Shape without meaning
© Nora von Zahn
Project information
submitted by
Jülide Nur Alemdar
Co-Authors
Diffei Song
Nora von Zahn
Elyas Najar
Nina Kegel
Johannes Schneider
Hannes Altmann
Sharon Ou
Jülide Nur Alemdar
Mentors
Stephanie Specht
Faculty:
Art and Design
Degree programme:
Visual Communication (Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)),
Visual Communication (Master of Arts (M.A.))
Type of project presentation
Artwork
Semester
Sommersemester2025
- Marienstraße 14
(1.OG) - Marienstraße 14
(1.OG)
Available during summaery opening hours
Project description
SHAPE WITHOUT MEANING
A typographic exploration led by guest professor Stephanie Specht
This interdisciplinary design course began with a journey to Antwerp, Belgium, where students immersed themselves in the rich history of ornamental and illuminated letters. Through museum visits, studio insights, and a free-body movement workshop, they explored how form can emerge with and without predefined meaning—how the body itself can become a generative design tool.
The paintings created during the free-body movement workshop are now available for viewing and purchase via an online auction. Each piece offers a unique response to the question: What can a shape be, when it has no message to carry?
The core goal of the course was to create a tool that generates shapes without meaning. Whether physical, digital, or hybrid, each tool challenges traditional design systems and rethinks how typography is created.
The final works span experimental type design and interdisciplinary approaches—situated between artistic and graphic interfaces/intersections, questioning meaning and the role of tools in our contemporary context, and casting them in a new light.