dESIGN12+ #3: NORA FUCHS and JENS MÜLLER

Nora Fuchs was artist in residence in Iceland for three months in 2024 for her artistic research project on the subject of tipping points. She investigated and analysed various processes and how they can be transformed into a visualization and thus made perceptible. Artistic research is an open-ended working method. The experiment has no pre-defined goal. The starting point is the search for an ideal-typical landscape. The approach to pursuing the materiality of the natural space is the observation or recording of processes of change through light, clouds and weather phenomena.

Nora Fuchs is a visual artist and lives in Dortmund and Berlin. She works with space, installation, sound and video art. She has been a lecturer in the Faculty of Design at Fachhochschule Dortmund since 2003 as Professor of Plastic Design and Applied Form Design. She is a member of GKG.eV., a network for artistic teaching at universities. Since 1999, she has been actively involved as a curator, on the board and as a participating artist in the "Kunstverein Alte Schule Baruth".

In 2019, she won the "Leere Sockel" competition organized by the Berlin Senate Treptow Köpenick district with her work "Schwimmtieralarm", a participatory project that was on display in the city for six months. More about her work at: www.norafuchs.de

At first glance, Japan and Germany appear to have little in common - whether you look at writing systems, geography or food culture. However, after 1945, both countries underwent a very similar development history in certain areas of economy and society. Communication design as a direct and indirect mirror of these developments is therefore a particularly interesting field of study. From the 1950s onwards, there was an intensive exchange between the two design scenes, which was reflected in publications, exhibitions and conferences, but also in the communication of design. A number of influential designers from both countries referred to the other country in their work.

The first part of the research looked for connections in the exchange between the Japanese and West German design scenes. The "World Design Conference", at which an intensive exchange between designers from both countries took place in Tokyo in May 1960, was an outstanding event in terms of design history. In the following years, pioneering visual identities were created in both Japan and Germany - including the visual identities of the 1964 Tokyo and 1972 Munich Olympic Games. As a significant further development of the design profession, the design of individual communication media was expanded to include a serial-conceptual dimension. A second part of the research deals with the history of the development of pictorial symbols, which are still a central element of visual identity today. An examination of historical and current Japanese word and figurative marks provides a particularly vivid illustration of similarities and differences.

Jens Müller, born in 1982, studied communication design in Düsseldorf. He then opened his own design office and worked for clients from the worlds of culture and Business Studies. Since 2007, he has created over a dozen special stamps for Deutsche Post, which have been printed in print runs of millions. Since 2019, he has run the design studio vista in Düsseldorf together with Katharina Sussek and Andreas Magino (see https://studiovista.de/studio). In addition to his work as a designer, he researches international design history and is the author of highly acclaimed design books, including bestsellers such as Logo Modernism and The History of Graphic Design. In recent years, he has researched the visual history of companies such as Lufthansa, Puma, ZDF and Deutsche Bahn. Jens Müller has been Professor of Corporate Design at the Faculty of Design at Fachhochschule Dortmund since 2021.