Munich agency Melville Brand Design came up with the idea for the art project 100for10 in 2015. 100for10 prints 100-page black and white art books for 10 € each, and the number of artists involved is staggering – over seventy international artists have already had books printed by the agency.
Creative director Lars Harmsen was inspired by Swiss-American photographer Robert Frank’s appreciation of art that’s “quick, cheap and dirty”. Frank’s exhibition at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts ran with this leitmotif, and Harmsen was galvanized. (As a side note, Harmsen is also founder and editor of super cool typography magazine Slanted, founded 2005).
With 100for10, Harmsen makes art available to everyone, and it gives artists the chance to be discovered by a brand new audience. The artists receive half of the profits made from the book, and it’s a wonderful way to nurture creativity.
The agency contacts artists they admire but the project has become so popular, that many artists contact the agency themselves, asking to collaborate.
Some of the artists are mainstays on Munich’s art and design scene – Mirko Borsche, Anna McCarthy and Martin Fengel, for instance. Harmsen too, has his own book.
Others are from further afield – Hamburg illustrator Stephanie Wunderlich, Cuban-American artist Eduardo Sarmiento, incredible New York poet and artist Christopher Knowles (The New Yorker wrote a fascinating piece on him a few years ago) and prolific Damir Doma. Browse through all of the books online, here.
The monographs are more than coffee table eyecatchers. They’re beautiful gifts, supportive of artists and art, and
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