Niko Kralj is more, than a mere industrial designer. He did more, than just the well-known products. His legacy extends over the fields of theory, education and practice. When we gain access to it as a whole, it surprizes us; how much of his work we knew, but never knew, it was his. This surprise was at the core of our project. To represent Niko Kralj as a whole, it was nescessary to stray away from the usual, obvious representation of him and his work and find a different way of communicating his words and products. The book is not one about him, but of him, a reader of selected texts he wrote, organised in five chapters, five aspects of Niko Kralj. His drawings and plans were used as a source to develop an ilustration for each chapter, and used for the book's 5 different covers. As such, we gain an integrated representation of Niko Kralj, with all aspect equal, mutating in application, in all of the printed matter of his exhibition in the Musem of architecture and design. This is in accordance with his philosophy of "evolution and mutation". It, as well as his engineering knowledge, can be seen in highly rational, ergonomic and bare-bone products he developed. We applied this approach to the book's finish, creating a product in modular pica scale, with a bare spine, exposing the book's manufacturing process, and a back-glued cover, to wrap arround the book's block as is laminate arround the plywood in products of Niko Kralj. This effect is further emphasised with use of color tones for the chapters' pages, so in commbination with their respected illustrations, they reveal themselves just by looking at the closed book.
Thanks to Aljaž Vindiš for help on the project. Photo by Klemen Ilovar
