Fedrigoni 365: An annual book and calendar, 2019.

Fedrigoni 365, an annual book and calendar, is an unprecedented collaboration involving 365 designers, illustrators and photographers from throughout the UK, gathered together by an open call for entries to contribute a piece of work.

Each participant is given a date from 2019 at random and asked to interpret that number. This could be either a literal or abstract interpretation, but the creative challenge was restricted with the book being a one-colour print, and designs were forced to focus on concept, shape and form.

At Torpedo, we were given 1 May. The brief therefore was simply to interpret the number one. Our design could be influenced by anything to do with the given number, the date or even time of year, but as Fedrigoni wanted this to be a book of numbers (or graphics influenced by numbers) our allocated number needed to be a core element of the design. Through these parameters, the calendar was shaped into a beautiful visual story whose pace varied from page to page and spread to spread.

The Torpedo creative team submitted entries for consideration. From these, two entries were shortlisted. Option 1 was based on the traditional May Day bank holiday, usually celebrated on 1 May, and recreated the popular custom of happy folk dancing around the maypole.

Option 2 was based on Morse Code and the famous distress call – Mayday. However, instead of the usual SOS (three dots, three dashes, three dots), it was decided it would be more intriguing to spell out the entire word.

Out of the two concepts, Option 2 was chosen within our team and it was soon worked up and submitted. A description of the work was also required to accompany the visual, but we decided to allow the reader the reward of figuring it out for themselves, so we decided on the shortest description possible. Just the one word: Mayday.

The 2019 calendar was printed to one of ten white sheets from Fedrigoni’s expansive collection of papers, with our artwork printed in gunmetal silver PMS 8403C on Materica Gesso – 120g/m^2. 

500 copies of the book will be sold, with profits going to Shelter, to help fight against homelessness and poor housing in the UK. To purchase a copy, click here.