Studio Schnettker
Studio Schnettker
Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

Everything is political.

A typography intervention on the streets of Cologne to shed light on the migration debate.

Role:
Art Direction

Project:

Köln International School of Design
Köln, Deutschland

Year: 
2017

 

Guerilla Street Intervention

Bringing typography to the road - This open briefing got dedicated to the theme of charity in context of the refugee debate. I created an installation for three large billboards placed directly on a railroad line. They got located near a shelter for refugees. The idea was a crossword puzzle where commuters had to find a word for “Love” with eleven letters. The intervention lasted for three days. With each new day, a new letter got added to yield the solution: Compassion.
Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

For the visual appearance, I tried a more playful approach, and structured it in the style of a crossword puzzle resembling the cliché of smugness in suburban life. The flexible shape of a crossword puzzle fitted perfectly with the billboards. Solving the riddle day-by-day by adding letters appeared to be very entertaining. I used two types of typography to suit the typographic aesthetics. One displays printed machine letters, and the other hand-writing to fill letters into the empty boxes.

Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln
Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

Guerilla Street Intervention

Bringing typography to the road - This open briefing got dedicated to the theme of charity in context of the refugee debate. I created an installation for three large billboards placed directly on a railroad line. They got located near a shelter for refugees. The idea was a crossword puzzle where commuters had to find a word for “Love” with eleven letters. The intervention lasted for three days. With each new day, a new letter got added to yield the solution: Compassion.

Role:
Art Direction

Project:

Köln International School of Design
Köln, Deutschland

Year: 
2017

 

For the visual appearance, I tried a more playful approach, and structured it in the style of a crossword puzzle resembling the cliché of smugness in suburban life. The flexible shape of a crossword puzzle fitted perfectly with the billboards. Solving the riddle day-by-day by adding letters appeared to be very entertaining. I used two types of typography to suit the typographic aesthetics. One displays printed machine letters, and the other hand-writing to fill letters into the empty boxes.

Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln
Tim Schnettker Studio Schnettker Service Design Köln

E: studio@tim-schnettker.de
IG: @timschnettker
Linkedin: Tim Schnettker

Tim has studied Integrated Design in Cologne and Barcelona. During his studies he researched in the field of visual communication with analog and digital media, as well as the potential of design for the creation of systems and processes. For his thesis he analyzed the theatrical and choreographic possibilities of service design processes and workshops to improve the visualization of problems in co-creative processes. After his studies he worked at the intersection of analog and digital design and performance in theater as video artist for the theater collective Studio Trafique and for Theater Bonn. Since the end of 2021 he has become an art director for the design agency VUCX in Cologne, developing brands and unique brand experience for clients in various industries. Since 2023 he studied a Master degree in Service Design Strategies and Innovations (sd-si) as Erasmus Mundus Scholar and graduated in June 2025.

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E: studio@tim-schnettker.de
IG: @timschnettker
Linkedin: Tim Schnettker

Tim has studied Integrated Design in Cologne and Barcelona. During his studies he researched in the field of visual communication with analog and digital media, as well as the potential of design for the creation of systems and processes. For his thesis he analyzed the theatrical and choreographic possibilities of service design processes and workshops to improve the visualization of problems in co-creative processes. After his studies he worked at the intersection of analog and digital design and performance in theater as video artist for the theater collective Studio Trafique and for Theater Bonn. Since the end of 2021 he has become an art director for the design agency VUCX in Cologne, developing brands and unique brand experience for clients in various industries. Since 2023 he studied a Master degree in Service Design Strategies and Innovations (sd-si) as Erasmus Mundus Scholar and graduated in June 2025.