Leon Lukas Plum
Graphic Design

I’m Leon, a graphic designer living in Frankfurt, specialising in printed matter. I mainly work on projects in the fields of art, culture, and science.

How I understand graphic design

We are surrounded by things that have been designed—although we are not always aware of it. We encounter graphic design even in the most unassuming moments of our everyday lives. And yet it is anything but clear what ‘graphic design’ actually means. Perhaps because graphic design operates in the space in between, because it translates, interprets, and mediates. This labour places responsibility on graphic designers, for there is no such thing as formless content, nor can any form be necessarily derived from content.

Whether commissioned by others or undertaken independently: graphic design is a service insofar as it places itself at the service of something or someone. In doing so, it can keep a low profile and speak with the voice of others, or rise to speak itself and become a questioning practice. It cannot, however, be neutral. The art lies in finding a suitable position amongst all these equally valid registers.

Approaching a subject with care and curiosity, taking it seriously, thinking it through and, at best, even allowing yourself to be moved by it—that is how I would describe my ideal of graphic design.

‘Gramsci once famously noted that the future should be approached with “an optimism of the heart, and a pessimism of the mind”. I notice something similar in Leon’s practice—working and thinking with utopia in the heart, and dystopia on the mind.’
Danny van den Dungen, Experimental Jetset

Contact

info@leonlukasplum.com
@leonlukasplum

CV