FRANKFURT.- The Palace of Typographic Masonry provides a multi-layered insight into the creative discipline of graphic design: From the fundamentals of the trade and their interplay in compositions and designs to tools, techniques, and conceptual approaches to the professional practice in the shifting sphere of space, time, clients and audiences.

This travelling exhibition by the Dutch graphic designer Richard Niessen showcases graphic design as a poetic and visual force with the ability to shape culture and channel political messages to convey social values and ideals. Niessen uses nine criteria—Sign, Symbol and Ornament, Construction, Poetics and Play, Order, Craft and Practice—to look at the discipline of graphic design from his practical perspective. Using his own collection as an example, he analyzes creative means, methods and tools as well as the spatial and temporal contexts of creative practices. He also focuses on the tensions between designers, clients and the public and examines the social impact of graphic design.

In order to translate his practical research into an exhibition, Niessen uses the narrative potential of graphic design and develops the imaginary architecture of a palace, the Palace of Typographic Masonry. His nine criteria form the nine sections of the palace, which extend over three fictitious floors and in which rooms, wings, corridors and chambers unfold. They are staged as “Cases” in which the objects enter into a dialog and make new contexts visible. The scenographic design, with its intelligent minimalism and playfulness, becomes the epitome of Dutch graphic design. The Palace of Typographic Masonry thus becomes a self-referential, immersive cosmos in which research and practice cannot be viewed in isolation from one another.

The collection includes works from a wide range of cultures and times by studios/designers such as: Juan Luis Blanco, Benjamin Mc Millan, Edgar Walthert, Victoria Hoogstoël, Bart de Baets, Team Thursday, Rietlanden Women’s Office, Alex Walker, Cleo Tsw, Lukas Engelhart, Jan Egbers, Justus Gelberg, Richard Niessen, Esther de Vries, Meeus ontwerpt, Harmen Liemburg, Studio Moniker, Rudy Guedj, Joost Grootens, Hackers & Designers, Farah Fayyad, Ott Metusula, William Jacobson, Metahaven, Maureen Mooren and fanfare.

Curator: Jonas Deuter