For many people, the notary’s office is a “necessary evil” rather than a helpful service point for dealing with important things in life. This cooperation between different notaries takes a new path and presents itself as a modern service business. By creating an intelligent profile Atelier Andrea Gassner shows how contemporary corporate design can clearly convey the qualities of a serious and trustworthy business. The logo based on the idea of a seal. We are familiar with the seal as a form of certification that conveys commitment, security, and legality. The traditional circular shape, the Austrian state coat-of-arms as a national emblem, a modern font family and the names of the three notary’s offices are the ingredients for a strong joint brand architecture. Differentiation is introduced by the different names and colours. The modern visual language for graphic design, typography and photography in both print and web conveys sociability and openness and, at the same time, a sense of seriousness.

The archive of the Abbey of St Gall has long been looking for a contemporary and, from a conservation viewpoint, better way of communicating its unique collection that extends back to the time the monastery was founded. Under Regierungsrat Martin Klöti a project was launched in 2013 that was formally concluded through the ceremonial opening of the new exhibition hall by Bundesrat Alain Berset on 12 April 2019. The title of this semi-permanent exhibition is “Wonders of Tradition. The Plan of St Gall and Europe in the Early Middle Ages”. Alongside the year-round presentation of the Plan of St Gall as a loan from the abbey library, there are also annual exhibitions in which the most valuable objects are changed every four months. The year 2019 is the 1300th anniversary of the founding of the Abbey of St. Gall. On this account the first exhibition is devoted to Abbot Othmar, who founded the monastery. To accompany the respective annual exhibition a series of booklets with the title “Waldo” will be published in print runs of 1000 to 2000. The content is divided into three parts: the theme “Waldo”, the index and contents of the exhibition, and a lecture that reflects the theme of the particular exhibition. Waldo, ** around 740, † 29./30.3.813/814 in the monastery of Saint-Denis near Paris. He most probably came from Mosel-Franconian nobility in the immediate circle of the Carolingians. He worked as Charlemagne’s agent in Alemannia, was abbot in the monasteries of St. Gall, Reichenau and Saint Denis, an educator of princes, Bishop of Pavia and of Basel. We know his handwriting from the 14 St. Gall original documents that date from between 773 and 782. He is regarded as the first archivist of the Abbey of St. Gall who is known by name. On this account this series bears his name.*

HK Architekten was founded in 2018, when Roland Wehinger, Christoph Dünser and Stefan Hiebeler became partners of Hermann Kaufmann. The new website is not just a representative and comprehensive internet page. An integrated data base serves as both a data management and archiving tool and as a project server for current projects.

Atelier Gassner’s corporate design for Lech municipal council has proved its worth over more than 25 years and is widely used: from the letterhead and all the council’s printed material to the signposts throughout the village. The goal was to create a contemporary image that would, however, be independent of the tourism advertising. Alongside the coat of arms derived from heraldry, the basic element of the corporate design is a family of typefaces known as Trinité, a modern Renaissance Antique by Bram de Does. The set of characters comes in three different versions that are distinguished by their different upper and lower lengths. These variables and other coordinated type styles allow precise typographical differentiation for a variety of applications – from the council’s correspondence to the bibliophile typesetting, from the town’s extensive signposting system to its web design. The digital and analogue design for the “Philosophicum Lech” is based on this typeface culture and is connected with a unique image concept. Using microphotography, the theme of the year is expressed by a different kind of plant each year. In this way the “key visual” is renewed year after year, while still remaining a recognisable events label. The website fulfils several functions. It is an archive, advertising for events and at the same time a commuication platform for the organisers of events. The web design ensures a bright, uncluttered website that responds flexibly to the particular end device used, above all smartphones and tablets.

The new SWG production hall in Waldenburg is a pioneering industrial building in which timber is used for the load-bearing structure. With its brass-coloured perforated metal skin the new building seems like an UFO that has landed in a grey industrial European landscape. In fact, it is in the interior that the corporate architecture is fully revealed. The brand new wood-based material »BauBuche« was innovatively used for the rods and the joints of the powerful and yet finely articulated structure in veneer layer look combined with solid cross-laminated spruce panels with a quality finish. The whole (including the composite wood and timber ceiling slabs) is held together by the product that is manufactured in this building: the well-known Assy screws. In terms of geometry the screw is a curve that extends as it turns around an axis. When screwed into a building element it locks with the material, ensuring a strong and durable connection. The brochure was published by SWG itself to mark the formal opening of the new SWG production centre in Waldenburg. The inserted tracing paper pages are particularly striking: at the beginning and end of the brochure in the form of panorama pages with depictions of materials they give an X-ray view of a joint along with the inner life of all the screws. Both visually and haptically these pages refer to planning and conceptual work and to innovative decisions and developments.

The house is in the municipality of Lech, five minutes by foot across the River Lech, 1540 metres above sea level. The wooden house was built 600 years ago by skilled Walser carpenters and was recently given a sensitive architectural renovation. It is rented to (carefully chosen) guests. The task presented to the Atelier was to convey a love of old and new forms of quality and of architecture. This began with finding a name, in a team together with German studies scholar and culture theorist Roland Jörg. With the name “Obd’r Lech” this house in the centre of the Alps but at the same time far off the beaten tourist track pays its respects to the local dialect, the village atmosphere and with a grin adds a request “Lecheln bitte” (“smile please”, a wordplay on Lech/lächeln – Lech/to smile). Contrary to what you might expect, on the first page you do not encounter a deep blue sky, rich green meadows or powdery snow but rather a typographical composition with figures. These are revealed as poetic proof of the qualities of this house. Already in the first “slider” with photographic impressions by Martin Mischkulnig one is drawn into the fantastic landscape, architecture, and atmosphere of the place. Short texts augment the visual narrative. Interaction is used for virtual tours by means of 360° panorama photography or ortho-photographical winter/summer slides that can be slid over each other to make comparisons. The design of the website hovers between tradition and modernism, encourages contacts, is entertaining and at the same time informative. And the whole thing is suitable for portrait and landscape format, for both big and small screens.

Thomas Kortyka is an architect. He plans and initiates buildings – mostly residential buildings in the Munich area with the character of a residential development and high aspirations in terms of architecture and building ecology. The corporate communication designed by Atelier Andrea Gassner speaks a modern “architectural” languages, with informative texts and easily legible data presented through renderings, plan graphics and editorial photography. The analogue and digital applications ultimately serve the sale of buildings to interested persons with an awareness of quality. In choosing advertising methods, too,new paths are being taken. Instead of the standard glossy brochures PSK series are issued about the respective projects. Or a walk-in showroom on site in a residential district offers efficient tangible information. Modern digital communication supports the analogue contacts. The website documents completed buildings and serves as an important early contact for new projects. All the plans are adapted to be easily legible for laypersons. A striving for quality and good form is evident in the website too. New design materials from the digital, dialogue oriented media such as interaction and scalability as well as contents extending over several pages are made available in a user-oriented and responsive form. Ultimately, the aim is a clear information architecture and a narrative approach to presenting the ideas and elements of the firm’s communication strategy.

Behind the term »spatial planning« there is planning work that often has wide-reaching, for individuals occasionally drastic, consequences. The Department of Spatial Planning and Building Law from the Office of the Vorarlberg State Government wishes to awaken and strengthen an awareness and understanding of spatial planning and regional development among those with an interest in this theme and those who hold positions of responsibility. Atelier Andrea Gassner designs magazines that people like to take into their hands and browse through and that repeatedly lead them to immerse themselves in the depths of the texts. The high design quality of text-heavy and complex contents is not a product of chance. Behind this is plenty of experience in the bibliophilic design of books of quality along with constant close examination of the respective contents. The printing material and the kind of binding alone distinguish the annual journal from the usual kinds of printed matter. The requirements for the cover, section pages, beginning and end scenarios that are defined in the basic concept ensure the requisite tension. The typography, print space, and image grid meet the demands of good legibility and clarity. The communicative use of cartography, ortho-photos, diagrams, and explanatory graphics as well as pictorial representation is a special part of the whole. This includes editorial photo-briefing and, for some themes, the photographic implementation itself.

How should an architect communicate – his team, his achievements, his ideas? Architecture comes from a creative act. The creation itself should serve the architecture client and not, at least not excessively, the architect’s own presentation. With a calm, appropriate design Atelier Andrea Gassner creates a contemporary graphic ambiance for the way in which an Augsburg architecture practice presents itself to the public. The results are pragmatic signs, typographies, and functional concepts for visual communication. These are applied to the basic settings and project folders, to presentation charts and digital means of communication. In his introduction to semiotics Umberto Eco notes: “Once it is established that architecture can be regarded as a system of signs, it is, above all, these signs that must be characterised.”

For the design concept for the website of this Augsburg architecture practice Atelier Andrea Gassner uses photos, texts and plans – i.e. the elements used to depict architecure – as signs that can be moved vertically in a horizontally divided surface. Scrolling across the vertical develops a content that is moved twice – pictures on top, floorplans or texts in the bottom area. The site invites you to interact – but without getting lost in pointless games – and works responsively in both wide and portrait format. The visual character is shaped by a lot of white space, with a flexible and yet astonishingly simple design grid. Responsive web design means the adaptability of a design concept in depiction and application, from the wide monitor to the small smart phone. In both vertical and horizontal format. At a time when digital communication is practiced increasingly on the smart phone, responsiveness is an important design factor.