One life. A foundation. Lots of fragmented documents and impressions, all held together by a book.
Carl Hermann Benkowitz
*1892 — †1959
When Dagmar Stange, the grandniece of Carl Hermann Benkowitz, came across his abatement in the shape of hundreds of documents, images and personal items, she decided to launch a foundation for historic documentation : the „Dagmar Stange Stiftung für Zeit- und Fotodokumentation“. When working on the book about „Hermann Benkowitz“ for DSS, even though he and his ancestors had gathered a whole lot of information, there were many missing links, that made it hard to draw a complete image of his life. The missing documents and information about him became the central design theme for the book: fragments.
The Book
Beginning with a rather fragmented grid system and a torn-apart layout, followed by a fragmented dramaturgy, even book itself is fragmented and held together by a rubber band, symbolizing Dagmar Stange Foundation.
The book is made up of three chapters or parts. The first part gives written insights in Hermann Benkowitz’ life and serves as a information basis for the reader.
The second part offers infographics and gives spatial and chronological orientation.
The Third part comes up with images and documents from Benkowitz’ life, asks open questions about Benkowitz and invites the reader to interpret himself. Besides the printed images, the (also fragmented) titles of all gathered data work as additional cornerstones when getting an idea of Carl Hermann Benkowitz. The cover is made of black, laser-engraved cardboard, resembling a stone plate and thus giving the book and its content a solid appearance.
The typeface used in this book is the very legible and friendly »Museo Sans« by Jos Buivenga. In order to create a coherent impression, the icons for the infographics were derived from the letter shapes.
Format 195x255mm
172 pages
Typefaces – Museo Sans
Paper – Munken Lynx Rough
Client – Dagmar Stange Stiftung
