After completing posters for the Volkshochschule Essen (a public learning institute that offers courses for anyone), we decided to approach the topic of departures (that year's motto) on a more personal level. In this semiannual Folkwang publication, a fellow student and I, under the supervision of Prof. Ralf de Jong, shone a spotlight on the participants of the course, their perspective on their life so far and their hopes for the future.
Plakat-gestalten is a German wordplay, it is both the noun for designing posters (das Plakatgestalten), but "Gestalten" is also another word for shape or figure, which amounts to „posterfigures“.
Under the supervision of Ralf de Jong, we came up with a concept for the book, decided and refined a layout (three for the three sections), gathered photographic material in the city's archive and corresponded with them, chose typefaces, paper, and visited the printing facility in the South of Germany.
The interviews were conducted by Prof. de Jong.