Jan van Toorn’s calendar for 1972/73, designed for the Dutch printer Mart.Spruijt, is one of the most extraordinary and provocative graphic artifacts of its era. The calendar proposed a new form of engagement for the graphic designer as a mediator and manipulator of photographic meaning. The project still looks utterly remarkable 40 years later. How did such an uncompromising object get made? In collaboration with the designer Simon Davies, I published the piece in its entirety in Jan van Toorn: Critical Practice, my monograph about Van Toorn. Until then the Dutch designer’s masterpiece was known by just a handful of frequently reproduced pages. Now Mark Schalken at de Ruimte, a design company in Amsterdam, has photographed and reprinted the entire calendar — it was launched at a public event to mark the designer’s 80th birthday — giving a chance to experience its 50 pages at their original scale. (via A classic calendar by Jan van Toorn has been reprinted: Observatory: Design Observer)