Course title:

how will we communicate in the future

Course description:

Since 2019, graphic designer, book designer, and publisher Anja Lutz has been running the project space A—Z in Berlin. After six years of presenting, discussing, and exploring ex- perimental graphic design, the book “On the Edges of Graphic Design from A—Z—∞” was published in 2025. This book not only documents the exhibitions, workshops, discourses, and community-building activities of A—Z, but also brings together 36 international designers – such as April Greiman, Luna Maurer, Katharina Nejdl, Richard Niessen, John Walters, Prem Krishnamurthy, Kiyonori Muroga, Joseph Foo, and Golnar Kat Rahmani – to imagine the future of graphic design through original contributions.
The book acts as a catalyst for developing our own hypotheses, speculations, and visions about the future of design. We will explore pressing questions: How is AI reshaping graphic design? Is a future without technology conceivable? And how can alternative design practices fuel political activism or foster more inclusive, collaborative ways of working?
Our focus will extend to the evolution of communication itself. How will we exchange ideas in the future? How will we communicate? What roles will sight, sound, and the senses play? What new languages might emerge? And what kind of scripts or visual forms will we use to express these ideas?
The topic will be explored collectively, with participants’ interests translated into group work. Transdisciplinary approaches play a central role, as does the question of how different disciplines can contribute to new forms of visual communication. Depending on the theme and focus areas that emerge, we will develop tailored formats—whether analog or digital— to articulate and share our visions and proposals.

Bio:

Anja Lutz is a Berlin-based book designer specialising in contemporary art publications [anjalutz.com]. She was the initiator and designer of the experimental publication platform shift! [shift.de], that has won numerous awards and was present at various festivals and exhibitions. Anja is also co-founder and art director of The Green Box [thegreenbox.
net], a publisher of artist books, where she is developing and designing books in close collaboration with the respective artists.
As a collage artist she has exhibited her book inspired work Marginalia at Florence Loewy in Paris, Haus am Waldsee in Berlin, Nosbaum Reding in Luxemburg among others.
In 2019, Anja Lutz founded the exhibition space A—Z [a-z-presents.com] in Berlin, dedicated to the development, presentation, and promotion of ideas and projects where graphic design pushes its boundaries and explores its unconventional and experimental facets. To date she has realized more than 30 exhibitions, workshops, talks, collective formats and other events.
Anja Lutz has studied at London College of Communication and the Jan van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht. She received the European Adobe Design Award and has been a visiting professor at the American University of Beirut and Burg Giebichenstein in Halle, as well as a lecturer at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Universität der Künste Berlin, and Hyperwerk Basel.