Short portrait

Fons Hickmann studied Photography, Communication Design and Media Theory in Dusseldorf and Wuppertal. He directs the studio 'Fons Hickmann m23' in Berlin, which is among the most awarded studios worldwide. Emphasis is placed on the development of complex communication systems and corporate design as well as book, poster, magazine and web design.

In 2001 Fons Hickmann m23 won the renowned competition for the corporate design of the 'Kieler Woche', followed by 200 more design awards. His works have been represented at every international design biennial. Hickmann was full professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna before taking over the professorship in Graphic Design / Communication Design at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2007. Previous to this, he taught at the Universities of Essen and Dortmund, and gave lectures and seminars in, among other places, Istanbul, Ljubljana, London, Beijing and Shanghai. He is an appointed member of the TDC Type Directors Club of New York and of the AGI Alliance Graphique Internationale as well as a board member of the Designlabor Bremerhaven.

In 2006 the campaign '11 Designers for Germany' which he collaboratively initiated with a group of colleagues gained huge media coverage and successfully broadened public awareness for graphic design issues.

In 2008 Fons Hickmann and his studio were invited to exhibit at the opening of the world’s first 'Graphic Design Museum', in Breda in the Netherlands. The exhibition 'European Championship of Graphic Design' was inaugurated by the Dutch Queen Beatrix on June 11, 2008.

Current publications by Fons Hickmann include 'Touch Me There' (Gestalten Verlag) and 'Beyond Graphic Design – Klasse Fons Hickmann'(Verlag Hermann Schmidt).

Berlin University of the Arts

Graphic Design / Communication Design Class
Prof. Fons Hickmann
Grunewaldstraße 2-5
10823 Berlin
Germany

www.klassehickmann.com
info@klassehickmann.com

Short portrait

After six years of professorship at the University of Applied Arts Vienna the internationally renowned designer Fons Hickmann now has continued his graphic design / communication design class at Berlin. Since the summer term of 2007, Fons Hickmann teaches at the Berlin University of the Arts. Teaching assistants at the class are Franziska Morlok and Martin Conrads.

The committed and open program, which made the Vienna class one of Europe’s most cutting-edge talent hotbeds, now is being proceeded and developed by Prof. Hickmann in Berlin.

The teaching concept at the class is conceived as an ongoing enterprise, continuously spreading over several terms. Each semester the course is entitled 'Graphic Design with Any Media'. It asks the students for a conceptual thinking, which is experimental and applied at the same time.

The projects assigned to the students explore the transgression of design limits in all respects, the critical discussion of up-to-date topics from different perspectives, the calling into question of medial and social conventions and the development of new visual codes.

To ensure continuous quality of the students' works and to reinforce the outcome of the projects, the assigned tasks in most cases are affiliated with public interfaces. Accordingly, the outcome of the projects especially consists of a widespread range of publications of different sorts (books, brochures, posters etc.) for a variety of private, public and commercial uses and applications.