Works designed with the help of specially developed and modified design tools, analogue design processes applied before the rise of the computer, posters printed on letterpresses – this year's exhibitions at Weltformat Graphic Design Festival highlighted the theme of Tools & Rules from different perspectives. A total of nine exhibitions gave visitors an insight into current and historic works.
Exhibitions 2019
Designing Tools
The exhibition Designing Tools featured works from Switzerland and abroad that were designed using tools created specifically or adapted to specific needs. In addition to algorithms and digital design tools, analogue instruments, modified technical devices and strict rules were used. The exhibition explored the question of whether a unique visual language asks for individual tools. Judging by the exhibited works, the question can be answered in the affirmative – the works were surprising, convincing and showed new ways of designing.
Letterpress Posters
Letterpress is a technology that is rarely used commercially today. Nevertheless, young designers are still experimenting with the printing technology. The exhibited works showed the surprising visual designs that result.
Pre-digital
How did designers work before the rise of computers and digital technologies? The exhibition Pre-digital provided answers and showed how distinctive posters and thus unique visual languages were created with the help of elaborate analogue processes.
Maximage
The application, which Maximage developed especially for the design of this year's festival poster, turned the public space into a projection surface for typography. The app feature also projected text fragments onto the walls of the exhibition space at Elephanthouse and playfully demonstrated the potential of the application.
Best Bok Design from All Over the World 2019
The international book design competition Best Book Design from All Over the World honours outstanding editorial design. The exhibition presented a wide variety of books, printing techniques, materials and approaches that demonstrate the diversity of contemporary book design.
Johnson / Kingston
Ivan Weiss and Michael Kryenbühl developed a bot that collects, analyses and distributes images on social networks. With the installation, the designers examine the influence of images posted on social media on the work of designers.
This Way!
The project This Way! was dedicated to the history and meaning of signposts and direction indicators. The exhibition and the accompanying publication gave visitors an insight into the countless possibilities and diverse ways of visually depicting signposts.
100 Best Posters 18
The exhibition 100 Best Posters shows the most exciting posters from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The winners have been selected from a competition and represent the creative exploration of the poster as a medium and the versatile work of the graphic design scene from German-speaking countries.
More information
- Photos
Savino Caruso, Lucerne and Luis Hartl, Lucerne