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Large Drawing I II

Category

2025

Book

Awarded

Designer / Designers / Design Studio / Agency

Client

Year

Andrei Șendrea, Mălin Neamțu

Galeria Posibilă

2023

Printing House

Print Run

Number of Pages

Format (W × H)

Publisher

ISBN

Fabrik

300

32

210 × 297 mm

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—

Other Credits

Reproduction photographs: Bogdan Bordeianu; Preparation of photographs for print: Square Media; Translated by: Samuel Onn; Proofreading: Alina Ion; Text by Sandra Demetrescu and Ioana Mandeal

Short description

Long description

The book Large Drawing I II accompanies two monumental-scale drawings exhibited at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Buk. These two works are part of a retrospective exhibition dedicated to the artist Ștefan Câlția. The book seeks to embody the pure identity of the drawings, serving as an extension of their visual and conceptual presence.

The book measures 297 x 210 mm and serves as an album of detail studies drawn from the original monumental-scale works it references. The brushstrokes are reproduced at a 1:1 scale, matching the actual size found in the original drawings.

The interior is printed in black and a strong Pantone Red, carefully selected to echo the red accents of the original artworks—tones which, over time, have faded into a warmer, orange hue.

A small-format insert is included inside the book, printed with white Pantone ink on red paper. This insert contains information about the exhibition, the creative team, and the title of the album.

The print run consists of 300 copies. The cover is a softcover design, enhanced with red foil stamping, symbolizing the pain and imprint the artist intends to communicate through the work. The book was printed in 2023.

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Foto: Mihai Ciobanu

Jury Notes

Process Notes: Studio Shentzu

We found this book to be the most conceptual of the selection. It never shows a complete image; instead, each spread presents fragments that suggest a one-to-one scale of larger artworks. This creates a new way of viewing the work, transforming the book into an exploratory experience — almost like a playground or puzzle. The simplicity of the design makes the concept shine, while the book as a whole becomes part of the artwork itself. The intriguing cover invites curiosity, and once opened, it reveals an imaginative world that ties the concept together.

 

JG: I love this one. I think this is the most conceptual, perhaps, book of the selection, where it's not showing any complete image and every spread is made up of sections which look like a one to one scale of a much bigger artwork. So it creates a whole new way of viewing the artwork through the book, so the book becomes its own experience, and it becomes a bit of a playground for exploring. The design of the book is extremely simple, but conceptual, and it perfectly complements the artwork.

 

ML: It’s a good illustrative take of the actual sculpture that it describes, and every single page of the book becomes part of the big sculpture. It’s like a puzzle.

 

PV: It’s very unique, and it’s a bold decision.

 

JG: It’s got a very intriguing cover, that could be anything, but then you open it and you find all these crazy monsters and then it makes perfect sense.

Thinking about the journey from initial idea to the finished piece, which moments had the deepest impact on the project and what made you realise those changes had to happen?

Starting with the initial idea that reflects the dialog with the client, the main challenge is scaling down to reasonable production and materialisation costs. During the process, the moment with the deepest impact on the outcome can sometimes be adjusting the production cost within the client’s budget.

Collaboration is built on trust and dialogue — within that process, which part of the project feels most authentically yours, and which unexpected voices pushed you beyond your comfort zone?

Trust and dialogue within collaborations is key. During our process, every time we start by reevaluating our skills and what could be valuable for the project. This means we can push our technical and conceptual boundaries every time, delivering fresh graphic and conceptual results. The level of complexity that comes with some projects can push us beyond our comfort zone, but simple and playful projects can do that too.

In what ways do you believe awards like LDA shape (or should shape) the design landscape locally? And is there a responsibility attached to being an awarded designer within that ecosystem?

Initiatives like LDA help the local design scene by empowering the desire for improvement and growth for established and upcoming designers. Being awarded at LDA, only makes us want to push our practice further by keeping the quality of design as high as possible and strengthening the bonds within our local design community.

When designing for a book as an object, what were the material or tactile decisions (paper stock, binding structure, format) that made the difference between something “nice” and something you believe will last?

Designing the Large Drawing I II book mainly consisted in choosing materials and binding methods to reflect the content and concept of the book as close as possible. The dark matte cover with the bold red dates, compliments well the content with the super glossy paper and strong ink-black and blood-red colour scheme.

How did you balance the informal elements and the visual impact? Which one led the process and why?

If we consider the drawing close-ups as the informal element that drove many of the design decisions of the book, they were very powerful themselves through the graphic quality and impact. These influenced the outcome by establishing a dark yet inspiring and curious feeling to the book.

Books carry production constraints (print run, budget, distribution). How did those practical limits influence the design — were there compromises that became strengths?

The main practical limit that influenced the book was the limited amount of image resources, because the publication only shows one artwork. This directly influenced the complexity and length of the publication. This made the book size and format to be a pleasant experience.

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