Posters and publication for a two days masterclass about typeface and writing between France and Germany at ÉSAD Amiens. The idea of the poster is to graphically express and explore a tension between fastness and stiffness of a gesture. And in the lines, you can read HAND and TOOL.

Simon Renaud was responsible for the graphic design of the posters and the publication. He used his own typeface Augure, distributed by 205TF.

This summer, the 40th edition of Boxhorn magazine was published. In keeping with Boxhorn’s anniversary year, this year’s editorial team focused on the theme of “Tradition” in various aspects of life and asked themselves: “Does tradition protect or harm?”

Tradition is a lantern, the fool holds on to it, while the wise are guided by its light.

This sentence appears at the very beginning of the 40th issue of Boxhorn and served as a guiding principle for this year‘s team throughout the exploration of the theme of tradition and the creation of the magazine. Through photos, text, and graphics, the team visualized how tradition affects people, society, and diversity. What are the negative and positive aspects? Should we preserve tradition, or is new always better? Under the overarching theme of tradition, the team focused on professions, art, sports, family, cuisine, religion, and politics. Both the editorial and design aspects were independently managed by the students. The result is a 100-page magazine filled with diversity, critique, nostalgia, and interesting facts.

One fun fact about the design: the font concept is intended to make tradition visible so the team used a variable font named Times New Arial. Starting with Arial, it let the font change throughout the magazine, with only marginal differences from page to page, until it ends with Times New Roman. Additionally the team sprayed each cover and four pages per magazine by hand, making each copy unique.

Letterpress printing is probably one of the most important inventions in human history – it has made the dissemination of knowledge possible. However, in view of the current state of technology, letterpress printing no longer seems up to date. Offset and digital printing have replaced the historical book printing process. But is it really no longer relevant today? The project Modern Ways of Historic Printing aims to find out if and how designers still work with letterpress technique today and whether a combination with contemporary techniques can produce creative innovations to the design.

In order to explore the topic experimentally, a typeface was designed and translated into a modular letter system for letterpress printing, which was used to print a poster installation.

How do we stay optimistic?

In times of various challenges, we at the Boxhorn editorial team are no longer in the mood for mostly negative news – even though we naturally don’t want to hide it. Instead, we have approached this magazine with not one, but eight smiling faces and have chosen the theme of “Ways” (“Wege” in German), where we can speak above all of lives full of perspectives.

Which ways lie behind us? What ways are we taking? What challenges and opportunities do we encounter along the way? We asked ourselves these questions and set out on our own paths, met people and listened to their exciting life stories, which also sometimes lead past barriers. In the process, we have also questioned and rediscovered our own ways. In addition, we dealt with creative ways of working, which serve as inspiration for us as future designers, and finally also with the way into the future. We also placed special emphasis on Boxhorn #39 being a magazine by students for students. Everyone could participate, for example in the form of surveys or our Open Call, which offers a stage for student work.

Even though we have tried to work past the crises, they catch up with us in some places. Producing a print magazine at a time of inflation brings its own problems. Paper prices that suddenly double force you to rethink. We are happy that many people believed in us and with their support made it possible for this magazine to become what it is now. A magazine that shows diversity and different realities of life, positive and yet differentiated.

This issue was created by the students Annika Rolfs, Charlotte Hünninghaus, Leonard Schneiders, Olga Tanjukjewitsch, Paulina Hermanns, Ronja Staack, Timo Wehrmeijer and Tom Tietz, under the supervision of Prof. Ilka Helmig at the University of Applied Sciences Aachen. In an edition of 400 copies, printed with HP Indigo, finished with fluorescent orange with risography printing and hand-bound by us with an adhesive binding.

Special thanks to Felix Pfäffli from Studio Feixen for let us use their Noi Grotesk typeface for this issue.

The magazine name features the alternate H from Noi Grotesk’s stylistic set 10, “Spaghetti Letters”.

Mesta is illustrator and designer Andrea Ihl’s Bachelor thesis in Communication Design at FH Aachen:

In her work she explores the joys and frustrations of everyday lives while focusing on themes of vulnerability, emotion and gender.

How does it feel to leave everything you once knew behind, while never really being able to fully let go of your old life? Why do we long for a home that isn’t there anymore and probably never will be? And what does it mean to constantly be searching for a sense of belonging? Mesta (derived from the russian “место”, meaning “space” or “position”) is a collection of stories and perspectives by 26 people who reflected with me on several questions about our (post)migrant identities. The publication aims to empower the participants to share their experiences on the topic of migration, to take up space and talk about what in the past has been left unspoken.

The typefaces in use are Suisse Int’l (Swiss Typefaces), Apoc Revelations (Blaze Type) and Panama (The Temporary State).

What precisely is a serif?

The publication Collection – Serife? is intended to initiate the learning process through recognition, to make the anatomy of the Roman letter more accessible and show the wide range of variation. From static serif to geometric Egyptienne—as different as they all look, they share one important component: the serif.

A serif, however, rarely comes alone (shoutout to Indra Kupferschmid), which is why other anatomical characteristics are also shown on the basis of 72 different typefaces. The contrast between Swiss design and the focus on serifs creates another level that is reflected in the poster, which consists of the total four printed sheets.

The project was published by Ivana Baumann and Gabriel Dukić in January 2021 under the supervision of Prof. Dipl.-Des. Eva Kubinyi at FH Aachen. It has been awarded by aed Neuland in June 2021.

What does home mean?

In conversations with designers, architects, self-employed people, complete strangers, students, photographers, illustrators, tenants and many other folks, we got to know different forms, definitions, and views. We give them a space to thrive in the 38th issue of the Boxhorn magazine – we give them a home.

Home (German: Zuhause) is not a standard term for a white cube, built in a new development in the suburbs of Cologne, but offers manifold views ranging from a twelve-square-meter room to a nomadic lifestyle. To understand this, we also took a look at other forms of living – beyond our own preconceived ideas.

However, to live and feel “at home” is social not only on the local level. We always are at home in the society in which we live and with which we (have to) surround ourselves. In this context, both economic and political conditions determine our living conditions.

“Home” embodies many individual representations; proximity, social aspects, financial status and emotional values. When we refer to a place as home, at its best it provides a space to retreat, invite, or show off. But what when these conditions are not present? Hereby we show various forms of being and feeling at home, as well as the aspects and definitions that go along with it. As it turns out, a home is often a potpourri of all the places where one has already lived and felt at home.

The issue was edited by Delayne Kreutz, Gabriel Dukić, Hannah Stollenwerk, Ivana Baumann, Maret Van Stiphout, Sophie Leiwen, and Zeno Scheffel, under the supervision of Prof. Ilka Helmig at the University of Applied Sciences Aachen. In an edition of 150 copies, 600 of the 900 individual booklets were bound by hand and, after printing with HP Indigo, finished with fluorescent red via risography printing.

Throughout the issue we exclusively use New Edge 666 Rounded by Charlotte Rohde and hereby send best regards from home in Aachen!

For their student project at FH Aachen University of applied sciences and Hogeschool Zuyd in Maastricht, Lucas Dino Nolte, Paul Arnoldt, Max Pohlen, Michael Döll and Max Großeschallau paired Monokrom’s Telefon family with Adobe’s revival of Caslon.

The fictitious Scandinavian brand, KØB, is complete with a mobile-friendly webshop, an in-store wayfinding system, printed and digital material as well as clothing labels. The students built a highly interactive shop, where information from physical products can trigger information in an app, allowing customers to view additional product information, videos and even make the purchase directly through their smartphone.

To visually emphasize this relationship of analogue and digital information, the distorted logotype was first printed, and digitized again by scanning while moving the paper.

Master thesis on the situation and future of bottled water in Germany on the example of the “Aachener Kaiserbrunnen”, a regional water brand that was founded more than 125 years ago.

Target of the thesis was to design an unique identity concept, as well as a new bottle and to position Kaiserbrunnen as an attractive brand in the scene-beverage segment.

Master thesis at the FH Aachen, University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Design (2014).

Stefan Zimmermann
www.deszign.de

Mentoring
Prof. Ralf Weißmantel
Prof. Clemens Stübner

For his Bachelor’s thesis Stefan Zimmermann developed a corporate design concept for the International Game Days Essen. The annual fair is the world’s largest trade event for board games. Target of the thesis was to design an identity concept with a distinctive hallmark, a uniform layout, and to create a concepts for Marketing campaigns. The appearance should fit to the topic ‘play’ and to the high standard of the fair.