Exhibition: Every Thing Design

The collection of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

How is a design object perceived? How does this perception change over time? Why does a museum put it in its collection, and how are meaning and value established? Is everything design today? The museum poses these questions in the presentation of its collections, which have never been previously exhibited to this extent. The overriding theme is the observation of processes of social and cultural change. Such a view reveals signs of quality and developments in the production and reception of design objects that recur over decades. The exhibition, in a mise-en-scène by the renowned Swiss design studio Atelier Oï, and the catalog, designed by the well-known Dutch book designer Irma Boom, make it possible to experience the diverse connections among the museum’s internationally significant Poster, Design, Applied Art and Graphics Collection

Link to description at museum website.

Guided tour (in German) on Wednesday May 13th 18:30 by Barbara Junod, curator Graphics Collection, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

Opening hours

3 April to 19 July 2009

Monday: closed

Tuesday-Thursday: 10:00-20:00

Friday-Sunday: 10:00-17:00

Location

Halle

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Ausstellungsstrasse 60

8005 Zurich

Tram stop “Museum für Gestaltung”, tram 4 and 13 or

5 minutes walk from Zurich Main Station

Exit Sihlquai, direction Limmatplatz

Exhibition: Good Design, Good Business

Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy, 1940-1970

The J. R. Geigy A.G. chemical concern was the starting point for a great moment in the history of Swiss graphic art and advertising. “Research for tomorrow” – the former Basle-based company also lived up to this forward-looking slogan in its communication: its design was intended to increase sales of products “made in Switzerland”. Symbolic imagery and striking typography had their places in the varied formal vocabulary just as much as learning from non-representational art. Those who worked at Geigy under the direction of Max Schmid included Roland Aeschlimann, Steff Geissbuhler, Karl Gerstner, and Nelly Rudin. Selected commissions also went to freelance designers such as George Giusti, Gottfried Honegger, Herbert Leupin, and Niklaus Stoecklin. The studios of the subsidiaries in the USA and Great Britain also significantly contributed to the international spread of Swiss graphic design. This exhibition is the first comprehensive show of this important Swiss contribution to the history of design.

Link to description at museum website.

Guided tours (in German) 18:30 May 12th and 19th.

Opening hours

4 February to 24 May 2009

Monday: closed

Tuesday-Thursday: 10:00-20:00

Friday-Sunday: 10:00-17:00

Location

Galerie

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Ausstellungsstrasse 60

8005 Zurich

Tram stop “Museum für Gestaltung”, tram 4 and 13 or

5 minutes walk from Zurich Main Station

Exit Sihlquai, direction Limmatplatz

Exhibition: Irma Boom book design

The Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom is one of the most well-known contemporary book designers. With the use of unfamiliar formats, materials, colors, structures, and typography she makes the book into a visual and haptic experience. Irma Boom studied at the AKI Art Academy in Enschede, and in 1991 she established her own office in Amsterdam. Among her most important clients are the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Prince Claus Fund, OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the United Nations, Vitra International and Zumtobel. She has been a guest critic at Yale University since 1992 and lectures all over the world. Her books have been shown at numerous international exhibitions and are also represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among other awards, in 2001 she received the Gutenberg Prize for her complete work. The museum is showing a selection of her works in the context of her designing the book “Every Thing Design” about the collections of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

Organizer: Museum of Design Zürich

Link to description at the museum website.

Admission: free

Opening hours

3 April to 19 July 2009

Tuesday-Friday: 13:00-17:00

Sunday: 13:00-17:00

Don’t miss the lecture by Irma Book on Wednesday May 13, 19:30 in the other building.

Location

Plakatraum

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Plakatsammlung

Limmatstrasse 55

CH-8005 Zurich

Tram stop “Museum für Gestaltung”, tram 4 and 13 or

5 minutes walk from Zurich Main Station

Exit Sihlquai, direction Limmatplatz

Irma Boom lecture

The Lecture is called “Materialize It!”

The Dutch graphic designer Irma Boom is one of the most well-known contemporary book designers. With the use of unfamiliar formats, materials, colors, structures, and typography she makes the book into a visual and haptic experience. Irma Boom studied at the AKI Art Academy in Enschede, and in 1991 she established her own office in Amsterdam. Among her most important clients are the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Prince Claus Fund, OMA / Rem Koolhaas, the United Nations, Vitra International and Zumtobel. She has been a guest critic at Yale University since 1992 and lectures all over the world. Her books have been shown at numerous international exhibitions and are also represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Among other awards, in 2001 she received the Gutenberg Prize for her complete work. The museum is showing a selection of her works in the context of her designing the book “Every Thing Design” about the collections of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

Place & organizer: Museum of Design Zürich

Link to a description at the museum website.

Time

Wednesday, 13 May 2009, 19:30

Location

Lecture Hall

Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Ausstellungsstrasse 60

CH-8005 Zurich

Tram stop “Museum für Gestaltung”, tram 4 and 13 or

5 minutes walk from Zurich Main Station

Exit Sihlquai, direction Limmatplatz

The lecture is in the main museum building while the exhibition for Irma Boom is in a seperate buildning called Plakatraum (about 100 meters from the main building).

5 agencies

Two walks on Friday and two on Saturday will visit different agencies in central Zürich’:

The ticket is 8 euro per person and includes tram tickets. There are only 12-15 tickets per Design Walk and those can be bought in our web shop.

Design Walk Friday A

  • 17:15 Meet our guide in the stairs at Arena
  • Walk a few hundred meters from Arena to Lessingstrasse 11 and visit the office of Prill & Vieceli.
  • Take the tram to Ankerstrasse 112 in the western part of Zürich inner city and visit the office of Buero4.
  • Walk about 500 meters to Zentralstrasse 74a and visit the office of Hofgrafen.
  • 20:00 Walk another 500 meters to Anwandstrasse 62 and meet with the other Design Walk for a joint visit to the office of Raffinerie.
  • 20:30 The Design Walk ends at the tram station Holstrasse outside Raffinierie and from here it is easy to get to the city center or back to Arena. Our guide will assist you.

Design Walk Friday B

  • 17:45 Meet our guide in the stairs at Arena
  • Walk a few hundred meters from Arena to Lessingstrasse 11 and visit the office of Prill & Vieceli.
  • Take the tram to Hardstrasse 69 in the western part of Zürich inner city and visit the office of Klauser Design .
  • 20:00 Walk 500 meters to Anwandstrasse 62 and meet with the other Design Walk for a joint visit to the office of Raffinerie.
  • 20:30 The Design Walk ends at the tram station Holstrasse outside Raffinierie and from here it is easy to get to the city center or back to Arena. Our guide will assist you.

Design Walk Saturday A

  • 17:30 Meet our guide in the stairs at Arena.
  • Take the tram (together with the other Design Walk) to Ankerstrasse 112 in the western part of Zürich inner city and visit the office of Raffinerie.
  • Walk about 500 meters to Hardstrasse 69 and visit the office of Klauser Design.
  • Walk another 500 meters to Ankerstrasse 112 and visit the office of Buero4.
  • 19:45 The Design Walk ends at the tram station Helvetia Platz outside Buero4 and from here it is easy to get to the city center or back to Arena. Our guide will assist you.

Design Walk Saturday B

  • 17:30 Meet our guide in the stairs at Arena.
  • Take the tram (together with the other Design Walk) to Ankerstrasse 112 in the western part of Zürich inner city and visit the office of Raffinerie.
  • Walk about 500 meters to Ankerstrasse 112 and visit the office of Buero4.
  • Walk another 500 meters to Ankerstrasse 112 and visit the office of Klauser Design.
  • 19:45 The Design Walk ends at a tram station near Klauser Design and from here it is easy to get to the city center or back to Arena. Our guide will assist you.

Google

This design walk starts outside Arena, Sihlcity Friday May 15th 17:40 and goes directly to the Google headquarters in Zürich. The distance is 10 minutes by foot and the group is limited to 30 participants.

When you arrive you will be welcomed by Mr. Steve Rogers, Director of User Experience EMEA, who will also talk about Google UI Design Language and Principles. You will then by guided around the building, meet a representative from their architecture company and hear about the building’s interior design. This walk is of extra interest for designers with focus on User Experience and User Interfaces.

The Google Zürich office is a bit special and to give you an idea of what to expect we recommend these videos:

Sign-up for this design walk via our web shop. There is no fee from Google but we charge a 5 euro per person, incl. VAT, for administration.

ED-Awards Ceremony

The ED-Awards Ceremony is honoring the gold and silver winners in 31 different categories of communication design. The best designers in Europe get on stage in order to receive their prizes.

The evening is lead by Agneta Wallin, a Swedish stand-up comedian who charmed the audience last year in Stockholm and agreed to come back.

Time: 20:00-23:00, Sunday May 17

The reception opens 19:00 and in case you need to pick up tickets in the reception please be there before 19:40.

The show starts 20:00 and is estimated to last 2-3 hours.

It will be at the same venue as the ED-Conference, the Arena Filmcity at Sihlcity.

The ticket price is 50 euro (student discount available) and can be bought via our web shop.

This ticket is also valid for the winenrs party right after the ceremony.

European Design Festival 2009 time plan

During the European Design Festival, a number of parallel design related events are scheduled to take place in Zürich.

They include exhibitions, a 3-day conference, the ED-Awards ceremony, design walks, etc. These parallel events are organized by different organizations but coordinated in such a way that enables guests from all over Europe to get a glimpse of the best that Swiss graphic design has to offer during their visit to Zürich.

Wednesday May 13th

  • 19:30 Lecture by Irma Boom at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 13:00-17:00 Exhibition “Irma Boom – Book Design” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-20:00 Exhibition “Good Design, Good Business” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-20:00 Exhibition “Every Thing Design” at Museum of Design Zürich

Thursday May 14th

  • 13:00-17:00 Exhibition “Irma Boom – Book Design” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-20:00 Exhibition “Good Design, Good Business” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-20:00 Exhibition “Every Thing Design” at Museum of Design Zürich

Friday May 15th

  • 09:00-17:00 ED-Conference day 1 at Arena, Sihlcity
    Designiq (Czech Republic)
    Beetroot (Greece)
    Designbolaget (Denmark)
    Lysergid (France)
    Group94 (Belgium)
  • 17:40-19:40 Design Walk Google
  • 13:00-17:00 Exhibition “Irma Boom – Book Design” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Good Design, Good Business” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Every Thing Design” at Museum of Design Zürich

Saturday May 16th

  • 10:00-17:00 ED-Conference day 2 at Arena, Sihlcity
    Magma (Germany)
    BVD (Sweden)
    Ginette Caron (Italy)
    LOOVVOOL (Estonia)
    Niklaus Troxler (Switzerland)
  • 17:30-19:30 Design Walk A
  • 17:30-19:30 Design Walk B
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Good Design, Good Business” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Every Thing Design” at Museum of Design Zürich

Sunday May 17th

  • 10:00-17:00 ED-Conference day 3 at Arena, Sihlcity
    Scandinavian Design Group (Norway)
    Koeweiden Postma (Netherlands)
    Alex Trochut (Spain)
    Synopsis (Romania)
    The Designers Republic (UK)
  • 20:00-22:30 ED-Awards Ceremony
  • 22:30-04:00 Party
  • 13:00-17:00 Exhibition “Irma Boom – Book Design” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Good Design, Good Business” at Museum of Design Zürich
  • 10:00-17:00 Exhibition “Every Thing Design” at Museum of Design Zürich

Synopsis

Speaker: Ovidiu Hrin

Location: Timisoara, Romania

Website: www.synopsismedia.com

Case: Time & Design

The case is a CD cover & Booklet for Implant Pentru Refuz (trad. Implant For Denial) band. IPR is a rock band with a solid presence on the Cross-metal – Hardcore scene in Romania. Synopsis was invited to jump on board and direct all the production and design that went into their new album…Monolith.

Although we were given total freedom with this project and No deadline we’ve been through a series of eventful situations during this time worth mentioning and sharing.

The case will present (almost) all of the production steps we went through from the very beginning to the final delivery of the material … including the carrying and unpacking of a full cargo transport of 2000 CD’s in front of our studio… a scene that was coronated with a wrongly placed inner booklet…

Client: Implant Pentru refuz ( band); Monolith Recordings


Background

Synopsis is a small design studio located in Timisoara and founded in 2001 by Ovidiu Hrin. Mainly working on all sorts of design projects including posters, brochures, books, identity systems … and still loving it. Since 2004 we’re being published on different mediums continuously.

Scandinavian Design Group

Speaker: Eirik Seu Stokkmo

Location: Oslo, Norway

Website: www.sdg.no

Background

Eirik Seu Stokkmo is a graphic designer of Italian and Norwegian origin, hailing from Oslo, Norway.

Before graduating in Graphic Design at NABA (Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti) in Milan, he worked for MTV Italia. Upon graduation, he returned to Oslo and has since worked for Virtual Garden, Bleed Designstudio and Scandinavian Design Group, where he is currently employed as Design Innovation Director. He also held courses at KHiB (Bergen National Academy of the Arts) and AHO (The Oslo School of Architecture and Design). Eirik has worked across a broad spectrum of media, including identity, packaging, print, web and TV. His client list includes Levi’s, Alu SPA, Telenor, SAS Eurobonus, NRK, Statoil Hydro, Sony Music, Ringnes and Øya Music Festival. He has won numerous awards, both in Norway and internationally, and his work has been featured in several publications and exhibitions.

In his spare time, Eirik tries to keep his personal showcase, teipu.net, up to date and also makes music under the name Pelifics.

Scandinavian Design Group is Norway’s largest design agency and was founded over 20 years ago. It is now part of McCann Worldgroup.
Scandinavian Design Group develops graphic profiles for major international brands, covering everything from corporate identities and packaging design to communication design for digital channels.

Niklaus Troxler

Speaker: Niklaus Troxler

Location: Willisau, Switzerland

Website: www.troxlerart.ch

Background

Born in Willisau/Switzerland in 1947. Studed Typography in Lucerne, then graphic design at the Art School of Lucerne. After studies Art Director in Paris. Own graphic design studio since 1973. Organizer of jazz concerts (since 1966) and an annual jazz festival (since 1975) in his home town Willisau.

His many awards include

  • «Toulouse Lautrec-Gold Medal» from the Essen Poster Triennale (1987 and 1994)
  • Grand Prizes and First Prizes at Chaumont Poster Festival (1992)
  • Lahti Poster Biennale (1993)
  • Helsinki Poster Biennale (1997)
  • Trnava Poster Biennale (1997)
  • Hongkong Poster Trienniale (2001)
  • Rzseszow Theatre Poster Bienniale (1997)
  • Hangzhou Poster Bienniale (2003)
  • Moscow Golden Bee ( 2004, 2006, 2008)
  • Colorado Invitational Poster Bienniale (2005)
  • Taiwan International Poster Awards (2005)
  • Ningbo International Poster Bienniale (2006)
  • Zagreb ZGRAF Graphic Design Bienniale (2008)
  • Silver Award at Brno Biennale (1992)
  • Special Award at Warsaw Poster Biennale (1992)
  • Silver Award at Chaumont Poster Festival (2007)
  • Bronze Medals at Toyama Poster Triennale (1994)
  • Chaumont Poster Festival (1999)
  • among many others.

Niklaus Troxler got the Swiss Federation Design Award and his posters got awarded 22 times as «Swiss Poster of the year». He won 2 Gold, 17 Silver and 30 Bronze Awards from the Art Directors Club of Switzerland. He won the ADC (Switzerland) Special Award in 2000. Many ADC of New York Awards, for exemple Silver and distinctive Merit Awards 2001 and many awarded works in the Tokyo Type Directors Competitions.

His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hamburg Industrial Arts Museum, the Wilanow Poster Museum in Warsaw, the Ogaki Poster Museum, the Essen Poster Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the Staedelijk Museum in Amsterdam among others.

Since 1998, he is professor at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart/Germany. He is a member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1989.

MAGMA Brand Design

Speaker: Lars Harmsen

Location: Karlsruhe, Germany

Websites: www.magmabranddesign.dewww.melvilledesign.de, www.volcano-type.de, www.bastard-project.com, www.slanted.de

Case

The Sports Bible — Encyclopedia for Activewear, Outerwear, Streetwear & Sports Fashion. Each copy is one-of-a-kind

MAGMA Brand Design designed the Sports Bible, an in-depth fashion-based encyclopedia of sport and sport-inspired style for Sportswear International containing nearly 600 sports-fashion terms over 400 pages.

By using a new and very special printing technique every copy of the Sports Bible presents with a different color combination on the cover. No two books are the same.

Background

Lars Harmsen (1964)

Dipl. Graphic-Designer

MAGMA Brand Design GmbH & Co. KG, Karlsruhe

Melville Brand Design GmbH, München

Lars Harmsen is one of the two executive directors of the MAGMA Brand Design agency in Karlsruhe (founded in 1996 with Ulrich Weiss). The focal point of his work is corporate and editorial design. He is also partner and creative director for the Munich agency Melville Brand Design (associated office with MAGMA Brand Design.)

Lars founded the Volcano-Type font lable with Ulrich Weiss in 1996, which now distributes over 200 fonts. In 2004 he created the weblog Slanted. A Type-magazine with the same name has also been published since 2005.

From 2000 until 2007, Harmsen was also partner and creative director for the Starshot agency in Munich. With Starshot he edited biannualy the Useless Magazine, an independent sport and lifestyle publication. In 2008, a new branch was established in Munich: Melville Brand Design GmbH.

Harmsen is also the author of design and typography books. In 2004, the book Versus (DGV- Die Gestalten Verlag) came out and received numerous awards (red dot, most beautiful german books, Berlin Type). The book BASTARD – choose my identity (Actar Barcelona, www.bastard-project.com) was published in 2006, and examines cultural identities and the influence of globalization and web on culture and design. In 2007, the book “Wii love Arts” for Nintendo was released, for which Harmsen worked as creative director for the Starshot agency and Mr. Wolf. In 2008 the tear-off calender „Typodarium 2009“ came out at Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz. Lars Harmsen and Raban Ruddigkeit are the editor of this calender.

Lars Harmsen had also a university teaching position at the School of Design in Pforzheim and Karlsruhe. Furthermore, he is a solicited speaker for many conferences (Face-to-Face/Stuttgart, Typo Berlin, Heimatdesign/Essen, Colophon/Luxembourg, 3rd ICTVC Thessaloniki etc).

Lysergid

Speaker: Loïc Sattler

Location: Paris, France

Website: www.lysergid.com

Case

Case-Study for www.Sonacom.fr

(FWA awarded web project)

This web-based project has been built for a Parisian Sound Studio in Paris called Sonacom. I had to redo the online presence of the studio.  The initial brief was to create a simple site where you can only click on a sound and hear what they’ve produced.

Problem: we had to find a solution not to mention the clients, because some where competitors (like Vodafone VS Orange). Within my studio, I came to this creative solution, going in a total different direction of the initial brief.

It mixes the challenge of:

  • letting you entertain with the site
  • letting you discover the world (real & creative) of Sonacom
  • creating within Sonacom’s universe
  • letting you think Sonacom offers a personal work to you, just for you

It has also been built within my own graphical style.

During the conference, I plan to speak about the following:

  1. Me, Loïc Sattler -> Studies, what I like, who I am, 5 minutes
  2. Analysing my Graphical Style, 3/5 minutes
  3. Sonacom : The client, 3 minutes
  4. Sonacoms new site, initial brief & Prizes, 3 minutes
  5. Ideas, envies, first draft, 3 minutes
  6. Final Proposal : Sound Versus Color Versus Graphics, 4 minutes
  7. Presenting the online site, 3 minutes
  8. My Style in Sonacoms site, 3 minutes
  9. Making the site come true – Technologies used, 4 minutes
  10. Putting it online, was everything all right?, 4 minutes
  11. Doing the buzz around the site and pushing it online, 2 minutes
  12. Feedback of the market and the online communities, 3 minutes

Background

Loïc Sattler is a French Art Director experienced in web, multimedia, print collateral, clothes styling, and corporate identity. He studied Media Communication and Multimedia for 2 years at the university Louis Pasteur (France), as well as 2 years in multimedia creation / theory at the European Institute of Design (France). He then moved at the Merz Akademie Stuttgart (Germany) to study new-media theory for his European Media Masterof Arts, an MA diploma delivered in 6 schools throughout Europe, by the University of Portsmouth (UK). His Master thesis was curated by Pr. Olia Lialina and Pr. Dr. Helmut Draxler.

Loïc worked as a freelancer during his whole studies, doing print, web, styling and some 3D/motion works for French and German studios. In 2003, he launched his platform Lysergid.com into virtual orbit, where he showcases selected artistic and professional projects.

Loïc works with special emphasis on aesthetics, creative ideas and communication goals, with a very high attention to details. Inspired by everything, interested and enthusiastic, he is in love with visual creation. Known as efficient, he’s able to manage a creative crew and likes to have a global view on the projects he is working on.

Loïc is devoted to people who share his passion, by attending and organizing conferences, building-up design related events, teaching in schools and writing articles / interviews for communities and magazines. His aim is to be understood as an individual who wishes to take things further by empowering his profession to the best of his ability.

LOOVVOOL

Speakers: Hannes Unt & Valter Kaleta

Location: Tallinn, Estonia

Website: www.loovvool.com

Case

Restaurant Kaerajaan visual identity.

Flavorsome trends from global cuisines combined with ethnic roots of local kitchen and all that in a well executed gourmet mixture. This is what the modern Estonian cuisine is about. It’s what restaurant Kaerajaan is about. LOOVVOOL was up for the twist when it came to giving it a visual impression.

Background

LOOVVOOL, founded in 2004 by creative director Hannes Unt, is a design and branding agency with premium and high-end market focus. Their core fundamental is a keen eye on creating distinctive brand experiences with high aesthetic value and visual appeal. The name LOOVVOOL is based on an Estonian palindromic worldplay in which loov means “creative” and vool is equivalent to “rush” or “flow”.

LOOVVOOL offers a complete range of creative services from brand strategy development to creation of design applications for all media platforms. Their style could be described as elegant and timeless, with surprising creative corners and edges.

LOOVVOOL has worked with numerous premium clients in the fields of hospitality, catering, finance and real estate. In 2008, LOOVVOOL notched up several Best of the Best Awards, an European Design Award, a Golden Egg, a Red Dot, a World Luxury Award and five Wolda Awards.

Koeweiden Postma

Speaker: Hugo van den Bos

Strategy director/partner Koeweiden Postma

Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Website: www.koeweidenpostma.com

Case

HEMA rebranding

HEMA is the most popular retail chain in the Netherlands, since 2007 owned by Lion Capital. As a private label store with over 300 stores, HEMA is loved for its well designed products for daily use at an affordable price. HEMA makes ordinary things special and defines its brand essence as ‘special simplicity’.

In 1992 HEMA was a trendsetter in putting its logo, products and models against a white background in all communication. Fifteen years onwards, HEMA needed to adjust its identity, because research showed that consumer satisfaction was decreasing.

The new identity brings colour into HEMA’s visual communication. The colourful style of photography, based on Lomography, stages real people using HEMA products. The renewed logo can be used in thirteen different colours. This makes it more of a brand label, that can be integrated in all communication items. The old logo always needed an white background, whereas the new logolabel can be placed everywhere.

Furthermore the overall grid was simplified in such a way that it unifies the message sent across all communication elements, from instore visuals and pricing, brochures and advertising to front signing, fleet communication and the website.

The result of this brand revitalization is a colorful visual identity that is in line with both the organization and the expectation of the consumer. HEMA’s new visual identity is being implemented from September 2007 onwards.

Background

Hugo van den Bos is strategy director and partner of Koeweiden Postma, one of the leading Dutch design agencies. The agency was founded in 1987 by designers Jacques Koeweiden and Paul Postma and developed into into a creatively leading design company, currently consisting of 25 people. The portfolio of the agency nowadays ranges from book covers and cultural posters to major international identity operations.

Among its recent assignments are visual identities for the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, for the Judiciary system in the Netherlands, for employment services group USG People, and for Dutch retail chain HEMA. Currently the agency is working on identity assignments for major companies like telecom provider KPN, ICT-company Getronics, insurance holding Achmea/Eureko and energy company Eneco. Next to this, Koeweiden Postma recently launched Because, a separate operation for social design.

Hugo van den Bos joined the agency in 2002, after working for for several design and communications agencies, including TBWA and BBDO. He studied social sciences at the University of Groningen in the north of the Netherlands. He is a passionate advocate of the communicating possibilities of design. Apart from that he likes to ride his racing bicycle.

Group94

Speaker: Pascal Leroy

Location: Gent, Belgium

Website: www.group94.com

Case

Title: g94 behind the scenes

Offering an inside view of the group94 methodology, the session will be centered round the recent FWAPHOTO project. It will be a blend of storytelling and technical insights. Attendees will walk away with questions raised and/or answered and a feeling that things are not always what they seem.

Background

Group94 is a web design boutique that has a diverse and far-reaching client base and portfolio with national and international clients including the likes of Magnum Photos, Wieden+Kennedy, Mortierbrigade, EuroRSCG, Ubisoft, Nokia, Goodby Silverstein & partners, Getty Images, MoMA, EA Games, Fontshop…

G94 is at it’s best for portfolio sites and online campaigns. Mostly Flash and hybrid work, often database driven. A lot of photographer’s portfolio’s as well: LA-based Jill Greenberg, Magnum photographer Carl de Keyzer, Moofe and photographer’s agencies like Marge Casey and Schierke to name a few.

‘Assume nothing, question everything’. Group94 stands for highly tailored work. In an industry that tends to standardization, offering more of the same, it appears to be an approach that works. Indeed every project starts from a clean slate, the goal is to make it fresh and innovative yet well thought and usable, it must be fast and to the point and of a highest order from a technical point of view.

Group94’s highly acclaimed work covers all business sectors from arts, architecture, media, institutional, scientific, tourism and many more.

Ginette Caron

Speaker: Ginette Caron

Location: Milano, Italy

Website: www.ginettecaron.it

Case

Simplicity of Complexity/ Complexity of Simplicity

Knoll /WA furniture system identity

Background

Ginette Caron was born in Montreal where she graduated in Graphic Design/BFA at Concordia University. She opened her own studio in Milan in the early Nineties after a few years working in Montreal, Bologna and Venice.

Ginette Caron Communication Design studio specializes in corporate identity projects, branding, exhibit design and art books for international clients like Barilla, Bvlgari, Chase Manhattan Bank, Grand Theatre de Provence, Fondazione Prada, Knoll, Moleskine, Swatch and TV5. During her career, she also worked as in house Design Director for Prada Group and Benetton Group. For over ten years at Gregotti Associati International, she is responsible for the corporate image of Unifor (Compasso d’Oro 1995) and the all main Italian design furniture industries.

Ginette Caron is regularly invited to conduct workshops and lectures in Italy and abroad. She participated at different exhibitions; among them the Warsaw Poster Biennal, Milano Made in Design touring in Toronto/Tokyo/Shanghai/Beijing and Moleskine Detour at the Art Directors Club of New York.

During the years she received the Red Dot Design award, Graphis Gold awards, ADC Art Directors Club NY Merit award, EdAwards Finalist and Eulda awards. She has been jury member for Wolda and Mediastars Design Awards.

Designiq

Speaker: Filip Blažek

Location: Prague, Czech Republic

Website: www.designiq.eu

Case

Where is my home?

Where is my home is a first verse of the Czech national anthem and the name of a book about the anthem, a recent project of Designiq studio for the Czech government and three partner institutions. The book cover is made out of real glass, which makes it an unique object. The talk will put the book in the context of visual presentation of the Czech Republic as a little contribution to an ongoing discussion about the identity of European countries, regions and cities.

Background

Designiq, graphic design studio of Filip Blažek was founded in 1997, and in 2003, its name has been changed to Designiq. Its focuses on two main fields of work—on creation of logotypes and corporate identity, and on promotion of bodies focusing on cultural work. The studio consists of three designers and two production managers.

Filip Blažek (1974) works as a full-time graphic designer since 1993. In 2000, he graduated from the Faculty of Arts at the Charles University in Prague. Apart from being a designer, he is a co-author of Praktická typografie (Typography in practice), ComputerPress, 2000, 2004. He regularly contributes to professional periodicals in the field of graphic design. He is a founder and a member of the editorial office of TYPO magazine, which focuses on typography, graphic design and visual communication. He is an owner of the Typo.cz server, dedicated to Czech and international graphic design. Since 1999, he lectures on type and corporate identity. He is the Czech deputy of the international organisation ATypI.

The Designers Republic

Website: www.thedesignersrepublic.com

Designbolaget

Speaker: Claus Due

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Website: www.designbolaget.dk

Case

Working in the fields of fashion Designbolaget were told to do the campaign for the a large jewellery manufacturer Pilgrim – advertising their men’s jewellery. We decided to make a statement on the whole celebrity scene and to make a homage to the people behind it all – THE SECRETLY FAMOUS.

Working with people who – to the public are completely unknown – but have been an Oscar nominated screen-writer, musicians who are number 1 on the billboard chart for a motion picture soundtrack, the founder of the Copenhagen freetown Christiania, comic book writers, poets, writers etc.

The campaign gave a lot of attention from the press and gave the client a platform to leave the traditional fashion fairs and shopping areas – finding new areas and hide-outs for showing and selling their products.

Background

Established by Claus Due in the year of 2002, Designbolaget is a graphic design studio working primarily in the fields of art, music and fashion. The studio consists of three graphic designers and are based in the center of Copenhagen – sharing a building with fashion designers, illustrators and animators.

Designbolaget works with a wide selection of clients. From small galleries to the large art museums. Designing award-winning books and catalogues for museum, exhibition and artists directly. Visual identities for exhibitions, museums and fashion clients. Designbolaget has also done visual identity and campaigns for a numerous of fashion clients.