Fons Hickmann is a German graphic designer and professor for Communication Design at the University of the Arts Berlin.
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Fons M. Hickmann studied Photography and Communication Design combined with Philosophy in Düsseldorf, and Aesthetics and Media Theory in Wuppertal. He directs the studio Fons Hickmann m23 in Berlin. Emphasis is placed on the development of complex communication systems and corporate design as well as book, poster, magazine and web design. The studio has been awarded numerous internationally renowned accolades, and the works have been represented at every international design biennial.
Fons Hickmann was professor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, from 2001 to 2007, before taking over the professorship in Graphic Design in the UdK Berlin University of the Arts Faculty of Design in 2007. Previous to this, he taught at the Universities of Essen and Dortmund, and gave lectures and seminars in, among other places, London, Ljubliana, Istanbul, Beijing and Shanghai. He is an appointed member of the Type Directors Club of New York and the Art Directors Club Germany, as well as of the Alliance Graphique Internationale.
Together with some colleagues Hickmann promoted the initiative '11 Designers for Germany' which tried to bring a consciousness for graphic design into the public sphere and received large scale media attention in order to prevent the adoption of an embarrassing logo for the soccer world cup in Germany in 2006.
Fons Hickmann and his studio were invited to exhibit at the opening of the world’s first ‘Graphic Design Museum’, in Breda in the Netherlands. The exhibition ‘European Championship of Graphic Design’ was opened by the Dutch Queen Beatrix in June 2008.
The first comprehensive monograph of his work was published under the title ‘Touch Me There’ by dvg Berlin/London/Tokyo. The book ‘Beyond Graphic Design’ documents his work with students.