Visual Communications Theory

On Information Design 2009/2010

The lecture series is prepared in collaboration with Petra Černe Oven and Pekinpah Association
16 November 2009–October 2010, Architecture Museum of Ljubljana, Fužine Castle

dr. Yuri Engelhardt (The Netherlands) – 16 November 2009
dr. Rob Waller (Great Britain) – 23 February 2010
dr. Jorge Frascara (Italy) – 16 March 2010 
dr. Karel van der Waarde (Belgium) – 20 April 2010
Malcolm Garrett (Great Britain)– 8 October 2010 
dr. Karen Schriver (USA) – 19 October 2010


Concept of lectures

On Information Design

»The task of the designer is … the revelation of the complex.«
Edward R. Tufte

In 2009 and 2010 an extremely important area of design – information design – will be presented to the Slovene expert public (designers, architects, advertisers, psychologists, linguists, students), as well as other interested public (state institutions, publishing and media houses, pharmaceutical and other industries). Information design is one of the broadest areas of visual communication that every member of our society encounters on every step and every day: in public transport (traffic signs, schedules, maps, pictograms), public urban spaces (directional systems in airports, hospitals, museums, hotels, etc.), healthcare, medicine and pharmaceutical industry (medicine packaging, expert medical and didactic tools), information technologies (the internet, displays on products), telecommunication technologies and media (telephones, newspapers, television), education and science (educational publications, presentations and explanations of complex scientific topics) and in many other areas.

In Slovenia, information design is a deficient and largely undeveloped branch of visual communications. Because of the specifics and undefined character of these projects, Slovene designers often do not have a possibility to take part in these activities, whereas on the other hand clients often do not know the advantages of the incorporation of creative industries that could lead to better results.

Therefore the lectures have been planned based on very rational decisions and reasons. Information design translates complex, unorganised and unstructured data into useful and understandable information; it places greater emphasis on readability, clarity and final applicability of documents. Clarity and unambiguous message of information is extremely important in today’s ever more complex society that overflows with various data. One such example of how important information design can be are voting ballots for American presidential elections in Florida in 2000: it is a known fact that poorly designed ballots caused confusion among voters and were therefore incorrectly filled out, resulting in the exclusion of those ballots and the eight-year term of office of George W. Bush. If the ballots had been suitably designed and therefore valid, Al Gore and not George W. Bush would have most probably won the 2000 presidential elections. Information design can therefore help shape transparent information in public sector and facilitate democratic communication of topics that are relevant for the local and global society.

In the Architecture Museum lectures, information design will be presented to Slovene public by six internationally renowned experts in the area of information design, who will speak about the selection, visualisation, interpretation and communication of data. The lecturers will be Yuri Engelhardt (the Netherlands), Rob Waller (Great Britain), Karel van der Waarde (Belgium) and others.
Unlike in many other areas of visual communications, what is of key importance in the process of information design is interdisciplinary blending of experiences and knowledge from the areas of graphic design, psychology, applied linguistics, architecture, information technologies, writing, editing and many other areas. For this reason invitations to the lectures will not be sent only to designers, but also to other experts whose participation is urgently needed for successful solutions in information design. Lectures will not be only educational, but will also be an opportunity to bring together different experts and areas of expertise that should collaborate in information design. For this purpose both experts from different areas and representatives of various companies and state institutions will be regularly invited to the lectures.

After the end of the lecture series, an expert monograph with an accompanying study and contributions by the lecturers will be published.

Petra Černe Oven

Information: Cvetka Požar, cvetka.pozar(at)aml.si
The concept of lectures: dr. Petra Černe Oven
Organisation of lectures: Cvetka Požar, Tanja Vergles, Barbara Predan
Marketing: Anja Zorko, Pika Leban