In a world of constant change, everything rigid will break. We need to unlearn static approaches and learn to see, understand and design flexible systems. Flexible Visual Systems sums up 10 years of research by Dr. Martin Lorenz at the University of Barcelona, 20 years of developing systems at TwoPoints.Net, and 18 years of teaching systems at over 10 design universities throughout Europe.
“Contemporary visual identities need to adapt and function consistently in a wide range of interactive, in motion, and static formats. The current landscape of design education, for the most part, still relies on concepts from the Bauhaus and Swiss “International” style; while significant historically, they can be pretty deficient when applied to design that is evolving with new technologies. Thanks to Martin, we now have a book to help us think and design ‘flexibly!’ This book will undoubtedly help educators like myself bring these new processes and ways of thinking into the classroom.”
Mitch Paone, Dia Studio
“Martin Lorenz’s typographic systems are gorgeous and inspiring. The seemingly infinite possibilities for typographic construction and customization are astounding. I’m sure they will turn up in my work. Many thanks, Martin!”
Paula Scher, Pentagram, New York
“Después de años de investigación y práctica con sistemas flexibles, Martin Lorenz nos deja este libro. Ya tiene un lugar destacado en mi biblioteca.”
Mario Eskenazi
“Este libro es fundamental para entender y explicar las identidades visuales flexibles.”
Verònica Fuerte, Hey Studio
“Dear Martin, I’ve long believed that sameness tends to be overvalued in design and branding so I am very happy about your contribution to the world of flexible visual systems, a wonderful primer for people interested in elastic identities.”
Stefan Sagmeister
“Grid systems may be produced by the left side of the brain and art creation by the right side of the brain: Martin’s book proves that there’s a field for playing around with both sides: real creativity is all about embracing both sides and that’s what is marvelous about his work.”
Genevieve Gauckler
“This is a wonderful book for both design students and practitioners who want to explore a more rule-based and dynamic approach to graphic design. I think the most interesting work today are done by designers who, rather than make one-off visual identities, manage to create flexible design systems, and this book is a great reference for those kinds of projects.”
Rune Madsen, Co-founder of Design Systems International
“This book hasn’t left my desk since I got it. It’s all initially so simple but the amount of space and variability that Martin covers is really profound. The insights and experiments are nested inside each other, one after another. I’ll be stealing from this for a long time.”
Kiel Mutschenknaus
What the design press says about the book:
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New Courses
The CAA Method
6 Lessons (11) + 2 Footnotes
In this course, you will learn how to design flexible systems for visual identities based on form. The 3-Step method “Components, Assets, Application” is the main approach used in the book Flexible Visual Systems. Being able to design custom assets does not just help you design distinctive visual identities, it also speeds up your application process and opens it up to co-workers.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: What do I mean by …?
Lesson 3: Components
Lesson 4: Asset Symbols
Lesson 4.1: Asset Line
Lesson 4.2: Asset Frame
Lesson 4.3: Asset Shape
Lesson 4.4: Asset Letters
Lesson 4.5: Asset Pattern
Lesson 5: How to Apply Your Assets?
Lesson 6: Put the Learned into Action
+ Footnote: CAA Explained
+ Footnote: Stacked Components
+ Interview: Lena Weber
Systemic Creativity
7 Lessons
This course will make your creative process more efficient and effective without taking any of the creative freedom you need. It helps you to focus, go deeper in your exploration, make the design process transparent, identify key elements, and distinguish between the ones that work and the ones that make the result weaker.
Lesson 1: Systematic Creativity, an Oxymoron?
Lesson 2: System Theory
Lesson 3: Limitation
Lesson 4: Iterations
Lesson 5: Fritz Zwicky
Lesson 6: Karl Gerstner
Lesson 7: A box for FVS
History Lesson
10 Lessons + 6 Footnotes
Only if we know where we are coming from, we know why we are, where we are and how to move on into the future.
I am still working on this course. As soon as the first lessons are done, I will inform you through the Patreon Newsletter.
Lesson 1: Introduction
Lesson 2: Designing Languages
Lesson 3: Logo ≠ Visual Identity
Lesson 4: Why Identities became more flexible?
Lesson 5: Are FVI’s a new thing?
Lesson 6: The Design Manual
Lesson 7: The Design Template
Lesson 8: The Construction Kit
Lesson 9: The Program
Lesson 10: How do contemporary FVI’s work?
New Articles
Taaalks Podcast
At the beginning of 2023, Tim and I were invited to Munich to have a conversation with Max from Moby Digg about Artificial Intelligence, Design Education, Creative Coding, and Flexible Systems. Max, being a very smart guy and skilled interviewer, touched on a lot of subjects Tim and I haven’t spoken about publicly before.
A.I. Supported Type Design Workshop
In January 2023 I was invited by Professor Altenbrandt and Professor Nießler (Pixelgarten) to give a workshop at the HfG Offenbach, involving Artificial Intelligence. In this article, I explain why I think we should be critical of the way we use it.
FVS Manifesto Explained
On the first page of the book Flexible Visual Systems, you will find a Manifesto that does not come with any explanation. In lectures, I tried to explain each of the points because I am aware that every abbreviation contains the risk of misinterpretation. This is an attempt to make the elaboration available to everyone.
Interview with Lena Weber
Lena is a system designer between Weimar and Berlin. During her studies at the Bauhaus-University Weimar she positioned herself as a multidisciplinary designer, exploring the intersection of creative coding, typography, and visual research.
Stacked Components
If you haven’t seen the Christmas campaign of Spotify you have been living under a rock or simply don’t have Spotify or social media. What I want to have a look at in the context of the course CAA Method is the use of stacked components.
CAA Explained
This Footnote article explains the dynamics of the CAA Method. On the left side, you see the input, in the middle the throughput or system, and on the right the output.
Social Media Last
I have a problem with social media and, even worse, I have a problem with myself. I keep coming back, even though I know it is a waste of time.
FVS Glossary
An ever-growing glossary of terms that are helpful when talking about Flexible Visual Systems.
Interview with Tim Rodenbröker
We had an insightful conversation about creative coding, community-based education, how he gets his jobs, and where his and my teaching overlap.
About
You can only do a couple of big projects in your life. One big project came to an end when I published the book Flexible Visual Systems which compiles 10 years of research and 20 years of experience as a designer and teacher. I am still buzzing from the overwhelming support from the international design community.
Unfortunately producing and distributing books is expensive and not everyone is able to get a copy of FVS. That’s why my next big project is to further develop the content of the book and make it accessible to my international Patreon crowd in form of online courses, tutorials, articles, interviews, etc., and the beauty of it, I am going to do this through a community-based education model that lets us decide together which direction this adventure will take us.
The FVS Curriculum
Light Grey = Courses I am working on
Yellow = Footnotes to Courses
Light Pink = Additional Learning Material
Updated on the 10th of May 2023
Live Events
2022 has been a busy year. Apart from teaching at the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague and Elisava, I gave workshops at the Film Academy Ludwigsburg, HGB Leipzig, Sideline Creative Birmingham, École Supérieure de Design de Troyes, and the Google VISD Summit Worldwide. One of the highlights was definitely the four-day workshop for the fantastic students of UMPRUM, The Academy of Arts, Architecture, and Design. Thank you so much for making me feel at home! The workshop was based on pages 72–75 of the book Flexible Visual Systems. Here are a couple of brilliant systems the workshop participants came up with.
2023:
Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach Workshop: A.I. Supported Type Systems
Elisava Master Degree in Graphic Design Workshop: Systemic Type Design
Elisava Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design Course: System Theory
Elisava Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design Course: Flexible Visual Identities
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Master Degree Motion Design Workshop: Type In Motion
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg Master Degree Motion Design Workshop: Motion Identities
PAGE Academie Workshop: Flexible Visual Identities
Espaço, Espaços do Design no Contemporâneo Masterclass: Flexible Visual Identities
Hochschule der Künste Bern Workshop: Flexible Visual Systems
Manchester School of Art Lecture: Flexible Visual Systems
Blanc Festival Lecture: Flexible Systems
Community
About Martin
Dr. Martin Lorenz (1977, Hanover, Germany) is the grandson, son, and nephew of teachers. His escape plan from this family tradition was to become a graphic designer.
He graduated from the Graphic Design department at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) of The Hague, Netherlands, after having previously studied communication design at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt, Germany. While founding the design Studio TwoPoints.Net with Lupi Asensio and raising two boys, he enrolled first in a Master’s Degree and later in a Ph.D. Degree at the University of Barcelona, Spain, writing a doctoral dissertation about flexible visual systems in communication design.
Martin became a teacher. Since 2003 he has taught at various European Universities. He currently teaches at the Bachelor’s and Masters Degree of Graphic Design of Elisava, Barcelona, and the Graphic Design Department of the Royal Academy of Arts (KABK), The Hague.
Get in contact with Martin through Patreon or
www.instagram.com/flexiblevisualsystems/
www.instagram.com/martinlorenz
www.es.linkedin.com/in/martinattwopointsnet
Teaching Experience
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Systemic Type Design
2020 – Present
Barcelona, Spain
Master Degree in Graphic Design
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Flexible Systems for Visual Identities
2020 – Present
Barcelona, Spain
Bachelor Degree in Graphic Design
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg GmbH
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Systems
2020 – Present
Ludwigsburg, Germany
École Supérieure de Design de Troyes
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Systems
2022 – Present
Troyes, France
HfG Offenbach
Workshop Lecturer for A.I. Supported Type Design
2023
Leipzig, Germany
KABK Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Lecturer for Typographic Systems
2020 – 2022
The Hague, Netherlands
HGB Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Systems
2022
Leipzig, Germany
UMPRUM Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Systems
2022
Prag, Czech Republic
Google
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Visual Systems
2022
Two online workshops. One for the American continent and another for Europe and Asia.
Istituto Europeo di Design
Lecturer for Flexible Visual Identities
2020 – 2021
Barcelona, Spain
Istituto Europeo di Design
Workshop Lecturer for Type Design
2020
Barcelona, Spain
HMKW University of Applied Sciences for Media, Communication and Management
Lecturer for Kinetic Typography
2021
Berlin, Germany
Tipos en su tinta
Workshop Lecturer for Type Design
2020
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
HMKW Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft
Lecturer for Poster Design
2020
Frankfurt, Germany
HMKW Hochschule für Medien, Kommunikation und Wirtschaft
Lecturer for Flexible Visual Systems
2020
Frankfurt, Germany
HAW Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Lecturer for Kinetic Typography
2020
Hamburg, Germany
KW Kunstschule Wandsbek
Lecturer for Corporate Design
2015 – 2020
Hamburg, Germany
KW Kunstschule Wandsbek
Lecturer for Editorial Design
2015 – 2020
Hamburg, Germany
KW Kunstschule Wandsbek
Lecturer for the Basics of Graphic Design
2015 – 2018
Hamburg, Germany
HAW Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Workshop Lecturer
2019
Hamburg, Germany
TGM Typografische Gesellschaft München
Workshop Lecturer
2019
Munich, Germany
Istituto Europeo di Design
Workshop Lecturer for Poster Design
2018
Madrid, Spain
Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Visual Systems
2017
Kiel, Germany
Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft undGestaltung
Workshop Lecturer for Flexible Visual Systems
2016
Constance, Germany
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Director of the Postgraduate Degree of Applied Typography
2010 – 2012
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Micro-Typography at the Postgraduate Degree ofTypography
2010 – 2012
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Flexible Systems for Visual Identities at the PostgraduateDegree of Typography
2010 – 2012
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Design at the Postgraduate Degree of Typography
2010 – 2012
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Systems at the Postgraduate Degree of Typography
2010 – 2012
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Flexible Systems for Visual Identities at the Masters Degree of Branding
2009 – 2011
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Design at the Masters Degree of Graphic Design
2006 – 2009
Barcelona, Spanien
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Typography at the Masters Degree of Graphic Design
2006 – 2009
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Flexible Systems for Visual Identities at the Masters Degree of Graphic Design
2006 – 2009
Barcelona, Spain
Elisava Escola Universitària de Disseny i Enginyeria de Barcelona
Lecturer for Systems at the Masters Degree of Graphic Design
2006 – 2009
Barcelona, Spain
Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull
Lecturer and Member of the Board of Examiners at the Masters Degree of Cool Hunting
2009 – 2012
Blanquerna – Universitat Ramon Llull
Member of the Board of Examiners at the Masters Degree for Branding
2009 – 2012
Universitat Abat Oliba CEU
Member of the Board of Examiners at the Masters Degree for Branding
2009 – 2012
Barcelona, Spain
Instituto Europeo di Design
Lecturer for Visual Identities
2010
Barcelona, Spain
HSB Hochschule Bremen – City University of Applied Sciences
Workshop Lecturer
2008
Bremen, Germany
Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam
Workshop Lecturer for Visual Communication
2007
Rotterdam, Netherlands
IDEP BARCELONA Escuela Superior de Imagen y Diseño (UAO)
Lecturer for Visual Communication
2006 – 2007
Barcelona, Spain
IDEP BARCELONA Escuela Superior de Imagen y Diseño (UAO)
Lecturer for Poster Design
2006 – 2007
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
HFG Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach
Lecturer for Illustration
2006 – 2006
Offenbach, Germany
MSD Münster
Workshop Lecturer for Illustration
2004
Münster, Germany
Page Academy
2003
Hamburg, Germany