bio

Loraine Furter is a graphic designer and researcher based in Brussels since 2007, specialized in editorial design, hybrid publishing and intersectional xfeminism. She designs and edits paper publications as well as web and digital ones, and is particularly interested in the interaction between these media. Read me →

contact

info[at]lorainefurter.net

selected works

Agrafes & bouts de ficelles ∿ Ôde aux messy reliures

Agrafes & bouts de ficelles ∿ Ôde aux messy reliures / Staples and string ends ∿ messy bindings presents research into the soft, limp, messy bindings of Belgian feminist publications contained in local archives. An inventory of forms that are relatively accessible from the point of view of their production, and of inventive finds that transform bits of string into sublime bindings. A collaboration with Lara Dautun (design) and Lissa Choukrane (writing and editorial concept), (self-)published in October 2022.

Speaking Volumes ∿ Speaking In Tongues

Speaking Volumes ∿ Speaking In Tongues installation presented at Sint Lucas Antwerpen during the SLARG Research Week 2022. A collaboration with Lara Dautun and Juliana Vargas Zapata.

5days4ideas

Web design and identity for 5days4ideas in collaboration with Clara Sambot and Lucile Martin.

Consortium Commissions 2020/2022 posters edition

Artistic direction and production coordination for the 2020/2022 Consortium Commissions posters edition by Mophradat, for artists Deena Abdelwahed, Dina Mimi, Haig Aivazian, Inas Halabi, Joe Namy, Lydia Ourahmane, and Makkimakuk, in collaboration with Joud Toamah (graphic design) and Sukrii Kural (print design).

Multiscriptes

A series of projects on multiscript typography, in discussion and collaboration with Émilie Aurat, Naïma Ben Ayed, Garine Gokceyan & Lisa Huang (workshop at Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin, publication in FORUM+) and a special focus on Armenian type design. Ongoing since 2021.

Intersections of Care

Intersections of Care is a research project in collaboration with Florence Cheval and other artefacts, humans and non-humans, to share questions and tools for organising, sharing and caring in the field of arts.

Fondation Guignard

Identity in progress for Fondation Guignard in collaboration with Clara Sambot and Laurie Charles, interrogating outside and inside art and design. Second image by 19th Century medium Hélène Smith 1861-1929.

Research in progress

Hybrid publication-website for my research in progress…

Contribution to Futuress.org

“Armenian Letters, an intersectional introduction to Armenian type design for its diasporas and beyond” — contribution to Futuress, a feminist library of design books that are yet to be written! https://www.futuress.org/ — to be continued…

Mothers & Daughters — a lesbian bar

Webdesign based on the beautiful identity by Sara Kaamanwww.mothersanddaughters.be

Speaking Volumes Fikra Biennial

Speaking Volumes installation at the non-binary department of Fikra Graphic Design Biennial, with artworks by Laurie Charles and a designed translation by Naz Naddaf, 9-30 November 2018. A feminist proposition about underrepresented publishing practices in history, with a focus on the relation with space --- the spaces that the book offers, the spacial conditions necessary to make books, the alternative spaces. Invited by Corinne Gisel and Nina Paim (common-interest)

illustrations

Various illustrations, 2017-2018.

Bye-bye binary — gender fluid typographic research

Part of the research group Bye-bye binary working on gender fluid typography. genderfluid.space — première version du texte Crystal Clear, later translated and published by Depatriarchise Design. Experiment poster generator in progress.

Copy This Book

Book design and editing for Eric Schrijver’s book, October 2018.

Read/edit/talk/history

Read/edit/talk/history installation with Just for the record at the Abattoirs de Bomel Arts Center, Namur, June 2018.

Classement Diagonal

Book design for/with artist Bruno Goosse’s book Classement Diagonal, September 2018.

The Act of Building

Design of the publication The Act of Building, by BC architects, edited by Pauline Lefebvre, May 2018.

Brussels Almanach Lesbian (♥) publication

Design of the publication Brussels Almanach Lesbian (♥), with Roxanne Maillet + design & programming of the website, May-June 2018.

Speaking Volumes cneai

Speaking Volumes, installation and event, with readings by Vanina Géré and Clara Pacotte, Josèfa N'tjam and Esmé Planchon, cneai, Paris, March-April 2018.

Feminist flag

Flag for the Fig. graphic design festival in Liège, February 2018. “Fig Fierce Feminist·e Flag” fait partie d’une tactique d’infiltration féministe joyeuse visant à profiter de chaque opportunité d’expression publique (conférences, expositions, workshops, publications…) pour exprimer des questions politiques liées au genre.

Speaking Volumes — research

Research project Speaking Volumes on art, activism and feminist publishing, since Summer 2017-ongoing.

Deconstruction — web to print

Graphic design for the conference Deconstruction, an international symposium on off-site seuse in architecture at TU Delft, in collaboration with Het Nieuwe Instituut. Website, booklet and poster, designed with web open source tools (HTML, CSS, JS), at the core of which is the idea of re-use, modification and re-distribution, March 2017.

Design research

Design and curating of the platform design-research.be.

Public Domain design workshop

Public Domain design workshop with Ellen Lupton’s students at MICA Baltimore. In collaboration with Eric Schrijver. (website)

HPG

Graphic design & programming for the Hybrid Publishing Group’s website and various hybrid publications, 2015-2016.

Congrès Halte Congres

Newspaper design and exhibition, project HALTE, as part of the Curating The Station residencies in Recyclart Brussels, December 2015. Coproduced by Recyclart and the ULB architecture research lab hortence, in collaboration with Elsa Maury, Anne-Laure Iger and orthodoxe.

Collaborative Open Source type design

Collaborative Open Source type design workshop with Ellen Lupton’s students at MICA Baltimore. In collaboration with Eric Schrijver, April 2015. (website) PDF

Wanderbibliothek

Exhibition of the project Wanderbibliothek at Rosa Brux, Brussels, with Clovis Duran, December 2014. Retrospective show of the books awarded by the Fernand Baudin Prize + exhibition of historical and new versions of wooden crates bookshelves that the Bibliothèque Pour Tous (Library for All) used at the begining of last Century to spread its books through the whole of Switzerland, by cart and on donkeys’ back.

Let’s Think Out Loud

Workshop Let’s Think Out Loud and editorial coordination, with graphic designer Manuela Dechamps Otamendi, International Graphic and Poster Festival in Chaumont, France, April 2014.

various websites

Various websites since 2012, for Badass Libre Fonts by Womxn, engagement with Sarah Magnan, mma, Halte, Préambulle, Prix Fernand Baudin 2014, …

news

Links

CV

  • 2012—: Independent graphic designer.
  • 2019—: PhD student, Sint Lucas Antwerpen, The politics of publishing; researching encounters between artists’ books and intersectional feminist tools.
  • 2019—: Tutor in the Advanced Master of Research in Art and Design (research methodology module), Sint Lucas Antwerpen.
  • 2019—: Co-founder of the research project Intersections of Care with Florence Cheval, supported by A/R art & research and the FRArt/FNRS Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique.
  • 2018—: Co-founder of the typography collective Bye Bye Binary.
  • 2016-2025: Founding member of the cyberfeminist collective Just for the record. Just for the record investigates how gender is represented in new media and writing/publishing tools, and how it influences the way history is recorded.
  • 2016-2019: Member of the research group Teaching to transgress, working on the relations between art pedagogies and gender, post-colonialism, intersectional, queer and situated feminisms.
  • 2017-2022: Co-organizer of the graphic design festival Fig. in Liège, Belgium.
  • 2014-2024: Teacher of graphic design and artists’ books classes (BA+MA) at ArBA and erg in Brussels, and at Arts2 in Mons, Belgium.
  • 2016-2017: Board member of Wikimedia Belgium.
  • 2014-2016: Member of the Hybrid Publishing Group, Germany.
  • 2015: Researcher at the Hybrid Publishing Lab, Centre for Digital Cultures, Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany.
  • 2014: Coordinator and curator of the Fernand Baudin Prize, Belgium.

works/words published in

works/words published in

Lectures

  • Lecture, Communications Design Lecture Series, Pratt Institute, NY, 19th April 2022.
  • TW: Livres d’artistes, Exemplaires conference, isdaT, Toulouse,
  • Panel De-modernizing Visual Culture, with Yin Yin Wong (moderation), Amy Suo Wu, Garine Gokceyan, and Kristyan Sarkis, Affective Graphic Design conference at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, 23d October 2021.
  • Publications féministes : DIY, archives et révolutions, at Livresse, Vecteur, Charleroi, 13th October 2021.
  • On catalogs, a presentation as part of the amazing program by cc.platform — seeking to balance and celebrate representations of femme and gender non-conforming artists/designers, Arnhem, 3d July 2021.
  • New version of the *Constellation* for KOHL SWAT at HfG Karlsruhe (archive here), 30th June 2021.
  • Présentation et discussion avec Charlotte Attal et Elise Goutagny, Nourrir le design graphique : transmission féministes et décoloniales, 10 mai 2021.
  • Presentation at Format Club Berlin, 4th May 2021. *Constellation* in progress!
  • Contribution to Design Urgencies, March 15 2021.
  • Talk at SPRINT Milano, as part of the workshop “La Lettera Neutrə” organised by Collletttivo at the Istituto Svizzero, January 16 2021.
  • Lecture with Estelle Pom, Chercher de nouveaux soleils — Défaire les canons et les pratiques hégémoniques dans le design graphique, at EnsAD Paris, December 8 2020.
  • Lecture at Weltformat Festival Symposium 2020, curated by Miriam Koban and Jonas Berthod, September 27 2020.
  • Panel discussion Typolibrisme francophone : 10 ans et plus, with Frank Adebiaye, Lucas Descroix, Loraine Furter, Alice Savoie, Baptiste Sozoo, organised by Velvetyne Type Foundry as part of the Open Publishing Fest, May 28 2020.
  • Discussion avec Jean-Sylvain Tshilumba Mukendi autour de l’exposition As, Not For : Détrôner nos absolus et de questions de création et d’approches décoloniales, Fig. festival, 6 février 2020.
  • Talk at Saturday Type Fever, January 18, 2020.
  • Lecture and workshop at MICA, Baltimore PRESENTATION, September 15 2019.
  • Copy That?, Panel discussion at Printed Matter, NY IMAGES + TABLE, September 7, 2019.
  • Pouvoirs et Dérives, La Bellone: Code de conduite commun? Règlement des études, R.E.I.N.E, erg + document discussions collectives + annuel.framapad.org/p/institution-art-feministe, 29-30 avril 2019.
  • _Les chercheuXs en plein champ_, colloque Ce qui nous préoccupe : recherche design en école d’art, Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Étienne, 2 avril 2019.
  • Séminaire: Les Cahiers du Grif — relire une revue, 11 mars 2019. audio + PDF
  • Conférence Le rôle des femmes dans les studios de dessin avec Alice Savoie, erg, Bruxelles, 21 février 2019.
  • ⌤ Twisted Tongues Reading Club ⌤, An afternoon of non-binary and sub-aquatic poetry reading, shaped by Roxanne Maillet, Damien & The Love Guru, Brussels, January 30 janvier 2019.
  • Conférence Publications féministes : entre art et activisme à l'École Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs (ESAD) · HEAR Strasbourg, 22 novembre 2018. Dans le cadre du cycle Le(s) féminisme(s) : formes en tous genres organisé par Sandra Chamaret et Sandrine Israël-Jos.
  • January 2019: Presentation at the Public Domain Day, Royal Library of Belgium.
  • November 2018: Conférence Publications féministes : entre art et activisme à l'École Supérieure des Arts Decoratifs (ESAD) · HEAR Strasbourg, dans le cadre du cycle Le(s) féminisme(s) : formes en tous genres
  • June 2018: Speaking Volumes presentation at the summer university, Bibliothèque Kandinsky, Paris.
  • May 2018: Presentation in the symposium Adornment and Gender in Praksis, Oslo.
  • March 2018: Speaking Volumes, presentation, cneai, Paris.
  • December 2017: Cyberféminismes — re·lecture du Manifeste Cyborg de Donna Haraway (1984), lecture, Transcultures & Arts2, Mons.
  • October 2017: Design Marabout, presentation at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
  • March 2017: Lecture at LUCA School of Arts Brussels on an alternative history of artists books.
  • February 2017: Moderation of a debate at the Fig. Festival, first edition of the international graphic design festival in Liège.
  • January 2017: Lecture on cyberfeminism with Laurence Rassel at Université des femmes, Brussels.
  • March 2016: Two lectures at elif n°1 : Résistance électronique, stratégie éditoriale et cyberféminisme at ENSBA, Lyon, France.
  • September 2014: Presentation and panel discussion during the Préambulle at Bibliomedia library center Lausanne, with authors Malika Ferdjoukh and Cati Baur.
  • March 28th 2013: Lecture on the Most Beautiful Swiss Books catalogues, for “Livres Parlés”, during the Most Beautiful Swiss Books and Dieter Roth’s books exhibition at erg Gallery.
  • November 2010: Lecture on self-publishing during a round table on contemporary graphic design at ERBA, Rennes.

Exhibitions

  • Fikra Graphic Design Biennial, Department of non-binaries, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, 2018.
  • Speaking Volumes, exhibition, cneai, Paris, France, 2018.
  • Just for the record, Abattoirs de Bomel Arts Center, Namur, 2018.
  • Speaking Volumes, residency and four public events, ISELP, Brussels, Belgium, 2017.

Press