Love by numbers

Fedrigoni UK’s 365 2023 brings together a range of work inspired by the theme of ‘love’, with each design or illustration shown across a variety of red- and pink-hued pages. Last week’s packed, enthusiastic launch event at London’s Hoxton Arches featured a wall display of the pages, vividly demonstrating the breadth of visual expression devoted to each day of every month in the coming year by 365 different designers and illustrators.

Given the tumultuous events of recent years, Fedrigoni UK and art directors TM intended the collection as a message of positivity. TM’s Danny McNeil and Johnny Tsevdos have orchestrated and designed 365 since it began in 2018.

‘The process always leads to a publication that is rich and varied – from the emotionally sublime to the tongue-in-cheek ridiculous – but we wouldn’t have it any other way,’ says TM’s Danny McNeil.

For 365 2023, the books’ covers have been assembled at random, with differently coloured front and back boards glued on to each book block and finished with two foils.

‘We’ve purposefully left this process to chance, letting each edition carry its own visual signature,’ says McNeil. ‘It serves to highlight the collaborative nature of the project, with each book containing a multitude of unique and personal interpretations of the brief.’ Inside pages are printed in silver throughout (PMS 877) on a variety of colours from the Fedrigoni collection. The job was printed by Identity in Tonbridge, Kent.

Previous editions of 365 have highlighted selected stocks from Fedrigoni, from 2018’s entirely black book and its 2019 white counterpart to the multicoloured recycled offering in 2020, the digitally printed 2021 edition (see ‘Day to day Data’, Pulp 20) and in 2022 the four uniquely bound volumes of 2022. Profits from previous editions have been donated to charity, so far raising more than £22,000. A limited number of editions of Fedrigoni 365 LOVE can be purchased from Counter Print with profits from this year’s sales donated to the British Heart Foundation.