Retrospective 2022

The 14th edition of the Weltformat Graphic Design Festival focused on the theme "Never Not Moving" and was examined from various perspectives. With our exhibitions and talks, we demonstrated how graphic design can represent, convey, and influence movement in all its facets. The festival showcased what what was pushing the boundaries and shaping the landscape of graphic design in 2022, including the demands on the repertoire of graphic designers and the significance of motion design as a form of design.

The symposium at the start, the Newcomer Award, and the diverse exhibitions provided an excellent platform for exchange between graphic designers and a broad audience. Of course, the well-known exhibitions such as the 100 Best Posters and Best book design from all Over the world 2022 could not be missed, and they were presented with great enthusiasm once again.

Newcomer Award 2022

The Weltformat Graphic Design Festival once again showcased interesting and surprising designs from young emerging designers, providing a platform to showcase their creativity and talent. The challenge was to depict the theme of speed on a static poster, demonstrating the persuasive power of analog design alongside digital expressions. Over 650 young graphic designers under the age of 30 submitted their visual interpretations from all over the world, showcasing a diversity of methods, techniques, and approaches.

During the festival's opening night awards ceremony, the winning poster was announced and the Audience Award was presented. The Audience Award winner was chosen from the twenty nominated posters through an online voting process. The top twenty projects were showcased in an F4 exhibition, and the winning poster was presented to a broad audience at 500 locations throughout Switzerland as part of a CHF 30,000 poster campaign facilitated by APG|SGA after the exhibition.

Move It!

This year, the Weltformat Graphic Design Festival entrusted the design of its festival poster to five international design studios. The theme "Never Not Moving" challenged these creatives to animate the raw festival poster and turn it into a real eye-catcher. The result showcased an exciting range of analog frame-by-frame animations to generative designs.

The animated works of the graphic designers were displayed on APG ePanels throughout Switzerland and exhibited under the name "Move it!" in the Bourbaki-Mall. The exhibition demonstrated how movement can be translated into various forms in the world of graphic design. The works impressed with their creative execution and inspired visitors to reflect on the meaning of movement. The festival poster, consisting of all the posters, was screen-printed and is available in our shop.

You can find the animated posters here.

A special THANK YOU goes out to the participating designers: Roy Terhorst, Studio Thonik (Amsterdam), Laia Ferran, Heystudio (Barcelona), Ira Ivanova, Studio Yukiko (Barcelona), Lucas Hesse (Hamburg), Felix Pfäffli, Studio Feixen (Lucerne), Gianluca Alla (London), and Everyday Practice (Seoul).

Symposium

One of the highlights of this year's festival was the annual symposium, which took place for the first time at the Stattkino. It provided international designers with the opportunity to discuss the festival theme «Never Not Moving» and present their own projects and research interests in two thematic panels. It was a great pleasure to listen to our international guests as they shared their perspectives on this topic. Eva Schuler (Bern) and Jonas Berthold (London) curated and organized the two panel discussions brilliantly: Panel 1: Moving On, Panel 2: Motion Design.

Our speakers were Nadine Kolodziey (Frankfurt/Berlin), Source Type (Zurich), Masha Batsii (London), Vera van de Seyp (Amsterdam), Thonik (Amsterdam), and Daniel Wenzel (New York).

A heartfelt thank you goes out to the hosts, all participants, and of course, our audience, who made this day an unforgettable experience and inspired us with their contributions and questions. We are grateful for the opportunity to discover new perspectives together and enrich our creativity.

After Work Talks

The "After Work Talks" at Kino Rex of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences were a great opportunity for visitors of the Weltformat Festival to learn about the latest developments in graphic design and to exchange ideas with other experts in a small setting. The lectures and discussion rounds provided a variety of interesting insights into the historical and conceptual backgrounds of film title sequences, the work and attitude of renowned studios in kinetic typography, as well as pressing issues around self-employment in graphic design.

Florian Krautkrämer's lecture titled "Credit where Credit is due" gave valuable insights into the historical world of film title sequences. The presentation by DIA Studio from New York provided visitors with an insight into kinetic typography and demonstrated how a clear attitude and a high aesthetic standard can lead to exceptional results.

Especially exciting was the discussion round by the Syndicom trade union on the topic "Because survival alone is not enough". Here, the participants discussed how self-employed graphic designers can be supported through appropriate payment and better security in the form of holidays, savings, and affordable retirement plans. The participants were encouraged to bring their ideas and suggestions and work together to find solutions.

We Like To Move It

The main exhibition "We Like To Move It" at the Kunsthalle in Bourbaki was the absolute highlight of this year's festival edition. Curator Josh Schaub impressively demonstrated how motion design can overcome the limitations of static graphics and offer infinite potential for more content, emotions, and attention.

Through various movements, details can be highlighted and emotions can be aroused that would not arise in a static image. Additionally, animated design offers space for more information and enables skilled guidance of the eye through the design.

The exhibition provided inspiration for graphic designers and students to use animated design as an identity marker for companies and their corporate design, or to create original artworks for interested parties. It shows how motion design offers an innovative way to convey messages and generate attention.

Titles In Motion

The exhibition “Titles in Motion" showcases a retrospective of motion design through opening credits, illustrating the development and diversity of design activities in film production. Curator and film producer Florian Krautkrämer is a professor at the Lucerne School of Art and Design and wrote his dissertation on the topic of typography in film. He has already given numerous lectures on title design both domestically and abroad.

Grafikbazar

To wrap up the World Format Graphic Design Festival, this year's Grafikbazar was held for the first time at the Bourbaki Mall. The Grafikbazar provided designers with an opportunity to showcase and sell their printed works directly to visitors. Once again, the participant list for the Grafikbazar was impressive and included renowned designers such as Dafi Kühne, Randy Tischler, Erich Brechbühl, Atelier U-Zehn, SNAC, ECAL, Benjamin Hermann, and Amadeus Waltenspühl. The bazar provided visitors with a fantastic opportunity to discover the works of these talented artists and purchase their favorites to keep as a memory.