StudioDBD’s limited edition BCNMCR book is a charming curated celebration of Catalan creativity

Celebrating the best of Barcelona and its continental creative connection to Manchester, BCNMCR is a 180-page champion of Catalan creativity, devised and designed by Mancunian branding agency StudioDBD. Sitting alongside extensive exclusive interviews from Barcelona-based designers and illustrators, the 60-submission-heavy book acts as a vivid capsule of contemporary creativity from the Spanish city. BCNMCR’s distinctive aesthetic derives from the book’s geographical context, with the cover alluding to the Catalan region’s official flag, the Senyera, which similarly illustrates five yellow bars on a red rectangle – orientated in portrait for the publication. Reimagining the yellow bars of the flag, StudioDBD’s Dave Sedgwick transformed the horizontal shapes to embody tally marks, with one strike representing each of the creative submissions, characterising not only the book’s content but also the practical process behind its production. Contrasting the cover’s more expressive, conceptual design, the internal editorial output from Sedgwick creates a serene and supportive space to embolden the featured work, opting for Neue Haas Grotesk as the primary typeface throughout. Alongside it, StudioDBD introduced Cardinal Fruit from Production Type as a flourishing feature serif and tropical juxtaposition to Neue Haas Grotesk.