Product Reviews

Kapitza is the London design studio of Nicole and Petra Kapitza. Their work, it says here, is 'an expression of a shared passion for everyday life, minimalism, patterns and colour'. This book is about the last three. Almost all of its 336 pages are filled with geometric patterns created using 100 original pattern fonts, which are supplied on CD, so you can continue the experiments yourself. We were reminded of the Ray Gun magazine interview that designer David Carson famously set in Zapf Dingbats: he could have had a lot more fun.

There's nothing here to read, except instructions for using the fonts; an 'about' page, in English, from which the quote above is taken; and an interview with the authors, in German. This relates how the sisters were first alerted to the possibilities of fonts by Fontographer in 1993, and we can all relate to that. It also employs the word muster, which combines the meanings of pattern, specimen and model, nicely encapsulating the purpose of this book.

Most volumes containing a mix of colour and monochrome illustrations are divided into sections of each. This one instead alternates colour and mono spreads. An intriguing side effect is that if you thumb-flip from the back, you see only black and

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white pages; from the front, you see only colour.

And, um, that's about all we can say. Not so much a book to leave in the loo, as one to make available wherever you consume hallucinogenics. Some of the patterns, especially the more Bridget Riley of the monochromes, will spin your head quite effectively even without chemical assistance. When it comes to creating your own variations, shapes are assigned to characters within each font, making it wonderfully easy to play around, and having set up a block of characters in your favourite application, you can switch fonts to generate new designs.

Unfortunately, there's a catch. The fonts come with a licence agreement that's really more of a disagreement. Commercial use is prohibited, except for 'personal projects and smaller professional projects', and 'website graphics at a resolution no greater than 640 x 480 pixels'. We can understand the exclusion of on-demand products, trademarks, design templates and derivative works; these limitations are commonplace with low-end royalty free stock, and that's effectively what these fonts are. But you're also warned off print runs beyond 10,000, product designs, promotional giveaways or packaging, which encompasses just about anything except mucking about.

It could be argued that £60 would be cheap for 100 fully licensed fonts, but they're not fonts and you're not getting them. 'The extensive Geometric font collection provides a fantastic resource for designers who want to use patterns in illustration, graphic, textile, fashion, surface and wallpaper design, animations, web design and so on,' says the online blurb, neglecting to add '...and don't mind paying an unspecified fee every time they do'.

If indeed you don't, this is an inspiring sandbox for deep-pocketed geometric pattern fans of all ages.