Munken, Design, Test, Print, Kristal, Polar, Pure

2017
offset lithograph, sewn in sections and Swiss bound
210 x 297 mm (A4), 48 pp

DD Project is a collaborative program between Doosung Paper and designers. For each project, Doosung Paper invites a designer to express inspirations from the paper suggested by Doosung Paper. Munken, Design, Test, Print, Kristal, Polar, Pure with us is the first outcome of the project.

We remember reading a remark on a graphic design competition some time ago, which argued that designer’s own portfolios, printer’s calendars, or paper specimens should not be allowed entry. They are just about means, not ends, of graphic design. A project that does not have any “real” problem but to show off its own excellency as a means of communication should not be encouraged by award competitions. Means and ends should not be confused.

Intentionally confusing means with ends, Munken, Design, Test, Print, Kristal, Polar, Pure has been made to show the quality of a particular brand of paper: Munken Design. The only “content” of the book is the printing quality test patterns. The patterns, however, have been disassembled and reassembled to an image that seems to say something for itself. Not just a means – although still a means – but content in its own right. Instead of denying its own nature and trying to be something else, this book chooses to transform itself by over-fulfilling its own purpose. And it won’t probably enter any competition.