"Globally there is only one company that offers the applications needed by designers. Adobe packages are certainly powerful, but we want to have a more active relationship with our work tools".
The alternative to proprietary software applications like Adobe is open code software. But graphic design has never been too keen on that: the programmes aren’t so great nor are they particularly compatible with the demands of printing presses, the typographic fonts are ugly, the world of free software –as you know- has never worried too much about the aesthetic side of the things. Well: design world, prepare yourself, because the hackers are coming.
Open Source Publishing (OSP) is both a design agency and a community of activists from the FLOSS (Free, Free and Bid for Source) movement based in Brussels and active since 2006. Its objective is to apply the open code philosophy to the field of professional design. They exclusively use free applications (like Scribus or Gimp) and contribute to their development, learning and circulation. But their main line of work is typography, "the place where free software and design come together in a natural way".
Femke Snelting, a member of the group, emphasizes the similarities between data processing code and typography. Both are used by millions of people everywhere each day but only a few produce them. And most of them are subject to licenses and strict conditions of use, which in the case of type, for example, impede upon adding new characters, accents or punctuation marks. "The alphabet belongs to all of us but its design clearly doesn’t. In so far as fonts are expressions of bits, data files, we think it’s important to reflect on their use, distribution and production so they can work on different operating systems but also in different languages and cultural contexts". OSP also run courses and exhibitions and have a website with a lot material to consult and download.
http://ospublish.constantvzw.org
