A Body of Work

 

Honourable Mention by the International Jury of the 26th Brno Biennial 2014

A Body of Work starts from the extensive collection acquired by the Brno Biennial over the years – or, to be more precise, from the illustrations representing those objects in the catalogues that have documented each biennial. Browsing through this material, it appears somehow flattened; serial; out of context and with its origins obscured – in a way equivalent to images on an instagram account or a tumblr page – yet the details of the designs still speak to us. That friction between the flat and vivid is fascinating. But what do these decisive details reveal of the origin in a thinking process? We decided to use the details to begin an examination of our own respective practices, clashing the material from the biennial’s archive with our own work, ultimately asking questions about the kind of decisions we make as designers: on a formal level; on a conceptual level, and in response to the social, cultural, economical and technological conditions of our times.

Conceived by Goda Budvytytė (LT)Goda Budvytytė is a Lithuanian graphic designer, currently running her practice between Amsterdam, Brussels and, occasionally, other cities. She graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie (Amsterdam, NL) in 2008 and the following year became a participant at Werkplaats Typografie where she concluded with her Master degree in 2011. She works in a wide range of formats within the cultural field, exploring how different types of content can be translated into books, publications, identities, exhibition designs and other legible narratives. She develops her projects in close collaboration with artists, curators, photographers, architects, and fellow designers, often being involved with editorial design., Ines Cox (BE)Ines Cox is an independent, Antwerp-based, graphic design studio founded in 2014. She graduated at Luca School of Arts (Ghent) in 2009 and received a second master’s degree from the Werkplaats Typografie (The Netherlands) in 2011. Around 2010 she founded the studio Cox & Grusenmeyer, with Lauren Grusenmeyer. After 5 years of working together Ines Cox started her individual practice. Cox’s experience comes from a wide variety of projects including publication and book design, exhibition design, brand identities, web design, installations, teaching and workshops. Clients range from independent artists and galleries to brands, schools and museums. In 2014 she started teaching typography at the Royal Academy of Antwerp., Anna Haas (CH)Anna Haas works as freelance graphic designer and illustrator in Zurich. After graduating from HSLU in 2007 she worked as a freelance illustrator in Berlin. From 2009 to 2011 she was a participant at Werkplaats Typografie and received her Master in 2011. Having worked in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, in 2011 she chose Zurich to set up her studio. Since then she works in a wide range of cultural fields, with a specific focus on book design and editorial illustration. Since 2014 she has taught at Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts (HSLU), department of visual communication. and Corina Neuenschwander (CH)Corina Neuenschwander is a graphic designer based in Zurich where in 2014 she and Simone Koller founded the graphic design practice Studio NOI. After graduating from Zurich University of the Arts in 2006 she has worked from 2007–2009 as a senior designer for the studio Value & Service in London and as an independent graphic designer in London, Amsterdam and New York. From 2010–2012 she was a participant at Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem where she has concluded her Master degree. Corina Neuenschwander’s work ranges from editorial design to visual identities, digital applications and exhibition design in the fields of art, culture and commerce. Her work was awarded twice with the Swiss Design Award, she was nominated for INFORM: Award for Conceptual Design and shortlisted for the Walter Tiemann Award.

As part of the International Exhibition: Student Work the International Jury of the 26th Brno Biennial 2014 awarded an Honourable Mention to the Dutch school of graphic design Werkplaats Typografie for works by four of its graduates. Goda Budvytytė, Ines Cox, Anna Haas and Corina Neuenschwander were invited to prepare an exhibition for the 27th Brno Biennial which will reflect their subjective view of contemporary graphic design, and the starting point of which will be the extensive set of acquisitions, gathered from the very beginning of the Brno Biennial in the 1960s for the graphic design collection of the Moravian Gallery in Brno.

This exhibition was commissioned in the form of an assignment, given by the curators of the 27th Brno Biennial.
 This exhibition is supported by Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Prague