the world flames like a discokugel poster

The world flames like a discokugel is a play written by Thomas Köck and Mateja Meded, and directed by Jacob Höhne. It will premiere on December 16, 2022, at Berlin’s RambaZamba Theater, in cooperation with Theater des Anthropozän and AnthropoScenes. The play is set on –

a planet Earth that aliens take possession of after humans have died out due to drought and water pollution. Even the Styx, the river of the dead, and its tributaries Kokytos and Lethe have dried up. The souls of the deceased can no longer cross over into the realm of the dead and accumulate in the form of spirits hoping for a cleansing flood.

The poster was designed by Stahl R, who are responsible for all of RambaZamba’s visual communication. For the title, they used PicNic. Drawn by Mariel·le Nils, PicNic was co-released by Velvetyne and NoFoundry in January 2022. Despite being out in the world only for a few months, it is already represented with seven examples on Fonts In Use. This may have to do with the fact that it comes for free, under the SIL Open Font License, but the nonchalant design also seems to have hit the zeitgeist. Velvetyne describes it as follows:

The shapes are inspired by the trajectory of a drop of water on an oilcloth, the shadows of the tree leaves on the fabric lying in the grass, the precise path that the ant takes to the watermelon. They attempt to translate the sensory experience of a picnic among friends.
This typeface will suit for all wild, poetic and bucolic explorers for their most adventurous excursions.

On this loud poster, the letters start to dance – not on a volcano, but under the titular mirror ball, a flaming world. They’re sizzling, blistering and deforming in the heat.