The Selection Jury

 

The Selection Jury met on 1 and 2 February 2016 on the premises of the Moravian Gallery in Brno. The jury assessed each submitted work on the basis of its originality of approach, how innovatively it deals with specific tasks, and its aesthetic and functional qualities, while bearing in mind the limitations of available exhibition space.

Selection Jury:
Serge Rompza (DE)
Oliver Klimpel (DE)
Tereza Rullerová (CZ)
Ľubica Segečová (SK)
Willi Schmid (AT) 

Serge Rompza
After graduating from Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam, Serge Rompza has co-founded the Berlin- and Oslo-based design studio NODE in 2003, together with Anders Hofgaard. The two offices collaboratively focus on identity, print, exhibition and interactive work. Clients include MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology (ACT), Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), ZKM Karlsruhe, National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design Oslo and Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). Since 2004 he has been teaching regularly at art and design academies across Europe and the US. 

Oliver Klimpel
Oliver Klimpel is a designer, currently based in Berlin after living and working in London for more than 15 years. He has worked on numerous publishing and identity projects in the UK and abroad, combining design projects and research on visual culture and art. He frequently writes, and lectures internationally. From 2008 to 2015 he had been Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig comprehensively re-positioning the System-Design class. Most recently, he was invited by the Taipei Contemporary Art Center to develop a design research project, which seeks to explore and define the idea of a more active and critical identity for arts and cultural institutions. In May he is to undertake a project on narrative structures in Tokyo. 

Tereza Rullerová
Tereza Rullerová (1987) was an unsuccessful artist. At present she works as a graphic designer in studios The Rodina and Moniker and is involved with permeations of action art and graphic design in both theory and practice, working, lecturing, organising happenings and encounters at all places where people seek for contact between design and art. She graduated from the Intermedia Studio of Václav Stratil at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Brno University of Technology, and from Graphic Design at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She lives in Amsterdam. 

Ľubica Segečová
Ľubica Segečová was born in Slovakia. She lives and works in Bratislava as a freelance graphic designer. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (VŠVU); she got her BA degree at the Department of Visual Communication (2009) and her MA at the Department of Design (2011). She has founded SELF, an independent festival of graphic design (2012), and the artist's studio trivjednom (2012). She also worked as a teacher at the Graphic Design Department of Ostrava University, studio Text Form Function. 

Willi Schmid
After studying at the Federal Training and Research Institute for Graphic Art and Media in Vienna, the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design in Prague, and Werkplaats Typografie in Arnhem he established his own studio in Vienna. His graphic design work concentrates on book design. From 2008 to 2015 he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna; he currently teaches at the Federal Training and Research Institute for Graphic Art and Media in Vienna. His teaching practice is focused on the medium of drawing in its broadest sense.

Statement of the Selection Jury:

In two long and intense days, from the morning hours until the evenings, we have studied carefully almost 900 entries. These viewings gave us plenty of interesting and telling insights into various forms of graphic design practice: a wonderful chance to see vast quantities of entries from diverse international contexts, comparing common themes, or recognising dramatically varying interests and cultural perspectives. We very much enjoyed it.

From a certain level of quality, the submitted works displayed a relative conceptual and formal homogeneity, and perhaps a distinct lack of the extreme, or, say, nonconformist and highly idiosyncratic positions - however surprising, or not surprising this may be. We would also have liked to include more projects from the commercial sector, as well as more projects with a time- or online-based character, or works that operate outside more conventional formats and media…

Overall, we saw our task in striking an interesting balance between established and emerging designers, concept-based works and projects with an emphasis on craft or experimentation. Yet in a climate of relative comparability, we sought out positions that have not been exposed to the public that much - instead of only already well-published design and designers - hence allowing alternatives and works from the margins to be seen. We also found it important to include submissions that highlight particular issues of current design practice that we wanted to put to the fore, i.e. the often anonymous work of in-house design teams, or fringe design that operates outside agreed formal codes.

The vast majority of our decisions were made unanimously, and we allowed good time for discussing crucial positions. As required, our choices were made in strong correspondence to this year's decision by the organisers for a rather different exhibition concept and display, with all their new opportunities and occasional limitations. In this we faced an unusual and exciting process of selection - taking into account that the development of the final exhibits in consistent displays is yet to come. Bearing the Brno Biennial visitors in mind, we were drawn in our selection to projects that could excel in such display environment. Now we are very curious and looking forward to the final presentation.

We have tried to produce, through our selection, an insightful portrait of practice, celebrate its explorations and instigate discussion. In that, and in this short explanation of our procedure, we hope to both inspire and demystify graphic design and its evaluation.

Best wishes,

Serge Rompza, Chair of the jury
Oliver Klimpel
Tereza Rullerová
Willi Schmid
Ľubica Segečová