Landmine carpets and machine gun wall hangings: This German communications artist uses weapons for his designs

Designer and typographer Peter Zizka, 56, who specialises in visual communication, grew up in pre-reunified Germany with a weapons specialist as a father. Even before reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, Zizka knew the effect of weapons on day-to-day life as his father eventually left his job, protesting the work he had to do. The real ugliness of war and weaponry came into focus when disarmament exposed how many weapons had been created over the years.

While Germany, with its history of conflict is no longer riddled with war, it remains one of the major exporters of weapons. As a communication artist, Zizka wanted to spread awareness about the adverse effects of weapons — especially small arms — through his work. "I do not believe in using shocking photographs of fighting and small children with big eyes," says the designer. "While these evoke an emotional response, I want to do something that would start a rational discourse." This is how his idea of creating aesthetic work using arms came about.

Zizka's first project (2005) was The Virtual Minefield, in collaboration with Medico International, Participant in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. He took aerial shots of different landmines and placed them side by side like a carpet. At first glance, one can never guess what these are. "We once had the exhibition up in the German Foreign Office, and one of the officers thought it was some kind of Christmas décor," chuckles Zizka. "Of course, when he discovered what it actually was, he was shocked and asked about the mines. That's how the discussion opens up." This display was part of several prominent exhibitions at Kunsthal Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Schauspiel in Frankfurt and the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden. The positive response prompted him to take up an ambitious project, Symbiosisobjekt.

The tiny West African country of Burundi has had a conflicted past, with its own civil war (1993-2005) and the genocide in neighbouring Rwanda (1994). Despite UN intervention in the area, it continues to have a problem of small-arms possession, where illegal arms are smuggled and distributed in the country. Zizka travelled there to gather on-ground information about weapons and the people using them. It gave him the inspiration for Symbiosisobjekt, where he sought to focus on the "worldwide problem" of small arms.

The designer disarmed the Uzi submachine guns he found in Burundi, melded them together into pairs and then painted them a stark white. Below this, display quotes by soldiers who had used these guns were featured. They were then auctioned to raise money for anti-weapon charities. "Weapons are the ultimate tools for killing people, so to cover them in this jarring white was a kind of sacrilege," he explains. "Imagine having dinner with these guns mounted on the wall. When someone notices it and asks what it's doing there that's when the conversation starts about the small arms issue, about how these weapons are fetishised or talk about them repressed."

Along with his shocking visuals, Zizka has spread awareness about weapons through typography. Since they inform the public about the significance of the exhibition, the content of the write-ups, including the font they are conveyed in at the designer's installations is equally important. "I cannot choose a font simply because I find it aesthetically pleasing. For instance, the installation with the guns needed a font that would not seem machine-like," he explains. A more striking instance is his project Wortfusion, in which he used type fonts to celebrate reunification.

Words colloquially used in East and West Germany were projected on St Paul's Church at the historic Paulsplatz, Frankfurt. Midway across the facade of the church, the words would merge to form a new word — one that is used in both halves of the country — thereby signifying unity. The use of colourless sans serif fonts helped to express the sobriety of the occasion. On the other hand, the luminous silver words moving across the ancient walls signified the bright hope for a new era.

Zizka, now focused on his upcoming book, says, "It took me several years to complete, and I am finally releasing it in October." He adds, "It has the works of several designers as well as myself in an amalgam of design ideas."

Armour of  creativity

• The first project by Zizka was The Virtual Minefield, which was a created in 2005 in collaboration with Medico International, a participant in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
• In Symbiosisobjekt, the designer melded Uzi submachine guns and painted them white to bring attention to the problem of small arms
• In his Wortfusion installation, the typographer projected words on Frankfurt’s St. Paul’s Cathedral that signified how East and West Germany have unified to form one entity