timeless, classic typography provides a formal counterbalance: arranged in a modern way and fragmented in an unconventional manner in places—as a design counterpart to the tension between structure and dissolution.
having had full creative freedom with these, they represent my exploration in style and technique over the years. while some of them
have a 3D object as their main focus, some play with bold and experimental typographic layouts.
i was asked to work on two posters for them, exploring the themes of “kaleidoscope” and “lucid dreams”.
for the kaleidoscope one it was a no-brainer to me to create symmetrical visuals resembling the reflections of the optical instrument. the challenge here was to make it recognizable without resorting to worn out mandala-esque visuals. the solution was sticking to one colour and creating a contrast with modern typography.
for the lucid dreams poster they requested a magical forest, which i manipulated to look more abstract, like a fever dream, and combined with wavy 3D handlettering.
they have been quite the success since starting two years ago, attracting queers from around the whole ruhr area, and i feel honoured to have been asked to work on their posters from the beginning.
as you can see, the brief looked quite different each time, yet conveying a similar vibe.
their mother organisation being urbane liga in berlin, they branched out in 2022 to start similar projects in the ruhr area – an industrial area in the west of germany consisting of a lot of bigger and smaller cities very close to each other.
these posters were part of a kick-off workshop lasting several days, bringing together people from different initiatives in the region.
the area’s official slogan is “city of cities”, which for this campaign I changed to “citymakers of cities”. the challenge here was to make all of the relevant information digestable and incorporate it into a visually appealing, modern layout. the solution was to play with different type sizes and a high contrast between graphically loaded areas and white space.
i wanted to include them as these practices have shaped the way i see graphic design and led me to the style i am at now.