Summer Workshops

What the requirements are for a successful poster design is an on-going theme of discussion. It must be readable from far away and close-up, attract curiosity, be informative and communicate an idea. A poster is a large 2-dimensional surface with a fascinating illusion of space and perspective. Its design, depending on the content, has to comply with many factors such as the concept, an existing corporate identity, recognizability, readability originality, and of course artistic expression. But, how can a poster function under all these demands? What is design quality? What demands are put on the designer? Does the informational content, on the one hand, and the medium of print, on the other hand, require a different approach to finding design solutions? How many design possibilities are there and which is the right one? How do you achieve an optimal result? Can the design process in turn have an influence on the content message? In the workshop we will analyze and question the approaches necessary for a dynamic, contextually correct and aesthetically successful poster design. We will analyze our working processes and, maybe you will even surprise yourself by the results!

Leander Eisenmann was born in a village near Lucerne. He left school in order to study design at the School of Design Lucerne and later at the School of Design Basel, where he received his degree in Graphic Design in 1991. He then moved to Germany to work at the Siemens Design Center and after that for Rolf Mueller in Munich. After four years he returned to Zurich to study in the Advanced Class for Fine Arts and received his degree from the School of Design Zurich. At the same time, he began teaching at the School of Design Basel and opened his own design studio in Zurich. In 2002 he received a stipend for a guest year at the “Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben” in Berlin. In 2003 he was guest lecturer for print and book design in the department for Graphic Design of the School of Design Lucerne. Since 2002, Leander Eisenmann has been teaching in the department for Visual Communication in the area of “Imagery” at the Academy of Art and Design Basel. He has received numerous national and international awards. www.leandereisenmann.ch

Visual Communication is at the center of conceiving images for daily life. They influence our perception of the world by creating emotive imagery for communication, informational design or scientific visualizations. Especially in today’s world of global communication channels, we need to know more about how images are perceived in order to create and disseminate them consciously and conscientiously. This field of Design Research focuses on the acquisition of knowledge in the wide field of iconic phenomena. Academic disciplines such as Art History, Linguistics, Psychology and Anthropology have described the need for a scientific approach to images. Most academic centers focus on research questions with a theoretical methodology. In contrast, the approach of “Practice-led Iconic Research” is focusing on the generation of knowledge through a practice based methodology. The workshop“Inquiry by Design” introduces participants to the practice based issues of iconic research in the area of Visual Communication. At the beginning, the workshop focuses on the formulation of an iconic research question and a practical methodology of exploration and inquiry by design. During the week participants create a portfolio of images, which explore a design strategy in finding exemplary visual answers. The workshop is for designers or educators who are involved in the practice of communication design and the reflection upon visual communication for today’s world.

*Renner M., et al. : Practice-led Iconic Research, Visible Language, the journal of visual communication research, 51.3/52.1. Dezember 2017/April 2018, Cincinnati.

Michael Renner, 1961, experienced the digital revolution first-hand when he went to work for Apple Computer Inc. and The Understanding Business in California in 1986, just after completing his diploma as Graphic Designer at the Basel School of Design. Research and reflection upon the meaning of images in the context of digital tools became the central theme of Renner’s practical and theoretical design activities. Since 1990, he has his own design Studio in Basel with corporate and cultural clients. He started teaching in 1990 in the Visual Communication Institute at the Basel School of Design (HGK FHNW) with an emphasis on Information Design, Interaction Design and Design Research. In 1999 he was named chairman of the institute. From 2005 until 2013 he was member of “eikones”, the Swiss National Center of Competence in Iconic Research and the European research network “What Images Do”. His approach to develop research activities in the field of design is based on the aim to further develop existing competencies of image creation. With this approach of gaining knowledge through the creation of images the design process becomes the central research theme and a methodology at the same time. He has lectured and taught workshops in Europe and abroad. Renner is visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at the Politecnico di Milano. He is member of the advisory board of Visible Language and of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).

Letterforms are captivating. They help create stories and pictures in your mind when you read. Through letterforms we access and retrieve important information at any time. And, we experience the world differently through them. Letterforms can function extremely small and enormously large. With letterforms texts are type set and pictures “painted”. Typographic characters have a rich and various spectrum of forms. In past centuries letterforms were a part of major art movements; later, in the 19th Century they became more fashionable and stylistic, in the 20th Century they became more systematic! And what is new in this Century? The workshop will explain and show that it is in the detail of each letterform that its character lies. Our concentration in the workshop will focus on a number of type signs with regard to a concept based on the optical rules of the three basic shapes in Latin type (circle, square, triangle), the different stroke and curve directions and their terminals. The interaction of drawing by hand and further development on the computer allows for a differentiated, and perhaps new, awareness and appreciation for type forms.

Prof. Philipp Stamm, 1966, was trained as a typographer before he began his studies at the Basel School of Design in Typographic Design and Visual Communication. His thesis project dealt with the theme “The Extension of the Latin Alphabet for the German Language”. It has been published in the “Swiss Typographic Magazine” 1/1997 et al. The type design work was exhibited in 2000 at the “Künstlerhaus” in Vienna and 2004 at the “Museum für Gestaltung” in Zurich. In 2001 he designed the font “Gutzwiller” for a private bank in Switzerland. Since 2000 Philipp Stamm is lecturer in Typography, Type Design and Corporate Design at the HGK in Basel. Apart from his teaching activity, he worked eight years on a documentation of the complete typographic work of Adrian Frutiger. Over a two-year period he conducted interviews and discussions with the well-known Swiss type designer. In 2008 the comprehensive Monograph of Adrian Frutiger’s Type Design was published in German, English and French – Heidrun Osterer, Philipp Stamm: “Adrian Frutiger – Typefaces: The Complete Works”. The second edition, revised and expanded with a index, was published in 2014 by www.birkhauser.ch.

Imagine you are walking down a street and stop to observe a poster. At the first moment you “take in” the poster in its totality. After, your eyes begin to explore, studying the two dimensional space, the text-image relationships and the symbolic meaning of the content and design. Now, imagine experiencing the poster over time, as a moving image! It would be a completely different experience, as you are led and directed by the designer’s decision as to what is seen first, then next and next and next! One after another the images evolve into a “story”. Both poster design and time-based design work by knowledge of the concepts behind the construction of each dimension. This workshop explores the fundamental properties of motion perception, designing in time, image mixing, rhythm and how this affects design, composition, letterform, word, image and sound is the material of the workshop. Instead of using motion software programs, we have created our own tools for a fluid and “playful” interaction between analogue and digital design. This both intuitive and intentional design process is a tool in itself with which you can use and build upon. As digitally enhanced surroundings continue to grow, the design of time has become an essential skill of creative design.

Theodore Davis is an American artist and designer based in Basel, Switzerland, where he is an interaction design lecturer within the Visual Communication Institute at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW. He holds a BA from California State University Chico and an MFA/ MAS from UIC/HGK International Master of Design in Basel. He was design lead for a Swiss National Science Foundation funded project on visual search and interfacing the future of image databases. He’s been an artist in residence of the robotic enabled Kunstbibliothek (Art Library) in Sitterwerk, visualizing years of tracked book location data and most recently a contributor of an audio/visual generative artwork for the Immersive Lab in ZHdK’s Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology. His teachings focus on design and image making through programming new and newer media, along with embracing the error and glitch while questioning the ideal and mimetic conditions digital media is asked to encompass. Well versed in both web development and motion based textual/visual programming languages, he empowers students to take the computer’s capabilities beyond ready-made packages for design. www.teddavis.org

Gregory Vines has taught classes in the Visual Communication Institute, HGK/FHNW in Time Based Media and Imagery. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 1953 like many other children in the USA he started a series of drawings directly on the TV screen (Winky Dink and You Show). His first 8mm film was made for the experimental design class taught by Muriel Cooper at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston. He received his BFA in 1968 and went on to work for publishing companies in Boston. In the early 70s he studied in the Advanced Class for Graphic Design at the then Kunstgewerbeschule Basel and began teaching in 1976 in the KGS and beginning in 1978 in the class for “Animation Graphics/Film+Design”. He was a part of the faculty that started the first HFG program in Basel and was head of the Advanced Class for Graphic Design between 1988 and 1990. He has lectured and given workshops in 2D and 4D Design in and outside of Europe.

FHNW Academy of Art and Design
Institute of Visual Communication
Freilager-Platz 1
Postfach

CH-4002 Basel

FHNW Academy of Art and Design
Institute of Visual Communication

Freilager-Platz 1, Hochhaus: D 5.03
4142 Münchenstein b. Basel

T +41 61 228 41 11
F +41 61 228 42 89
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