designing documenta

Three Perspectives on the design of Graphic Identities

The focus of the 70th anniversary of documenta is on examining the eventful history and future of the international exhibition series.

Together with the design studio Our Polite Society, documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH invites to a design evening on October 23, 2025, which will discuss the role of graphic identities for cultural institutions. In the context of 70 years of documenta, renowned designers will speak and present their perspectives based on research and current projects. Their different views on the past, present, and future of graphic identities will then be discussed in a moderated panel discussion, followed by time for questions from the audience. Over a drink in the Rotunda, guests will have the opportunity to buy documenta publications and exhibition posters, as well as publications by the speakers.

Admission is free.
No registration required.
Language: German and English.
Doors open at 5.30 pm.

Program

6 pm Welcome: Andreas Hoffmann

Input 1: Our Polite Society

Typography Through Time:
The New Visual Identity for the documenta Brand Family

Our Polite Society (Matthias Kreutzer, Laslo Strong, and Dodo Voelkel) presents the new visual identity of documenta. At its core lies the development of a typeface family as a variable font, based on three archetypal lines – geometric, grotesque, and humanist – uniting the diversity of the documenta institutions within a flexible system.

The talk explores the engagement with documenta’s visual history, the challenges of type design between historical references and the digital present, as well as the editorial and design decisions for website, signage, and applications. When considering and analyzing the design process, it becomes clear how typefaces function not only as tools, but also as mirrors of cultural and institutional identity.

Input 2: Rebecca Stephany

The visual identity of a documenta faces a paradoxical task: on the one hand, it must present the exhibition as a cohesive and clearly recognizable event long before its opening, thereby creating interest, identification, and recognition; on the other hand, it must not overshadow the diversity of the artworks. At the same time, the design should clearly distinguish itself from that of the previous documenta – usually long before the curatorial concept is fully defined. How did the designers of documenta respond to briefings, guiding ideas, the spirit of the time, or the role of a visual identity for a “museum of 100 days”? Rebecca Stephany weaves together findings and marginal notes from a week-long research residency at the documenta archiv into a talk on fifteen approaches since 1955.

Input 3: Maureen Mooren

Between 2014 and 2023, Het Nieuwe Instituut – the museum for architecture, design and digital culture in Rotterdam – under the direction of graphic designer Maureen Mooren, collaborated with a variety of designers to shape its visual and conceptual identity. This lecture reflects on the choices and opportunities that arose from this process.

Panel Discussion

The speakers will then discuss the design of visual identities for art exhibitions and the role of designers in the collaborative process with cultural institutions.

Get-together

Afterwards, all guests are warmly invited to the Rotunda to continue the conversation over a drink and explore publications and exhibition posters in the shop.

Speakers

Our Polite Society is an international design studio based in Hamburg, Stockholm, and Montréal. Led by Matthias Kreutzer, Laslo Strong, and Dodo Voelkel, the studio works across graphic design, type design, and web development. Their projects range from digital systems and websites to wayfinding systems, books, and other printed matter. A particular focus lies on the development of custom typefaces, created both for specific projects and published through their own platform, OPS TYPE. The studio’s work has received multiple awards for The Most Beautiful Books in Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, and has been exhibited internationally. Since 2024, Matthias Kreutzer has been Professor of Typography at the École de design de l’UQAM in Montréal, following teaching positions at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and the KABK The Hague. Since 2024, Laslo Strong has been teaching at the Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm.

Rebecca Stephany works at the intersection of art and design and has been Professor of Graphic Design in the Visual Communication program at the Kunsthochschule Kassel since 2021. Previously, Stephany taught graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and was Professor of Communication Design at the HfG Karlsruhe from 2016 to 2021. From printed matter, installations, video works, and performances to text production and curatorial practice, Stephany’s polyphonic cultural practice deliberately situates itself between commissioned contexts and self-initiated projects. Feminist social critique fuels her research methods and visual articulations. In 2021, together with designer Anja Kaiser, she published the symposium and publication project Glossary of Undisciplined Design with Spector Books.

Maureen Mooren studied graphic design at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam. Her work engages with questions of representation, resulting in a multifaceted design practice with a focus on visual identities, books, and posters for cultural institutions. Together with Daniël van der Velden, she won the Grand Prize at the Chaumont Poster Festival in 2007. In 2006 and 2007, she received the Amsterdam Theater Poster Award. In 2011, she participated in the exhibition Opera Aperta / Loose Work in the Dutch Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. Since October 2013, Mooren has been responsible for the visual identity of the Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam. She has headed the System Design class at the HGB since 2015.