Off-White Paper. On the Brno Biennial and Education

Education is about individual development of skills, knowledge and understanding. It is also about social mobilization and distribution of resources and population. Off-White Paper, conceived as a "visual reader", focuses on the latter.

Since 1964, the Brno Biennial has showcased excellency in graphic design from all around the world. We were interested in finding out the educational background of the recognized excellency. Taking the accepted exhibitors from the last five editions of the Brno Biennial as a starting point, we performed a simple quantitative research into their educational profiles. What countries did they study, and what schools did they go? What are the economic realities of the frequently represented countries and schools? How many students are accepted in the programs each year, and how many graduate? How much do they have to pay for their education? Are there any meaningful correlations between any of the facts?

Here, we were mostly interested in quantities, not qualities. We acted as heartless number crunchers, trying to find out-and communicate-some fundamental facts about graphic design education as (selectively) manifested at the Brno Biennial during the last decade. Following the tradition of the Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), the book and the accompanying exhibition are mainly comprised of a series of pictorial charts.

Edited and designed by Sulki & Min Choi (KR)

This publication was commissioned in the form of an assignment, given by the curators of the 26th Brno Biennial 2014.