open: output

student choice

Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel

the student curators Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst Basel Show all student choices

The curators

About our selection

RANK #1
HIER -- 5,175 QUADRATMETER OKKUPATION
We were convinced by the concept of showing different strategies of occupation which inhabitants of a city create for themselves. It makes one aware of the various forms people use to create spaces in an urban area. The project also demonstrates a playful and experimental handling of the material by presenting the content in form of a magazine which is also a city map when unfolded (called "mapzine"). The collages in the "mapzine" are beautifully done and spark interest in the readers to go on reading this publication. The layout is nice and clean with a lot of white space. But with the use of photography and collage technique also has a certain edgyness and roughness to it, which nicely reflects the look of urban areas. Form and content of the "mapzine" coincide on multiple levels.
Its a pity there aren't more photos available to show more of the mapzine.

RANK #2:
WASSEREIS UND POMMES
WASSEREIS UND POMMES relates in a convincing way to our memories and associations of the open air bath season. The photographs are communicating through colour, composition and through the ephemeral of the captured moments, lightness and - paradoxically - a feel of eternity (in our opinion especially the cover
picture is an outstanding example for this). The photos seem to be layouted in a narrative way. They interact whitout detracting from the presence of each other. We found that the work as a whole complete in itself as well as the presentation on open:output.

RANK #3:
FOR ESME: WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR
FOR ESME: WITH LOVE AND SQUALOR fascinates through its jaunty yet skillful appearance of typography. The fragmentation of text and white space seems to fathom the format. Nevertheless the text seems to be clearly readable through the shown diversified pages. The making of the book supports the look-and-feel of the compositions on the inside. We would wish that the design of the cover would take that strength on.

RANK #4
FISHING IN AN OCEAN OF PLASTIC
FISHING IN AN OCEAN OF PLASTIC caught my attention with its materiality. Focusing on the message and performance of plastic and pooling related aspects as environmental pollution or consume behaviour, FISHING IN AN OCEAN OF PLASTIC collects visual aesthetics and utilisations as various as the appearance of plastic. I like the imagery and the mindmap-like conceptual curation as well as nice details like the coloured picking belts. Only Barbie's family tree loses a bit of this book's very compact and coherent look.

RANK #5
ERSTE REISE
Annually a group of THE ART SCHOOL OF BREMEN designs a nice package of broschures to help the new arriving students get settled in the new city. This year's edition's theme of ERSTE REISE is "maritime". We think it's a very beautiful idea designing these information broschures for students from students. We like the playful, individual and charming visual aesthetics of the collages and illustrations and the stringent appearance of the entire package.

RANK #6
AN OCCURENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE
AN OCCURENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE is a magazine interpreting Ambrose Bierce's short story's gist, the distorted perception of time, through compositions that create a world of deformed pictures. Using low-tech asthetics, the magazine creates a confusing, cinematic and yet calm atmosphere which is being underlined by the use of typography, that is playing with the concept of stretching and squeezing as well. Consistent with the content, the spreads' look-and-feel is enjoyably poetic. Despite of the beautiful visualization we missed the quest for a more distinct and curageous idea of dealing with the subject.

RANK #7
JUMP MAN
I like that the book JUMP MAN is a contemporary document of a brief period of gaming culture in the 90s. A lot of people from our generation grew up with this 8 pixel aeshetic of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). For this reason I also like that the child's drawing of game characters was taken into the book because it puts the book in the right time context. Gaming on the NES is a thing from the past and wakes childhood memories in us. It's a hommage to a cult game console!

RANK #8
VENEER
The project VENEER is a fictional corporate identity for the album VENEER of the singer/songwriter JOSE GONZALEZ. The music of José González is full of pureness, easiness and melancholy. LINA KESHINA shows the same characteristics in her sensitive concept. We are conviced by the idea of the new and experimental handling of the material. This different handling and appearance of the materiality questions the medium poster itself. Accept of the use of the typography we like the visual asthetics and the athmosphere because it beautifully represents the feeling of the music.

RANK #9
VERBATIM TYPEFACE
VERBATIM typeface is both a corporate design for a dance-duo and an experiment to unify the styles of traditional and modern typography. We are impressed by the typeface's ambivalence between line and surface finding an intelligent solution for interpreting the oldstyle antiqua's impression focusing on the dynamic dance-movements by using curved lines and by applying nice and subtile ligatures. In spite of some looseness in the very details and its pretty trendy look VERBATIM becomes very inspiring and convenient with the task thanks to its playful, energetic shapes.

RANK #10
POST SCRIPTUM
POST SCRIPTUM seems to be kind of a visual essay on correspondence. Using the example of letters, POST SCRIPTUM analyzes value and function of letters nowadays, focusing on different relations between message, format, weight, the handwriting or postal charges. I like the idea of reflecting about a medium in its own form and use, connected with the side-effect of design, typography, attitudes and theory. Well executed, maybe a little bit too chary and careful, but coming in a nice subject-related packaging this work is definitely worth a look.