keyword: Ulm School of Design

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briefs historical

Collaborative short film on Photography – HfG Ulm

This assignment is taken from the student publication «Output», which was created by students of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm.

In the year 1961-1962, starting in October 1961, the school launched a curriculum centered on film, inside the sector «Visual communication».

The brief

On the first day, the students received the task of creating a short film on the topic of “photography”. The film is divided in 5 parts, which have each a duration of 2 minutes. Each sequence is made by one or two students. The duration of the whole film (with start/end titles) should be 12 minutes.

  • Sequence 1: It started with Daguerre. Development of photography, from the beginnings until today. Not a history but a depiction of the progress made.
  • Sequence 2: Light and shadow. The attempt to observe the original meaning of photography: “to paint with light”.
  • Sequence 3: The fixed moment. The opposition between a subject in motion and a fixed image.
  • Sequence 4: Extremes. Photography allows to visualise areas that aren’t accessible to the human eye (x-rays, ultraviolet or infrared photography). The use of composition, lighting and camera angles to create subjectivity.
  • Sequence 5: Manipulations. Photography as an instrument of power and influence, for political or commercial motives.

Schedule

  • October-December: writing of the script. Preparations of the shooting: a) Search for subjects. b) Reproduction of material from books and magazines. c) Gathering of props and models. d) Organisation of the schedule.
  • January–February: setting up the shooting plan. 3 weeks of shooting, at Kodak/Stuttgart, in the observatory/Heidelberg, at Zeiss/Oberkochem, and at the German Museum/Munich.
  • March–June: 1) shooting of the titles. 2) Raw and final cut. 3) Sound recordings: a) Sound effects. b) Music. c) Commentary and slogans.
  • 26. October 1962: Premiere of the short film in the aula of the HfG Ulm.

Sources

  • Alfred Jungraithmayr, « Beiträge zum Thema Film an der Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm », Output, no 14,‎ October 1962, p. 4-24
  • Erika Fortner, «Bericht über die Filmabteilung und den ersten Film an der HfG», Output, no 14,‎ October 1962, p. 31-39 (PDF document)
Categories
briefs historical

Design a record cover

A historical design assignment by Tomás Maldonado, at the Ulm School of Design, presented in 1963 in the magazine Ulm 8/9.

In the second quarter of the academic year 1962/63, Tomás Maldonado set the following exercise to the first year students of the Visual Communication Department: to design a case for a 33 1/3 r.p.m. gramophone record. The students could choose from records by
Mauricio Kagel (Transicion I, Transicion II, Antithese), by Karlheinz Stockhausen (Zyklus) and by Franco Evangelisti. If prefered, however, they could design a case for a record of their own selection. The cases
could be designed either in colour or in black and white – as also the circular labels in the centres of the records.

Some of the resulting works by students:

Design: Zlatan Medtugorac (1963)
Design: Hermann Ay (1963)
Design: Hermann Ay (1963)
Design: Joseph Breuer (1963)
Design: Lothar Spree (1963)
Design: Harmut Kowalke (1963)
Design: Hansrudolf Buob (1963)
Categories
briefs historical

Ulm Exercises

Some historical design briefs from the legendary Ulm School of Design (1953-1968) were presented during a study project at the Cologne International School of Design in 2002/03, supervised by Gui Bonsiepe (who was editor of the Ulm magazine).

A website was put online in 2002/03. It is still available via the Wayback Machine. Some briefs:

Otl Aicher : Schematische Darstellung komplexer Sachverhalte

Gui Bonsiepe : Einführung in die visuelle Semantik

Tomás Maldonado : hüllen für schallplatten (ulm 8/9)

In this exercise (1962/63), students have to create an album cover for an LP. The works assigned are by composers Mauricio Kagel (Transicion I, Transicion II, Antithese), Karlheinz Stockhausen (Zyklus), and Franco Evangelisti.

Josef Müller-Brockmann : Firmentypografie (ulm 8/9)

Gui Bonsiepe : Perforationen, Topologische Übungen (ulm 17/18)

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briefs historical

write a radio-play

This assignment was reverse-engineered from a project description in issue #2 of “Ulm” (1958), the magazine of the Ulm School of Design. The short article describes a team-writing experiment, that was broadcast as a radio-play.

  • Make comprehensive preparatory studies in order to shape exactly the characters of the play.
  • Compose detailed biographies, diaries, letters, dreams, and scenes of everyday life of the characters.
  • Plan the scenes.
  • Compose the material into a satiric crime story.