Design begins before the content arrives.
Format is not what holds the message — it is what decides what counts as one. Before we read, we are already being told how to read.
At Gegen–Gegen™, format is not decoration. It is structure as worldview. It is how spacing suggests power. How scale grants authority. How rhythm encodes respect. A centred title, a narrow margin, a forced justification — none of it is innocent.⁹
We treat the grid as language, not law. Something to be learned, yes — but also questioned. A system worth using only when it makes space for others. To format is to decide who fits. And what will be cut off. A margin can soothe. A line break can dignify. A type size can oppress.⁹ These things do not belong to the realm of taste — they belong to ethics.
We are less interested in clarity than in consent. Less in readability than in rhythm.¹⁰ Less in scale than in presence. We believe format should not just organise content — it should hold it open. Even half a second spent decoding a sign in a hospital can mean the difference between calm and uncertainty.¹¹ In typography, a misalignment can provoke or protect. In branding, what disappears often says more than what remains. These tensions are not mistakes — they are tools.
We are told to design systems. We reply: the system is already here. Our job is to sense it, shift it, and sometimes, soften it. To design format is not to fill space. It is to hold it open — for everything the system does not yet know how to carry.¹²