Events are an integral part of the master programs: from workshops with guests professors to lectures series with relevant practitioners.
Wed, Mar 11, 2026
Masterclass
María Fabuel, Pedro Lipovetzky & Elisenda Muns, Gracias Grecia
Beyond walls: The renaissance of exhibition environments
Only for MVD students
Beyond walls: The renaissance of exhibition environments
What do a Balenciaga runway show, an MWC stand, and the latest Miró exhibition have in common? More than it might seem. Each of them tells a story through the design of an experience. Through historical and contemporary case studies and references, we will explore exhibition design as an expanding field that moves beyond the museum space. Through scenography, lighting, sound, and technology, stories are transformed into immersive experiences that are navigated, shared, and felt.
© Eva Carasol
At Gracias Grecia, we understand the exhibition environment as a space for encounter: emotional — through art, design, scenography, lighting, and participation — and intellectual, connected to content, knowledge, and debate. We are interested in that intersection between experience and thought, between collective expression and critical positioning. This is where our skills and our way of working converge.
Throughout our trajectory, we have developed projects in diverse formats: from the design of a 2,500 m² museum in Barcelona’s Port Vell to exhibitions at institutions such as CaixaForum and the Triennale di Milano, as well as experimental installations and hybrid formats that combine digital arts, theatre, and exhibition experience.
In a context of information overload, polarization, and constant technological transformation, we need environments where knowledge is not only transmitted, but collectively experienced and questioned. Exhibition design responds to this need by bringing together thought, form, critique, and emotion.
Wed, Mar 11, 2026
Bookworm
Three Contemporary Magazines, 1
Only for MED students
In the current landscape of editorial design, Emergence, Bill, and Inque represent three unique approaches to the magazine as a cultural object. Emergence Magazine, created by Studio Airport, combines narrative and photography in a slow, sensory experience. Bill, edited and designed by Julia Peeters, is a distinctive photography yearbook that proposes a “visual reading” of the articles without the distraction of text. Meanwhile, Inque, spearheaded by Matt Willey, is a literary magazine with impeccable design that invites leisurely reading. Together, these publications demonstrate how contemporary editorial design transcends its informative function to become a physical experience, an ideological stance, and a formal exploration.
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.
Wed, Mar 18, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Kathy Ryan
Backstories
Backstories
Kathy Ryan will choose a handful of photographs that stand out in her mind from the pages of The New York Times Magazine during the 39 years she worked there. She will share the backstory for each picture to give insight into how that image came into being. The photographs will cover a wide range of subject matter including international news, lifestyle stories, and culture coverage.
© Inez and Vinoodh
Ryan will also show and talk about some of the photographs from her Office Romance series that she made during the last decade she worked at The NYTMAG. They are a love poem to her colleagues and a celebration of the radiant light in the Renzo Piano-designed New York Times building.
The longtime director of photography at The New York Times Magazine, Kathy Ryan has been a pioneer of combining fine art photography with photojournalism. She has worked with the world’s best photographers across all genres of photography. She regularly brought new talent into The Magazine’s pages. She left The Times after 39 years to focus on her own artwork, curating exhibitions, teaching a course at Yale, and speaking engagements.
In 2011, Ryan edited The New York Times Magazine Photographs, a landmark book published by Aperture. An accompanying exhibition, curated by Ryan and Lesley Martin opened at the Rencontres d’Arles in 2012, traveled to FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, Palau Robert in Barcelona, Universidad Católica in Santiago and ended its run at the Aperture Gallery in New York City.
Ryan has contributed essays and Q&A’s to books by photographers Lee Friedlander, Christopher Payne, Seydou Keïta, Paolo Pellegrin, Lynsey Addario, Jack Davison and Brian Finke. She was the picture editor of Feeling the Spirit by Chester Higgins.
The Magazine‘s photography and videos have been recognized with numerous awards. Ryan was awarded the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize from the German Photographic Society in September 2025. Ryan was a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Griffin Museum of Photography in 2007; the Royal Photographic Society’s annual award for Outstanding Service to Photography in 2012; the Vision Award at the Center for Photography at Woodstock in 2014; and the Outstanding Contribution to Photography recognition from Creative Review in 2016. Ryan has been recognized as Photo Editor of the Year by the Lucie Awards and Visa Pour l’Image. Ryan won two Emmy’s for videos she produced for The New York Times Magazine’s Great Performers series. Kathy was the International Center of Photography’s Spotlight honoree in 2024.
Office Romance, a book of Ryan’s photographs featuring her colleagues and the beauty and poetry to be found in the radiant light in the New York Times building was published by Aperture in 2014. This work has been exhibited in Europe and the U.S. All of Ryan’s photography is done with the iPhone.
Wed, Mar 18, 2026
Bookworm
Three Contemporary Magazines, 2
Only for MED students
From the perspective of contemporary editorial design, MacGuffin, Science of the Secondary, and Apartamento propose three ways of understanding the magazine as a narrative device and cultural artifact. MacGuffin constructs each issue around an everyday object, developing a constantly evolving visual identity. Similarly, Science of the Secondary explores the material universe of the things that surround us and often go unnoticed. For its part, Apartamento opts for a deliberately informal, approachable, and seemingly spontaneous aesthetic, breaking with the traditional neatness of interior design magazines. These three publications demonstrate how editorial design is capable of articulating an aesthetic and conceptual discourse around material culture.
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.
Wed, Mar 25, 2026
Graphic — Elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Ann Richter, Studio Pandan
BTS: Design Twists
BTS: Design Twists
From the visual identity of the art walk Balade to Mining Photography, glitches, edited magazine covers, and typographic climate crises, we navigate Studio Pandan’s project map. We look beyond final outcomes to the many paths that lead there. Design, for us, is a collaborative practice—within the studio and in close exchange with clients from art, literature, and architecture. Sometimes the first idea holds, but more often the work unfolds through a winding, transformative journey. Together, we’ll follow the twists and turns of this process.
Ann Richter studied visual communication at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Before co-founding Studio Pandan, she worked at international design agencies including Graphic Thought Facility in London and Project Projects in New York City. As a co-founder of the collective A.R. practice, she develops projects at the intersection of design and curatorial work. Alongside running the studio, she regularly lectures and leads workshops at art and design institutions.
© Robert Hamacher
Studio Pandan, founded by Pia Christmann and Ann Richter, is a Berlin-based design studio with a strong eye for detail and an imaginative outlook. We create visual identities across print and digital media, as well as publications and websites, shaped by careful research, playful sensitivity, and conceptual clarity. Since our beginnings in 2015, typography has been our core tool. Actively engaged in contemporary culture, we are especially interested in socially relevant and sustainable projects, seeing design as both a responsibility and a catalyst for change.
Wed, Apr 8, 2026
Graphic — Elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Bart de Baets
Paperclips
Paperclips
In his lecture, graphic designer Bart de Baets will show a large variety of works and elaborate more on the ways they find their form and are realized eventually. Although Bart’s practice is mostly spent working at the studio in Amsterdam, it is alternated by a parttime teaching position at the Royal Academy in The Hague, where he works with the first year students and the ones graduating. The way he teaches and cooks up his assignments is inspired by transforming everyday observations (at times obsessions) into educational exercises. The students are triggered to think of formal executions that evoke solutions close to Bart’s own practice visualizing abilities and editorial voice.
Although appearing less frequently today, Bart’s body of work’s been known to feature self initiated publications, such as Success and Uncertainty (together with Sandra Kassenaar), Dark and Stormy (together with Rustan Söderling), and Tabrat, a zine from 2022 in which de Baets confesses to be a tab hoarder (phone only, the browser tabs on his laptop are opened briefly and closed again efficiently) and shares them here with us in the charming A4-sized publication. His editorial assets have not been forlorn, and are frequently demonstrated more so in his collaborative works for artbook shop Page Not Found and exhibition space Nest (both are located in the city of The Hague). The talk at Elisava will prominently feature all of these works—and more—and provide insights into the developments of these designs by showing sketches, references and many inspirations.
Graphic designer Bart de Baets (1979, Knokke, BE) is based in Amsterdam. His design for the Sandberg Institute’s temporary master programme The Radical Cut Up was nominated for a Dutch Design Award. As a result, PostNL commissioned De Baets to design a series of stamps titled ‘Talk to the Hand’. With Sandra Kassenaar he designed the exhibition, campaign and catalogue for ‘Circulate’, an exhibition on photographic art acquisitions at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The two also design the graphic identity of Kunstmuseum Bochum. He designed ‘On the Necessity of Gardening: An ABC of Art, Botany and Cultivation’ (2021), which was published parallel to ‘The Botanical Revolution’, an exhibition at the Centraal Museum, Utrecht. That year, the Stiftung Buchkunst awarded the book with the highest prize in the category Best Book Design from all over the World. A second title in that series, Mothering Myths, an ABC of Art, Birth and Care was released in May of 2025, for which he collaborated once again with editors Laurie Cluitmans and Heske ten Cate. He holds a part-time teaching position at the Graphic Design department of the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and he has taught at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam for fifteen years.
Being educated by notorious wild collaborator Will Holder, the radical typographic thinkers of Experimental Jetset and conceptual makers like Linda van Deursen, triggered Bart de Baets to think like an editor early in his graphic design studies, making zines with and for his peers, or whipping up catchy writings to go with his posters and projects. His design skills were fed ferociously when working with Maureen Mooren and Daniel van der Velden (now Metahaven) whose interest in art inspired him. For them, that always seemed to come first, then design. For the pages of Archis (an architecture magazine–now Volume), the layouts of existing periodical publications were used to give form to the magazine’s content, and Bart was taught to study their characteristics and so became an excellent copycat.
Over the years de Baets’ body of work has developed immensely mostly so by certain significant collaborations. A few early memorable ones have been those with Melanie Bonajo and Frank Koolen, two (then) Amsterdam-based artists not much older than himself and whose practice inspired an idea on which to work together, and which, in a way, kicked off de Baets’ career. The likes of Rustan Söderling and Sandra Kassenaar are of similar influence and remain crucial design partners; both are good friends to this day. Their influence on some self initiated works, such as Dark and Stormy and Success and Uncertainty is essential for de Baets’ current design approach and visual language. Kassenaar and de Baets nowadays share a studio and work together as designers regularly.
His designs are rooted heavily in a kind of conceptual thinking, and his abilities to think along editorially with commissioners has given Bart’s body of work an outspoken character. His work is distinctively playful and seemingly intuitive, giving the impression that the designs could be made quickly or hand-made. Yet, each one of the designs is a carefully put-together composition made according to a bunch of guidelines and often uses typography or visuals referencing things “found” on the street. For years Bart’s been a teacher in graphic design often working with the first year students, introducing them to the job. Surrounded by other designers, skilled coders, letter drawers and colour wizards, his teaching encourages to explore what it’s like to make art and design in today’s environments by demonstrating personal fascinations.
Wed, May 27, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Jonas Janke, b+
Love me one time, two times … x times !
Love me one time, two times … x times !
The lecture is not a conventional showcase of selected projects from our daily practice, but rather aims to provide a broader insight into the network of actors in which b+ (bplus.xyz) operates, how we understand the contemporary way of an architectural practice and scope of work of an architect, and how we approach our projects—in short: who b+ is and how we work, what our values are, and what our understanding of our duties and responsibilities as architects is.
Jonas Janke (DE, 1991) is an architect and partner at bplus.xyz (Berlin). He has a diverse background in architecture, was trained as an architectural draughtsman before pursuing his studies in Hamburg, Stockholm, and Berlin. He gained valuable experience as a tutor and assistant in various departments including design & typologies, building construction, and structural design. He was part of the team 2038, the German Pavilion at 17th Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.
His early teaching experiences include guest studios at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and Politecnico di Milano (Italy). He is regularly invited to give lectures and guest critiques at universities, cultural institutions, and public institutions. His focus is on new ecological construction materials and methods for adaptive reuse and renovation projects, seeking pragmatic and efficient technical and mechanical solutions that use material and construction thoughtfully.
bplus.xyz (b+) is a collaborative architecture practice (led by Arno Brandlhuber, Olaf Grawert, Jonas Janke and Roberta Jurčić) that operates at the intersection of theory and practice, using different media and formats. The practice seeks to engage with the contemporary challenges of our time, particularly those related to the social-ecological transformation of existing buildings, offering economically viable solutions.
b+ understands architecture as an open process, and views buildings as part of larger systems that require a systemic approach. The practice sees the given framework of existing buildings and legislation as an active design tool with the potential for transformation. Thus, b+ celebrates the potential of the existing built environment and aims to reveal and activate the latent potentials within.
b+ emphasizes working with different actors and stakeholders in project development. The practice values their knowledge and expertise and aims to create spaces for exchange and collaboration. b+ seeks to advance a new value system in architecture, one that places greater emphasis on collective responsibility, systemic thinking, and ecologically and economically viable solutions.
The current project in the field of political activism is the European citizens’ initiative HouseEurope! – HouseEurope! wants to create incentives that make renovation the new norm. This will boost the renovation market and give new value to what is already there. The goal is to preserve homes and communities, ensure a fairer and more local building industry, save energy and resources, and preserve our memories and stories.
past events
Wed, Jan 29, 2025
graphic.elisava lectures
6.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Daniel Wenzel, 26A1
Procedural Typography
Procedural Typography Designing programmes and systems for typographic expression.
Exploring the role of tools in the design process and their influence on aesthetics, efficiency, and scalability—from mastering industry standards, learning new tools as part of a project’s problem solving efforts, misusing or making your own tools, to the influence of AI and its assistive potential.
Providing insights into procedural thinking applied to typography and other design disciplines, emphasizing the development of coherent and flexible visual systems and encouraging a methodical yet creative approach to design challenges.
Daniel Wenzel is a German designer and creative technologist based in New York. Specializing in typography and generative processes, he balances at the intersection of art, design, and technology.
He has been part of DIA Studio for seven years and currently operates independently. Throughout his career, he has contributed to projects that utilize procedural thinking for the benefit of coherent systems and technological advancement. He has worked for internationally renowned clients including Apple, Google, Louis Vuitton, MoMA, Nike and The New York Times. His work has been featured in publications and exhibitions worldwide and recognized with awards such as Young Guns 22.
In addition to his professional practice, Daniel teaches at the Pratt Institute and Cooper Union in New York. Previously, he has taught the Master Visual Design, Typography program at ELISAVA in Barcelona, given workshops at HEAD Genève and HS Mainz, and lectured at KABK, Weltformat, TDC Inscript, and the MIT Media Lab, among others.
26A1® is an independent type foundry, established in 2022. Our approach is experimental, expressive and with the intent to challenge conventions.
We strive to create typefaces beyond aesthetics but for functionality and innovation. By leveraging technology, we aim to bridge the gap between classical type design and the possibilities of the future.
Our research is about challenging the boundaries of type design. We are searching for a realm where form follows function, where ambition drives innovation, and where the intersection of art, design, and technology becomes a canvas for positive transformation.
We aim to create software to advance the field of design—tools that streamline the design process or offer new frameworks, that open up new vistas of design possibilities. By making these tools accessible, we intend to empower a broader spectrum of designers to innovate and challenge the status quo. While we are driven to make a direct impact through our own work, we also recognize the exponential potential of equipping others with innovative tools, allowing them to effect change in their own unique ways.
Wed, Jan 29, 2025
graphic.elisava lectures
8 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Serge Rompza, NODE Berlin Oslo
Loose Associations
Loose Associations explores key moments of NODE’s 22-year journey through the people, ideas, and projects that defined it. Using associative connections, the presentation highlights how collaborations and experiences interlink, building on one another to shape a dynamic practice. NODE invites you to discover how everything—and everyone—is interconnected in their creative process.
Serge Rompza graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and co-founded the graphic design studio NODE in 2003 with his Norwegian partner Anders Hofgaard. Operating between Berlin and Oslo, NODE collaborates with clients like OMA, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, MIT (ACT) and Hermès.
Since 2004, Serge has been actively teaching at universities worldwide, fostering a new generation of designers. He has a long-standing connection with Elisava.
NODE is a Berlin- and Oslo-based design studio founded in 2003 by Anders Hofgaard and Serge Rompza. The studio works collaboratively across various media for a diverse range of clients from individuals to institutions, focusing on print, identity, exhibition and interactive work. Besides studio projects, NODE gives lectures and holds workshops at art & design academies.
Nov 20, 2024 → Jan 23, 2025
exhibition
Sala Àgora
Open to the public
NORM, TRIANGULATIONS
Two triangles sharing a side on a given grid
The grid has 4 x 4 coordinate points.
The points are alphabetised from A to P, from left to right, top to bottom.
The grid has 16 points.
The grid allows 120 connections of 2 points.
eg.
A to B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (15)
B to C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (14)
C to D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (13)
etc.
The grid allows 560 connections of 3 points.
eg.
A–B to C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (14)
A–C to D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (13)
A–D to E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (12)
etc.
41 combinations with a surface of zero are removed.
The remaining 519 are all the triangles possible on this grid.
For each of these 519 triangles, all the triangles they share a side with are added.
eg.
For the triangle A–B–C (for the sides containing A): A–B–C and A–B–C
side A–B to A–B to C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (14)
side A–C to A–C to C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P (14)
Combinations containing a surface of zero are removed.
Initial triangles and added triangles are distinguished by color, colors do overprint.
Triangles sharing three sides, are part of triangles sharing one side.
These appear twice in a visually identical form, one of them is removed.
There are 12,981 combinations of 2 triangles, sharing 1 side, on a grid of 4 by 4 points.
In geometry, a triangulation is the division of a shape into triangles. In psychology, it is the practice of one person introducing a third person into their relationship in order to maintain control. We may be closer to the second point, though we are introducing a second triangle in order to lose control. It is a simple arrangement, the interaction of the two triangles creates instantly shapes of great dynamism that mock the basic right-angled system. All combinations are similar, all combinations are different, all beautiful and perfect in their complex simplicity and graphic clarity. It was impossible to resist to see them all.
Wed, Jan 22, 2025
showcase
David Vera, Vera Tamayo
Suburban Design
Only for MVD students
In this showcase I will review my career and that of Vera Tamayo, explaining how my partner Daniel Tamayo and I met and how, project after project, we defined our way of understanding design and the evolution of the creative process of our studio over the years. I will also talk about Monthly, the project that helps us communicate and define the character of the studio through its visual imagery. Finally, I will explain in depth some of our most representative projects, ranging from editorial design to brand identities and campaigns.
David Vera I was born in 1991 in Barberà del Vallès, a suburban city where also I grew up. From there I started to build my visual imaginary, ranging from Streetsharks, to Blade Runner, through Denis Rodman, Camarón de la Isla or Jean Paul Gaultier. In 2014 I graduated as a graphic designer at ESDI (Ramon Llull) and in 2019 I co-founded the Vera Tamayo design studio, of which I am now Creative Director. I have always enjoyed communication and I try to discover it in everyday conversations, but also writing, teaching, designing, boxing, in therapy and also in meditation. Since 2021 I also teach at ESDI (Ramon Llull). I love Northern Exposure.
Vera Tamayo is a graphic design studio based in Barcelona, founded in 2019 by Daniel Tamayo and me. The studio specializes in timeless design that adapts to the unique character of each brand. Our main goal is to ensure clients feel confident and deeply connected to the proposals. To achieve this, our team works closely with clients to find differential concepts that define the brand and create coherent discourses that give meaning to form.
Wed, Jan 22, 2025
bookworm
Joost Grootens books
Only for MED students
Joost Grootens is a Dutch graphic designer known for his innovative approach to book design, especially in the field of atlases and reference works. His publications are characterised by an ability to present complex information in an accessible and visually appealing way, promoting the idea that design should serve content and not compete with it. He uses infographics, graphs and maps to simplify and organise large amounts of data aimed primarily at scientific and academic audiences, providing them with an intuitive visual navigation that allows them to explore the book in a non-linear way. We will see several examples of his work that demonstrate that such books can be functional and beautiful at the same time. Grootens knows how to find beauty in information and poetry in data.
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.
Wed, Jan 15, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Llisa Demetrios, Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
What can we learn from Ray & Charles Eames that might apply to the challenges we face today?
What can we learn from Ray & Charles Eames that might apply to the challenges we face today?
Ray & Charles Eames demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all. What can we as designers and creatives learn from the Eameses that might apply to the challenges we face today?
Llisa Demetrios is the youngest granddaughter of iconic designers Charles & Ray Eames. She began her archiving career at the Mies van der Rohe Archive at MoMA in New York, and has since dedicated herself to extending her grandparents’ most important gifts to the world: their infinite curiosity and iterative design process. Her personal mission is to equip everyone with lessons of Charles & Ray so that anyone can use design to solve problems at all scales. Today, as Chief Curator at the Eames Institute, Llisa continues to share learnings from her legacy through exhibitions, events, and public tours at the new public space in Richmond.
Llisa Demetrios has spent decades caring for the Eames Collection and curating the Eames Ranch, initially alongside her mother, Lucia Eames, and now as Chief Curator alongside the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity team. Llisa loves welcoming guests, be they Eames aficionados or people entirely unfamiliar with design. Before the advent of the Institute, Llisa facilitated loans for “The World of Charles & Ray Eames” exhibition that started at the Barbican Centre in England in 2015 and continued to Sweden, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Michigan, and the Oakland Museum of California in February 2019. She is also a founding and current member of the Eames Foundation Board of Directors, which oversees the historic Eames House in Los Angeles, and also a shareholder of the Eames Office.
Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity
The overarching goal of the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity is to unpack the way that Ray & Charles Eames worked, the way they infused their designs and lives with curiosity and discovery at every turn to solve problems at any scale. “We don’t do ‘art’ – we solve problems,” said Charles. Then he added “How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?” They demonstrated—time and time again—design’s unique ability to address disparate clients’ needs, while finding ways to improve quality of life for all.
Being able to share the legacy of Ray and Charles in this way, to showcase their incredible process and wide-angled vision of design, is the dream of a lifetime. Their boundless curiosity and relentless pursuit of solving problems in furniture, film, exhibits, architecture, and textiles is in the name of the Institute. The Institute aspires to be a home for curious problem-solvers, both on-line and on-land. I hope the Institute’s efforts will help people find inspiration for solving problems in their own world.
Wed, Dec 18, 2024
graphic.elisava lectures
7:30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Laurenz Brunner, Source Type
In 2022 Brunner launched Source Type, a platform for typographic research and visual literacy. Through Source Type he has published Rapid (2022), Karl (2022), and Reform (2023). Additionally he is a member of the Swiss type foundry Lineto where he published Akkurat (2004), Circular (2014) and Bradford (2018).
Brunner previously taught graphic design at the Rietveld Academie and has been a guest critic at Yale School of Arts, US; Werkplaats Typografie, NL and ECAL, CH. He has twice received the Swiss Federal Design Award (2006, 2012), as well as several distinctions from The Most Beautiful Swiss Books, The Best Dutch Book Designs and The Best Books from all over the World.
Wed, Nov 27, 2024
bookworm
Nest magazine
Only for MED students
Published between 1997 and 2004, Nest revolutionised the approach to interior design and decoration with its innovative and unconventional approach. The magazine focused on interiors that told personal stories and explored the concept of ‘home’ in creative and sometimes quirky ways. Its pages included a variety of contexts that provided insight into a wide range of lifestyles and how a person’s environment reflects their identity. It pioneered the use of unconventional printing and graphic design techniques including the use of different paper textures, unusual inserts, cut-outs and unique formats that transformed the experience of reading the magazine into something interactive. Ironic and sophisticated, Nest challenged the notion of good taste prevalent in standard decorating magazines.
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.
Fri, nov 22, 2024
workshop
Alberto Feijóo
Club Collage
Only for MED students
A “club” is a physical place where people share interests, experiences and stories about a territory and/or reality. The Club Collage is a collective experience in which we ask ourselves how we live and interpret the images that surround us daily, making collages using images from my archive. Thinking of a participatory proposal, my intention with this workshop/club is to put in common my creative process, adapting a role of mediator of a work made by multiple hands. In this case, the students made a series of pieces taking as a starting point the geometric shapes of traffic signs together with common elements of diverse urban spaces.
Alberto Feijóo (Alicante, 1985) is a collector, accumulator, apprentice and visual artist interested in the field of photography and its relationship with other disciplines such as collage, installation or design.
He holds a degree in Communication from the University of Alicante in 2009 and a postgraduate degree in Contemporary Photography; Practices and Philosophies from the University of Arts London.
His work has been exhibited individually at the IVAM (Centro Julio González) in Valencia, Sala Kursala of the University of Cadiz and in the galleries Luis Adelantado and Punto in Valencia.
He has also participated in group exhibitions at Centro Conde Duque Madrid, LABoral Centro de Arte de Gijón, Centro Cívico Can Felipa in Barcelona, Sala Canal de Isabel II in Madrid, Sala de Arte Joven Comunidad de Madrid, ARCO 23, Fotomuseum Winterthur or The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
As a teacher he has conducted workshops and educational activities in IVAM Valencia, CCCC Valencia, Tate Modern in London, among others.
In 2021 he started the project “Club Collage” in multiple environments such as museums, galleries, prisons or schools.
Wed, Nov 20, 2024
graphic.elisava lectures
7.30 pm — Sala Aleix Carrió
Open to the public
Dimitri Bruni & Manuel Krebs, NORM
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
NORM discusses their installation TRIANGULATION (on view in the Elisava project space) and places it in the context of their book trilogy ‘NORM: Introduction, The Things, Dimension of Two.’
Further on, NORM will talk about: their love-hate relationship with digital tools, the tension between intuition and combinatorics, the struggle for a common visual language, the ongoing seduction of fonts, the end of grid systems, good and bad and ugly commissions, the value of printed matter and the poetry of precision.
© Jason Klimatsas
Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs studied graphic design at the School of Applied Arts in Biel-Bienne. They established the graphic design studio NORM in Zurich in 1999. In 2005 Ludovic Varone joined the studio. They are based in Zurich.
NORM focuses on designing and publishing books and typefaces. Book design includes self-commissioned research in the field of type and graphic design, the most relevant being ‘Norm: Dimension of Two’ (2020), ‘NORM: The Things’ (2002), and ‘Norm: Introduction’ (2000). Commissions include collaborations with galleries, museums (MoMA, Tate Modern; Louvre; Centre Pompidou; Museum for Gestaltung Zurich), and artists (Arthur Jafa, Fischli & Weiss, Shirana Shahbazi, Simon Starling).
Examples of typedesign include the ‘Simple’ typeface for Cologne/Bonn airport, the corporate typeface for Omega watches, the typeface ‘Replica,’ the corporate typeface for Swatch, and the recent typeface ‘Riforma’ and ‘Riforma-Mono’ (2018, 2024).
In 2020, NORM presented the solo exhibition ‘It’s not complicated’ at the Museum of Design in Zurich, in 2024, ‘Disorder is more probable than order’ at Grafill, Oslo.
Wed, Nov 13, 2024
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Yosuke Ushigome, Normally
Making data speak human
Making data speak human
Designers across domains must increasingly engage with data. With the rise of AI, there is an opportunity to humanise data in innovative ways. In this presentation, I will introduce recent projects that explore these possibilities, ranging from an experimental tool translating energy forecasts into proverbs, to an internal application enhancing organisational efficiency. To bridge technology and human experience and decision making, data needs to speak human.
Yosuke Ushigome (yoh-skay oo-shee-goh-meh) is a London-based designer/technologist, currently working for Normally as Lead Interaction Designer. He works across disciplines with a focus on interaction design, digital prototyping, and futures research. For over 10 years, he has been involved in various R&D and visioning projects with organisations worldwide such as the NHS, Hitachi and Swarovski. He also writes about more equitable and sustainable ways we interact with technology on design publications such as Core77 and ICON magazine.
Normally unlocks the transformative potential of AI for clients, including IKEA, Google, Panasonic, and the NHS. We have a decade of experience at the intersection of human-centred design and AI engineering, applying AI to enhance operational efficiency and growth, and deliver innovative AI-enabled products and services
Wed, Nov 6, 2024
showcase
Joan Alvares, Putos Modernos
“Spam para hoy, hambre para mañana”.
Only for MDV students
Advertising annoys. Advertising interrupts. Because advertising is, in the end, the price a brand pays for not having a memorable product. Through humor, the shortest way between two people, and a recognizable graphic style based on text and sobriety, PutosModernos converts the commercial message into content that people choose to see and, on many occasions, share. In this session, entitled “Spam for today: hunger for tomorrow” Joan will explain his vision of communication through a selection of commercial projects, reflections and learnings, accompanied with the history of the evolution of the brand, the construction of an audience of its own in the digital environment and some anecdotes of its successes and failures.
Joan Alvares
Journalist by training, publicist by profession and copywriter by obligation, Joan Alvares (Sabadell, 1983) is a copywriter and creative director. In 2009 he founded Poko, an independent creative agency with which he worked for clients such as Nike, Artfutura, Ray-Ban, Persol, Garmin, Trident or Warner Bross. He is currently partner and creative director of PutosModernos.
In advertising he has directed campaigns for Converse, Lacoste, Beefeater, Nike, FC Barcelona, Cabify, Roxy, Damm, Pepsi, Absolut, Red Hat, Torres, Imagin, Pompeii, Deutsche Bank, Malpaso Ediciones, Penguin Random House, Mobile World Capital, Teatro de la Maestranza, Spotify, Danone, Skate Agora, Arrels, Motorola or the Generalitat de Catalunya, among others. His work has been distinguished with 4 Laus Awards (ADG-FAD), with the Graffica 2021 Award, with the recognition of Creative of the Year (Agripina) or at the International Advertising Festival Cannes Lions. In 2023 Forbes included him in the list of the 100 Most Influential Creatives in the business world. He has been a professor at Istituto Europeo di Design, University of Westminster (London) or Elisava-UPF (Barcelona) and speaker at national and international festivals.
Putos Modernos is a self-parody of modernity to itself. And what is modernity? Modernity is running stressed out to your mindfulness class, searching for cheap flights from an expensive cell phone or combining down and ankles in the air. Modernity is you, modernity is all of us. With a community that today exceeds half a million followers in networks, PutosModernos creates content, products and advertising campaigns for brands and people willing to laugh at themselves. Among other milestones, PutosModernos has represented Spain at the International Poster Biennial, held in Santa Cruz (Bolivia), and has released its own series on Filmin (2023).
Some media have defined PutosModernos as “the art of making the simple viral” (Emprendedores magazine), “a form of post-postureo” (La Vanguardia), “daily doses of fine irony” (El Español), “reality without filters or autotune” (El País) or “the closest thing to a modern advertising agency”, according to Toni Segarra.
