Poetry on the Road is an international literature festival which is held every year in Bremen, Germany. Since 2002 I am commisioned to design a visual theme for the festival. While the theme itself is changing, the underlying idea for the visuals is always the same: All graphics are generated by a computer program that turns texts into images. So every image is the direct representation of a specific text. The design and the development process are a collaboration with the design agency jung und pfeffer. (Now one/one)

The approach in the 2002 piece was to transform the letters into a dynamic pattern. The shape and the colour of each object represent a letter, the angle of each object represents the language of the poem.

The pattern is based on selected poems of the participants of the festival. Every poet is represented with a piece of her / his work. So once you have cracked the code, it would be possible to read an excerpt of all the poems that were part of the festival.

If you would like to experiment more with this concept, please have a look at our interactive poetry-typer.

Launch interactive poetry-typer

For the design of Poetry on the Road 2002, we have already received a »Certificate of Typographic Excellence« from the Type Directors Club New York. Furthermore the poster, it was also selected among the »100 beste Plakate 2002«, the 100 best posters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the year 2002.