By its very nature, graphic design is primarily concerned with giving shape to ideas and information generated by others. For the last decade, Markus Weisbeck has been redefining this prevailing client-designer relationship and subsequently challenging what constitutes a graphic design practice today. This pocket book presents a selection of seminal graphic design projects developed by Weisbeck and his firm, Surface, over the last ten years; projects that strongly reveal Surface’s experimental approach and conceptual dexterity, contributing to and informing contemporary graphic design.

As the designer of the Lukas & Sternberg Pocket Book Series, Weisbeck has implemented his graphic strategy with twenty distinct titles, the twenty-first of which he is both designer and author. This book presents select projects by Weisbeck and Surface, each illustrated by the graphics themselves, short descriptions, and texts by Weisbeck’s clients and collaborators.

With texts by Daniel Birnbaum, Adam Budak, William Forsythe, Anselm Franke, Liam Gillick, Christoph Keller, Albrecht Kunze, Andrej Kupetz, Zak Kyes, Aram Lintzel, Stephan Mathieu, Michaela Melián, Lars Müller, Vanessa Joan Müller, Carsten Nicolai, Christine Peters, and Georg Schöllhammer