Wim Westerveld

Students: Dora Petrova, Robiert Luque, Lorenz Fidel Huchthausen, Sefa Pala, Christopher Schmidt, Emile Toledo, Armand Acea, Ugur Zeynep Keskin, Luka Kueter, Madalina Nita

Alongside architecture, graphic design plays a crucial role in shaping the way in which a city can appeal to us (or fail to do so). When we first arrive in a new city, we gain our first impressions from the respective airport, railway station, or streets the greet us – as well as through the websites we visit to obtain information about navigating this new space. Each city represents a hybrid semiotic cosmos with its own official visual language as well as signs and messages that appear in given situations, sometimes on a merely temporary basis. Who defines the voice with which a city “speaks” to its visitors and inhabitants? What characters, colors, and fonts are used to shape this speech? Can a city such as Berlin be said to possess a unique visual identity that reflects the mentalities and cultures of the inhabitants? For this semester project, the students created alternative concepts for the city’s identity and developed posters for the Berlin Senate Administration for Education, Youth, and Family.