For Expo #12 we invited Monice Janson to the Urbanistas’ digital stage. We had a full house with a great diversity of women: landscape architects, urban designers, researchers, poetry entrepreneurs, architects, and more. After a round of introductions - some new faces, some more familiar - Monice shared with us her work as a typographic designer.
After studying at the Willem de Kooning Academie here in Rotterdam, she started her own company in 1999. Her projects are often textual interventions in public space. She explained how her designs play with letters and language and give identity to buildings, objects and places. For example Z-Fence, a fence that plays with the letter Z and turns it into a wavy pattern, or the font in brickwork that she developed for a residential project in Rijswijk.
She then showed us her latest project: a light installation for the Piekstraat in the neighbourhood Feijenoord in Rotterdam, developed together with Leontien Wiehink. Its intricate, carefully considered three-dimensional design makes for a surprising object that sends a message of hope to the neighbourhood. We discussed the impressive project with the Urbanistas and we brainstormed about possibilities for sponsoring, the engineering, financial resources and support. Many great ideas were offered, new insights shared and contacts exchanged. A super fruitful and informative evening!
If you have any additional tips for Monice, please don’t hesitate to contact her directly (info@monicejanson.nl) or to share them with us and we’ll make sure she gets all the input.
