Category: Graphic Design

MA in Graphic Design
Online Open House
Thursday, 26 January 2023, 18:00–19:00h EET (local Estonian time)

We invite prospective students to join our Online Open House on Thursday, 26 January 2023, 18:00–19:00h EET. This will be an opportunity to hear more about the program, and ask questions. The event will be hosted by Sean Yendrys (current Head of Curriculum) and Rita Davis (current 2nd year MA student).

To register please fill in this form:
https://forms.gle/YH7QoScsbGEfEXAAA

Please register by Monday, 23 January, 18:00h.

A zoom-link will be e-mailed out to all registrants two-hours before the start of the event.

More information about Graphic Design MA programme. Admissions period: 1 Feb – 6 March 2023.

The visuals for the Online Open House are by 2nd year MA student Gréta Þorkelsdóttir.

On Wednesday, 26 October at 17:30, designer Linda van Deursen holds an open lecture at the EKA auditorium (A101).

Linda van Deursen is a graphic designer who works and lives in The Netherlands. Together with Armand Mevis she founded Mevis & van Deursen in 1987. Since then they have worked for cultural institutions such as Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, documenta 14, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and have collaborated with artists on publications and exhibitions, such as Armin Linke, Yael Davids, and Aglaia Konrad.

Since 1990 she has taught graphic design at various institutions such as the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (where she also served as head of the graphic design department), Yale School of Art in New Haven and currently NLN at the Royal Academy of Arts in The Hague.

The talk is held in English.

DEAR FRIEND
15–29 September 2022
Opening. 15.09 at 6 pm
EKA Gallery, Estonian Academy of Arts

Dear Friend,

We have been thinking about you and we are looking forward to meeting you at the Dear Friend exhibition from 15–29 September 2022 at EKA Gallery. We hope you have time to pass by! The gallery doors open on 15 September at 18:00. 

Since 2019 we have been writing, folding, publishing, sharing and posting the Dear Friend publication. There are four seasons of published letters. This Fall seemed like the right time to meet after a few years of correspondence. It is a chance to talk about publishing, writing, small publications, doing things together, and why not just about how we are doing. 

The exhibition features all the published Dear Friend letters. The letters are available for you to read, take home or mail to another friend. Next to the letters there are projects and publications by our penfriends. These are mostly publications that connect with the Dear Friend project contextually, formally, community-wise and beyond borders. 

There is also a public programme that includes presentations of periodical publications and books; from 20–23 September readings and recordings of letters, programme Tracks as envelopes by oH radio; 24 September Dear Friend symposium, a day full of presentations and discussions; 29 September Dear Friend letter writing workshop and more. 

A catalogue will be published alongside the exhibition, with contributions by Singapore-based design writer Justin Zhuang, designer and writer Else Lagerspetz, and artist Lieven Lahaye. It will include published letters and a selection of photos of the activities. The book launch will take place at the symposium on 24 September. 

PUBLIC PROGRAM

16–29 September, EKA Gallery

16.09 17:00 artist Lieven Lahaye presents a new issue of Catalog

20.09–23.09 11:00–13:00 & 14:00–16:00 oH radio’s Tracks as envelopes, public readings of Dear Friend letters in the exhibition space. Come read one! 

22.09 18:00 presentation of Exercises in Practical Mischievery by Laura Pappa, Carlo Canun, Maki Suzuki

24.09 12:00–17:00 Dear Friend symposium and catalogue presentation. Come and join!

28.09 18:30 launch of the All Horses Are the Same Colour by EKA GD MA students 

29.09 18:00 Dear Friend letter writing workshop. Please join! 

SYMPOSIUM

24 September 12:00–18:00, EKA Gallery

Dear Friend symposium is a gathering where we explore practices and questions around experimental and self-publishing, mailing as a form of publishing, and design as writing through presentations and discussions. 

Symposium is held in English. 

12:00 Gathering

12:30 Presentation Undisclosed Relations, Henk Groenendijk 

Henk Groenendijk travels from Sofia, Bulgaria to open some boxes full of student publications, a selection of works from the Test Press exhibition, and copies of Test Press magazine. Henk will tell us about his library and collection of student publications and the links that are perhaps not visible. The connections are in the books, posters, and other paraphernalia. 

Heni Groenendijk is a collector, educator, and curator of Test Press Books. He worked as a professor at the Graphic Design Department of Gerrit Rietveld Academie and initiated the Rietveld & Sandberg Library Publications Archive. 

13:00 “A Lecture on Nothing: on the Legibility of Illegible Text”, Arja Karhumaa

What do typographic texts consist of? How does typography relate to language, image, and writing? How do you read illegible text? What is type beyond only form, as part of our coexistence and social environment? This performative talk has no answers to these questions but aims to stay with the trouble they make.

Arja Karhumaa is a text designer, a feral academic, and a language animal. She is Assistant Professor and Head of Programme in Visual Communication Design at Aalto University ARTS, Finland. 

13:30 open discussion

14:00–15:00 break/lunch

15:00 Presentation about de Appel’s publication The Remote Archivist, Nell Donkers

Nell Donkers, archivist of de Appel in Amsterdam will talk about The Remote Archivist, a recurring (one-page folded poster) publication from the Archive. There are four series of the publication that have been presented so far. The aim is to invite artists, thinkers, and readers to dive deeper into the archive and recalibrate the archive materials for their own practice. Bardhi Haliti is the designer of the project and of de Appel’s house style. 

Nell Donkers has managed the archive (library, archive, and collection) of De Appel in Amsterdam since 2002 and made it digitally accessible. 

15:30 Talk about Queer.Archive.Work and the resting reader, Paul Soulellis

Paul Soulellis’ talk will present his work at the nonprofit library, publishing studio, and residency Queer.Archive.Work in Providence, US with a focus on collectivity in the context of independent publishing. The resting reader is a book of texts and images assembled from source material found on the shelves of the Queer.Archive.Work library. The content was selected during the rise of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in December 2021, around the loose themes of rest, quiet, care, queer, sanctuary, reflection, collective, and generosity. 

Paul Soulellis is an artist and educator based in Providence, RI. His practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a focus on queer methodologies and network culture. 

16:00 open discussion

17:00 presentation of the Dear Friend catalogue, Ott Kagovere and Sandra Nuut

Ott Kagovere is a Tallinn-based graphic designer and the Head of the Department of Graphic Design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. 

Sandra Nuut is a curator at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. Previously she worked at the Estonian Academy of Arts and New York-based gallery Chamber. 

Exhibition concept/curation: 

Ott Kagovere & Sandra Nuut

Exhibition design

Ulla Alla & Nika Gabiskiria

Letters by
Alicia Ajayi, Stuart Bertolotti-Bailey, Claudia Doms, Nell Donkers, Maarin Ektermann, Rosen Eveleigh, Maryam Fanni, Saara Hannus, Eik Hermann, Paul John, Maria Juur, Ott Kagovere, Maarja Kangro, Arja Karhumaa, Kristina Ketola Bore, Nicole Killian, Rachel Kinbar, Tuomas Kortteinen, Keiu Krikmann, Kadri Laas, Else Lagerspetz, Lieven Lahaye, James Langdon, Jungmyung Lee, Kai Lobjakas, Michelle Millar Fisher, Maria Muuk, Sheere Ng, Sandra Nuut, Laura Pappa, Jack Self, Indrek Sirkel, Paul Soulellis, Triin Tamm, Laura Toots, Alice Twemlow, Loore Viires, Sean Yendrys, Justin Zhuang

Letter visuals by 

Mai Bauvald, Pärtel Eelmere, Martina Gofman, Kersti Heile, Laura Merendi, Mikk Oja, Rex, Johanna Ruukholm, Robin Siimann

Thank you

Andres Alliksaar, Louis Biasin, Rita Davis, Pärtel Eelmere, Maarin Ektermann, Mark Foss, Triin Jerlei, Mette Mari Kaljas, Kaur Karu, Kertu Klementi, Else Lagerspetz, Rasmus Lukas, Laura Merendi, Anete Ots, Laura Pappa, Steven Pikas, Lola Maria Pärna, Emma Reim, Filipp Rotšenkov, Maret Sarapu, Georg Ander Sild, Indrek Sirkel, Mariliis Tarja, Ljubov Terukova, Taylor Tex Tehan, Laura Tursk, Pille-Riin Valk 

Detailed program: facebook.com/events/440404928139944/440701844776919

Dear Friend web archive: https://gd.artun.ee/dearfriend/ 

Supported by Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Estonian Academy of Arts, European Regional Development Fund

See you soon!

Sandra & Ott

Silence After Early Hours
(first-ever) EKA GD MA Graduation Show
4–11 June 2022, 1–7pm

Do you know the feeling? The feeling you have after leaving a long and eventful party minutes after the sunrise? The feeling of sneaking to the door past drunken animals and sleeping unfortunates, the feeling of smoke-filled air and a sticky floor that by now looks almost glazed in a varnish of liquor. The feeling of opening the doors and getting slammed in the face by a blinding ray of sunshine, the feeling of the first lungful breath you take, and being almost surprised the air can smell so good. the feeling of guilt as you stumble and hobble, shuffle, and dodder your way home as others have just woken up and are in a fast-paced manner gracefully heading to work? That’s now, we are leaving and returning to the places and lives we left behind. An exhausting end before a new beginning or the silence after early hours.

Vernissage: June 3, 6:30–9 pm
Finissage: June 11, 9 pm–midnight

Class of 2022
Alejandro Bellón Ample, Louise Borinski, Aleksandrs Breže, Paula Buškevica, Björn Giesecke, Otso Peräsaari, Diandra Rebase, Katarina Sarap

Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn
MA in Graphic Design

Graduating Bachelor’s students of the Department of Graphic Design kindly welcome you to the opening of their exhibition ASTE (“A Step” in English) at the Estonian Academy of Arts, room C-304 on Friday, May 27 at 18:00.

There is a variety of projects at the exhibition, which display the ideas and interests of the young designers. There are publications, installations, visual experiments, video works, and virtual environments with which visitors can get familiar.

The graduation show takes place in the students’ usual working space, a studio, which is commonly a place run by a buzzing and chaotic atmosphere. A new surface arises at the exhibition from stacked desks – the site-specific intervention brings the works and visitors to the next level.

Prior to the exhibition, the graduating class will present their graduation projects on 26 May starting at 10:00 at EKA in room A-501. Presentations will be in English.

Graduation projects will be assessed by a jury:
Ott Kagovere, Associate Professor at the Department of Graphic Design (Tallinn, Estonia);
Sandra Kosorotova, artist and designer (Tallinn, Estonia);
Sandra Nuut, Lecturer at the Department of Graphic Design (Tallinn, Estonia);
Agnes Ratas, graphic designer (Tallinn, Estonia);
Nerijus Rimkus, graphic designer (Vilnius, Lithuania & Amsterdam, The Netherlands).

Graduating designers:
Kristi Jaago, Rainer Kasekivi, Kertu Kibal, Martin Kipper, Jekaterina Kožemjatšenko, Uku Art Mikkin, Nora Pelsš, Urmet Piiling, Villem Sarapuu, Polina Zahharenkova, Ingel-Kristen Veevo.

Supervisors of the BA graduation projects:
Else Lagerspetz, Maria Muuk, Laura Pappa, Indrek Sirkel

Supervisor of the BA graduation show project:
Kaisa Maasik

Supported by
AS Merko Ehitus, Mistra-Autex AS, Peenjoogivabrik Nudist, Põhjala Pruulikoda, Valmiermuiža Pruulikoda

The exhibition is on view daily from 12:00 to 18:00 until June 9, 2022.

The visual identity of the exhibition is designed by Polina Zahharenkova.

Facebook event

Monday, April 4, 16:30

EKA auditorium A101

Valentinas Klimašauskas will present his recent practice as an art researcher, curator, and writer while emphasising the critique of the art machinery in the age of manipulations.

Valentinas Klimašauskas is a curator and writer who is based in Vilnius, Lithuania. Together with João Laia he curated “The Endless Frontier”, the 14th Baltic Triennial at CAC Vilnius (2021). With Inga Lāce he curated “Saules Suns”, a solo exhibition by Daiga Grantina for the Latvian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2019). He is a curator at large at Springs.video, a moving image streaming platform that also serves as an educational and curatorial archive. Currently, he is also continuing his doctoral research at Vilnius Art Academy titled “A (self)portrait of a young artist in the style of institutional critique”.

selectedletters.lt

Valentinas Klimašauskas is in Tallinn on the invitation of Graphic Design MA and Contemporary Art MA programmes. The lecture is additionally hosted by KUNO network and can be joined also via Zoom 

Meeting ID: 978 6104 0017

Passcode: 352620

Sara Kaaman OPEN LECTURE bodies, rooms, movements, fictions

Wednesday, 30 March
17:30h
Room A-501

The talk is held in English

Playing with temporality, history and storytelling, this performative lecture is a dramatised odyssey through, and deconstruction of, the professional identity we know as the “graphic designer”. Historical and speculative facts and fictions blend into infotainment, with Britney Spears in a supporting role.

Sara Kaaman is a graphic designer based in Stockholm, who is also teaching, writing, moving, and currently studying an MA in New Performative Practices. She is interested in the intersections of publishing technologies, bodies, politics, performance and poetry. Since 2012 she is the graphic designer and co-editor of Girls Like Us magazine. With Maryam Fanni and Matilda Flodmark she forms the research collective MMS, investigating labour histories of graphic design via feminist theory and practice. Their book Natural Enemies of Books – A Messy History of Women in Printing and Typography was published in 2020. With dancer and choreographer Klara Utke Acs, she works on performative investigations on the metaphors of digital and analogue publishing formats, most recently presented as ”The Book – An Interfacial Sitcom”.

Exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline”
17.03–20.03.2022
Opening at March 16, 6 pm
ARS Art Factory, Studio 112

The art exhibition “The Divergence From a Predefined Outline” by Estonian Academy of Arts Graphic Design and Product Design 2nd year students will be opened on Wednesday, March 16 at 6 pm.

The joint exhibition of the two departments presents a series of works that were initially intended to be exhibited without any common theme or curation in mind. However, accompanied by the abrupt diversion from the European political timeline during the semester, a theme of mapping current temporal and spacial conditions became a perceivable focus point. Keywords such as information warfare, misinterpretation, indeterminacy and artificiality came to the fore. The planned cacophony leans toward a sense of wholeness or a palpable new understanding of the present time, which is represented by 11 artworks.

Participating artists: Ane Laande, Anita Elina Mürisep, Anna Kisseljova, Brigite Helena Sarapuu, Elisabeth Järve, Emma Reim, Gerli Tamm, Hanna Samantha Raidma, Helen Bender, Henry Markus Gregory, Ingrid Tärk, Katariina Kesküla, Katrin Kannu, Kaur Joonas Karu, Kelly Heleen Kaldra, Kertu Liisa Lepik, Laura Tursk, Lauren Teimann, Linda-Maria Varris, Magnus Harjak, Martin McLean, Nicole Winona Mikli, Rasmus Jurkatam, Steven Pikas

Graphic design by Emma Reim, Laura Tursk
Supervised by Sten Saarits

The exhibition is open on four days only (17.03–20.03)

Opening times 1pm – 6pm

Location: ARS Art Factory, Pärnu mnt 154, Tallinn

Special thanks: EKKM, Siim Sander Saar
Supported by Estonian Artists’ Association, Estonian Academy of Arts Faculty of Design

More info about events at ARS Art Factory: www.arsfactory.ee

The exhibition “Open Windows” will reopen on the windows of the Library of EKA on February 21, at 4 pm.

Through the exhibition of EKA windows, different specialities of EKA introduce their most outstanding projects and the latest creations of students. The exhibition can be viewed on the windows of the EKA Library on Põhja pst and Kotzebue streets and will remain open until March 14.

Specialities represented: Installation and Sculpture, Room Design, Product and Environmental design, Visual Communication, Photography, Jewellery and Blacksmithing, Scenography, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Accessory Design, Graphics, Graphic Design, Animation, Ceramics, Industrial and Digital Product Design, Glass, Architecture, Interior Design, Painting, Art and Visual Culture, Cultural Heritage and Conservation

The exhibition of open windows of EKA made its debut in 2021 and received a warm welcome from those interested in art and art education. The Estonian Academy of Arts, located on the edge of Kalamaja, will once again enliven the city’s cultural landscape at street level. Get with it! 

At the last GD Lunch of this semester Graphic Design MA 1st year students will talk about their work and projects so far. GD Lunch is on Monday, 29 November at 4PM on Zoom. Please join us here: https://zoom.us/j/97416773771

Presentations by Carlo Canún (MX), Rita Davis (BR), Mark Foss (US), Michael Fowler (CA), Oliver Long (UK), Alexandra Margetic (AU), Gréta Þorkelsdóttir (IS), Patrick Zavadskis (EE), and Miriam Humm (DE).

Presentations will be in English. Everyone is welcome to join!