Boris Müller

Interface & Interaction Design

 
 
 

 








 

 

Poetry on the Road 2010

Medium: Print
Year: 2010
Client: Poetry on the Road
Team: Friederike Lambers, Boris Müller, Florian Pfeffer
 
 
 
 
 

Poetry on the Road is an international literature festival which is held every year in Bremen, Germany. From 2002 — 2013, I was commisioned to design a visual theme for the festival. While the theme itself was changing, the underlying idea for the visuals was always the same: All graphics were generated by a computer program that turned texts into images. So every image is the direct representation of a specific text. The design and the development process were a collaboration with the design agency one/one.

The metaphoric theme of the 2010 Poetry on the Road visual is a mad origami master. Every poem is represented as a data sculpture made from virtual paper. So this year, we don't have a single key visual but a sequence of individual graphics that represent a single poem. This is also reflected on the design level – a number of poster variations were produced for the festival.

The concept in a nutshell: a long paper strip that is folded in an extremely complex manner. Every ridge represents a word. Depending on the length and frequency of the word, the form of the ridge changes. The virtual paper is then folded between the ridges. So the defining visual element are actually not the words – but the space between words. The results are complex forms – based on a long and complex process!