Emeka Ogboh: Lagos Soundscapes
Pioneering sound artist Emeka Ogboh is one of the most exciting figures on the international art scene. For Kerber Verlag, we designed Lagos Soundscapes, a compendium of Ogboh’s early works (2009–14) focusing on Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and cultural capital. Subtle typographic differences between the French and English texts in this bilingual catalog highlight an important aspect of Ogboh’s oeuvre: the normalization of a hybrid society. The book was honored with a Red Dot Design Award for Brands & Communication Design.
Kerber Verlag
Emeka Ogboh: Lagos Soundscapes
2018
Lagos Soundscapes is the first significant monograph on Ogboh’s work. The cover art is printed on the back of the book cloth (Bamberger Kaliko Canoso). Like sound hiding in the depths of a speaker, it hides behind the yellow linen, waiting for the reader to set the content free. We chose two different paper types for the book’s documentary and artistic content. The documentary content is printed on thin, uncoated Salzer EOS Natural, unifying the two languages on the page while still guaranteeing a pleasant reading experience.
The English-language text appears on the right-hand pages and is fully justified, while the French-language text on the left-hand pages is left-aligned. The effect is that the two languages almost run together as if they were one big text, with no formatting to separate them. The look is distinctly hybrid, yet the experience of reading the (often philosophical and political) texts remains quite comfortable. The text typeface, Berlingske Serif, was chosen for its familiar resemblance to the fonts used in urban newspapers around the world. In contrast to this, and in harmony with Ogboh’s frequently bold and graphic work, the headings are set in Theinhardt, a modern grotesk.
