Graduate Directory 2020: Visual Communication

Micah Barrett Yale School of Art, US

Barrett’s variable font experiments explore text’s relationship to imagery, in an attempt ‘to infuse graphic design’s legacy of “text as image” into a contemporary digital environment’.

Hugo Dumont and Anthony Vernerey ENSAD, France

The French duo devoted their joint project to the world of Instagram, using graphic design to imagine alternative futures. ‘We questioned the fact that this social network could create a fake world where appearance takes over from content.’

Aurelia Peter Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland

‘My interest in ritual masks was the starting point of this project,’ says Peter of her work, Through the Mask, which embraces graphic and textile design. It includes a scarf that is designed to swathe and conceal or open up the wearer to the world in a ‘graphic transition’.

Maximilian Haslauer ABK Stuttgart, Germany

Haslauer’s vibrant poster designs splice the aesthetics and sensibilities of pop and jazz using only typography. ‘Niklaus Troxler is definitely an inspiration; he taught at ABK and is the number one poster designer when you think about jazz,’ he says.

Sapir Ziv Central Saint Martins, UK

Ziv’s ‘Dynamic Grid’ uses random forms to change typography and layouts. ‘I was prompted to think about systems to manipulate and defamiliarise existing letterforms.’ Ziv’s 26 booklets take you through the alphabet, with each letter altered by a machine-generated code.

Dávid Molnár ÉCAL, Switzerland

Molnár’s typographic work explores an early family of serif typefaces named Didot, after French printer and type pioneer Firmin Didot. Molnár’s own take on Didot reinterprets the history for modern mediums and needs.

Tania Alvarez Zaldivar Yale School of Art, US

Focusing on the Japanese philosopher Kitarō Nishida’s aesthetics of nothingness, this compilation includes texts by the likes of Kengo Kuma and Richard Neutra. Alvarez Zaldivar illustrated the essays with dense drawings of interpolated lines that evolve through the book.

Vitek Skop UMPRUM, Czech Republic

Written, illustrated and typeset by Skop, Madame Monsieur is a limited-edition novella set in Lyon and focusing on the ‘changing roles of men and women in society’. The Czech designer, who has owed text around the bold graphic illustrations, ‘wanted to create a graphic novel’.

Laura Csocsan Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Hungary

Csocsan describes Zorn as ‘a typeface that I had not planned to design’. The letterforms were shaped by the desire to capture the dynamic feel and contrast of sketches. ‘The contrast is not always consistent, so the letters have this somewhat odd feel to them,’ she says.