JUNG + WENIG

In a series of photo zines and books based on mostly found material, Berlin based duo infernale Jung und Wenig explore their gentle love/hate relationship with the iconic GR 3770 Risograph. 

Tell us how the two of you met, and how your collaboration works!

Well, it all started several years ago at the Leipzig University qualyfing exams-a 5 day marathon of tests and aptitude screening. Tobi found himself billeted at a mad old ladys place, so i decided to rescue him and let him stay at my place instead. and we have been working- sometimes even living- together ever since.

In a way, we have become something of an old couple of graphic design: Tobi generates plenty chaos and Christopher cleans up after him. We even used to swap computers, but just put a stop to that. Now, on a day to day basis, we both do everything and simply play ping pong with the flies, tossing them back and forth. However, besides having matching or complementary skills, it is far more important to be on the same page whn it comes to aesthetics and attitude.

So, is there something like a perticular Jung und Wenig aesthetic or manifesto? How does this translate to your own and commissioned work?

I think our, lets say, idiosycratic approach is both our strength and great dilema. On the one hand, it gives us and our work great focus and distraction, on the other, it narrows down our list of potencial clients.

Both of us adore typography, which is probably down to our past at the Leipzig School of Design and working with people like Cyan, Gunter-Karl Bose, Markus DreBen et al. Add a generous dash of muddle-headedness and you are half way there! The results tend to be quiet bare and pared down-almost to the point of tedium.

When it comes to our commissioned work, we mostly do artist monographs, gallery programmes, etc. While this is not likely to make us rich, it means working with people who are pretty much on the same wavelength and this gives us more leeway for playful experimentation. We love it when people know what they want and when they have something to say, because there is nothing worse than dressing up empty phrases and content. As long as people have something to say, that is a descent basis for experimentation and collaboration.

Speaking of experimentation-most of your submissions to this book are quite experimental. Where does it all come from?

We simply design what feels right to us. The driving force? Probably a bit of bordem and the urge to make use of the freedom we have. Not to forget: we are obsessive collectors. Our computors are filled with countless libraries, sorted by themes. We usually start a search around a name or term and, like everybody else, get sidetracked by the wealth of further links. So we click our way through one perticular branch, all the way into display truly stunning.

And while we have always collected the oddities, some of them actually look really interesting within the right graphic framework. After all, that is our job as graphic designers: to see the unseen and turn it into something worthwhile. Without this eye and curatorial aspect, any collection is just rubbish.

And as it is pretty much impossibleto fill up your hardrive with bits of junk sized at 72kb, we never, ever delete anything. Actually, as a rule of thumb we would say: the higher a pictures resolution, the more boring and empty it will turn out to be. These high enders take themselves far too seriously!

Well, so much for the source-what about the actual projects?

We simply delve into our archieves and assemble a veritable wunderkammer of curiosities. And it usually starts with a huge amount of nuttieness-this seems to be a common thread. After all, this is what makes the internet such a great source: on the web, everyone is a star-and not only for the proverbial 15 minutes, but as long as the link works. so, we take our pick from these would-be stars and offer them their own stage-without the tiniest hint of mercy. Take the Singlestammtisch: we came across all these odd, self promotional portraits, cut them up, turned them into a slightly unsettling collage and then scourced the net for accompanying text. Thats it!

But despite the overt silliness, it is all quite theoretical from Tower of Babel analogies to modern philosophy. Considering that we are not great at putting our thoughts and theories into words, we were lucky enough to find plenty of pictures to do it for us.

Indicentally, most of these projects thrive on the humour of their content rather than "proper" graphic design. Discounting our bush project, they are all rather primitive-image on the left, image on the right, there you go. So, while they are fairly conceptual, theyre not especially ambitious in terms of techneique. A lot of this is dwn to the reproduction technology we use, our Risograph GR 3770, which is fmous for imprecise printing, limited colours, and slightly sloppy results 

So, is it all about learning by doing?

Well, I don't think a single project has ever gone without a hitch! A bookbinder once mixed up the layers of our 640kb project, which-in the scheme of things-did not really spoil the work, but slashed the price in half, so that was a bit of a lucky accident.

And when you look at our own, free projects-with their different paper types and photo print inserts-it is usually pure madness from a production point of view. If we handed those to a bookbinder, there is no way we could afford it. But when you treat it as a voluntary craft project in your own workshop and studio, it can actually be quite meditative.

How much time do you spend on the average project?

Including printing and binding, it probably takes around 2 months from start to finish-all done by hand and in house. Sure, that is a fair amount of time for what is basically a self indulgence. Sometimes, we do it on the side whilst working on an official project, but it is definitely a bit of luxury.

If you discount all the time and labour invested, producing an edition of 100 copies probably costs us around 800 euros in materials. Then again, we were lucky-we snagged our Risograph for a mere 700 euros plus 400 euros for an additional colour cartridge. Well, to be honest-we did not really pay for it all! A couple of years ago, someone paid us twice by mistake and we kept waiting for them to claim it back. When nothing happened for a year, we decided to invest the windfall in a "good cause"