James Langdon is an educator, designer, and writer with a PhD from RMIT University, Melbourne, focusing on isomorphism in communication design. He was a professor at HfG Karlsruhe and has taught at HGB Leipzig, EKA Tallinn, and ESAD Valence, as well as at other schools worldwide. As a designer, he has worked with institutions such as Serpkloentine Galleries and the National Gallery of Victoria, and publishers like Sternberg Press. His work has been featured at conferences including ‘Bold Italic’ and ‘Integrated,’ and his writing has appeared in journals like Bricks from the Kiln and The Bulletins of the Serving Library.

Maureen Mooren studied graphic design at the Willem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam. Her work focuses on dealing with questions of representation. She independently develops corporate designs, books and print material for cultural institutions such as the Holland Festival, Marres Center for Contemporary Culture Maastricht and If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution. She also designs artist’s books, she was one of the exhibiting artists of “Opera Aperta / Loose Work” in the Dutch Pavilion at the 54th Biennale di Venezia. Mooren has been responsible for the visual identity and works as an Art Director for Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam since October 2013. From 2011 to 2014, Mooren taught at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Arnhem on the Faculty of Graphic Design. In addition, she taught from 2011 to 2014 at the Werkplaats Arnhem in Typography. Since 2014, she is Professor of System Design at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig. Maureen Mooren lives and works in Amsterdam and Leipzig.

Nina Sieverding is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of “the thing Magazine”. She studied Visual Communication and Art History in Braunschweig, and Integrated Design in Bremen. Nina worked as a journalist, copywriter, and graphic designer before joining the editorial department of the renowned magazine “form” in 2019. From 2020 to 2023, she held the position of editor-in-chief at “form” alongside Anton Rahlwes. In 2023, the duo founded the online design magazine “the thing Magazine.” Nina teaches History of Visual Communication at the University of Art and Design in Offenbach/Main.

Na Kim is a graphic designer based in Seoul and Berlin. Kim’s design practice as a system engages without putting limits on the field of graphic design. Kim is taking a methodology to collect objects and events found in everyday life and rearrange them into new order and rules, ultimately expanding design literacy. Recently she is running a project space called, LOOM in Berlin. Besides many other projects, she was responsible for the concept and design of GRAPHIC magazine from 2009 till 2011 and has initiated series projects based on her monograph, SET since 2015. Kim’s works have been invited to many international exhibitions at Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Gwangju Design Biennale, Kukje Gallery, MMCA, V&A, MoMA, Milan Triennale Museum, and so on. In addition, Kim has been a curator for Fikra Graphic Design Biennial, Chaumont Graphic Design Festival, and Typojanchi: Seoul International Typography Biennale, International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno.

Tereza Ruller (she/her) sees herself as a mother, communication designer, researcher and educator. In her studio The Rodina (together with Vit Ruller), she explores performative and critical approaches to graphic design. Her transdisciplinary practice emphasizes the power of the situation, playfulness, active spectatorship and the relationships between human and non-human actors. Ruller's work is deeply collaborative and consists of participatory events, spatial installations, virtual environments and visual identities. By addressing critical issues of our time - such as ecological and social crises – she seeks to develop collective shifts in perspective.

Laucke Siebein is the design duo Dirk Laucke and Johanna Siebein. The studio offers a broad spectrum of expertise in the field of visual communication and the implementation of high-quality design concepts. Their most important tool is ambitious design that never aims for disinterested appeal or the fulfillment of a schematic sense of beauty. Instead, they combine the familiar with the unfamiliar, the explicit with the implicit. They create clear, context- and location-specific statements that give courage. Their aim is to create images that are impossible to evade.

Anke Haarmann is a philosopher, artist and design theoretician. She directs the PhDArts doctoral programme for artists and designers at Leiden University, where she also holds a professorship in Practice and Theory of Research in the Visual Arts. She is director of the Centre for Design Research at HAW Hamburg and In her theoretical and aesthetic practice, Haarmann works on both artistic and design research and has published extensively in this field.

Anne Büttner is a Berlin-based designer who specializes in creative direction, concept development, and design. A particular emphasis is placed on a seamless interplay and a collaborative approach in the fields of art, culture, and fashion.