Graphic Happiness II

Graphic Happiness is design project and consists of a publication, a traveling exhibition and educational programme on 100 years of Dutch graphic design. The publication shows the work of over 60 designers and shows their love and passion for graphic design. Design is what makes these designers happy. The project travels trough China and also brings the two countries China and the Netherlands together and have them exchange design knowledge and culture.

The logo is therefore based on the Chinese symbol of 'Double Happiness' and the Dutch flag (red, white and blue). It symbolizes China and the Netherlands, coming together in design. The logo is printed onto three different straps, these straps hold together the furniture in the exhibition and form the binding of the publication. In this way the logo is the literally and figuratively the binding factor in the whole design.
The publication contains 246 pages, is made out of loose pages with different sizes and is not traditionally binded. The only thing that holds the publication together is the strap, no glue or any other material was used. Because of the unique binding method, the book can be presented in a beautiful manner, the book can lie on it's back and the pages curve itself naturally.
All the furniture in the exhibition is designed as a flat pack construction made out of wood. The furniture is held together only by the straps and no glue, screws or any other material is used.

We enjoy working at the cutting edge, challenging ourselves and those around us, looking further than the length of our nose. Our way of working is between that of a design studio and an ad agency. We create conceptually and strategically strong projects with clear, clever designs and solutions. We think before we act, but we act before we talk. That is what we call Smart Design.

Smart Design on a daily basis means that we work for very different clients, like museums, cities, government, educational institutes, charity but also pr-marketing agencies and commercial clients. We like to work on total concepts, to create not only the logo but also the name of the product, the image, the message, the strategy. This results in a strong graphic design in which the form follows the content. And because of this we are a multi-disciplinary agency that works in the field of identity design, publication design, event design, exhibition design, campaign design.