An illustration of <n>Franz Kafka</n> with a quote often misattributed to the writer.

Editorial page from the first issue of <n>blank</n>, a publication from Vienna using <n>Monument Grotesk</n>.

Look 13 from the <n>Pre Spring / Summer 22 Campaign</n>, featuring model <n>Sims</n>. Photo by <n>Paley Fairman</n>.

Typographic artwork by <n>J. Phillips</n>.

Silver flats from <n>Soeur</n>. Creative direction by <n>Zoé Viard</n>.

<n>Project: Run Fearless</n> campaign identity for the <n>Nike ZoomX Invincible Run</n>. Design by <n>M35</n> for <n>Nike</n>.

The <n>SINEU Interlaced-detail Slip-on Loafer</n> by <n>Hereu Studio</n>.

Slip-on loafer with interlaced detail crafted in Spanish structured calf leather.
Handmade in Spain by uniquely talented artisans, celebrating excellence in craftsmanship.

SINEU - Men's Interlaced-detail Slip-on Loafer

<n>PANE</n>'s <n>Light Training No-Gi “SPICE BLAZE”</n> shoe.

A website concept for the fictional company <n>Nunito</n>, designed by <n>Tran Mau Tri Tam</n>.

A hand-bound book from a <n>bookbinding workshop</n> hosted by <n>Alt Lab</n>.

Poster for a <n>Dieter Roth</n> exhibition, designed by <n>Hansjörg Mayer</n> and <n>Dieter Roth</n> in 1966.

The <n>ALBA</n> slip-on shoes by <n>NEOUS</n>.

A mood board from <n>La Tribe</n> titled <n>The Art of Creative Living</n>.

A passage from <n>Krishnamurti's Last Journal</n> by philosopher <n>Jiddu Krishnamurti</n>.

Is there a way of reconciling these two accounts of the self – the relational, world-embracing version, and the autonomous, inward one? The 20th-century Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin believed that the answer lay in dialogue. We need others in order to evaluate our own existence and construct a coherent self-image. Think of that luminous moment when a poet captures something you’d felt but had never articulated; or when you’d struggled to summarise your thoughts, but they crystallised in conversation with a friend. Bakhtin believed that it was only through an encounter with another person that you could come to appreciate your own unique perspective and see yourself as a whole entity. By ‘looking through the screen of the other’s soul,’ he wrote, ‘I vivify my exterior.’ Selfhood and knowledge are evolving and dynamic; the self is never finished – it is an open book.

Instead, being is an act or event that must happen in the space between the self and the world.