Werkplaats Typografie
ArtEZ, University of the Arts
Agnietenplaats 2, 6822 JD Arnhem, NL
Warmperserij 1, 1505 RL Zaandam, NL
NEW: 133 29th Street, Brooklyn, 11231, New York, USA
mail@werkplaatstypografie.org
T: +31 (0)26 35 35 774

The Werkplaats Typografie (WT), part of the ArtEZ University of the Arts, is a two-year graphic design masters programme founded in 1998 by Karel Martens and Wigger Bierma. The WT is centred on self-initiated projects and assignments with meetings, lectures, excursions, seminars, and readings geared towards self-accountable and independently motivated work and research.

Werkplaats Typografie is directed by graphic designer Armand Mevis and educator Anniek Brattinga. Additional regular teaching staff includes Danny van den Dungen (Experimental Jetset), Batia Suter and Paul Elliman. Robert Milne assists in the general coordination of the WT.

Starting in 2023, Werkplaats Typografie will offer a New York-based pilot programme for first-year students. Werkplaats Typografie New York (WTNY) will be guided by graphic designers Geoff Han and Francesca Grassi. The programme takes place in a former garage in the industrial neighbourhood of Sunset Park, in southwest Brooklyn. Regular teaching staff includes faculty visiting from WT Arnhem/Zaandam and guest tutors located in the US. For more information see the WTNY mission statement.

Guests are regularly invited for studio visits, to review work, give presentations or supervise a workshop. The WT is frequently asked to contribute to national and international events, manifestations or site specific projects. Part of the WT programme is reserved for collaborating with external clients.

The Werkplaats Typografie programme stimulates and practices critical reflection on the basis of a broad cultural perspective. Participants engage in research in and through arts, involving content and form, text and image, theory and practice, in relation to one’s intended professional design and art practice.

Alongside individually driven research and collective projects, participants can work on commissioned assignments for external clients. Assignments can be instigated by the Werkplaats Typografie, external clients, or by the participants themselves. The various outcomes of these can be found, and bought, in the WT Shop.

For additional information see this PDF.

Applications to the WT can be sent any time of the year as a PDF format by file sharing or email to mail@werkplaatstypografie.org.

WT The Netherlands DEADLINE:
1 March, 2023

WT New York DEADLINE:
17 April, 2023

For detailed information: Download PDF

Werkplaats Typografie New York (WTNY) is a new research-driven master’s programme with a focus on New York City. Founded on the principles of the Werkplaats Typografie, and part of the ArtEZ University of the Arts, WTNY offers an alternative context for the programme and situates graduate design education at the centre of an urban paradox: the playground of ultra-high net worth individuals, and unaffordable home to knowledge workers and physical labourers alike.

New York City is a culturally diverse metropolis and troubled urban centre–a case study in growing extremes that permeate throughout the world. Each year, participants are required to complete a research-based, applied learning project relating to New York City, its surrounding community, and the city’s endemic tools and means of production. Liberties are expected to be taken with content, and WTNY encourages students to think about the position and practice of the designer in relation to the city’s post-industrial and precarious labour conditions, as well as society-at-large.

Established in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in the working studio of designers Francesca Grassi and Geoff Han, WTNY students will have access to exchanges with New York-based and Netherlands-based tutors alike. We will aim to foster the WT’s unorthodox approach of considering atypical applicants who are interested in conceptual and formal experimentation, with an emphasis on imperfection and complexity as valuable objectives, even those who don’t have a formal design education. The programme is open to anyone who challenges their relationship to ideas, form, and emerging technology.

We understand that design practices in the post-COVID19 pandemic can be an emotionally and psychologically fraught endeavour. WTNY centres itself around principles of care and community. All students are expected to have a self-care routine and a communal environment is encouraged through initiatives including daily shared meals and other student-led enterprises.