Klaus Hesse

Klaus Hesse (born 1954 in Elberfeld) is a German graphic designer.

Klaus Hesse studied photography and typography at the University of Wupperthal.

In 1988, together with Christine Hesse he founded the agency Hesse Design in Düsseldorf; the duo also ran an office in Berlin between 2001 and 2004.

From 1993 through 1999, he taught as a professor for communication design at Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and the University of Essen (today Folkwang University of the Arts).

Klaus Hesse has been head of the Communications Design Department at the University of Art and Design Offenbach am Main from 1999 to 2020.

In 2006, Klaus Hesse won the long-established competition for the visual identity for the Kiel Regatta Week that year.

In 2006, his faculty topped the ranking of creative universities as chosen by German news magazine Focus.

Klaus Hesse was co-initiator of the 11 Designers for Germany on occasion of the 2006 World Cup and of the 1st Graphic Design Biennale Germany China in 2010, and editor-in-chef of the sushi yearbook from 1998 through 2015.

He has also conducted a series of tours giving lectures and holding workshops, which took him to Kraków, Poland, Puebla, Mexico, Basel, Switzerland, the Chinese metropolises of Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an and Chongqing, Sydney, Australia and Cape Town, South Africa.

Hesse is also a member of the Type Directors’ Club, New York.

From 2011 to 2018, he was dean of the art department.

In 2016, he founded another studio in Shanghai, China.

The agency is behind corporate designs for Audi, Bewag, Dekra, State Capital Düsseldorf, the Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart Trade Fair, Swarovski and the Upper Middle Rhine World Heritage Site, to name a few.

They have been nominated for the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany on several occasions and have won over 200 national and international awards.