Patrick Lacey from Åbäke new Professor in Visual Communication; "Konstfack is an incredible ecology of knowledge..."

Patrick Lacey is a graphic designer and part of the transdisciplinary collective/design studio Åbäke, based in London, Copenhagen and Stockholm, together with Benjamin Reichen, Kajsa Ståhl and Maki Suzuki. They met and began working together at the Royal College of Art, started their practice in 2000. Åbäke is renowned for embracing the collaborative aspect of their assignments, the way are involved in the work they design and their wide range of clients in the fields of graphic design, fashion, art, publishing, film, cuisine, music, furniture, dance, architecture, etc. For example Åbäke co-edited and designed the magazine Sexymachinery, an architectural production, and co-directed the clothing and record label Kitsune. 

"Graphic design can be seen as a parasitic/symbiotic thing that develops forms through contact with other people, places, disciplines and technologies. It is part of a relational process, picking up and developing tools and methods along the way. Konstfack is an incredible ecology of knowledge and production facilities, a space of discussion and testing that allows students and staff to engage in complex contexts beyond the University, to come into contact with other knowledges, contexts, communities, public organisations and industry. I'm super excited to begin", says Patrick Lacey.

Current projects for Patrick Lacey/Åbäke include working with artist Matts Leiderstam on a book about his research, "queering the grid",  to be published later this year by Art & Theory. Allmänningen (The Common Room) is a research project about commoning the university, curated by Onkar Kular and Monica Sand at HDK/Valand and Åbäke will design a publication launched this autumn. 
Since 2013 Patrick Lacey/Åbäke has been teaching a class at ISIA Urbino in Italy, a school for graphic design and visual communication school, together with British artist Ben Cain. The class in editorial design has often drawn on the ideas of Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo's architecture. In September Åbäke will discuss their approach to teaching at the symposium Premio Nazionale delle Arti 2022.