Initiate, research, accompany
An interdisciplinary laboratory for design research and development.
An interdisciplinary laboratory for design research and development.
The projects act in the fields of corporate design, typography, book design, social design ,information design/wayfinding, or in design-history. The main goal is to create additional value for society and make solutions accessable to the community. WEI SRAUM aims to interact with designers, entrepreneurs, scientific institutions, schools and universities. Projects are initiated, accompanied and regularly put up for public discussions and talks. Frequently the final project results can be seen in exhibitions or publications.
A selection of the projects can be found bellow.
Typography can be found in every city. Façade lettering, but also the signs and orientation systems shape the specific visual expression of a city. The typographic forms in a city are constantly changing due to alterations in technology, culture and consumer behaviour. The project "Urbantypes" deals with this topic in different ways.
Lettering that finally disappears from the urban space often ends up in Innsbruck's "Buchstabenarchiv", a long-standing collection of the graphic designer Karen Gleissner. In 2017 a selection of disappeared lettering in Innsbruck was shown as part of the WEI SRAUM exhibition "Urbantypes".
Furthermore, WEI SRAUM has regularly been organising „Typowalks“ in Innsbruck since 2016. Guided by the graphic designer and typographer Markus Weithas, they introduce the world of signs and fonts in urban space.
More pictures and information
on the german "UrbanTypes" page
In the course of a research and exhibition project in 2015, Tyrolean graphic design from 1950 to the present day was worked up and presented for the first time ever.. The exhibition „Ikonen und Eintagsfliegen“ focused mainly on Tyrol's most famous graphic designer, Arthur Zelger, who was born in 1914 and whose tenth anniversary of death was celebrated in 2014. His well-known works, but also sketches and designs that have never been shown before, open up a fascinating look behind the scenes of Austrian graphicdesign. His projects anser quesions lik: How did "modern" tourism advertising in Tyrol come about? How does a landscape become an "image" through abstraction?
Curators
Anita Kern (design researcher, Vienna)
Kurt Höretzeder (typographer and designer, Tyrol)
Insights
The Exibhition (Vimeo)
125th anniversary of Tirol Werbung (Vimeo)
More pictures and information
on the german "Ikonen und Eintagsfliegen" page
In an extensive research project in the course of "Emperor Maximilian’s anniversary year 2019“, an exhibition was shown at WEI SRAUM in autumn 2019. The main focus was on writing as cultural technique, political instrument and aesthetic character in one. From the Roman monumental typeface to current global typography projects, the exhibition reflected font and its technical and social change over the last two millennia as well as current creative positions and projects of young typedesigners
Research and exhibition concept
Markus Weithas, Kurt Höretzeder
Title subject
Handlettering by Petra Wöhrmann
More pictures and information
on the german "Breaking Types" page