A5/06: HfG Ulm School Of Design, Germany: The Most Important Design College Of The 20th Century
+ Graphic & Editorial Design
Jens Müller (ed.)
Project Brief
For this project I was assigned by my tutor Paul Crawley to design an 84 page, A5 perfect bound book for a new range of books from Lars Müller publishers. The book needed to consider and help define a new editorial system for the publisher that could be implemented over a range of different titles.
I was required to make an editorial plan that included: spread schematics, identify structure through sections and employ the use of a contemporary typographic hierarchy to form the basis of the document. I then had to define a rationale, implement a limited colour palette and ensure that the layout was sympathetic to the subject matter of the book. The text and visual content for the book was allowed to be sourced electronically or physically but had to be credited within the designed document.
Below you will find the rest of the final outcome book which I titled 'Ulm School Of Design, Germany: The Most Important Design College Of The 20th Century', but to be clear, all of the photographs and text featured in the below book are copyright to the HfG archiv and any relevant authors or contributors. This publication had been designed for completely academic and non-profit purposes. All rights reserved to Lars Müller publishers, Steven Heller the HfG Ulm and the HfG archiv.
For myself, I chose to recreate the Jens Mullers Ulm A5/06: HfG Ulm publication, fortunately I also owned a copy of this rare title which I used as one of my primary reference points for my re-design. However, I wanted to expand upon what was already created to produce a book which celebrated the culture, philosophy and link it back to the famous designs that were produced from HfG Ulm (the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm/Ulm School of Design), to demonstrate the legacy and impact the school had on the rest of the world from there on. I re-created the book so that it was in English only as the majority of young designers seem to be oblivious to the design school.
The final outcome was a publication that was perfect bound with a front cover that displayed Max Bill teaching students at the design school. An orange, black and white theme and the Akzidenz Grotesk typeface was used and a grid inspired from the Grid Systems book by Joseph Müller-Brockmann was implemented, all in aid of the editorial system.
I had the opportunity to personally travel out to Ulm, Germany and visit the design school in person. There I was able to buy some photographic postcards of the school which I scanned and then inserted into the book. Below you will see the 'bench' popularised by HfG that was designed by Max Bill. The design for the bench was versatile and implemented for variety purposes in the HfG Ulm workshops.
Steven Heller's 'The Genius That Was Ulm' article from 2012 was included into this book too.
Otl Aicher's 1972 Summer, Munich Olympics and Lufthansa's brand identities were carefully integrated into the background of this spread
All in all, I was pleased with the final outcome of this project and thankful to my tutor for introducing me to this rather unknown, unassuming yet impactful design school.
Not only did I learn about HfG Ulm itself but about the professors that had taught there such as Inge Aicher-Scholl, Otl Aicher and Max Bill .
I learnt about Braun and Dieter Rams involvement with HfG Ulm and how it informed a lot of their designs which then led to an inspiration of the designs found at Apple Inc today.
The icing on the cake for this project was receiving a distinction for it and when displaying the book on an Instagram post for my end of year project at Canterbury College, Lars Müller publishers themselves gave myself a like in appreciation of the project, as well as the HfG Archive for another yet similar post too.
Thank you for taking a look at my project.
You can visit and view more of my personal work www.jakparanta.com or go to my company site at www.thirtysevenstudios.co.uk for further information and for any editorial design or business enquiries.
