František Štorm, Luděk Lukuvka: Libero. Psychedelic grotesque

František Štorm is a world-known type designer, but also a composer and a founding member of the band Master’s Hammer. In parallel with his long-term work in the fi eld of applied graphics and music, free work has always been created, especially linocuts and drawings, but in recent years also paintings of larger formats. The impetus for creating this book came from the success of exhibitions featuring paintings, graphics, and unique video projections. The book entitled Libero captures Štorm’s creative surge of recent years, in which typography, book illustrations, and graphic commissions naturally coexist with free work. Oil paintings inspired by, for example, South Bohemian ponds or travel experiences are increasingly gaining ground. Font shapes that we usually do not pay much attention to in books, together with painting, graphics and drawing, create a close connection in which both of Štorm’s lines of work illuminate each other in unexpected contexts. Libero also captures the breadth of his artistic scope in the visual processing of musical activities, thanks to which he appeals to a large circle of fans. The reader can enjoy wondrous, sometimes grotesquely psychedelic works in the neighbourhood of imaginative graphics and typography, the curves of which are the author’s defining gesture.