liber by Jannis Maroscheck is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2022 Praemium A' Design Award Aureum in Designatio Generativa Competition Category.

AurumDesignatio Generativa· 2022

Shape Grammars Liber

by Jannis Maroscheck

Client: Jannis Maroscheck

Praemium A' Design Award Aureum Winner in Designatio Generativa Category

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Verified Award Winner
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The Design

About Shape Grammars Liber

Shape Grammars est enchiridion designatoris de formis generativis. Liber explorat quomodo opera singularia magna copia produci possint. Duodecim systemata productionis designata et programmata sunt ut numerum infinitum formarum graphicarum singularium generarent. Catalogus molliter compactus 836 paginas continet et 150.000 formas generatas exhibet, ordinatas a stricte geometricis ad organice liberas. Et contentum et dispositio programmate generativo proprio producta sunt. Shape Grammars quasdam potestates et limites designationis generativae monstrat et fons inspirationis ad mensam servit.

The Recognition

About the Praemium A' Design Award Aureum

Shape Grammars Liber victor est Praemii A' Design Award Aureum, honoris amplissimi formis primi ordinis, mirabilibus et praestantibus dati. Victores Aurei sunt opera valde nova, provida et splendida, quae ingenium, sapientiam et peritiam auctorum suorum referunt. Exspectatur Shape Grammars Liber inventum laudatissimum, inclinationes creans et monumentale fore, quod pretium inauditum afferat. Haec forma Aureo praemio victa est incepto mirabile et honoratum, quod fines artis, scientiae, formandi rationis et technologiae promovet. Shape Grammars Liber cupiditatem vehementem excitat, studium accendit, ingenium creandi fovet et capit.

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.
Team Members: Jannis Maroscheck
Image Credits: all images by Jannis Maroscheck