Out of the shirts boxes to the national collection

By saying that they will proudly keep the archives of designers who have created the most important national graphic creations, helping to spread awareness of the achievements of Slovenian visual culture, they presented a recent takeover of the legacy of the graphic design pioneer at the National and University Library Jože Brumen and his successors, spouses Skalar. In doing so, (future) designers, researchers, also invited the general public to explore their works and the development of the artistic image in the field of graphic design.

At first glance, it seems strange that the legacy of graphic designers is left to Nuku, not, for example, the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO). That she is very atypical especially for the manuscript collection, also affirms her guardian Marijan Rupert. Although it has the most extensive collection of Latin manuscripts from 9. Until the end of the 15th century, medieval manuscripts from the collections of Slavist are also extremely important Jernej Kopitar and the baron Stamps zoisa In Cyrillic and Glagolitic, within it, not only the legacy of Slovene writers collect, which was its primary purpose. They also keep the legacies of creators from various fields of Slovenian culture, including historians, intellectuals, including some scientists, such as for example Anton Mavreticor the archive of dancers Marte Paulin – Brine and Mary Vogelnik. In the past, they have acquired the legacy of Slovenian painters, including Grohar and Jakopič.

The Skalar spouses materials are four liquid meters, and the Brumn Archive is slightly less extensive. For comparison, the archive of the Trieste writer Boris Pahor covers 20 running meters, the legacy of the poet and translator Tomaž Šalamun About 10 meters. “Compared to Prešeren is this very large, compared to Cankar But not so much anymore, « said the interviewee.

The archive of the late Jože Brumen, one of the pioneers of the Slovenian post -war modernist graphic design and the first Prešeren Award winner in the field of design, was handed over by his widow ddr. Natasha Golobart historian and longtime lecturer at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana.

Already at the first review exhibition about a modernist designer and artistic erudite on the 20th anniversary of his death in 2021, which was in Mau, she expressed her desire to hand over the Nuku archive to which he has been involved for many years. She devoted most of her professional work to medieval manuscripts. As Rupert said, they accepted it as a great honor.

“With the author of the exhibition Petro Černe Aries We are also preparing a catalog, and a month ago we also received the Skalar spouses archive, so we decided to make a joint presentation. It should be noted, however, that the oeuvre of both Brumen and the Skalar’s belongs to the framework of a literary activity, which is immanent nuku, « said the interviewee.

The acquired legacy will now be possible to see live, and will only digitize the material as needed. This is associated with high costs, including because the storage of large documents in the broader view causes high electricity costs and a carbon footprint, he explained. According to him, the British National Library began to abandon digitization years ago for these reasons.

Several copies, several institutions, and some of the trash

Former professor at the Ljubljana Academy of Fine Arts and Design, graphic designer Peter Skalar, who has designed many projects with his (this year’s deceased wife) Judito Skalarhe had already handed over most of his or their oeuvre to Mau, and was also addressed by NUK and connected by his former student, also a graphic designer Tanja Radež.

It seemed very important to her that insight into their work could be given to the general public, that it was achievable to students and researchers who would write a master’s thesis about it and to investigate one way or another. “Their work is completely unexplored, even though they have created one of the largest integrated graphic images – for Ljubljanska Banka. Professor Skalar, who we loved very much, taught us systematic thinking, and that was a great extension, « she said.

The Skalar spouses have shaped the image of the Ljubljana Bank for two decades. Photo: NUK Archive

The fact that the Opus of the Skalar spouses is now also available in Nuku is attributed to the fact that at least several copies have been preserved from every part or project they participated in. « I was pleased with the possibility of handing over Nuku, albeit for a very banal reason to get rid of the material at least a bit, but at the same time I am very pleased that it would be available to anyone interested in this, including future generations, » said Peter Skalar.

Many copies of especially publications and other elements, which were designed by Judita Skalar for the current, the Vrhnika leather industry (IUV) and the cone, and there were many more due to more mass publicization. As he admitted, the editing of the archive, although he was already folded and mostly documented in boxes (from shirts), took him two and a half months, which was hard work every day, admits.

Peter and Judita Skalar, the listener of Joze Brumen by the professor Edward Ravnikar Introduced as his assistant at the B-Smerje Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana, they are members of the second post-war generation of graphic designers. The first to represent, among other things Grega Kosak, Majda Dobravec Lajovic and Nana Lesnikwhich was still greatly influenced by the functionalist and minimalist heritage of modernism, the heritage of Bauhaus and the Swiss graphics.

“When we came after them a decade behind them, besides with my wife, among other things John Suhadolc and Matjaz Vipotnikwe still felt this modernism and also experienced it from its predecessors, but especially Vipotnik has already developed a unique approach, « said Skalar. Vipotnik and Suhadolec participated in the design for the then Credit Bank and the Ljubljana Savings Bank, which at this stage was renamed Ljubljana Bank. He was pointing out as a big project, which was also: it lasted for two decades.

What to look at in the legacy of Skalar’s

According to the interviewee, the approach of their generation differed from the previous one that they fully focused on projects, had contact and support for employees in the companies for which they formed. It was also not only about designing only the conceptual project, but also provided for the image of every printing point, they were a permanent design service for the company, for which they developed a corporate identity.

“A special example was Konus, initially a manufacturer of leather products, which, after starting to graphically, began to develop greatly. They also went into other activities, including the production of plastic, filters, and they operated in eleven areas. We also developed a letter species for them and designed the names of individual areas from it, so that everything worked very homogeneously, « says Skalar.

The Skalar spouses materials are four liquid meters, and the Brumn Archive is slightly less extensive. Photo: NUK Archive

In the initial phase, they also designed and published very thorough manuals, some kind of guides in a holistic graphic image, which defined the standards, how something should look like, which was not before, and everything was written in companies. Everything was very seriously set, he points out. Their generation was succeeded by the new one, among other things Ranko Novak, Radovan Jenko and Miljenko Liculwho, in his words, broke with modernism.

“While we used one of the most exposed modernist letter species for Ljubljana Bank, they no longer used it. We also used a very carefully designed design network to design all the elements, which determined the measurement proportions, and they are not so strictly. If the fundamental principle of action was order for us, they followed the mess and the decomposition, which are still relevant, « he says.

What would you like to look at the Skalar’s legacy? « Certainly comprehensive graphic images, which shows systematics, how something came about, how it developed … It should also be borne in mind that with the project you influence the extensive part of the visual culture and that today those who have influence in companies, cultural, sports institutions are too little aware that everything they do with their communication means have a great impact on the quality of human environment. »

In the 60s, 70s and 80s, companies were aware of the importance of the quality of visual culture, which also built their visibility, often to cooperate with designers and realize what they designed, a special job, which is absolutely amazing for today. As Peter Skalar was thinking aloud, I would like to be a book collection within their legacy New magazine And the other monographs he has designed, but nuk, which he has to feed, feeds elsewhere.