A poster for @goodroombk because @braulioamado is traveling. 🏝 😎 Thank you, B — I had so much fun doing this! #Braulioisonholiday #interimjob 😆 #goodroom #posterdesign #typography #graphicdesign #illustration #SpechtPoster

Poster for announcement of public lecture at Otis College for Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Designed in 2019.

For my late grandfather Maurice Specht (6 Jan 2006) — the title of an old Dutch song by Ramses Shaffy meaning ‘sing, fight, cry, pray, laugh, work and admire’. It was played on his funeral and represents really everything he stood for. I choose this typeface in combination with the grey because it reminds me of a tombstone.
Designed in 2019.

New book for Plusoffice architects published by Public Space. ‘Dorpen na betonstop’ means ‘villages after concrete stop’. In the ‘century of the city’, countryside and village are often forgotten and disappearing from the sight of the planners. Yet here are important tasks. The Image Quality Plan that Plusoffice architects designed for the municipality of Nijlen formulates clear recipes for a renewed future of the village in Flanders. Many questions were asked: How does a Flemish village look like after the concrete stop? How do we organize the compaction? Where can we soften? How do we introduce new forms of mobility? How do we strengthen the identity of the village?

Designed in 2019.

Identity for new Italian-German #knitwear label @maddalena_annunziata. Many items of her collection can be worn inside out, so we decided upon a label that will be a loop in the neckline showing all details of the product as well. In general there is a big focus on lines in the garments (fabric and cut) which we try to emphasize in the #graphic identity. Designed in 2019.

A self initiated poster about a short stay in NYC, designed in 2019.

Beautiful text I found — written by Mooji. Made this as a reminder for myself. Designed in 2019.  I have a couple of these printed on A3 Canson 310gr — email me if you want one.

Poster for announcement of public lecture at Otis College for Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Designed in 2019.

Ace & Tate asked me to design a mural for their latest shop in Bruges. I got inspired by the house facades in the city. Designed in 2019.

Poster for announcement of public lecture at Otis College for Art and Design in Los Angeles, California. Designed in 2019.

New logo for Sip Snack, a new market in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
Designed in 2019.

The Elusive Archive is a project in collaboration with Levi Lanser for The New Masters, a project by Dift for Bienale Interieur 2018, Kortrijk.

We were asked to re-interpret the printed archive (over 300 magazines and newspapers) of the 50 year old Biennale Interieur. 

We wanted to (re)shape, (re)interpret, (re)invent the given archive by simply publishing actual scans coming from the publications. 

We wanted to approach a rational content in an intuitive way, with just a couple of parameters to get us started. We didn’t know in what this would result, therefore we called this our elusive archive. 

Elusive — meaning difficult to find, catch, or achieve. 

When we talk about archiving, we often think about organizing and structure. But mostly, people think about using the brain, the reasoning to do this.

Archiving isn’t exactly connotated with intuition, since this is the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning. 

These were our paramaters:
1. Intuitive action (Picking the magazine)
2. Structured action (Setting the timeframe)
3. Structured action (The 3 Scans)
4. Intuitive action (The personal Scan)

With the content we gathered, we created this publication. There are 40 posters, so the archive can be shown in a page/poster per page/poster way or as a whole. This publication is based on the following system: The cover has a full list of the used magazines. We provide the following info per scan: name of magazine, publishing date and the type of content (inside, cover or spine). We also made some illustrations based upon interior objects or forms and shapes we’ve found in our selection. In the middle you can read a long email conversation between us about archiving. The original archive and our work is shown during the Biënnale (18 - 22 October) and until 4 November 2018. It’s a printed edition of 300 by @stockmansinspiredby on Munken Print White 150 g.

Part of published postcard series in 2018.

My poster contribution and scan details for the ‘Ink Village’ (A2 size, risograph poster) exhibition at @archivebomm, running now in Seoul, January 2019 – organised by @cornersinfo. Thanks @dae.woong.kim & @h__j___j_ for the invite, organization and beautiful print!! ツ♡
Designed in 2018. Shown in 2019.

Identity for Clement Blanchet Architecture. Clément Blanchet is Principle of Clément Blanchet Architecture (CBA) and a former Associate of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), where he joined in 2004.
Clément Blanchet Architecture (CBA) is an innovative architecture and urban design practice that brings together multidisciplinary and multicultural actors on themes around the city, architecture and all media related to it. The firm approaches the design of architecture, infrastructure and the city as necessarily interrelated, and in negotiation with planning, development and public space. This complexity is not a constraint but a project tool to reveal solutions that possess potential simplicity, clarity and unity.
CBA was founded with a mandate to rethink architecture and urbanism as a way to better solve, read and represent the city; to find new meaning for the architecture of the city as a durable and enduring urban project. In many competition-winning designs, originality is found in the beauty of the ordinary.

Designed in 2018.

2018

Otis Designer in Residence announcement poster.

2018

A book I designed (2018) for and co-edited with my good friend Mads Teglers for sale via Antenne books in the UK. It’s a photo series of/with Louise Cehofski.

Rug design for Gur. 2018

S Magazine, n.18 – 4 covers. I was very happy to be able to design this whole magazine together with Mads Teglers and Jens Stoltze. Soon more images (inside pictures).

2018

You can order the magazine here.

‘Isness’
@days.la is releasing a limited edition risoprinted posters on December 8, 2018 in Los Angeles! Cities of Days is a year-long consideration of literal, imagined and metaphorical cities. November - February is Oil.

Posters for @hak_ny – a singer songwriter and producer out of Harlem. Born and raised in New York City, the multi-faceted artist possesses an eclectic sound characterized by his juicy vocals, enriching lyrics, and electronic production. Coming off of his success as one of the members of the groundbreaking hip-hop group, Ratking. Hak’s solo deput LP, ‘JUNE ’ is recorded in 432HZ (frequency of nature and said to have healing powers 🌱).

Check out his music here: https://soundcloud.com/hak_ny and videos tinyurl.com/ydfoqzte

Poster for music event ‘Apéro Warande’ at Warandepark in Brussels. I used the park paths as a background here. 2018

Identity for Brussels Museums Nocturnes 2018.

A while ago I updated the identity of @parkstudio_la, a Los Angeles-based lighting and architectural hardware studio founded in 2014 by husband and wife team, Jolene and Ben Kraus. Everything they build is handcrafted by a team of local Los Angeles artisans who spin, mill, brush and finish every component, creating a finished product with an elevated attention to detail. Last year they won the Best of Year award for hardware by Interior Designmagazine. For the design I was inspired by all the clean and timeless line work they have in their products. We opted for many logo variations, with and without mentioning location.

Designed in 2018.

Typography for Baloji’s music video for Peau de Chagrin / Blue de Nuit.
Designed in 2018.

Design of 137 Avenue Kaniama album by Baloji.
2017

Artwork for Baloji's singles in 2017 and 2018. Photography by Kristin-Lee Moolman. (2017)

2017

In addition to the swimming pools I paint by hand (instagram.com/hetzwembad), I make these digital versions too. (2017)

Artwork for Baloji's singles in 2017 and 2018. Photography by Kristin-Lee Moolman. (2017)

Together with 88888 I worked on a project for Architecture Workroom Brussels and City of Torhout: 'Torhout in Zicht' (meaning Torhout in sight). 
The project contains a walk through the city, designed by Office88888 and a booklet created by myself. White abstract planes are part of a series of interventions in combination with photos by Marie-Francoise Plissart, offering new perspectives on the city landscape.
Office88888's scenography inspired me to design the booklet that comes with the walk: the cover is all white with embossed letters and 1 (brick) color. 

Artwork for Baloji's singles in 2017 and 2018. Photography by Kristin-Lee Moolman. (2017)

2017 – 15 September: Our Ear at Picture Room for Know Wave, New York. Listen here.

A1 poster with all artists/track songs - folded into A4. Edition of 100.
Tune into Know Wave next week Friday, September 15 — 12PM NY time/18h Belgian time — to listen to Our Ear, a 1 hour live broadcast session I'll be doing from @pictureroomnyc. Featuring Nog Onbekend & people who will come whisper secrets.

Artwork for Baloji's singles in 2017 and 2018. Photography by Kristin-Lee Moolman. (2017)

Ten years of S Magazine, n.17 – 4 covers. I was very happy to be able to redesign this whole magazine together with Mads Teglers and Jens Stoltze and Stefanie Djie. Soon more images (inside pictures).

You can order the magazine here.

Artwork for Baloji's singles in 2017 and 2018. Photography by Kristin-Lee Moolman. (2017)

Together with Ferdinando Verderi and Piera Wolf I worked on this amazing book for and written by Jefferson Hack.

Jefferson Hack is renown for his innovative vision on journalism, film, photography, television and digital media. He co-founded British fashion/culture magazines Dazed and Confused, Another Magazine, Another Man as well as their digital versions. Today he proposes this new publication in order to re-define the purpose of alternative media in the digital age, illustrating how a transdisciplinary approach can break the conventional mold of a magazine into a modern experience. Contains contributions by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Björk, Tilda Swinton, Rankin, Kate Moss, U2, Thom Yorke. This publication seeks to share methodologies and inspire creatives, suggesting anti-formula processes that can be adopted to define the future of publishing and communication. This is a numbered edition of 5000 copies, each cope presents a personal cover. 

Get your copy here:
Rizzoli USA
Colette Paris

Art Direction: Ferdinando Verderi
Editedors: Ferdinando Verderi and John-Paul Pryor
Produced by: Felicity Shaw
Design Team: Piera Wolf and Stephanie Specht
Assistant Designers: Aline Stieger and Bia Kim
2016
Soon photos of the book.

Together with Mads Teglers I worked on a new photographic book for him, called Jambon.
In August 2015 Mads went to Spain to shoot Roxy Lan.
This book is a limited numbered edition of 200 copies.
215 x 275 mm, 56 pages, hardback, printed in the EU, published in October 2016.
For sale here.

Half, Hart is about always and never really feeling at home. 
Half, Hart is about belonging to more than just one place.
Half, Hart is about trying to glue parts.

Thursday, 20 October: New York, live broadcasting (5PM – 6PM, NY time) at Picture Room, NYC as part of their project with Know Wave.

Read all about it here!

Soon there will be a Half, Hart book.
Want to submit your story? Learn how to do it here.

Ugly houses and witty quotes. This simple recipe from the blog Ugly Belgian Houses by Hannes Coudenys is a hit. It began in 2011 with the online posting of one photo of an architectural 'monstrosity'. The result was a tsunami of likes and hundred reactions, positive but also a lot of negative. This book is not just a collection of ugly houses, but also a reflection on the sometimes surreal town planning and architecture in Belgium and the universal perception of beauty and ugliness. With contributions by Peter Swinnen, David Helbich (Belgian Solutions), Charles Holland (Fat Architecture), Bent Van Looy ...

Designed in 2015.

PICTURE ROOM Art Gallery
236 Mulberry St, New York, NY 10012, United States
Open everyday 12 - 8 pm

Windows / Paradise is out there
June 11 - July 11 2015
Edition of 2
Inkjet print – 8.25 x 11.7 in framed

Inspired by the Philip Larkin poem ‘High Windows’, this suite of 10 digital illustrations depict a series of spatial alignments and shifting depths within a field. Exploring the idea that the window is a reflective portal through which to see into another time or space, the sequences fluctuate between pictorial states just as Larkin moves fluidly between present and past, observation and reflection. With their luscious gradients and fractured patterning the works simultaneously seduce and obscure a ‘view’ into an intangible paradise, suggesting a restless yearning and desire for, to take Larkin’s lines:
the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

Produced exclusively for Picture Room by Specht Studio, with an accompanying playlist that matches the mood of the works compiled by Specht and available in store.
Some of the tracks:
Don’t Mind Me by Nosaj thing ft. Whoarei
Saxophone Alto by Paul Desmond 
We’ve Only Just Once More by Andrew Pekler
Eloy by Deaf Center
Miniature 4 by Matthew Robert Cooper
I’m God by Clams Casino
We were in love by Ta-Ku
Non Hoi by Plaid
Without by Shlohmo
Red ladies in navy pants, & pants by Tülpa
Energy Map Sound Project by Zachary Todd Barr

POEM
High Windows
BY PHILIP LARKIN

When I see a couple of kids
And guess he’s fucking her and she’s   
Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,   
I know this is paradise

Everyone old has dreamed of all their lives—   
Bonds and gestures pushed to one side
Like an outdated combine harvester,
And everyone young going down the long slide

To happiness, endlessly. I wonder if   
Anyone looked at me, forty years back,   
And thought, That’ll be the life;
No God any more, or sweating in the dark

About hell and that, or having to hide   
What you think of the priest. He
And his lot will all go down the long slide   
Like free bloody birds. And immediately

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:   
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.