The Edit: five new projects including Schackbräde by fagerström

Each and every day, we're lucky to discover dozens of interesting and inspiring projects from around the world. From global identities and campaigns to side projects and independently published books, The Edit is home to five of them; every two weeks. Aiming to highlight the similarities between design and chess, Madrid-based studio fagerström have created a series of 16 monochrome posters that double up as a playable board. Named ‘Schackbräde’ after the Swedish word for chessboard, each design revolves around simple shape combinations that point out the key moments that occurred in historic chess matches during the 20th century; each of which is highlighted in black within a white playable area. Surrounding it to display the functional information relevant to each match is TIGHTYPE’s sans serif Plaid XL, which fagerström tell us was chosen for its “timeless yet imposing look” and to evoke “the influence of Soviet or Eastern European schools.” The top of each poster is filled with algebraic notations of the possible chess movements, seamlessly set in the suitably technical Lars Mono from Amsterdam-based foundry Bold Decisions. With more to be added in the future, the first set of 16 posters were sent as gifts to schools and chess clubs; and can also be purchased from fagerstrom.studio/shop. Founded by a yet-to-be-revealed typographer, technologist and entrepreneur trio from Zurich and New York, NFTYPE are offering a minimalist alternative to the ever-growing and arguably overloaded NFT world. The platform launches with the numbers 1-99 set plainly in Helvetica, allowing buyers to own their favourite numbers as NFTs without any surrounding noise or distractions. “We really wanted to keep it as neutral as possible,” the team behind NFTYPE tell us, “not least, of course, because of the homage to the legends of the last century.” The trio sees the platform very much as an experiment and hopes that it will satisfy those with an interest in NFTs that also want to avoid the loud, strident bubble surrounding them. “Whether the 99 soon hangs in the MoMA, or we produce only data garbage remains to be seen,” they conclude.