Amalgam Op.1

Amalgam is an ad hoc transdisciplinary journal that works at the intersection of typography, language, and the visual arts. Amalgam Op.I brings together a selection of writings, transcribed performances, and interviews with a diverse group of designers, linguists, and visual artists. The second edition includes a new editorial piece ("Language Constructed, Language Unmade") with contributions from Rouzbeh Rashidi, Alexandru Balgiu, Alice J Lee, Dinamo, David Jonathan Ross, Meghan Ferrill, Gregory Vines, Gerry Leonidas, Paul McNeil, Devin King, and others The inaugural issue explores typography as a site of epistemic tension, where ideals of clarity, universality, and perfection collide with historical contingency, materiality, and ideological control. Contributions interrogate the myth of typographic neutrality through inquiries into language reform, spatial inscription, analog production, and digital transformation. From Hangul’s deliberate invention to asemic poetics and cinematic sequencing, the issue frames typography as both system and rupture where utopian aspirations generate their own exclusions, and legibility becomes a contested terrain. Designed and edited by Pouya Ahmadi Published by Amalgam Second edition, 2025 (Image currently shows first edition) Softcover, 160 pages, b&w, 6.5 × 9 inches ISBN: 978-0-99-983335-3