Visual Communication is at the center of conceiving images for daily life. They influence our perception of the world by creating emotive imagery for communication, informational design or scientific visualizations. Especially in today’s world of global communication channels, we need to know more about how images are perceived in order to create and disseminate them consciously and conscientiously. This field of Design Research focuses on the acquisition of knowledge in the wide field of iconic phenomena. Academic disciplines such as Art History, Linguistics, Psychology and Anthropology have described the need for a scientific approach to images. Most academic centers focus on research questions with a theoretical methodology. In contrast, the approach of “Practice-led Iconic Research* ” is focusing on the generation of knowledge through a practice based methodology. The workshop “Inquiry by Design” introduces participants to the practice based issues of iconic research in the area of Visual Communication. At the beginning, the workshop focuses on the formulation of an iconic research question and a practical methodology of exploration and inquiry by design. During the week participants create a portfolio of images, which explore a design strategy in finding exemplary visual answers. The workshop is for designers or educators who are involved in the practice of communication design and the reflection upon visual communication for today’s world.
*Renner M., et al. : Practice-led Iconic Research, Visible Language, the journal of visual communication research, 51.3/52.1. Dezember 2017/April 2018, Cincinnati.
Prof. Michael Renner, 1961, experienced the digital revolution first-hand when he went to work for Apple Computer Inc. and The Understanding Business in California in 1986, just after completing his diploma as Graphic Designer at the Basel School of Design. Research and reflection upon the meaning of images in the context of digital tools became the central theme of Renner’s practical and theoretical design activities. Since 1990, he has had his own design studio in Basel with both corporate and cultural clients. He started teaching in 1990, at the Institute Digital Communication Environments of the Basel Academy of Art and Design FHNW with an emphasis on Information Design, Interaction Design, and Design Research. In 1999, he was named Chairman of the Institute. From 2005 until 2013, he was a member of “eikones”, the Swiss National Center of Competence in Iconic Research and the European research network “What Images Do”. His approach to develop research activities in the field of design is based on the aim to further develop existing competencies of image creation. With this approach of gaining knowledge through the creation of images, the design process becomes the central research theme and a methodology at the same time. He has lectured and held workshops in Europe and abroad. Renner is Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and at the Politecnico di Milano. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Visible Language and Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).
The Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE) offers workshops for students, educators and graphic designers.
The workshops afford insights into topical themes of visual communication for analogue and digital communication channels in a study programme reflecting the rich tradition of the Basel School of Design. Practical exercises with a high level of professionalism form the core of the workshops focus. Reflection as well as contextual knowledge will be conveyed by way of input sessions, allowing participants’ work to be judged within a contemporary, future-oriented context relevant to professional practice. The trinational Rhine River Valley is a unique cultural environment with easy access to France and Germany and to sites such as the Vitra Design Museum (G), the Isenheimer Alter (F), or Ronchamps (F). In Basel, the Fondation Beyeler, Tinguely Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Schaulager, and Museum of Contemporary Art are world-renowned. Besides its museums, Basel offers a rich mixture of cultural events.
Institute Digital Communication Environments (IDCE)
Through digital media and the democratisation of communication channels that goes hand in hand with it, the critical handling of their visual and interaction-based design has become decisively more important, because the social relevance of information and communication has thus fundamentally changed.
