MAKE IT BUNT UND BOLD!

In late April, we, five fourth-semester design students, were asked to design the “Werkschau” exhibition. Overcome with euphoria, we immediately set to work. Little did we know that this decision would mean that we would have to trade in all of our free time for the next couple of months. Werkschau is that kind of exhibition for which you spend the whole semester thinking about what outfit to wear. Werkschau is when the campus suddenly becomes a gallery. And now, a little bit more seriously: Werkschau is an exhibition where all graduates present their bachelor's or master's projects.
Werkschau HSBI
corporate design
student project
07-24 




May I introduce?
The forty-three proud graduates, each with a lovely tote bag we've designed and printed ourselves. Next, us five very exhausted but proud designers/project managers/students, of course with our tote bags at the ready as well. And last but not least, our associated professor, admittedly without a bag, but wearing a bright pink t-shirt.

Design Process

Key Visual

A major component of the visual appearance are the bold figures or shapes. When we designed these forms, we had no idea that they would become the basis for the most frequently asked question at the exhibition: “What do these shapes actually mean?” Yet the answer to the question is very simple: they represent the letters of “Werkschau”, but split up and very stylized so that they are hardly recognizable.
What we found most exciting was how everyone could see something different in it. From a variety of animals to mythical creatures to the actual typographic meaning, there was a lot to it; a bit like cloud gazing.

Merchandise

When it came to merchandising, of course, we faced many challenges: How to screen print our gradient look on textiles, how to offer something for everyone, regardless of budget, etc.? The biggest challenge, however, came when the t-shirts we wanted to print didn't arrive. Out of necessity came an idea that was much more colorful and sustainable than originally planned: Let us buy a colorful mix of used clothes and print them all differently. So we ended up offering different clothes, colorful tote bags, 3D printed keychains and stickers to keep our design in people's minds.

Final design

Werkschau catalog

One thing that should not be missing from any Werkschau is a catalog, a concise book that highlights the final projects of all the graduates. Our stylistic device of writing everything out almost annoyingly long (e.g. two thousand and twenty-four instead of 2024) can be seen better in this medium than anywhere else. This element was mainly developed when designing the catalog. We followed our maxim "colorful and bold" and put everything in the same font size and thickness, except for the name of each graduate, which, after all, should be the main focus of this book.