In this first session we will try to find out what makes a well-designed book and what factors determine excellence in editorial design. We will look at recent examples of award-winning publications from the Most Beautiful Swiss Books,Best Book Design From All Over The World and the LAUS Awards. By browsing through the books we will be able to feel their material presence and examine the elements that make them up: binding, paper, composition, typography and the fit between form and content. Moreover, through the verdict of these prestigious prizes awarded by specialists, we will be able to analyse current trends in editorial design. Each student will be able to express their opinion and choose their own favorites according to his or her own sensibility.

In the Bookworm sessions we will explore iconic magazines and books that capture the spirit of the era in which they were created. The material comes from Elisava’s library collections, especially from its Reserve Fund, which contains publications that, due to their design, constitute a journey through the best of the past and present of modern graphics applied to the field of editorial design.

The Bookworm sessions are guided by Andreu Jansà, librarian and curator of the Enric Bricall Reserve Fund.

We will place the publications in their context and try to define what makes them relevant in the history of editorial design in the 20th and 21st centuries. The direct contact with the books and magazines that we will see in each session will allow us to experience the printed document from a material point of view: binding, paper, lay out, illustrations, typography. We will also be able to assess the adequacy between form and content.

In this session, I will share the stories and the behind-the-scenes details of some of the projects I have participated in throughout my career from a strategy and verbal identity perspective. The goal is to showcase the key aspects of my work and the impact it has on the design and visual creation processes of the teams I collaborate with.
It’s going to be mostly about words, but please don’t panic, I’ll be showing some images too.

Marc Torrell

I’ve loved writing since I was a kid. As I grew older, I wrote less. The novels and poems I once dreamed of writing turned into headlines, simple concepts, and brand names. I graduated in Advertising and Audiovisual Communication, worked for large international agencies and dinosaur clients, and later discovered the meaning of design through collaborations with studios like Mucho, Hey, Lo Siento, Querida, and Pràctica. In 2013, I co-founded Usted with my friend and partner, Martí Pujolàs.

We consider Usted a hybrid between a traditional advertising agency and a design studio. The focus, whatever the project is, is always the same: strategic thinking, concept with longevity and carefully crafted art direction. We work straight with clients or collaborate with fellow studios in conceptualization and verbal identity tasks for clients of all sizes and markets.

Day After Day

Despite not always being entirely comfortable with the label “designer,” Ronan Bouroullec is undeniably among the most prolific and admired practitioners working today. For more than three decades, his Paris atelier—led with his brother Erwan until 2023—has produced a remarkable series of “singular objects,” often in collaboration with leading design manufacturers such as Alessi, Artek, and Vitra. In a special conversation with journalist Anne Quito, Bouroullec reflects on the arc of his career and explains how his drawing practice has remained a central pillar of his life and work. Vignettes from his latest monograph, Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day (Phaidon, 2023) will be a highlight of the evening.

Born in Quimper, Brittany, Ronan Bouroullec is a celebrated artist and designer based in Paris. His studio, formerly led with his younger brother Erwan, has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious design companies, including Artek, Alessi, Cappellini, Galerie Kreo, Hay, Kartell, Kvadrat, Magis, Mattiazzi, Mutina, and Vitra. Also a prolific artist, his drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Ronan Bouroullec’s studio, founded 30 years ago, is based in Paris and comprises a team of six assistants.

The undisciplined toolkit speaks of forgotten and ‘messy’ stories, introducing a wide range of unconventional surfaces and strategies to bridge the gap between autonomous and commissioned work. Tools shape the way we point and wipe, but they also reflect what we crush and what we tackle. This lecture explores the urge to push the boundaries of tools and move beyond purely pragmatic functions—touching on bureaucratic creativity, role-playing, and alternative narratives. To work undisciplined means to navigate chaos, drifting between knowledge and unknowing.

Since 2011, Anja Kaiser has been working independently, engaging in various collaborations with other graphic designers and programmers. Until March 2023, she held the interim Professorship for Typography at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. 2017, she received the INFORM Award from the Gallery of Contemporary Art Leipzig, recognizing conceptual design practices. In 2020, Le Signe – Centre National du Graphisme in Chaumont dedicated a comprehensive exhibition to her work. In 2021, together with Rebecca Stephany, she co-edited the “Glossary of Undisciplined Design,” published by Spector Books.

Anja Kaiser is a graphic designer and artist working across cultural and subcultural contexts. Her practice engages with the appropriation of resistant media, and undisciplined methods. She explores alternative narratives and porous tools within graphic design. Her work investigates the thresholds between graphic design, art, and music. Since 2018, she has been responsible, together with Jim Kühnel, for the visual concept of the Rewire Festival. She also occasionally builds furniture—such as tables for the Study Rooms at the Bauhaus Dessau—or hosts sound art events as part of a collective.

Water holds deep cultural, historical, and environmental significance in Barcelona. It has shaped the city’s identity, economy, and urban landscape for centuries. The sea has long connected Barcelona to trade, migration, and cultural exchange, while fountains, beaches, and promenades highlight its presence in daily life. Following decades of drought and the emergence of annual flooding as the new normal, water will play an increasingly critical role in the city’s / region’s / country’s / continent’s / planet’s future.

During the five-day workshop, participants will choose a subject related to the topic and produce a 12–16 page DIN A4 publication documenting their thoughts using three print techniques.

The aim of the workshop is to develop participants’ observational, research, editing, writing, layout and publishing skills.

Subject matter may be historic, contemporary or speculative.

Patrick Thomas is a graphic artist, author and educator. He studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art in London before relocating to Barcelona in 1991.

He currently lives and works in Berlin. He has exhibited his limited-edition silkscreens across five continents, where many are now held in private and public collections.

Since October 2013 he is a professor at Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart. He is a member of Alliance Graphique.

Copy pop: new narratives in contemporary music

In this session, we will explore how a number of musicians from different eras and styles have created narratives that bring meaning and complexity to their albums. When did music shift from a collection of songs to the “concept album” and why? What is the purpose of these narratives? How do they expand the story a record tells? And why does an album need stories to accompany it?

Gabriel Ventura (Granollers, 1988) is a poet. He holds a degree in Humanities and a Master’s in Literary, Art and Thought Studies from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). His work explores poetry, performance, and moving image as creative media. His books include W (2017), Notes for an Eye Fire (2020) —which inspired a homonymous exhibition at MACBA—, The Portuguese Night (2021) —a shooting diary for a film by Albert Serra—, and The Best of Impossible Worlds (2025). He works at the intersection of poetry and other arts, collaborating with visual artists, filmmakers, and musicians such as Rosa Tharrats, Albert Serra and Rosalía. He is currently the director of POESIA i + festival and lecturer at BAU.

Gabriel Ventura’s creative journey often begins with poetry, extending into action, pedagogy, research and video. In his approach, literature serves as a powerful tool to foster emotional connections in an era marked by hyper-information and global dispersion. Ventura views his texts as enigmatic and independent entities with the potential to reshape the reality that envelops them. His work reflects a holistic exploration of the arts, using poetry as a starting point to engage with diverse disciplines and mediums, ultimately contributing to a transformative and interconnected creative landscape.

Systemic Type Design

Systemic Type Design is more than designing fonts. A type system is an efficient design tool that helps designers to design. If done well, the act of writing is the act of designing without the need to further layout the text. In this course we will develop an experimental type system that almost automatically generates fantastic design applications.

Martin Lorenz could well have become a chef, comic book artist, or architect, had it not been for an internship at the Müller + Volkmann design studio. Lorenz studied Graphic Design at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague. After working for four years at the Hort studio, he moved to Barcelona to found TwoPoints.Net with Lupi Asensio and completed his Master’s and PhD in Design Research at the University of Barcelona. Lorenz has been teaching at Elisava since 2006 and still enjoys cooking.

Surveillance art, dying phones, and fake likes

In this engaging talk, Dries Depoorter delves into his world of his art, blending the boundaries between technology and creativity. Attendees will be taken on a journey through Depoorter’s recent and upcoming projects, offering insights into the conceptual and technical processes behind his works. Dries will showcase live demonstrations of his art in the form of giving away likes or followers. This lecture offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the projects that have brought him worldwide recognition.

Belgian creative technologist and artist Dries Depoorter, based in Ghent, creates thought-provoking work about technology, surveillance, AI and social media in a playful way that makes people laugh while delivering serious messages in an accessible way. His projects explore digital culture that can inspire marketers: privacy challenges, artificial intelligence applications, surveillance and authentic social media projects.

With his unique background in electronics and digital innovation, Dries has become a voice for forward-thinking brands and marketing professionals looking to navigate today’s complex digital landscape. His artistic approach can directly inspire brands to think differently and develop original marketing concepts that stand out. Through his work, Dries demonstrates how combining creativity with technological insight creates viral moments.

His award-winning “Die With Me” app, accessible only when a user’s phone battery drops below 5%, demonstrates how scarcity and unique user experiences can create powerful engagement. On Black Friday, he doubles the price of his app instead of offering discounts, showing brands how breaking marketing rules can create attention.

In his viral project “The Follower” Dries leverages open cameras and AI to reveal the reality behind curated Instagram moments—offering marketers an unfiltered look at consumer behavior and content creation.

Meanwhile, ”The Flemish Scrollers” uses AI to automatically identify politicians using smartphones during parliamentary sessions, highlighting how technology can create accountability and transparency in public spaces.

Dries has exhibited at prestigious venues including the Barbican in London, Art Basel, Mutek Festival in Montreal,ZKM, Bozar, WIRED and Ars Electronica.

Turning Understanding into Opportunities

This session marks a shift — from exploring and questioning to articulating what we’ve truly understood. After framing your problem, it’s time to bring it all together and show where it leads.

You’ll present your understanding of the problem: the context it lives in, who it affects, and why it matters. But more importantly, you’ll show how it opens space for design — through a clear, grounded “How Might We” statement.

Through peer feedback and shared reflection, you’ll learn to see your own work from new perspectives, to challenge assumptions, and to find strength in diverse viewpoints.

Juli Groshaus is a Business Designer and Design Strategist at Vandals. He is passionate about turning everyday decisions into clear metrics that enable the evaluation of processes, facilitate key conversations, and ensure that strategic decisions are based on an approach that considers people, the business, and the system as a whole.

Vandals is a Strategy Consultancy that turns vision into value by bridging research, design and business to refine direction, shape what matters, and drive momentum. They go beyond building strategies by unlocking bold decisions, sharpening thinking and guiding transformation from insight to action. The goal? To move businesses forward by challenging assumptions, connecting clarity with execution and supporting teams see where they are, where they could go and how to get there.

High-tech problems, obsolete technologies, and low-tech solutions

I studied journalism and worked as a journalist, but nowadays my writing is between journalism, academic writing, and the essay. I love researching and do it very thoroughly. I believe in quality rather than quantity: Low-tech Magazine doesn’t publish often but many articles remain popular for many years. Around 2016 I also started to work with designers and other collaborators to make objects that reflect the approach of the magazine: finding inspiration in the past and trying to steer technological development into a different direction. I believe in the power of community: building things together, combining different skills.

How do you Design Atmosphere?

Can you imagine a place, the feeling of being inside it? The smell, the temperature, the tension or the calm that holds the air together? Maybe it reminds you of somewhere you’ve been before. Maybe you want to stay, or maybe you never want to feel that way again.

A brand narrative in practice is often a collection of words and fragments, an amorphous vision that’s meant to be felt, not easily read or summarized. When we speak about building a “vibe,” we’re really talking about arranging all the elements inside a fictional room to create a specific mood.

But which kind of atmosphere do you want to create?

A tightly defined one, something perfectly controlled, can feel precise, or it can feel alienating. Sometimes, the most interesting spaces are those that hold tension: that make you question, linger, think. In other cases, the atmosphere invites comfort; it feels familiar, like something that could be ours.

In this session, we will explore the different corners from which you can start building an atmosphere, and how using it as a mindset can help you create interesting and complex worlds people want to be in.

I describe myself best by admitting that I’m curious, have a questionable sense of humor, struggle to keep my attention for long, and have an obsession with getting obsessed. I’m drawn to contradictions and often find myself most comfortable in the in-betweens.

My fascination with images led me to become a graphic designer, while my tendency to question everything pushed me toward strategic thinking. Balancing these two energies has allowed me to collaborate on unique projects with studios, brands, and individuals alike.
Previously I’ve worked for brands like: Nomad Coffee, Pull&Bear, Adidas, Bershka, Amazon Music Es, Estrella Galicia, ELISAVA, TOUS, VICIO. And collaborated with: Querida, ESCOLA, Mañana, Socis Club, Gallery Studios, Folch Studio.

Today (16/10/25) (16:05) CENTRO is a fictional strategy and creative consultancy practice run by Nicolás Cevallos. We offer tailor-made solutions for projects that need a balance between strategic thinking and creative vision, turning insights into ideas.

We’re interested in understanding the relationship between people and commerce. We study the future of culture and its imminent cannibalization. We care about art. We build relationships with individuals, collectives, and brands, and develop strategies for survival in a sea of sameness and boredom.

Architecting creative work
This masterclass explores how a project evolves from being just a good idea into a proposal with direction, coherence, and purpose. Through practical frameworks and exercises, you’ll gain a method you can actually use, adapt, and make your own to transform scattered ideas into living systems . The kind of work that doesn’t just look good, but feels coherent, soulful, and capable of having the impact you envisioned.

Clara Rodés is Head of Strategy at Codea, where she bridges strategy and creative direction to help brands and institutions build work with intent. Based in Barcelona, she also teaches at Elisava University, helping students think critically about their work and connect strategic thinking with creative systems that live meaningfully in culture.

Codea is a creative company specialising in creative direction, design, and production.
Based between Barcelona and London, we work at the intersection of concept and craft, merging creative direction, design, and high-end production across film and photo into a single, cohesive process. Our work identifies conventions to defy them, delivering work that hits hard while looking sharp. We believe traditional advertising is obsolete; no one wants to be interrupted by soulless messaging. It’s been said our work reflects the pulse of culture, we like to say we take our own jokes seriously.