Workshop 1: Urban Sketching and Linocut
Teaching Staff: Yuliia Fomichova
Yuliia Fomichova is an experienced trainer, graphic designer and social entrepreneur whose professional journey bridges the fields of human rights, creative education and visual communication. As President of the Charitable Fund League of Tolerance in Ukraine, she has led countless initiatives aimed at empowering youth, promoting equality and developing non-formal education projects that focus on inclusion and intercultural dialogue. Yuliia is also an active freelance graphic designer and illustrator, with over 10 years of experience producing visual concepts, educational materials and creative content for NGOs and social projects.
Since 2020, she has been leading Urban Sketching communities in Ukraine and Sweden, helping participants to explore cities, capture everyday life and share personal perspectives through drawing. In Sweden, she has volunteered with children and youth projects and worked with RFSL Stockholm to provide peer-to-peer mental health support for asylum seekers. Her academic background combines applied chemistry and food technologies with creative design and visual communication, giving her a unique interdisciplinary perspective.
She has an impressive ability to integrate artistic practice, technical knowledge and social engagement into her trainings. Yuliia is passionate about building inclusive, creative environments where participants gain new skills, self-confidence and inspiration to express their ideas visually.
Leonardo Mesa Cabrera
Leonardo Mesa Cabrera, born in Bogota, studied Graphic Design in Universidad Los Libertadores in Bogotá, then specialised in Innovation and Stategic Design in Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin. He got his master’s degree in Integrated Design at Anhalt University in Dessau, where he also pursues a PhD in Design.
He has been working as a designer since 2012, and was a Research Assistant of the Young City Makers project from 2023 to 2025, this project just got a nomination for the Design Awards in Colombia “Lapiz De Acero” in the Urban Interior Spaces Category. Looking always to make bridges within Academy and practice, he has been part of the Imagenpalabra Illustrations Festivals in Colombia from 2010 to 2018. Currently he is co-running the open workshop Druckbar where they focus on riso printing, music, and culture. Parallel to that he is engaged in several community initiatives in Dessau like Klink Festival, Mitte, among others. Since 2024, he is part of the board of VorOrt e. V. Dessau. His collaborations connect several initiatives in the region, but also cross borders working together with projects based in Italy, Colombia, France, Japan. His work has been exhibited and selected in Poster Biennals, from Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, and Poland.
Workshop Description
Urban Sketching
This workshop series is designed to equip students with a comprehensive set of skills in visual communication and creative expression. The program begins with an introduction to the role of visual communication in education, activism and everyday life. Participants will learn about scribing techniques, discovering how to capture ideas quickly through icons, symbols and simple sketches during live presentations. The training then transitions to Urban Sketching, where students are guided to observe and sketch their surroundings, gaining confidence in documenting architecture, people and city/rural life.
Building on these foundations, participants will explore infographic design, learning principles of data visualization, visual hierarchy and storytelling with images and text. They will also practice applying graphic design basics such as layout, color theory and composition, using both traditional and digital tools. Yuliia introduces participants to user-friendly design software, enabling them to create digital sketches, visual notes and infographics that communicate complex ideas in simple and appealing ways. The sessions also cover effective presentations, showing how to combine visual tools with storytelling for maximum impact.
The workshop culminates in a final project, where each participant produces a unique visual product: either a sketchbook, infographic or digital design; that demonstrates their acquired skills. By the end of the series, students will have developed a versatile toolkit for expressing ideas visually, empowering them to communicate with clarity, creativity and confidence.
Linocut
In this workshop, images of Magdeburg will be created and transformed. With sketchbooks and pencils, participants will wander through Magdeburg, capturing scenes from urban life and the city's diverse architecture. Stories will be told of places, barriers, diversity, and people, thereby gaining visibility.
Urban everyday life will not only be explored but also transformed into utopias of a future-oriented, inclusive, tolerant, and green city. The work process itself will reflect this transformation: the images captured through urban sketching will be translated into linocuts. Linocut necessitates a reduction to the essentials. Form, contrast, and structure are extracted from the urban sketches, thus simplifying the representation of diversity. At the same time, the multi-layered printing process in linocut can reflect the existing complexity. Furthermore, linocuts are reproducible and can be distributed throughout Magdeburg as street art. Thus, urban space could become a collective motif. A pictorial theme could emerge, shaped by the perspectives of several people, and would find its way back into urban space itself. Furthermore, the processes of creation and discussion are exhibited and thus made accessible to the public.
