Hamburg Bahnhof - An amazing contemporary gallery space with some beautiful artworks. I particularly enjoyed seeing some amazing Roy Lichtenstein paintings up really close. His craftsmanship is admirable to say the least. Graphically there is a lot to take from his work, his bright choice of colour and build up of lines makes for some true individual and graphic artworks.
One of the more contemporary pieces was all about contracts and to interact with the artwork we could sign a contract- I signed the ' I will always do what I say I am going to do' contract. This seemed an appropriate and reasonable idea, I think I have already broken the contract but it is a nice thought. Once the exhibition is over a list of signers of the contract will be compiled, this could be an opportunity to contact some other like minded creatives as we share a common interest.
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As part of the trip we were able to go to Erik Spiekermanns studio and gallery space to see the letterpress equipment and learn about how his studio runs. Overall this was an amazing experience and really opened my eyes to the world of letterpress.
We were given a short introduction into letterpress and how it is used and about its uses today. It was amazing to see the wooden type in person and get a sense of where type has come from. I feel much more akin to this process and it was amazing to not only see it in action but have a go at printing myself! It was so great being able to ask a question and see the answers in real life. For example I asked about any glyphs that they had in the studio and was shown a how draw of interesting stuff the same with interesting ligatures.
It was interesting to see the different typefaces they had their and as Erik Spiekermann is a self proclaimed typomaniac the type he had collected. The studio had a shelf of Helvetica which was surprising as Erik famously doesn't like the typeface. There were many classical German typefaces which was great to see as it gave me a flavour of the difference between english and German type. As well as the posters they had created in the studio all of which were very politically driven and beautifully printed.
We were able to ink up a press and create our own print this was another amazingly fun and eye opening experience. Letterpress is a process I have used very little but I would love to create some wood block type of my own.
The lady showing us around was so helpful and she said that if ever we are in Berlin again we are welcome to visit so this could be a really valuable contact in the future.
Bauhaus Archive was a small but interesting gallery, I was amazing to see how experimental some of the early work was there. The very surreal photography was something I had never really seen of the Bauhaus work before it reminded me of some of the work that students do in foundation courses- really experimental and fun! These posters were mad by a designer and teacher I really admire called Sacha Lobe who is director of communications (I think) as the Bauhaus archive. The choice of colour and really experimental typography is so eye catching and is something really different. Overall short and sweet the Archive was really inspiring and was amazing to see some work that I have always admired.
Overall the Berlin trip was an amazing experience and I have gotten a flavour of how a city can shape a graphic language. Berlin seems to really have its own aesthetics and a really rich graphic culture. I would love to do an internship at any studio in Berlin so more research could be done in the future into the opportunities there.
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