As part of the launch of the new Visual Knowledge master's programme, the Visual Communication Department at HEAD – Genève is pleased to invite you to Joost Grootens' lecture, which will take place on Wednesday 02 April 2025, from 12:00PM to 13:00PM.
In an era of unprecedented amounts of data and an ever-expanding range of publishing formats, the field of information design seems more relevant than ever. Perhaps even more so, given that recent decades have seen another parallel development: as data has surged and publishing has become more accessible, the very concept of truth has grown increasingly fluid.

This shift is both technological and social – driven by new forms of manipulation, from deepfakes to algorithmic bias – and shaped by populist politics, media fragmentation, and social media echo chambers. In this evolving landscape, where information is abundant but trust is eroding, designers must do more than simply present data clearly.

Joost Grootens is a designer, educator, and researcher working in book and information design, following an investigative approach to making complex content accessible while simultaneously critically examining and testing the tools, data, and media used in the process. He does this in his studio, SJG, and within design education. Formerly head of the Information Design programme at Design Academy Eindhoven, he is now Professor of Artistic Research in Visual Design at the Royal Danish Academy.
In his lecture, Joost Grootens will present his vision for the field of information design, the role design education can play in updating, testing, and expanding the discipline, and examples of projects from his studio that embody the critically investigative approach he advocates.

The conference will be introduced and moderated by Clémence Imbert, teacher and historian of graphic design at HEAD – Genève.

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Joost Grootens
Joost Grootens is a graphic designer, educator and researcher. Based in Amsterdam (NL) and Biel/Bienne (CH), his studio SJG designs books, maps, typefaces, spatial installations and digital information environments for publishers like Lars Müller Publishers, nai010 publishers, Phaidon press; educational and research institutes like ETH Zürich, Future Cities Laboratory Singapore, TU Munich; and museums like Astrup Fearnly Museet Oslo, Serpentine Galleries London, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven. SJG won numerous prizes for their designs. Among them the Golden Letter and two gold medals in the Best Book Design from all over the World competition, and twice the Dutch Design Award for Graphic Design. Joost is Professor of Artistic Research in Visual Design at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, and also holds a teaching position at ISIA Urbino. Previously, he was the head of the Information Design Master programme at Design Academy Eindhoven. Joost studied architectural design at Gerrit Rietveld Academy Amsterdam and obtained his doctorate at Leiden University. His research addresses the transformation of the fields and practices of graphic design and mapmaking resulting from technological changes in tools to record, create, edit, produce and disseminate visual information.

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To go further
Clémence Imbert and Joost Grootens are currently collaborating on WYSIWYG, an interdisciplinary research project that aims to document, from a historical and theoretical perspective, the digital turn in graphic design practice.
How and when did the computer become the main working tool for graphic designers? And what are the long-term effects of these technologies on the practice of graphic design today?
For more information, visit http://wysiwyg.ch.