The University of Barcelona joins forces with Planeta Formación y Universidades and the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya to promote training and research in the field of graphic desig
Group photograph of the representatives of the UB, Planeta y Formación and the Col·legi de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya.
News
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Institutional
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UB Chair
(22/07/2025)
The University of Barcelona, Planeta Formación y Universidades and Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya presented the UB Chair on Communication Design yesterday in the boardroom of the Historic Building. The collaboration between the University and both partners will support training, research and knowledge transfer activities in the field of graphic design.
Group photograph of the representatives of the UB, Planeta y Formación and the Col·legi de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya.
News
|
Institutional
|
UB Chair
22/07/2025
The University of Barcelona, Planeta Formación y Universidades and Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya presented the UB Chair on Communication Design yesterday in the boardroom of the Historic Building. The collaboration between the University and both partners will support training, research and knowledge transfer activities in the field of graphic design.
Among the main objectives of the chair are to foster research activity and knowledge in the discipline, to encourage the recruitment of emerging talent, to promote professional, legal and ethical development, and to recognize and reward academic and professional excellence.
Jesús del Hoyo, professor at the Department of Visual Arts and Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts and director of the Chair, recalled that the idea came about seven years ago and that it has managed to come into being thanks to the perseverance of the various people and institutions that have been involved. He also explained the reason for the name: “Graphic design is the means to build communication”. In this sense, he noted that it is a “committed and honest” communication. Based on these principles, he pointed out that the chair must face current challenges in graphic design, such as “disciplinary understanding, professional organization and responsibility for what is communicated”.
The rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, welcomed the creation of this chair, which he said should be “a turning point”. He highlighted the importance of collaboration between institutions to build projects of this type, which strengthen relations between the professional and academic worlds, as well as between public and private entities united by a “strong desire to serve”. Guàrdia also highlighted the role of the Faculty of Fine Arts as “a leading institution”.
Carlos Giménez, CEO of Planeta Formación y Universidades, the Grupo Planeta’s higher education network, emphasized: “This chair reflects our desire to continue building public-private alliances that promote talent, innovation and the connection between the academic world and the professional environment. Together with the UB and the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya, we promote training and research oriented towards the real needs of society and the productive sector, also in areas such as design, which play a growing role in social and economic transformation”.
Jesús del Hoyo, professor at the Department of Visual Arts and Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts and director of the Chair, recalled that the idea came about seven years ago and that it has managed to come into being thanks to the perseverance of the various people and institutions that have been involved. He also explained the reason for the name: “Graphic design is the means to build communication”. In this sense, he noted that it is a “committed and honest” communication. Based on these principles, he pointed out that the chair must face current challenges in graphic design, such as “disciplinary understanding, professional organization and responsibility for what is communicated”.
The rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Guàrdia, welcomed the creation of this chair, which he said should be “a turning point”. He highlighted the importance of collaboration between institutions to build projects of this type, which strengthen relations between the professional and academic worlds, as well as between public and private entities united by a “strong desire to serve”. Guàrdia also highlighted the role of the Faculty of Fine Arts as “a leading institution”.
Carlos Giménez, CEO of Planeta Formación y Universidades, the Grupo Planeta’s higher education network, emphasized: “This chair reflects our desire to continue building public-private alliances that promote talent, innovation and the connection between the academic world and the professional environment. Together with the UB and the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya, we promote training and research oriented towards the real needs of society and the productive sector, also in areas such as design, which play a growing role in social and economic transformation”.
The new chair will promote a series of actions aimed at attracting and supporting emerging talent, including the creation of an incubator for project excellence in graphic design.
Rosa Fonts, from the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya, said that this is a “firm step towards placing graphic design in its rightful place as an academic, heritage and professional discipline”. She claimed the pioneering nature of the chair, “the first in Spain dedicated to graphic design from the field of the arts and humanities”. Fonts defined it as an equilateral triangle with three vertices, regarding the three institutions that promote it, and that at the same time aims to be an open and flexible construction; a solid and living structure”. Finally, she concluded that it is framed within the conception of design “as an engine of real change”.
Some actions promoted by the Chair are the specific and explicit recognition of the heritage value of graphic design; the creation of an incubator of project excellence in graphic design; the establishment of a thematic award in the gaudeamusPROJECTA awards; the implementation of project and training actions, in accordance with the current needs and challenges of the professional market, and holding of conferences and workshops on the discipline and its responsibility to society, among others.
Other representatives of Planeta Formación y Universidades and the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya attended the presentation ceremony of the Chair.
Some actions promoted by the Chair are the specific and explicit recognition of the heritage value of graphic design; the creation of an incubator of project excellence in graphic design; the establishment of a thematic award in the gaudeamusPROJECTA awards; the implementation of project and training actions, in accordance with the current needs and challenges of the professional market, and holding of conferences and workshops on the discipline and its responsibility to society, among others.
Other representatives of Planeta Formación y Universidades and the Col·legi Oficial de Disseny Gràfic de Catalunya attended the presentation ceremony of the Chair.
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