Women & Type

Flying the flag for democracy — Through a “Call for Flags,” 20 internationally renowned designers are invited to decorate Wiesbaden's “Rue” promenade with typographically designed flags.

The museum, in turn, presents the conceptual considerations and individual design positions of the typographers and type designers in the Octagon. Particular emphasis is placed on questions of personal and creative identity, gender, and origin. The aim is to criticize the historically strong underrepresentation of women in this important field of design, because: Writing disseminates knowledge and thus exerts a decisive influence on democratic opinion-forming. In addition, artistic and creative works from the museum's collection are on display in the adjacent room. A critical counterpart is provided by current typographic statements by young students of communication design at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, who are actively engaged in the typographic design of activist (protest) flags with feminist positions in typography. This results in three exhibitions (on the street / in the museum / in the LUX, pavilion of Mainz University of Applied Sciences), which are interlinked in terms of content and concept, as well as various workshops. The project focuses on the presentation of current female role models in the field of typography and type design who critically address the topic of “Women in Typography.”

Jana Dennhard & Dr. Jörg Daur, curators / Susanne Hirschmann, project management, Museum Wiesbaden)

Prof. Dr. Petra Eisele / Prof. Dr. Isabel Naegele, co-curators, Institut Designlabor Gutenberg (IDG) / Mainz University of Applied Sciences