“Grün Säen” combines several projects at KISD on the topic of “School, Garden, Design (School Garden)” undertaken over the course of various semesters. The projects were offered in a number of disciplines at KISD, for example Typography and Layout and Design Concepts, and were realized in cooperation with the Institute for Biology and Didactics of the University of Cologne. They were supported and sponsored by the RheinEnergie Stiftung.
The book project ran for two semesters. Students developed the concept and layout and were assigned to do research on all project results and to compile them into appropriate, reasonable chapters. Many drafts had to be arranged into new models for a professional photo shoot. For the cover design, there was a special project workshop in which it was students’ task, alongside drafting the cover, to design fictitious book jackets out of specified materials. Four distinct topics were given: a crime story, a romantic novel, DIY, and science-fiction.
The actual cover was developed over the course of two weeks and was finally presented at a KISD Friday presentation. Participants were free to choose the materiality, but were given specified formats for front size and spine thickness. In doing so, 16 possible ideas were collected which partly referred to the school garden concepts and re-interpreted them through typographic approaches. Through using the laser cutter, these solutions eventually became haptic experiences. It was the experimental approach to be paramount objective in the project.
