Texts by James Langdon
YearTitleDescriptionPublicationEditor
Convenor
2026 The Networked Typeface Essay on the paratexts of digital type design. ECAL, A Typographic Atlas, Empire Books Matthieu Cortat-Roller and Roland Früh
2026 Proportional Graphics Script for a presentation to introduce a one-semester research topic on the relative size of graphic objects. Delivered during an unsuccessful interview for a position at LUCA, Gent.
2026 On Press Fictionalised essay exploring tensions between the fluidity of ink and the computerisation of print production. Cyan Years, Jean-Vincent Simonet, Loose Joints Sarah Chaplin Espenon and Jean-Vincent Simonet
2026 Graphic Laboriousness and The Scribal Handoff Unsuccessful application to The British Academy Neil Ker Memorial Fund for a project on “handoffs” in manuscript production.
2026 Folktales of Digital Typography Extract from an unsuccessful proposal to the Designer-Writer Residency at the Centre for Text Margins, Aalto University School of Arts.
2026 Annotated portfolio Paratext for a selection of recent projects, part of an application for Typographer in Residence at the Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography.
2025 ⌘-New Fragmentary essay on the artifice of an empty digital design document. Revue Composite #6
2025 Economic Space Agency Extract from an unsuccessful proposal for an Akademie Schloss Solitude Web Residency to produce graphical materials for the Economic Space Agency.
2025 Designed in the UK, printed in Asia, shipped to the USA and Europe for further international distribution Fiction on globalisation of graphic design production, inspired by Andreas Malm’s How To Blow Up A Pipeline. typohypergraphicobject
2025 Interludes (as Gilbert Again) Autofiction about Gilbert’s childhood fascination with graphic design’s authoritative allure. Benjamin Tiven and William Wiebe
2025 Netmorf Annual Report 2025 (as Gilbert Again) Promotional text and paratext, fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance.
2025 Words and Images Combined Script for a presentation on the relative laboriousness of integrating text and image in page layout. Typography Theory Practice conference, Leeds Beckett University. Fraser Muggeridge
2025 Curatorial Goings-on at The Alphabet Museum (as Gilbert Again) Derivative fiction based on The Flight of Pigeons From The Palace by Donald Barthelme. Now-Time #1 Kevin McCaughey
2025 Opacity Engraving Essay on the production of Karl Nawrot’s NOVA typeface. Opacity Engraving, Karl Nawrot, Phantom Avantgarde
2025 A Meaningful Order Extracts from monograph on design studio OK-RM. Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath
2025 A Meaningful Order (press release) Press release for A Meaningful Order, an exhibition by OK-RM at Maximillian William, London, which I curated. Oliver Knight and Rory McGrath
2025 Norman Potter, Teaching Proposal for a publication on designer, writer, and educator Norman Potter. From an unsuccessful application for a Stanley Picker Fellowship in Design.
2025 Protocol Fiction Aesthetics Article on two fine-tuned image generation models for a magazine. protocolized.summerofprotocols.com Venkatesh Rao
2025 Note on Typography On the disintegration of text and image. Being a Photograph, Susanne Kriemann, Camera Austria Susanne Kriemann and Christina Töpfer
2025 Typography: Out of Space Fictionalised essay on “whitespace” and the graphic economy of the page. typohypergraphicobject
2025 Polycolophony Paratext for typohypergraphicobject. NOVA typeface by Karl Nawrot. typohypergraphicobject
2024 Ecstatic Documents An attempt at broadening the appeal of my PhD thesis on “isomorphism” in media. Are.na Annual #6: Document Meg Miller and Michelle Santiago Cortés
2024 They Built World: A Boyhood in Graphic Design (as Gilbert Again) Autofiction on childhood fascination with graphic design’s authoritative allure. Other Worlds Silvio Lorusso
2024 Greetings From the Dark On Alberto Viecelli’s postcard collection. Urs Lehni
2024 Hardware Abandons Graphic Design (as Gilbert Again) Thinkboi post on the screenless Humane Ai Pin. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2024 A Calculated Approach: Norm’s Unreasonable Reasonableness On Swiss designers Norm and the limits of thinking “rationally” in typography. Revue Faire #46 François Havegeer and Sacha Léopold
2024 Sensei Will Never (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for I Hated Graphic Design, a video series on contemporary graphic design’s predicament. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2024 SQUIRT 4 LIQUIDITY (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2024 TRIVIAL BRANDED ACCESSORIES (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2024 It Is Easier To Imagine The End Of Text Than The End of The Roman Alphabet Essay on path dependency in text and typography. Type and Context conference, ISIA Urbino Radim Peško and Jonathan Pierini
2024 VECTOR NECTAR (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2024 Community Tokens (as Gilbert Again) Guest curator post for an NFT digest. contemporarynftdaily.com Fraser Stanley
2024 Tomb Series UNITE OR PERISH (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Tomb III — Cadmium (as Gilbert Again) Essay on abstraction and artifice in David Rudnick’s Tomb Series. Bricks from the Kiln #6 Mathew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister
2023 Example cover letter Accompaniment to an unsuccessful application for a position at HfG Karlsruhe.
2023 Ciao, Wimo Essay for Ciao type specimen. On the idea of squashing multiple historical figures into one composite/caricature, in order to save attention. Ciao type specimen, Gruppo Due Massimiliano Audretsch
2023 I Hated Graphic Design (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for a video series on contemporary graphic design’s predicament. dis.art Lauren Boyle
2023 Graphic Design Retreat (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for I Hated Graphic Design, a video series on contemporary graphic design’s predicament. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 JENNIFER ANISTON NEURON (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Typography Without Lines Anthology of content from a seminar on Mutypography. Tim Bartel
2023 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1, T + A + V = TAV, SPLI + TTER, 20 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 45, Give or Take Extracts from a set of short fictions published alongside Karl Nawrot’s exhibition at P.A.G.E.S. Collected Papers, Rollo Press
2023 NETMORF DESIGN SPRINT (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 A Conundrum: The Visual Communication of Neuroscience An adaptation of the chapter on visual communication of neuroscience from my PhD thesis. Revue Faire #42 François Havegeer and Sacha Léopold
2023 New Canon: Derivatives (as Gilbert Again) Essay on permissionless NFTs and derivative works. jpg.space (RIP) María Paula Fernández and Trent Elmore
2023 OUTERNET (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 PEELING PINK ONIONS (as Gilbert Again) Episodic fan fiction for Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Phantom Crush Group Chat (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for Enver Hadzijaj’s PFP collection. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 PNG in the EYE (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for a fan fiction based on Simon Denny’s Dotcom Séance. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Rememing Lamps in Video Games (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an onchain exhibition at JPG. jpg.space (RIP)
2023 Seeds, not Brands (as Gilbert Again) Essay on the clashing of permissionless culture and corporate identity and the advent of probabilistic aesthetics. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Tomb Series KAIROS (Recovery) (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series, with permissionless in-universe collectibles. Art by Marijpol. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Tomb Series: GHOST (RECOVERY) (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series, with permissionless in-universe collectibles. Art by Shields. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2023 Various Books (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an onchain exhibition at JPG.space. jpg.space (RIP)
2023 What The Graphic Designers Wore (as Gilbert Again) Script for a video. Historical fiction on graphic labour and automation. Art by AKUA. YouTube @gilbertagain
2022 A SMPL likeness (as Gilbert Again) Reading the synthetic faces of William Wiebe’s SMPLverse NFTs through Nabokov’s Despair. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Cropped, caged, conjured (as Gilbert Again) Essay on non-rectangular images. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Cryptomorph (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an episode of the mini-series Skeuomorph, Isomorph, Cryptomorph. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Death Clock Hyperstition WEN (as Gilbert Again) Essay on Robbe-Grillet, hyperstition, inexorability, and the dis collective’s Death Clock NFT. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Isomorph (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an episode of the mini-series Skeuomorph, Isomorph, Cryptomorph. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Unit, Mona Alt, Marq, Lÿno Paratext for a selection of typefaces by Karl Nawrot. karlnawrot.com
2022 The ‘Die-in’ and the Body as Communicative ‘Content’ (with Saskia van der Meer and Johanna Schäfer) Editorial for documentation of a seminar on Michel Tauriac’s prototypical “media event” at Mazamet in 1973. Materialien zu Ausstellungsdesign und Szenografie #7
2022 Skeuomorph (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an episode of the mini-series Skeuomorph, Isomorph, Cryptomorph. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Skeuomorph, Isomorph, Cryptomorph (as Gilbert Again) Paratext for an online lecture mini-series. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Statement on the Deselection of the Rector of HfG Karlsruhe Statement read aloud during a public hearing.
2022 Tomb Series AEON (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Tomb Series ORION (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series, with permissionless in-universe collectibles. Image processing by Simon Knebl. gilbert.mirror.xyz RIP
2022 Tomb Series VANTA (Recovery) (as Gilbert Again) Fan fiction for David Rudnick’s Tomb Series, with permissionless in-universe collectibles. Art by Tatjana Stürmer. gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 Tombs All The Way Down (as Gilbert Again) Essay on David Rudnick’s Tomb Series. On palimpsestic states of digital and physical artefacts and the “Van Eyck Index.” gilbert.mirror.xyz (RIP)
2022 The Dead Body in Graphic Limbo Essay on “graphic limbo” as an ambiguous space between the diagrammatic and the pictorial. UMBAU #1 Katharina Weinstock
2021 1024 × 1001 in 1991 Fictionalised essay in which pixels are a scarce resource. Towards the Realm of Materiality: Designing Philip K. Dick’s Non-Existing Technologies Andrea Facchetti
2021 Neurovague Paratext for a neuroscience image-activism website. neurovague.net
2021 Norman Potter: Faith and Mania in Design Decision-making PhD dissertation chapter. On Norman Potter as a design decision-maker, the “hole-in-one” solution, and the remaking of stick furniture. RMIT Melbourne
2021 Orchestrating Graphic Design: A Bibliography of Simon Starling PhD dissertation chapter. A bibliography of artist Simon Starling and discussion of “isomorphic” graphic design. RMIT Melbourne
2021 Isomorphism in Typing and Typography PhD dissertation chapter. RMIT Melbourne
2021 Transposing Isomorphism to Communication Design for Neuroscience PhD dissertation chapter. On professional/amateur distinctions in visualising neuroscience. RMIT Melbourne
2021 Isomorphism in Communication Design (Conclusion) PhD dissertation conclusion. The isomorphic design decision. RMIT Melbourne
2021 Isomorphism in Communication Design (Introduction) PhD dissertation introduction. On isomorphism, its etymology and application to art and design practice. RMIT Melbourne
2020 Mountain Messner Mountain Script for an online lecture, with live drawing elements, on graphic coincidence in photographs of mountaineer Reinhold Messner. 2400 lecture series, HfG Karlsruhe
2020 Graphic Proprioception On inner/outer dualities of self and graphic coincidence in documentation of mountaineer Reinhold Messner and runner Rickey Gates. Bricks from the Kiln #4 Mathew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister
2020 A Teacher’s Presence Essay on Norman Potter as an educator. “To my mind, a teacher opts out of education if he fails to join with his students at crucial times in their academic life, whether or not he decides to support, or reasonably to oppose their conduct, by persuasion of its wrongfulness. I am not aware of a more basic principle on which to structure the pursuit of further education.” deschooling.org (RIP) Rory Sherlock
2020 “Human” “Brain” “Neuron” “Space” “Galaxy” Fictionalised letter to a neuroscientist, on amateurism as antidote to persuasiveness. Dear Friend #14 Ott Kagovere and Sandra Nuut
2020 Norman Potter’s Teaching Spaces Essay on spatial metaphor in Norman Potter’s teaching. One and Many Mirrors: Perspectives on Graphic Design Education Brad Haylock and Luke Wood
2020 An Original: The Most Beautiful Swiss Books 2004–2006 Interview with Laurent Benner on his catalogues for The Most Beautiful Swiss Books. Revue Faire #21 François Havegeer and Sacha Léopold
2020 Gravity All Around (Rotated) Paratext for a “corrected” bootleg of Tillie S. Pine and Joseph Levine’s 1963 children’s book. Rollo Press
2020 Gestures and Displays Discourse on the premise that amateur archaeological photography contains elementary curatorial gestures. Materialien zu Ausstellungsdesign und Szenografie #5
2020 Every Object Has Needs Editorial for documentation of a seminar exploring the use of “superficially ethnic” coloured backgrounds in museum photography of ethnographic objects. Materialien zu Ausstellungsdesign und Szenografie #6
2020 Rare Bird Economics Paratext for a book about a bird, accompanying a seminar at HfG Karlsruhe.
2020 Rare Bird Economics Epitext Epitext for a book about a bird, accompanying a seminar at HfG Karlsruhe.
2020 Body 1 (2 Eyes, 2 Legs, 2 Arms, 2 Hands) to Body 2 (2 Eyes, 4 Legs, No Arms, No Hands) Fiction for Karl Nawrot’s exhibition Black Chamber Orchestra at Galerie Ravisius Textor.
2019 Mu-typography Reader Contextual material for a seminar on non-linear typography.
2019 Technical Notes On images that look like their own metadata. Peak Picture Pixel Pile, Inga Books Jacob Lindgren
2019 What El Lissitzky Wants On unfaithful reproductions of the black, red, and white cover of Die Kunstismen, designed by El Lissitzky. Revue Faire #16 François Havegeer and Sacha Léopold
2019 Bruno Munari: Obvious Code Annotations for Munari’s Negative-Positive (1950), introducing the Sandpit image processor developed with and by Simon Knebl. The Serving Library Annual Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2019 Technical notes Paratext on a printed image of a White-throated Needletail. Handout for a lecture at Design Museum Gent. Sara De Bondt
2018 The Binding Script for a presentation on the double page opening of a book as a display device. Anatomy of the Book conference, BAU Barcelona Brad Haylock and Fraser Muggeridge
2018 Unanswered Letters to Leon Festinger Fictionalised letters to the psychologist Leon Festinger, a companion piece to A School for Design Fiction. Extra-curricular, Onomatopee Jacob Lindgren
2018 Mind Walks Extracts from an extended fiction, accompanying Karl Nawrot’s monograph. Rollo Press
2017 Design Notes An account of design decisions in Céline Condorelli’s monograph bau bau. bau bau, Mousse
2017 Eastside Projects Policy Manual (with Gavin Wade) Seventh draft of the Eastside Projects User’s Manual in the form of an anthology of policies.
2017 Interview with Gavin Wade On Herbert Bayer’s “square span” typography and historical remakes.
2017 Lines Converging Short fictions published alongside Karl Nawrot’s exhibition Mind Walk, Extended Play at Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst. Mind Walk, Extended Play
2017 Matter is Plastic in the Face of Mind Dialogue with Sofia Hultén on causality in objects. Here’s the Answer, What’s the Question?, Sofia Hultén, Ikon Gallery Jonathan Watkins
2017 The Consolation of Pataphysics Interview with Andrew Hugill on William Corliss’s sourcebooks of scientific anomalies. Stationary #2 Malak Helmy and Christina Li
2016 In the Background Dialogue with Céline Condorelli on display. Bricks from the Kiln #2 Mathew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister
2016 Append On sorting a collection of ordinary objects from an editorial perspective. 27th Brno Biennial Radim Peško, Tomáš Celizna, and Adam Macháček
2016 Curve Ball Column on the lowercase e in Evert Bloemsma’s typeface Legato. Grafik Angharad Lewis
2016 Programmed Movement Fiction for Karl Nawrot’s exhibition Mind Walk III at Bel Ordinaire. Mind Walk III
2016 Now In Color Essay on the unexpected rediscovery of Norman Potter’s Penton Kitchen, Potter’s disdain for documenting his work, and the “commandment” to speak of objects only in their presence. Bulletins of The Serving Library #11 Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2016 Vectors for Looking (with Mathew Kneebone) Essay elaborating on “Observations From a Fixed Position” from 2015. Art by Mathew Kneebone. Bulletins of The Serving Library #12 Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2015 Potter’s Lexikon Essay on Norman Potter’s typewriter and its instrumental roles in his “In:Quest of Icarus” A Circular #3 Pedro Cid Proença
2015 A School for Design Fiction Interview with Francisco Laranjo on A School for Design Fiction. Modes of Criticism Francisco Laranjo
2015 Reflection Preface for the St Lucas Antwerp 2014 Masterboek. St Lucas Masterboek 2015 Hugo Puttaert
2015 Observations From a Fixed Position Essay on registration in print, repeat photography, and ESA’s robotic probe Philae. Bricks from the Kiln #1 Mathew Stuart and Andrew Walsh-Lister
2015 Facing Pages (with Stuart Whipps) Visual essay on the double page opening of a book as a display device. Open Books, Hato Press Charlotte Cheetham and Sophie Demay
2015 Rock, Paper, Chisel Essay retelling two mythical feats of rock climbing from a palimpsestic perspective. Bulletins of The Serving Library #9 Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2015 Sinkhole Audio Paratext for a website publishing digital audio works by artists. sinkhole.audio RIP
2015 On Xerox Book Dialogue with Nav Haq on Seth Siegelaub’s Xerox Book. Stationary #1 Heman Chong and Christina Li
2014 Gilbert Adair Continued Essay on Gilbert Adair, the derivative work, and digital voice synthesis. Art by Simon Manfield. Bulletins of The Serving Library #7 Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2014 Mental Notes Short fictions published alongside Karl Nawrot’s exhibition Mind Walk II at Gallery Factory.
2014 A Dead Man Speaks Essay on Gilbert Adair and digital voice synthesis. Art by Simon Manfield. A School for Design Fiction, Spector Books
2014 First Toy Cosmos An adaptation of Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men with art by Peter Nencini. A School for Design Fiction, Spector Books
2014 Why Can’t It Be Made? Anachronistic fiction in which architect Augustus Pugin argues with his book binder. Art by Simon Manfield. A School for Design Fiction, Spector Books
2014 Two Eyes, Ears, Nostrils, Brains Historical fiction speculatively introducing neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga’s work on split-brain patients to graphic design discourse. Art by Karl Nawrot. A School for Design Fiction, Spector Books
2014 What Is Part Of This Object? What Is This Object Part Of? / An Ideal Object Two workshop assignments from A School for Design Fiction. Taking A Line For A Walk, Spector Books Nina Paim and Emilia Bergmark
2013 The Artist and The Engineer Sixth draft of the Eastside Projects User’s Manual in the form of a children’s story. Art by Peter Nencini.
2012 Art Direct Dialogue with Rick Poynor and Jonathan Watkins on Tony Arefin. Arefin & Arefin: The Graphic Design of Tony Arefin, Ikon Gallery Jonathan Watkins
2012 Dieter Roth’s Trophies, Rotated Paratext for a “corrected” presentation of Dieter Roth’s two-handed drawings. A Circular #2 Pedro Cid Proença
2012 A Eulogy for the Cutaway Visual essay on the cutaway as a graphic device. Fillip #17 Kristina Lee Podesva
2011 Eastside Projects User’s Manual (with Gavin Wade) Fifth draft of the Eastside Projects User’s Manual, in the form of a compendium of verbs.
2011 Pugin’s Contrasts Rotated Paratext for a “corrected” bootleg of Augustus Pugin’s 1836 architectural treatise. Wayne Daly and Zak Kyes
2010 A Finished Work is Exactly That. Requires Urgent Resuscitation. Essay on Gilbert Adair’s Alice Through the Needle’s Eye and imitation as literary method. An Endless Supply Harry Blackett and Robin Kirkham
2010 Book Show (with Gavin Wade) Feature on the exhibition Book Show at Eastside Projects. Grafik #187 Angharad Lewis
2010 Object Books, Books as Platforms, Binary Books, Blank Books, Multiple Books, Books as Symbols, Last Book Essay on the work of Mexican artist and publisher Ulises Carrión. BOOK, Eastside Projects
2010 X-Ray Specs Paratext for a selection of cells from X-Ray Specs. Dot Dot Dot #20 Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey
2010 Newer Alphabets Essay for Lÿno type specimen. GRAPHIC #16 Karl Nawrot and Radim Peško
2009 Crop Circles Illustrated essay on non-rectangular cropping. Grafik Angharad Lewis
2009 Craft Work Interview with Jonathan Watkins on Tony Arefin. Grafik Angharad Lewis
2009 Design Notes (with Céline Condorelli) An account of design decisions in the book Support Structures. Support Structures, Sternberg Press

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