The aftermath of the financial crisis provoked a deep confidence crisis on a global level. The strategic, creative decisions of media corporations and companies are more and more led by doubts or anxiety. Therefore, companies and institutions seek new methods to visualize their activities or processes, and consequently advocate for more transparency. However, they struggle to provide the necessary financial resources to be able to develop high-quality, innovative solutions for the masses. So far, most of the commissioned infographic projects did not prove to be financially viable.
In spite of (and because of) this situation, we are involved in a rethinking process to understand the differences between earlier forms of collaboration and more sustainable contemporary working methods. Design is a narrative that can change how people approach the world.
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Nicolas Bourquin (1975) lives and works as a creative director in Berlin. He was born and studied graphic design in the french part of Switzerland. In 2000, Nicolas Bourquin founds the graphic design studio onlab in Zürich and moves in 2002 to Berlin.
Nicolas heads the onlab team working in Berlin on commissioned, collaborative as well as self initiated projects. onlab explores ways to stage complex content and convey relevant topics while changing and playing with common perceptions. Some of the main projects of onlab involved the new visual identity of the city of Tramelan in Switzerland, the entire redesign of the architecture magazine domus (80th anniversary, april 2008) or the design and conception of the German contribution to the Architecture Biennale in Venice in september 2008. Nicolas is also co-editor and designer of the best selling books (amongst others) Los, Dos and Tres Logos and Data Flow 1 + 2 (Gestalten).
In the past few years Nicolas has been invited to several international universities and art schools for workshops. In 2009 Nicolas gets a regular assignment at the University of the Arts in Bremen (Germany) and in 2010 has been holding a visiting professorship at the Bauhaus Weimar (Germany). His main objective in teaching is to establish the missing link between academic teaching and professional practice. In 2011, Nicolas initiate the first onlab Summer School in Berlin.
www.onlab.ch
www.nicolasbourquin.com
www.onlabsummerschool.com
All our talks are for free (whether you are a member or not), held in english, at the auditorium of the MUDAM (the "Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean") in Luxembourg.
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