Graphic Design & Visual Communication

Editorial design with multiple script systems

Duration: 3 weeks; 15 June – 3 July 

Script is language. Language is communication and communication is the key to successful intercultural exchange.

Due to globalization and cross-cultural interactions, multilingualism plays an eminent role in the world. Why is it important to work with both Latin and non-Latin script and type? What are the challenges of combining different scripts with varying visual precepts and habits? What are the social premises and technical requirements for multilingual visual communication?

Researching different script systems and analyzing countless samples of contemporary graphic and type design. 

In order to get deeper into the topic, we want to visit several international designers based in Berlin who will tell us about their experiences of working with multiple scripts.

Moving on to the topic of multilingual editorial design we will create, design and produce at intercultural publication. The focus does not want to disagree with disparate script systems but can arrange, combine and integrate all content within a clear structural concept.

About the Lecturer

Ben Wittner is graphic designer, and, alongside Sascha Thoma, co-founder and co-owner of Eps51. The studio develops visual concepts with a strong focus on typography and bilingual design. He has lived and worked in Cairo, London and Brighton and is currently based in Berlin.

Cultural Initiatives

Ben Wittner and Sascha Thoma edited the book series Arabesque-Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia, Die Gestalten Verlag (2008 and 2011). In 2012 Eps51 initiated the exhibition project Right-To-Left. Their latest book project Bi-Scriptual documents and accentuates the growing interest in multi-script design and typography and what is published by Niggli (2019).  

Projects and Clients

Eps51's clients range from the fields of art and design to gastronomy and large commercial enterprises. Recent projects include visual identities for Berlin Festival and the Emirates Pavilion for the Venice Biennale, websites for Cinematheque and ArtReoriented, and various design commissions for interdiction/Nike and Universal Music/Ricordi.

Teaching 

Ben Wittner regularly takes part in exhibitions, lectures, holds workshops and teaches at universities as Berlin International and the University of Applied Sciences Pforzheim.

A journey journey book design workshop

Duration: 3 weeks; 6 – 24 July 

Where & What:

Discover the rich, multicultural street culture in a Berlin KIEZ (vernacular "district"). You can dive into Far Eastern atmosphere of Kantstrasse - Berlin's Chinatown, where Chinese residents settled down 100 years ago, or stroll along the colorful Turkish cloth market in Kreuzberg, known as little Istanbul. What are the specific visual codes that make the area reveal its special character? What about the historical background of these places? How do foreign visual elements blend with German local culture?

How:

During this workshop, KIEZ, observing a design perspective and investigating street typography and other visual elements through various techniques of mapping, photography, filming, interviewing or drawing. The collected material will be the basis for the design of your own journey book.

Aim:

• Understand to "read" the city as a creative source
• Identify and understand the specific visual typographic expressions of the place
• Learn about typography and the process of book making with analog and digital media
• Enjoy the summer in Berlin

What to bring:

• For expedition: camera, sketchbook, tools for interviews and documentation
• Comfortable clothes, sun / rain protection and enough to drink, public transport ticket or bicycle

About the Lecturer

Yi Meng Wu 吳 禕 萌, born in Shanghai, grew up in China and is a communication designer and book artist. She studied visual communication in Berlin (University of the Arts), Essen (Folkwang University of the Arts) and Paris (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts  Décoratifs). Her Berlin-based Studio Wu is specialized in book design, illustration & multilingual typography. She works with traditional and digital media around themes of cultural identity. Her works have been shown in Germany, China, Swizzerland, Austria, Bulgaria and have received numerous awards as the German Design Award, the "Most Beautiful German Books", Joseph Binder Award (Austria), Golden Pin Award (Taiwan). From 2009-2011 she was member of the research group "Coexistence of Signs - Multilingual Typography" at Design2Context Institute Zurich, led by Prof. Ruedi Bauer. Since 2009 she helds lectures and workshops at universities in China and Germany on the topics of intercultural design as well as urban artistic explorations: e.g. at University of the Arts Berlin (2010), HfG Offenbach (2016), Tsinghua University Beijing (2014), Nanjing Fine Arts Academy (2009/2018/2019).

Rethinking menu design

Duration: 3 weeks; 27 July – 14 August 

Berlin has countless restaurants serving international food. Imagine a new restaurant opens, and you are in charge of the design including the conception of the menu.

How do you help your client to visualize their food other than showing photos of the plates? How can you help your customers to be somewhere else without using stereotypes? How are you going to use a second language or script? Is your menu a classic print booklet, app for smartphones, or even both? 

We will go out on a research trip first, and dive into Berlin's multicultural cuisine scene to sketch, take pictures and interview restaurant owners and analyze the situation. Afterwards we are going to develop a narrative for a chosen restaurant and transform it into a design concept. We'll figure out the design of a functional and inspiring menu design. Finally, we want to produce the digital and / or analogue menu using Adobe Creative Suite and Figma for functioning and realistic prototyping.

About the Lecturer

Sylvain Mazas was born in 1980 in the French Alps. While studying illustration in France, he moves to Germany for an Erasmus exchange semester at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee. Falling in love with both the city and the school he decides to stay in Berlin, where he has been living since 2004.

In 2007, for his diploma project, Sylvain spends three months in Beirut, filling lots of sketchbooks with his impressions, ideas and reflections. He publishes his first book: This book should allow me to solve the conflict in the Middle East, to get my degree and to find a wife -Part 1-. The second book of this series follows in 2014, a third one is currently in progress.

While not writing books, Sylvain works in various fields of design, including Arabic type design, multi script layout, illustration and info graphics, graphic recording, animated film and web design.