The United Nations declared 2011 the “International Year of Forests”. In response to this the architecture museum and the department of timber construction at the University of Technology in Munich presented an exhibition that dealt with the ecological, technical and design possibilities of this material. The exhibition starts with the forest and reflections on wood as a raw material. Opposite this, five current timber construction projects are presented and their benefits in terms of climate protection are explained. After this 52 selected international examples illustrate new digital finishing methods and illustrate the architectural diversity of modern timber construction: from the low energy house to wide-spanning structure to high-rise buildings. A room made entirely of beech wood completes the exhibition. Rarely encountered in timber construction, this wood is here used most effectively for various building elements that form the floor, ceiling and wall, employing a variety of surface finishes. The chief protagonists are the models of timber buildings made with acribic precision by students from the architecture faculty at the TU Munich (department of timber construction). The stands for the models presented are uniform, delicate frames made of spruce. The information is presented in the form of short texts, plans, photographs or videos on 120-centimetre-wide strips of silk paper extending the height of the room. The unbleached, naturally brown lengths of paper surround the huge rooms and give the exhibition a rhythm. Dates and facts are transformed into impressive explanatory graphics. For example: the amounts of different kinds of wood are translated into a 20-metre long bar diagram that uses pieces of the various woods. An 80-year old spruce tree – from the rootstock to the tree top – lies in the middle of the exhibition space as a scenographic intervention. The 40-metre-long trunk is freed from branches, some of the bark is removed, and it is divided into individual sections with increasingly fine longitudinal cuts. The top of the trunk points towards a 5x5 metre patchwork made up of different wood-based materials. The link between the tree as a primal form of plant and the technical world of planning and building is also a theme of the exhibition logo. An archetypical house is shaped from the branches of a tree and focuses in semantic terms on the core messages: wood is a sustainable, highly efficient building material and building with wood is active climate protection. In the publication accompanying the exhibition nine well-known experts analyse the ecological significance, technological potential and new aesthetics of this familiar material. Bauen mit Holz – Wege in die Zukunft Architecture museum of the TU Munich in the Pinakothek der Moderne 10.11.2011 – 05.02.2012

The design of the exhibition with sculptural models of the buildings and reduced plan graphics is continued in the truest sense of the word by 8 A1-size “poster tear-off blocks“. Here visitors to the exhibition can help themselves. For each of the projects exhibited an iconographic image is chosen that conveys the atmosphere of the respective building in the most striking way. The strong photographs speak for themselves. The header to each poster clearly classifies the particular building depicted and through pictogram-like representations also refers to the other seven buildings in the exhibition.

For the Hafengebäude (harbour building) of the City of Bregenz an effective visual screen for 80 bays of full-height glazing was to be developed that would not impair the transparency of the building envelope. The starting point was provided by the need to interrupt the transparency, every 5 x 5 cm in black and white, with bars 2 cm high, for a certain viewing height. The basis for the concept is provided by band of text in the shape of a rhythmical, graphical system of symbols of an abstract binary basic code; instead of 0/1, black and white are used in the form of a boustrophedon cuneiform script. The text, which deals with the theme of glass and transparency and was written especially for this purpose, remains encrypted. Ultimately, what one sees are apparently randomly varied ornaments and a mysterious pattern. Our lives are increasingly determined by a communication system which essentially consists of two symbols and is generally concealed from us. The concept is based on making this system visible and, with it, the rhythmical structure and order of the text. An extract from the text: “ … comparable to the phenomenon when the reflective surface of the lake, fleetingly moved by wind and waves, acquires this fascinating shimmering quality that meditatively captures the eye and at the same time relaxes it…” Below the full deciphered text: In architectural parlance transparency is primarily associated with glass simply because we can look through it. But from outside, during the day and in the sunshine, large areas of glazing in buildings are never completely transparent. Through the reflection of the sunlight, the way the surroundings are mirrored glass buildings or glazed building parts can seem extremely massive, indeed hermetic, and from certain angles even dark and monolithic. From a distance, due to their reflective quality, they are highly noticeable, radiating space as it were, glittering like crystals. The idea of using digital patterns to break up the aggressive mirroring effect of such glass facades makes sense from a number of perspectives and is helpful in both design and functional terms: the ornament defuses the monolithic brilliance of the facades, giving the eye areas on which it can focus, whereas excessive transparency would create a safety problem in using the building. The crystalline surfaces relax in a pattern that introduces a certain grain, a suggestion of texture. A multi-dimensional layer is placed over the essentially mono-dimensional quality of glass, which creates a visual distraction and in semantic terms adds new layers and effects to the simple reflective aspect. In this way the material, whose surface repels everything, both visually and factually, is given a certain depth. The irritating aspect of the external effect is permeated, visually opened up for contrasting characteristics, more complex layers of meaning. Thanks to the printed pattern the architecturally intended transparency, the visual lightness of the building’s external and internal impact are retained, indeed even strengthened, as the reflective effects are limited, defused so to speak. In the harbour building the concern is the effect of lightness, dematerialisation, ultimately also of glass, which can best be achieved by ornamentation. With a pattern of this kind the glass of the building can relax in a pixel effect, comparable to the phenomenon when the reflective surface of the lake, fleetingly moved by wind and waves, acquires this fascinating shimmering quality that meditatively captures the eye and at the same time relaxes it…”

The aesthetic platform of this image is the contrast between traditional and new means of design. The visual elements are the “F”, the colours r-g-b, as well as the Avenir family of fonts designed by Adrian Frutiger. Using printable paints the “F” is applied directly to the offset plate and printed on large sheets in pastels shades of red, green, and blue, one on top of the other. When trimmed to DIN sizes, this produces lithographs with wonderful pictorial compositions. The “F” appears in some form or other in all publications and documents and, as an airy, transparent landscape of colours and forms, creates the background for overprints in black and white. The F form also serves as raw material for visual essays. The complex corporate design program can be developed further by various users in the institution. Without the need for any elaborate form of graphic design monitoring new applications are produced constantly in various programs and systems

To complement its appealing tourism advertising this town was looking for an image for all its communal forms of communication. Visitors to Lech am Arlberg are struck by the contrast between the gentle contours of the elevated valley and the rugged, soaring and plummeting outlines of the powerful mountains. The “Trinité” family of fonts by Bram de Does reflects something of this atmosphere. The standard form of this typeface is slanted slightly in the direction of reading; the individual letters are shaped with a high formal quality. This results in a sovereign and calm type, easy legibility and gracefulness. The special aspect of this Antiqua is the way the family is expanded to include three different ascenders and descenders. The characteristics of the different fonts are shown in a matrix and allocated to the different areas. This typeface is used for the entire correspondence and communication– ranging from letters written by the mayor to minutes of meetings, the community newsletter or public signposting. The municipal coat-of-arms, which is of heraldic origin, is respectfully integrated as a further principal element of the town’s image.

The business “nu” produces both individual high-tech content-management systems as well as standardised software solutions for special users and branches. This “twin track” quality is taken up in the company’s verbal and visual communication and provides the basis for the design. With the name consisting of only two letters and a logo made from just a single form of letter – in one case standing on its feet, in the other on its head – a striking letter ornament is created: two colours, two letters, two directions. Overlaying these repeatedly produces new forms and colours. The “2” thematically addressed in the design also recalls the binary set of characters of the digital world

Cervantes&Co is a small bookshop that also sells Spanish wine and delicacies. The name is borrowed from the Spanish national poet, Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra. The emblem blends the letter “C” and the ligature &, which is derived from Latin word “et”, to form a circular ornament. The opulent culinary figure accompanies the bare, functional name in a series of humorous insertions – as a stamp on packages, as a symbol that seems to fall off the edge of a facade flag, as decoration for a postcard, et cetera.

gbd is a group of businesses in Dornbirn made up of gbd ZT, gbd Fassaden, gbd Mosbacher, and gbd Lab. The areas in which this group works include: structural design, project management, the preparation of expert assessments and specifications as well as technical supervision and consulting. Starting from the logo for the main business, gbd ZT, , variations with certain additions were produced for the partner businesses. Based on the square, new letters are constructed for “gbd”. Borrowing from the idea of the elevation, plan and sketch these are made up of open and closed squares and parts of squares and address various technical aspects such as anchoring, supporting, loading and hovering. These forms produce a dynamism and movement which, however, is restrained again by the static centre, a closed square.

The Walgau region, which lies in the south of Vorarlberg, consists of numerous very small communities. To encourage citizen participation between the communities and to integrate this in the regional planning process a dialogue-oriented image was to be developed. Graphically combining the words “im Walgau” to create a single noun positions and grounds the theme of planning, which is essentially an abstract one and, at least in part, is dominated by experts. The curving line between the points suggests the meandering space, the mountains and valley of the landscapes, and the concept of planning. As communication instruments unusual cartographies, visual documentary standards for the planning process and – in collaboration with author photographer Nikolaus Walter – pictures of the region are made and information pages appear every two weeks in the local newspaper, the Walgaublatt.

The requirement and the strategic goal are to create a basis for the contemporary communication of the city of Bregenz. The first measure is based on organizing an exchange of ideas between the various users of city communication and working out a series of recommendations for coordinated and clearly structured communication work. Based on analyses and graphic design studies an overhaul and modernisation of the city’s existing image seems to be the best approach. Subtle modernization by redesigning an existing trade mark represents a greater design challenge than creating a new one. The changes are intended to give the logo a contemporary formal quality that equips it for the future, while at the same time relating to the old form. The economic background to this decision lies in the advantages of exploiting the existing logo’s familiarity and avoiding the expense of introducing an entirely new symbol. The changes are intended to give the logo a contemporary formal quality that equips it for the future, while at the same time relating to the old form. The economic background to this decision lies in the advantages of exploiting the existing logo’s familiarity and avoiding the expense of introducing an entirely new symbol. The characteristic mirrored word-image trade mark, originally created by Nolde Luger, is deliberately retained. The necessary contrast between light and dark is achieved by using two different typefaces: a modern and striking Grotesque and a delicate, playful Antiqua. This effectively develops the logo into a flexible logotype with the appropriate visual impact. The modernized logotype is part of the city’s newly created corporate design program, which is defined and designed in further stages. An entire series of variations on the new image is created for application in very different areas and is documented in a comprehensive corporate design manual. The concept provides design proposals for basic printed and advertising material for the various departments, facilities and institutions of the city of Bregenz.