Studio Tillack Knöll, Design Practice

Städtische Galerie Villingen-Schwenningen shows classical modern and contemporary art. Together with director Stephan Rößler, we have been developing identities for the gallery’s exhibitions since their reopening in 2021 that manifest themselves in posters, animations, websites, graphics in space, and exhibition furniture. In doing so, we place emphasis on the content of the exhibitions. Within the design guidelines of the associated municipality, we researched the boundaries of these guidelines and combine this with our ideas.

The design of the exhibition »Auf nach Japan!« [Off To Japan!] distinguishes itself with the multitude of graphics, oil paintings and woodcuts that it collected under the aspect of the Japonism prevailing around 1900. The tales of the travelling artists their images of imagination or shock of reality required a comprehensive repertoire of exhibition graphics and exhibition furniture.

In eleven sections, we show a variety of artistic works through different communicative measures. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that expands on it by an informative, textual layer.

For »Auf nach Japan!« [Off to Japan!] we also designed a brochure with texts by director Stephan Rößler and curator Dr. Judith Knippschild. The brochure displays the pieces of the exhibition as well as introductory texts.

Compact one-page websites play a fundamental role throughout the different identities. Every exhibition has a digital exhibition reader in addition to printed material.

»Utopie Heimat« [Home, A Utopia] embodies the omnipresence of the German term of Heimat, loosely translated to home. During the 50-year-anniversary of the home town of Villingen-Schwenningen in 2022, artistic positions are shown that unite works that embark on the longing search for homely places of shelter.

Poster and exhibition flyer/invitation card features the work »Mehmet E. im Alttanner Wald« by Ferhat Ayne (2013). Besides printed applications, the identities also manifest themselves through digital applications in animations that are used in the gallery as well as in social media.

In »Digital ist besser« [Digital is better], the currently prevailing and strongly digital profile of requirements shaped the concept of the political agenda for the future. The name of Hamburg band Tocotronic’s song was used euphemistically as the title of the exhibition, showcasing artists who deal with the question of the location of nature and technology.

»How To Access Art«, curated by Stephan Rößler and Cora von Pape, included works that examined the gallery, a former entrepreneurial villa, for its architectural, social, historical, and political conditions. In doing so, the exhibition focused on accessibility to art: how and by whom can art be perceived? What physical and mental hurdles must be overcome to do so?

In turn, we investigated visitors’ access to the exhibition through the media we designed and attempted to make this more difficult through typography and color. In overprinted fonts and glyphs drawn especially for the exhibition, a new alphabet was thus created.