Impressions (Typography Workshop)

Impressions is a typography-focused making session for designers, makers, and visual explorers who want to step away from clean screens and back into ink, pressure, and physical texture.

We’ll create simple printing tools and letterforms with everyday materials, then test, adjust, and print in layers. The point is not to “get it right,” but to see what happens when type becomes something you build and touch rather than something you select.

When typography becomes physical, it starts to behave differently. A smudge can become atmosphere. A misalignment can become movement. A rough edge can become voice. You’ll generate printed studies and experiments you can keep as finished pieces, or return to later as raw material for other work.

We’ll end with a brief look at what emerged, choose what feels alive, and pack it up to take home.

Alex Libotte is a Berlin-based visual artist, photographer, and former creative director with a background in Communication Design. After years working across the creative industry and living in London and São Paulo, his practice gradually shifted from brand and agency work toward a more personal, process-led approach rooted in experimentation, craft, and making by hand. Today, he teaches a course on experimental design in Hamburg and brings that studio and workshop mindset into every session.

Alex co-founded Space Of Hearts together with his wife, Adriana Takeuchi Libotte, as a space for hands-on practice, cultural exchange, and creative community. Design Unplugged is the result of many conversations with fellow creatives about the fact that in a screen-first, AI-accelerated industry, many of them are starting to miss the tactile side of the actual craft and that returning to materials can restore creative confidence, satisfaction, and a more human visual voice.

Design Unplugged is a series of hands-on, off-screen workshops for designers, makers, and visual explorers at Space Of Hearts in Berlin.

It's a deliberate interruption. A holiday from perfect. A retreat off-screen where experimentation, and the act of making, matter more than the polished outcome. We consider it freedom from the need to perform. A space for you to simply be and experiment. Here, the hands and the heart lead again.

Our workshops are built for anyone who considers themselves a designer, an illustrator, or a creative mind who misses making with their hands, and for anyone curious about experimental methods that don’t start with a template.

There are various formats within the Design Unplugged series, but the intention is the same: step out of digital autopilot, calm the system, experiment without needing immediate answers, and rebuild trust in your own ability to create, to make. You’ll leave with artifacts, techniques, and inspiration, but more importantly with a refreshed relationship to what creative work can hold. Not faster or better, but honest and more human.

• A set of printed typographic studies and compositions
• A small collection of handmade stamps and texture tools
• Experiments in repetition, rhythm, spacing, and layout through print
• A reset toward trust, taste, and creative confidence

Clothes that can handle ink/paint, and any small textured objects you’d like to test for printing (packaging, mesh, leaves, fabric scraps, cardboard, etc.)

Duration: 3 hours
Language: English
Group size: Up to 12 people
Price: €39.00 per person (materials and tea/coffee/water included)

Materials provided: Paper stock, inks/paint for printing, foam and carving material, basic block materials, potatoes and carving tools, rollers/brayers (if available), cutting tools, pens/markers, glue/tape as needed, protective table covers
Who it’s for: Designers, illustrators, and all curious makers who want to get off-screen and into hands-on experimentation. No prior experience needed, background and interesst in visual arts or graphic design is helpful

Minimum participants: 4 people. If fewer than 4 people are booked, we will cancel the workshop and issue a full refund.
Cancellation and refunds: Tickets are non-refundable. If we cancel the workshop, you will receive a full refund.

Takeaway: Your physical studies, a great memory and the satisfaction of having worked with your hands and physical materials.

Photo & Video Disclaimer:

We may take photos and short videos during the event for documentation and promotion. If you prefer not to be photographed or filmed, please let us know when you arrive.

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