Department Store Illustration Product Risograph

Everyday Ornaments 2020 Calendar

posted by Robyn Pitts November 14, 2019

Black Matter Editions and Riso print Studio Herr und Frau Rio recently invited 17 international artists to design, illustrate, sculpt or paint an ornament that shares their personal view on their cultural background and how it inspires their creative work. Both based in Munich, the two establishments share a love of travel and Risograph printing with it’s characteristic amazingly vibrant colours and low environmental impact. The Everyday Ornaments 2020 Calendar is their first publication to cherish the great diversity of cultural expressions.

Ornaments are a time capsule of current social, political and religious systems, as well as a materialisation of the artistic techniques and means of production. As systems of change, designers and artists are challenging the status quo in their area by creating their own canon of symbols and images, in the light of the novel premises of the altered cultural framework.

“When we travel, local ornaments are always a very impressive way of immersing into the culture, identity and history of the places we are visiting; Lightheartedly, we are entering unknown worlds, fascinated by ‘the foreign’. A pleasant circumstance we’d love to explore further, especially in times when cultural segregation seems to be on the rise” explains the team.

The A3 calendar features 12 motifs, with one month per side printed by 2-colour Risograph. The vibrant colours of the calendar have been printed in a screenprint style and on high quality natural paper. The calendar can also be purchased in a quarterly version which features 3 months per page.

“For us this is a first step towards building an archive to store and publish a broad variety of views on the world. In times of political narrow-mindedness and architectural conformity, we’d like to celebrate the beauty of diversity with the arts as our common language” they conclude.