Open lecture with Our Polite Society - The FACIT Model
October 01, 2019

Visual research of world-leading companies that disappeared

Our Polite Society is a design studio that works with graphic design, font design and typographic research based in Stockholm and Amsterdam. The studio was founded in 2008 by Jens Schildt (SE) and Matthias Kreutzer (DE). For four years they have researched FACIT AB's archives and studied printed matter that the company produced during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. 

The Swedish company FACIT was once a large international company, a world leader in mechanical calculators but also a leading manufacturer of typewriters, office furniture and other office-related materials. In 1972, the company was acquired by Electrolux in an attempt to save the negative trend in lost market share against the more stubborn capitalist competitors from the US and Japan.

In an open lecture at Beckmans, Jens Schildt, one half of Our Polite Society, will talk about their project The FACIT Model, which began as a visual research of FACIT's archives in Åtvidaberg in 2015, and which four years later resulted in a book, a series of typewriter type sections and an exhibition in Amsterdam and Åtvidaberg. In addition to an extensive selection of archival material, the book also contains a number of texts written by Mark Owens (USA), Gabriel .A. Maher (AU/NL), Isabel Mager (DE/NL), and Paul Gangloff (FR/NL), as well as a series of drawings by Samuel Nyholm, aka SANY (SE). 

Time, location & registration

Time: Tuesday, October 1 at 16.30
Location: Aulan Beckman College of Design
Please register via our Facebook event