Short biography

On finishing school, Christoph Barth trained as a type setter in a publishing house. He then studied visual communication to diploma level at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Schwäbisch Gmünd.

He subsequently worked as an art director at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather in Frankfurt, where he developed concepts for various clients such as Deutsche Bahn, American Express, Polaroid, Airtours and the WWF.

Moving to Leo Burnett, he built up his own team as creative director and oversaw the branding of clients such as Condor Airlines, Braun, Zeiss Optik, Filmmuseum Frankfurt, Amnesty International.

In 2001Christoph Barth assumed overall creative responsibility for Leo Burnett Germany. In the course of his career he has won over 100 prizes and awards at national and interntional festivals.

From 1998 to 2008 member of the Art Directors Club Deutschland.

Since 2006 professor of design and concept at the Design Faculty Würzburg.

Teaching position

Conceptional design is central to my teaching. This is the attempt to grasp thematic essence and to consider very different aspects as a whole. Thoughts about the target group and initial creative ideas intensify around this, and can be followed to a relevant and hopefully surprising result.

‘Open-minded’ working is fundamental to me. At the beginning of a course it is still unclear what the concrete result will be. Only as the project proceeds does the connection between specifically elaborated content and the strongest design idea decide on the media and the creative tools for the work’s realisation.

The subject matter of my courses comes from all quarters, as a wide general interest is a designer’s basic requirement. Apart from the familiar professional fields, it often reflects social issues, usually connected with the question of whether we as designers might bring our competence to bear at other, as yet undefined interfaces in order to expedite the necessary future discourse.