Editorial Design

The contemporary practice of magazine and book design understands the material medium as a narrative space that can convey a broad spectrum of styles, intentions and different reading experiences.

Key data

ECTS points: 2 ECTS
Next start: January 2026
Duration: 1 week
School days: 5
Teaching language: German / English
Place: Basel
Fee: CHF 900.– (view fees)
Studying type: Fulltime

Choose a course date

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The aim of the workshop week is to edit complex text and image content, develop a design concept and produce a booklet in the university's own workshops. Through explorative design, the workshop participants examine the variety and effect of different text-image compositions, first in the individual surface and later in the dramaturgy of successive pages. In this context, basic design knowledge about font selection, typesetting, layout, typographic grids and image grids is taught. Subsequently, technical production parameters such as pre-press, paper materiality, laser printing processes and simple bookbinding techniques are applied.

Lecturer

Jinsu Ahn, UAS designer specialising in typography, Master of Fine Arts UIC / HGK (*1976) has been a lecturer in typography, book design and conception in the Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes at the Institute of Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) at the HGK Basel FHNW since 2014. Before graduating with the International Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design UIC / HGK, he completed the UAS diploma with a focus on typography at the HGK and the BA at Kyoungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea.

Prerequisites

Knowledge of Adobe InDesign
Existing text from the fields of 'science' or 'prose' as source material
(English or German, 10,000 to 15,000 characters including space) and images (optional, maximum 20 images, resolution at least 5MB per image).

Target group

The workshop is aimed at people who want to acquire or deepen skills in editorial design in order to translate narrative content into a professional, graphic language.

Goals and benefits

The training offers an intensive examination of the relationship between content and form of printed publications. The workshop focuses on this relationship by emphasising the holistic nature of editorial, conceptual and design practices.

Course structure

Mon
08:30 – 16:30

Mon
08:30 Input 1: «Text-Image relationship»
10:00 Material editing and concept development
13:00 Material editing and concept development

Tue
08:30 Input 2: «Typographic and Image Grid»
10:00 Design and layout development
13:00 Design and layout development

Wed
08:30 Design and layout development / Layout finalization
13:00 Layout finalization

Thur
08:30 Layout finalization / paper selection
13:00 Input 3: «PrePress, Printing and binding», start production

Fri
08:30 Printing and book binding
13:00 Printing and book binding
15:30 Presentation and Apéro

General Information Workshops Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)

The Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) offers workshops for students, educators and graphic designers.

The workshops afford insights into topical themes of visual communication for analogue and digital communication channels in a study programme reflecting the rich tradition of the Basel School of Design. Practical exercises with a high level of professionalism form the core of the workshops focus. Reflection as well as contextual knowledge will be conveyed by way of input sessions, allowing participants’ work to be judged within a contemporary, future-oriented context relevant to professional practice. The trinational Rhine River Valley is a unique cultural environment with easy access to France and Germany and to sites such as the Vitra Design Museum (G), the Isenheimer Alter (F), or Ronchamps (F). In Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, Tinguely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Schaulager, and Museum of Contemporary Art are world-renowned. Besides its museums, Basel offers a rich mixture of cultural events.

Fees

Multiple Bookings:
2 ECTS CHF 900.-
4 ECTS CHF 1700.-
6 ECTS CHF 2400.-
8 ECTS CHF 3000.-
10 ECTS CHF 3500.-

20% discount with a valid student ID. This must be sent in with the registration (pdf).

Information and regulations

Terms of participation (PDF)
Information on continuing education FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)
Continuing education regulations of the universities FHNW (fhnw.ch/DE)

Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)

Visual communication is a tool of knowledge generation in its own right. Visualizations make things perceptible, imaginable and graspable.

Editorial Design

Key data

Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)

Dreispitz Basel