PressOn Display How Graphic Design Shapes Us

21 August – 8 November 2026

Graphic: Autostrada Studios

Graphic design is omnipresent. From food packaging to digital interfaces on our smartphones to advertising surfaces and orientation systems in public spaces – the media surrounding us are designed to have an effect. While we might not always realise it, graphic design informs our perception and comprehension, our feelings and actions.

On Display: How Graphic Design Shapes Us examines the social dimension of graphic design and considers its impact in times of political, technological, and socialtal transformation. Three site-specific works by Robin Coenen and Danielle Rosales, Sophia Becker and Aline Bavier, and Anja Kaiser and Rebecca Stephany explore graphic design as an idiom of everyday life, an instrument of knowledge production, a system of co-designing tools and methods – and as an open, contradictory field whose potential lies in diversity and the willingness to question the status quo.

The exhibition reveals how graphic design shapes our reality – and invites visitors to reflect further on the questions raised and to reimagine the discipline’s social responsibility.

Curator: Dr Jonas Deuter

The exhibition is sponsored by the KulturFonds Frankfurt RheinMain. The installation re constructed by Aline Bavier and Sophia Becker is sponsored by the Liechtenstein Cultural Foundation.

Press release

Press Images

Photo: Two-page book spread with abstract overlapping shapes and texts, left page reads "MAGIC MOUSE", right page reads "DUPLICATE PREVIOUS PAGE RE-DUPLICATE PAGE RE-DO PAGE RE-PAGE (PRAY)" in bold colors.
Photo: Open book showing two pages, left page with red text titled 'SURVIVING THE TOOLS', right page green with illustration of Winnie the Pooh and text 'sick days'
Photo: Open double-page spread with artistic layout of large overlapping text blocks in various font sizes and colors on a red background.
Photo: Two-page book spread with the title 'Porous Viewing Distances' in black text on a yellow and purple checkered background on the left and the text 'CRASH REPORT 4: PLEASE KEEP CRASHING' in red on a blue background on the right.
Photo: Girl sitting at a table with several moths on a white board, a table lamp, and a water bottle, some moths resting on her and the lamp.
Photo: Child stands on a grassy area in front of a wooden house looking up towards a ball with open mouth and outstretched arms, two white horses on a path in the background.
Photo: Two people sitting at a small table under a multicolored umbrella in a courtyard with plants and gardening tools against a weathered wall.
Black-and-white historical looking illustration showing a group of men in suits in front of a large world map on a wooden paneled wall, one man pointing at the map with an outstretched arm.
Illustration showing a realistic Earth globe on the left and a black-and-white line drawing of a person with a camera on the right against a colorful schematic background with numbers and letters.
Two men in fencing poses in front of a large disc-shaped object with concentric circles and lines in the background.
Historic painting of a sailing ship overlaid with a schematic map of the United States showing marked research institutions.

Exhibition Images

Please note that the image material may only be used in conjunction with a report on the exhibition and with the citation of the exhibition title in its entirety.