Sketchbooks, an essential tool for most designers, is a place to quickly illustrate ideas, inspirations, and eureka moments. Designer Konstantinos Trichas decided to use sketchbooks as a vehicle to get a glimpse of the way creative people work by initiating Two Pages in 2012.
A series of collaborative sketchbooks, Two Pages connects local and international creative communities through raw creativity and spontaneous mark-making. It is an ongoing effort to record, spread and exchange ideas through the hand-to-hand journey of each book.
London, Berlin, Tokyo, Santiago de Chile, Seoul, Tehran, Athens, Paris, New York and Helsinki are only a few of the places the sketchbooks have travelled to, giving the opportunity to more than 900 young or established interdisciplinary creators to participate.
Two Pages is a valuable archive of first-hand evidence of local and international creative trends. By carefully examining the contents of the books, one can see how common attitudes and visual strategies develop in different parts of the world and within different cultures.
Each sketchbook starts with a theme; a simple question, a single word, an image or an object. Then, designers, illustrators, artists, and other creatives are asked to respond visually to the theme within the space of two pages.
The sketchbooks are usually linked to a specific city exploring the specific local creative scene. However, there have been exceptions like the Alliance Graphic International and the Royal College of Art series of sketchbooks, or the Europe-wide one in 2014.
The curators of Two Pages choose the first participant, but then, each author decides who will be the next participant, creating this way an unpredictable chain of creative individuals or teams. When the sketchbook is complete and all 25 spreads have been filled, it travels back to London to be photographed and archived.
A selection of spreads from each sketchbook is presented on this website.
Since 2012, Two Pages has collected more than 900 original artworks from 34 countries. The Two Pages archive has reached a wider audience through exhibitions, workshops, talks, publications, and online presence. And by doing so, it has inspired students, young creatives and professionals around the world.
November 2012
Launch of the first sketchbook in London
August 2013
Launch of the first non-London sketchbook (Barcelona)
June 2014
Launch of London / RCA sketchbook. This is the first of a series of RCA-specific sketchbooks
June 2014
Launch of the first non-city-specific sketchbook (Europe)
October 2014
The first non-European sketchbook is launched (New York)
April 2015
The first Asian sketchbook is launched (Seoul)
July 2015
The first South American sketchbook is launched (Santiago)
June 2016
Two Pages workshop in Berlin
July 2016
Exhibition in Thessaloniki as part of the International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication
August 2016
The first of two multi-city, worldwide Alliance Graphic International sketchbooks is launched
November 2016
Two Pages is shortlisted for the Deutsche Bank Awards for Creative Enterprise UK
May 2017
Exhibition and workshop in Porto, as part of the European Design Festival
September 2018
Exhibition and workshop in Berlin
January 2019
Exhibition in Tehran
July 2019
Launch of the first sketchbook in Africa (Cape Town)
October 2019
Two Pages is presented as part of The Assembly – a design meeting organised by Kali Nikitas and Chrysostomos Nasselos in Hydra, Greece
April–December 2020
Two Pages Lockdown, a series of live Instagram talks with past Two Pages participants
February 2021
Presentation of Two Pages followed by an online workshop at Today at Apple in collaboration with It’s Nice That
July 2022
Successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to build this website
July 2016
Nomadic Sketchbooks
6th International Conference on Typography and Visual Communication
Tabya, Thessaloniki
May 2017
Two Pages
European Design Festival
Silo Auto, Porto
September 2018
Two Pages: A physical book in the making
In collaboration with einBuch.haus gallery
einBuch.haus, Berlin
January 2019
Tehran sketchbook
A Art Gallery, Tehran
June 2016
Miss Read, Berlin
Presented by Pupa Press
May 2017
European Design Festival
Silo Auto, Porto
September 2018
einBuch.haus, Berlin
February 2021
New World
Today at Apple & It’s Nice That
Online
Monocle 24, UK
Peep, UK
365 Typo, Czech Republic
Novum, Germany
Basico, Pupa Press, Chile
Visao, Portugal
Two Pages is run by Konstantinos and Dionysis.
Konstantinos Trichas is a designer based in London. His practice, both playful and conceptual, expands from design for print and screen to the creation of objects.
He graduated with an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art and has worked in design, branding and advertising agencies in London and Athens. His work has won international Awards and has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Athens, Porto and Barcelona. He has led workshops in Germany, Greece, South Korea, the UK, Portugal, and the USA. Konstantinos initiated Two Pages in 2012.
Dionysis Livanis is a Creative Director with 20 years of experience in the UK, Greece and Spain, specialising in strategic branding.
His work has been awarded at the Greek and the European Design Awards, as well as the UK Transform Awards. He holds an MA in Typo/Graphic Studies and an MA in Fine Art Photography both from UAL. He has contributed to international publications such as Eye Magazine, The Drum, 365Typo, Neshan and +Design. He has led workshops, given lectures, and curated exhibitions in Europe and Asia. Between 2002 and 2015, Dionysis curated and organised Ten Images for Ithaca, a series of design competitions, workshops and exhibitions. He has been supporting Two Pages since 2016.
Web design and development: Max Ryan
Two Pages icon design: Maria Kefala
Sketchbooks photography: Richard Nicholson
This website wouldn't have been possible without the generous support of: