TYPO MAGAZINE
THE OASE INTERVIEW Karel Marten
by Peter Bil’ak
“It is important to realise that it is always the same audience that reads OASE, and they don’t really want to have always the same magazine with just a different cover. It is more respectful to the public to always prepare something unique.” Has the grid changed since the first issue? How was the grid evolving as the magazine was growing up? Yes, The 6×2 mm grid changed. The production of OASE changed, and now we are doing it fully in-house, the grid changed. Now it is made completely on the Macintosh and this offers much more opportunities to play with columns, type and the margins.
When did you start working on OASE magazine? The first issue that I did was in 1990. Before it was a magazine of a different format, A4 size. Did you suggested a new size? Yes. The magazine has quite a theoretical approach, so used this book format. Before What is was just loose papers, where students would hand their the size of type-written essays. It looked very nice, I liked it, but the OASE magait was a bit problematic to continue this way, so I zine? It is related decided to change it. to the maximum size of the sheet? Yes, 24×17 And the change was using a book cm it is the most economical format rather then using a consize for the 50×70cm presses in ventional magazine format? the Netherlands. It is very economical, There was a lot of text, however, you cannot bleed on all sides. I and not so many imaghave to adjust the design to this as well, so we es. It was easier to move all the images up on the sheet. read in new format.
issues are I spent some time looking at OASE trying to bilingual, so I follow the internal structure of the magahad to adapt the zine. I had an impression that the grid is grid to accommodate changing with every issue, as well as more text. We are now paper and typefaces. That’s true. As doing an issue of OASE basic typfaces I am trying to stick with [issue 49] and we made the Monotype Grotesque and Janson, Dutch and the English text equal. but there are exceptions. The This requires a change in grid too. grid is also changing when the format is changing. Did you add more pages when OASE beThe grid, and the came bilingual? No, and that was the problem. division of the grid, The editor wanted to have the English translation, depends on and asked me to put it in the back of the magazine. the issue. However, for me it was a nice opportunity to combine both The last languages, but they did not offer me more pages. The type two was getting smaller and smaller.
When you started working on OASE did you design a fixed grid for the future issues? For me the grid is an instrument that allows me to work with books. Very often it is a flexible grid so I am not too constrained, I still have to take decisions about placing text and images.
It seems that you turn all the technical constrains and limitations to an advantage, and there is no visible aesthetic compromise in OASE, all the issues work well with all these limitations. Limitations are an important thing in design because they offer solutions. You seem to almost enjoy those limitations. It’s not that I would ask for them, but I am always trying to find my space when working on a project. OASE is a very low-budget publication, and For me, from the beginning, it was important to realise that it is always the same audience that reads OASE, and they don’t really want to have always the same magazine with just a different cover. It is the same as if I would have invited a guest to my house and prepare a wonderful meal. They enjoy it, but if they come next time, I cannot prepare the same meal again. It is more respectful to the public to always prepare something unique. They look forward for the next issue.
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