2025
Freelance
Branding ● Webdesign
Departing from the generic templates that dominate the academic landscape, I developed a bespoke brand identity for Jan Völker, Professor of Philosophy in Vienna, who specialises in Marxism, German Idealism and Psychoanalysis. The visual language centres on a rigorous, minimalist aesthetic and textured, abstract gradients. It utilises a Brutalist typeface, paired with a sophisticated motif of lines and gradients. These lines serve as a visual metaphor for theoretical work, representing lines of text and layers of argumentation as well as the systematic taxonomies of Kant and Hegel. Drawing heavily on the Russian Abstract Avant-Garde for inspiration, the final result strikes a deliberate balance between bold historicist art movements and a clean, modern user experience that demands attention in a traditionally static field.
Fonts
The typographic identity is based on a tension between “avant-garde and digital” and reflects the dialectical relationship between historical research and contemporary philosophy. The branding uses Gazzetta Variable, a stark, brutalist typeface whose compressed, aggressive, and high-contrast forms evoke the Russian abstract avant-garde. This structural heaviness is interrupted by Orbit, a geometric typeface reminiscent of programming interfaces and cosmic orbits—a direct reference to Völker’s philosophical work on space travel.
Color Scheme
This visual system of the brand is based on two variations of a single concept: the layers of argumentation and the lines of text. The first is a structured red-black color gradient reminiscent of light passing through linear ribbed glass. It evokes both a revolutionary flag and a theater curtain, thereby referencing Völker’s writings on Art and his background as a student of Alain Badiou. The second is a graphic color gradient composed of sharp lines, reminiscent of the systematic taxonomies of Kant and Hegel as well as the rhythmic structure of a page of text. Together, these elements bridge the gap between the political aesthetics of the 20th century and the atmospheric abstractions of the digital age, replacing generic academic templates with a rigorous, minimalist aesthetic.