Christine Fenner
Denise Graetz
Elmar Sander
Transcultural Communication Germany >< Japan
A students' poster project
In an impressive transcultural project, 18 students of the Ecosign Academy for Design in Cologne, Germany, and 17 students of the Nagoya University of Arts - Faculty of Design - in Nagoya, Japan, both renown private educational design institutions, produced their creative interpretations of the others' country.
How do the Germans see Japan? What associations do the Japanese have when they hear the word Germany? What is Japan, what is Germany - reduced on a poster? The answers to these questions produced on the posters are entertaining, contain surprising new insights as well as traditional clichés.
As part of the briefing to the German group, the students took part in a workshop on Japanese design and Japanese culture. The Japanese students not only got a similar briefing about Germany, but also undertook a nine-days trip to Germany, visiting many cities and places, e.g. the Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel and Neuschwanstein Castle.
In the design phase the two groups of students exchanged sketches via e-mail, to gather initial comments and evaluations of the sketches.
Both poster series were exhibited in co-operation with the German Goethe Institute during the "Germany in Japan Year 2005/06" throughout Japan, e.g. in the International Center in Nagoya and in the Goethe Institute in Kyôto. In July the exhibition was "the hit" on the campus of he University of Nagoya. Other universities want to display the poster exhibition, e.g. the Dôshisha University in February. The international magazine NOVUM - World of Graphic Design - published a report in its November issue.
The unique bilateral project is also accepted for the programme of the "2005 Japan-EU Year People-to-People Exchanges" of the Japanese Government.
Vice versa the project is reflected in Germany. The exhibition of both series is displayed in Germany at the Japanese Culture Institute in Cologne in January and February 2006.
© conception and curator: Helmut Langer, high quality graphic designer and expert for global communication projects, guest professor at Nagoya University of Arts, Japan, and at Ecosign Academy for Design in Cologne, Germany.
Co-ordinator and project manager in Japan: Professor Kazuo Mizoguchi, Nagoya University of Arts.
Tomomi Abe
Hiroe Ando
Mika Ikehata
