CHRISTOPH LUCHS

Training

Born and raised in Höxter, East Westphalia, Germany, he began his diploma studies in graphic design at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. The focus of his main studies was on typography and photography. With Monika Schnell (Ulm), Inken Greisner (Berlin) and Ulrike Stolz (Mainz) he laid the foundations in the application of typography and in the design of own fonts.

For photography, Hartwig Klappert, Michael Ruetz (both Berlin) and Rolf Nobel (Hannover) shaped his view and selection in editorial design.

During his studies, Christoph Luchs was involved as a tutor in the field of desktop publishing and in the professional commission for the professorship of typography in the department of design.

An Erasmus scholarship led him to Manchester, where he studied illustration at the School of Art & Design in Salford. During this time, numerous medium-format photographs were created.

With his work “Fluchtlinien” on texts by the French philosophers Jean Baudrillard (“The Frenzy Standstill”) and Paul Virillo (“The Negative Horizon”) he completed his studies with Prof. Ruetz and Cem Alexander Sünter. The photographic series on the subject of “speed” and “disappearing” includes five selected motifs that show the inner workings of the Paris Metro, the Munich subway network and other subway stations in light boxes.

Professional career

Christoph Luchs first dealt with the topic of interface design in 2000, when he first developed user interfaces as a freelancer and later as an employee at ergon.design GmbH in Braunschweig. Mainly in the automotive and industrial sectors, including Volkswagen, Siemens, Leica Microsystems, Porsche and Bentley, he was responsible for the concept and design of the Graphical User Interfaces for research studies and series development.

This focus should also accompany him in his self-employment, first with Pixar GbR and later with the agency Cogneus Design, which he founded in 2006. During this time, numerous automotive studies in the infotainment sector were conducted. In addition, the font family “Infotainment” was created for Volkswagen AG, which was used for over 10 years on the displays and touchscreens of vehicles of the Volkswagen, Seat and Skoda brands.

After moving to Marburg in 2012, the reorientation began. The first projects were implemented together in regional networks with developers and designers. For this purpose, he developed the format “Designtag”, a congress at which topics about design are discussed and current projects are shown. The design day already took place in 2016 and 2017 and attracted numerous interested parties from the region.

Teaching

The interface design not only characterises his professional work, but also his teaching activities. At the Braunschweig University of Fine Arts he taught under Prof. Alexandra Martini in the subject of communication design students in the seminar Information_Interface, in which basics and own UI projects up to the prototype were taught.

Later he continued teaching at the Technical University of Middle Hesse under Prof. Julie Woletz, where students in the areas of interface design and digital brand development developed and presented website or brand concepts during semesters.

In 2023, he took over at the invitation of Prof. Julia Schnitzer received her first teaching assignment in the Master’s degree program Design and Media at the Brandenburg University of Technology. In 2024, the Students Academy Metaverse was followed as part of the DAAD project Ta’ziz – Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage, in 2025 the co-organisation of the 2. Conference Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage in cooperation with the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo in Paphos and then participation in the DAAD program Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage in cooperation with the GJU – German Jordanian University and the Jordan Museum, Amman, Jordan. This was followed by the Erasmus program Interactive Environments with Tallinn University, Estonia.

Ebenfalls unterrichtet Christoph Luchs als Lehrbeauftragter im Fachbereich Expanded Realities der Hochschule Darmstadt bei Prof. Dr. Paul Grimm im Projekt 5 – Augmented Realities für den UNESCO-Geopark Odenwald.

The teaching activities at the universities in Brandenburg and Darmstadt together with international cooperations (Erasmus, DAAD, etc.) will continue and intensify in 2026.

Honours and Certificates

If Communication Design Award 2006 for the Application Suite of Leica Microsystems

Adobe Consultant of the Year 2004 in Performance

Adobe Certified Expert InDesign

Negotiating according to the Harvard Principle – Institute Alte Waage, Braunschweig

Rhetoric in the profession – Hans David Institute, Braunschweig

Learning and Brain – Advanced training of the universities in Hesse together with the Charité Berlin

Video trainings (excerpt)

Typografie für Print und Web, LinkedIn, Graz, 2022
Erfolgreich im Design II., LinkedIn, Graz, 2022
Grundlagen der Typografie, LinkedIn, Graz, 2021
Erfolgreich im Design I., LinkedIn, Graz, 2020
Grundlagen der Farbgestaltung Teil III, LinkedIn, Graz, 2020
Digitale Markenentwicklung, LinkedIn, Graz, 2019
Grundlagen der Farbgestaltung Teil II, LinkedIn, Graz, 2019
Grundlagen der Farbgestaltung Teil I, LinkedIn, Graz, 2019
Netzwerken für Kreative, LinkedIn, Graz, 2018
InDesign Praxistipps II, LinkedIn, Graz, 2018
Grundlagen des Interface Design, LinkedIn, Graz, 2017
Gestaltungsgrundlagen für Webdesigner, LinkedIn, Graz, 2017

Publications (print)

• InDesign 2, Galileo Press, Bonn, 2002
• InDesign CS, Galileo Design, Bonn, 2003
• InDesign CS2, Galileo Design, Bonn, 2004
• inDesign CS3, Galileo Design, Bonn, 2005
• Praxishandbuch InDesign CS4, Addison Wesley, Pearson Group, München, 2007
• Grundlagen InDesign CS5, Addison Wesley, Pearson Group, München, 2009
• Numerous expert articles in the journals PAGE, MACup and Publishing Praxis