German on Tour – Language and Cultural Campaigns of the Goethe Institute

Among other things, the Goethe Institute is tasked with increasing the number of German learners worldwide, strengthening the study of the German language as a first or second foreign language in education systems. In this context, international competitions and information campaigns are implemented. For "Deutsch auf Tour" (EN: "German on Tour"), teams travel through various countries and visit schools and cultural institutions onsite. In a playful and interactive way, students and young adults can make their first contact with German language and culture.

This initiative is already in motion in a number of countries under various names and individualised designs. The Goethe Institute now plans to bring these campaigns under one name, professionalising them, and providing them with a coherent visual identity under the aegis of the institute. In accordance with this, we developed a flexible corporate design for Deutsch auf Tour which takes into account a particularly broad target group, meaning it can be put to use in different contexts. In this way, school directors, teachers, parents, students and pupils of various cultural backgrounds are addressed.

The basic elements of the design involve surfaces which can be put together to form different patters – as an abstract analogy with game boards and geographic structures, from a bird's eye view. In this way, a playful approach to language and visiting places is visually captured. The graphic structures are supported by icons from typical German symbols and - where appropriate - with witty, illustrative visuals. The design that emerged out of these elements can be adapted to various media in the respective local contexts – such as car stickers, pens, T-shirts, flyers, or social media campaigns.