Formatbyrån is a process-based artist duo formed in 2021 by Jonatan Björkman and Charlotte Ostritsch. The duo focuses their work on the various types of standard formats in the immediate environment and their stylistic consequences.

Formatbyrån dramatizes, romanticizes and contextualizes the relationship between the reigning A4 format and its almighty godfather A0 and its forgotten cousins ​​in the F series. The standard measurements of all things tell an important story about the absolute contemporary and future of things. Instead of consuming and discussing what is created, we focus on the historical progress that allows us to do just that; create. The world knows how X came to be, but no one knows the story of why the folio paper format was butchered by the still prevailing A4 format.

Paper formats is an important subject and happened to be the unraveling birth point for many projects under the Formatbyrån umbrella. Today the duo works with anything who's shape, size or context is taken for granted and compares it with what is not.

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MFS
Multi Format Series

MFS is an extension of the six most common series, A,B,C,E,F and G. MFS fuses the different series and formats together. MFS dictates the orientation of the medium. MFS consist of two letters and either one or two digits, ex. Aa4. The first letter will always measure the vertical axis and the second letter will therefore always measure the horizontal axis. The digit(s) corresponds to the letters and discerns witch format the letters belongs to. If there’s only one digit after the two letters, the digit will correspond to them both.  Uppercase letters corresponds to the longer axis of the selected format and lowercase letters corresponds therefore to the shorter axis of the selected format. 

A vertical A4(297x210) paper is consequently recorded as Aa4. The first letter is an uppercase A and tells us that the papers vertical axis is the longer one in the A-series. The second letter is a lowercase a and tells us that the papers horizontal axis is the shorter one in the A-series. With Aa there’s no way to know the measurements of the paper. To complete the format, the digit(s) needs to be incorporated behind the letters. By adding a 4 behind Aa it is then possible to distinguish that the papers height is same as an A4 and the width is the same as an A4. Aa4 has the exactly the same orientation and measurements as aa34, aA35, AA45.

MFS is does not show its full potential by describing a vertical or horizontal standard format. It is powerful when the measurement jumps between series and formats. A shape with A4:s long side as the height and the width of C6:s width would be called Ac46, which measures 297x114.