Ivar Orvedal has been active as a poet, musician and sound artist since the 1970s. Postreptilia is a multidimensional art project that explores the interplay between poems in their acoustic quality and the poems’ typographic presentation in an accompanying book. The book contains the poems in Norwegian together with an English translation. The design and choice of materials is a result of collaboration between Ivar Orvedal, type designer Stefan Ellmer and Modest. Like the poetry, the design is inspired by archaic symbols. It is in Blombos Cave in South Africa that the oldest examples of intricate design of symbols have been found. These signs are 77 thousand years old and consist of straight lines carved into stone. We found a typographic translation of these forms in Omnigraph, a typeface designed by Ellmer in 2018. The typeface has several weights that range from pure technical precision to computer-generated distortion. It is used in different layers that move from abstract on the cover to more conventional typographic forms further into the book. We wanted to create an interplay in the poems, where the two languages were placed in variable positions on the same spread. The typeface Triptych, also designed by Ellmer (The Pyte Foundry), is used for the poems as a legible contrast to the abstract expression on the cover.

• Year: 2019
• Client: Ivar Orvedal
• Typography: Ellmer Stefan
• Print: Narayana, Denmark and Optimal Media
• Format: 146 x 280 mm
• Paper: 70 gsm Munken Print White
• Binding: Softcover, 220 gsm Peydur Feinleinen
• Colors: 2+2
• Principal type: Triptych Roman and Omnigraf
• Pages: 152
• Language: Norwegian and English