The Prelude Exhibition of The First Shanghai Graphic Design Biennale – TopoPoster: International Poster Design Exhibition, after six months (June – December, 2025) of planning and preparation, was successfully held from December 13 to December 22, 2025. As one of the larger-scale exhibitions in recent years featuring an international selection of works in China, it showcased over 300 representative poster designs from 153 influential contemporary designers and studios active in the forefront of the field across 28 countries.

Series Poster for Plan B Projects

ince 2016 we have been producing an ongoing series of posters for Plan B Projects, an artist-run space in Amsterdam. To date the series counts 46 posters, each one using a different typeface. Most of these are our own designs (often in sketch form and unpublished) while others are contributions by friends or existing fonts.

The design principle is rudimentary but systematic. Each poster is composed with three sizes of type. The process begins with the medium size, used to set a short text written by the exhibiting artist. From this text, words are gradually removed until only a handful of key terms remain. This structure becomes the “grid” into which the large-size type (the exhibition title) is inserted. Finally, the smallest size is used to fill the remaining spaces with practical information such as venue, address, and dates.

It's a principle in which content determines typographic structure. Not unlike letterpress printing, where space itself is treated as material, here the text itself shapes the white space: absence creates order and words become scaffolding for larger typographic gestures. The result are compositions between systematic logic and improvisation.

Alongside each poster, we produce a double-sided flyer and digital announcements. In the early phase of the project, with each exhibition a new letter “B” was added to the façade, always in the typeface used for that occasion.

Over the years, the series has grown into an archive of the program of Plan B Projects, but also of our own practice of designing, testing, and questioning type.

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