Kaser Preis 2022

In poetry, music is not an acoustic element. Music is the answer to the question of how a poet speaks after a catastrophe. These musical connections, connections between letters, are like a hand stretched out towards the next word that pulls it out of the silence with its sound. A poem is a musical quest within oneself. From this idea about poetry from Valzhyna Mort, comes the concept for the visual identity of the Kaser Preis 2022, an initiative that rewards and showcases the poetic work of the most important authors in the contemporary artistic-literary scene. Lungomare designed the identity, logo and publication.

The Logo

The Kaser Preis is a prize created by Literatur Lana to celebrate the South Tyrolean poet N. C. Kaser after his death. Each edition aims to search for poetry that claims political contradiction and redeems it through a precise awareness of form for new aesthetic possibilities. The idea is to open up innovative paths in the most contemporary and current productions. In order to represent this connection between tradition and elements of experimentation, we have designed an identity consisting of two elements that unite two very different typographical characters: on the one hand the name of the prize in Sans Serif font, clear and strong, and on the other hand the number of the edition in a modern, more distinctive graffiti font, used to represent the authors’ names as well.

Visual Identity

For the visual identity of the Kaser Preis we decided to be inspired by the idea that poetry is a musical search within oneself. A quest that is active, in motion and never static. The connections created between lines, letters and thoughts allow words to emerge from silence with their own voice. To represent these connections, rhythms, tones and the different identity I have within each word, we designed a series of visual combinations in which typography moves through alterations and distortions of letters, lines and traditional layouts. These effects translate the signs into sound and allow the letters to emerge, appear, disappear and move like light on the surface of the poster, postcards and in digital images.

The publication

Having to recount the Kaser Preis on the one hand and the poetic-literary production of the two authors selected – John Burnside (Prize winner in 2020) and Valzhyna Mort (Prize winner in 2020) – on the other hand, we designed a publication, which collects and puts together texts in different languages and styles, but with a common thread. The idea of connections between words and ideas, also returns in the publication through the cover that unites and puts the collected contents in relation and dialogue. The publication is composed of three staple-bound booklets, independent, but all united on a single cover sheet that, through its folds, becomes the structural soul of the object. Given the three-dimensional form of this book, the two authors and the Kaser Preis, often enter into an unexpected dialogue with each other, and in the inner folds of the cover, spaces are created for in-depth studies, titles, indexes and other useful reading information.

Year

2022

A project by

Christine Vescoli, Literatur Lana (Edition Per Procura, Lana)

Client

Literatur Lana

In occasion of

Kaser Preis 2022

Team

Angelika Burtscher, Chiara Cesaretti and Linsey Dolleman

Photo Documentation

Elisa Cappellari

With the support of

Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano-Alto Adige, Dipartimento Cultura Tedesca and Comune di Lana