Viktoria Kirjuchina

Viktoria Kirjuchina is a communication designer, creative director, professor and a persistent investigator of how images shape individual decisions, collective behavior and democratic life.

Portrait of Viktoria Kirjuchina
Photo: Yana Lozeva, 2025

Since 2020, she has headed Communication Design at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, where she teaches, researches and develops new approaches to design education. Her students have received numerous international awards, placing the department among Germany’s most successful design schools. Previously, she held a visiting professorship at HTWG Konstanz.

Viktoria is a founding and board member of the Gesellschaft für Designpolitik and a member of the interdisciplinary research group TRACE. She also serves on several scientific advisory boards, including that of the e-journal Sprache für die Form.

She is driven by the conviction that design deserves better — better knowledge, better education, better working conditions and a better understanding of its own potential.

Exhibitions

Texte
Abstract black-and-white typographic strokes — visual for Vertigo
Wicht, 2023

Vertigo

How can designers speak more precisely about the value and effects of design? A reflection on design, language and shared criteria.

Kirjuchina, Viktoria; Grundnigg, Thomas (2023): Vertigo. In: Deutscher Designer Club, DDC Magazin, Design Diskurs.

Fragmented photographic portraits in black and red — visual for Hochkonjunktur der Disruptionen
Kircher/Heller, 2023

Hochkonjunktur der Disruptionen

A conversation about design education, visual rhetoric, and the responsibilities of designers in changing societies.

Auer, Robin; Kirjuchina, Viktoria (2022): Hochkonjunktur der Disruptionen. Interview. In: Deutscher Designer Club, DDC Magazin.

Black-and-white portrait collage with repeating smartphone imagery on a pale green background
Göller, 2018

Visuelle Rhetorik zwischen Theorie und Praxis

On the productive relationship between rhetorical knowledge and the practice and teaching of visual communication.

Kirjuchina, Viktoria; Grundnigg, Thomas (2022): Visuelle Rhetorik zwischen Theorie und Praxis. In: Rhetorik. Ein internationales Jahrbuch, 41, pp. 74–87. DOI: 10.1515/rhet-2022-0008.

Woman biting a banknote with colorful dots overlaid — visual for Neurorhetorik
Hennerbichler, 2024

Decorum-Verstoß als Quelle der Erhabenheit

How can perceptual responses to rhetorical disruption be studied neurophysiologically?

Kirjuchina, Viktoria (2018): Decorum-Verstoß als Quelle der Erhabenheit. Neurophysiologisch messbare Wirkung von Rhetorik. In: Pezer, Nico (ed.): Neurorhetorik. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, pp. 105–126. DOI: 10.30965/9783846758175_007.

Two fragmented, digitally altered portraits wearing knit caps
Kircher/Heller, 2023

Die Schwelle zwischen Defekt und Effekt

An interview with Viktoria Kirjuchina on connecting design research and neuroscience.

Haase, Alexandra; Tiemeier, Nenia (2015): Die Schwelle zwischen Defekt und Effekt. Interview with Viktoria Kirjuchina. In: Sprache für die Form, No. 7.

Pixelated photographic portrait — visual for Vorstellungsbilder und Affektwirkungen
Kirjuchina, 2025

Vorstellungsbilder und Affektwirkungen

Mental images, emotional responses and their importance for visual rhetoric.

Kirjuchina, Viktoria (2015): Vorstellungsbilder und Affektwirkungen. Ihre Funktionsweise – neurophysiologisch beschrieben. In: Sprache für die Form, No. 6.

Abstract mottled and distorted portrait in muted green tones
Ratzer/Moser, 2023

Rhetorische Systematik und Designpraxis

On the relationship between design practice, reflective thinking and rhetorical systems.

Kirjuchina, Viktoria (2014): Rhetorische Systematik und Designpraxis. Über die Paralleluniversen „Machen“ und „Reflektieren“. In: Sprache für die Form, No. 4.

Classical sculpture with vivid green geometric overlays
Kirjuchina, 2026

Rhetorik und Designsysteme

A conversation with Heiner Mühlmann about rhetoric, Renaissance innovations and design systems.

Kirjuchina, Viktoria (2019): Rhetorik und Designsysteme. Heiner Mühlmann über Innovationen der Renaissance. Interview. In: Sprache für die Form, Nos. 14/15.

Award-Winning Student Work

Selected award-winning student projects from Communication Design at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences — supervised, co-supervised or creatively directed by Viktoria Kirjuchina.

2024

(un)stuck

Students: Gianna Ricci, Alina Traun, Anna-Sophie Wehmeyer, Anna Bruckermayr, Sebastian Scholtze, Anja Gutschmidt, Katja Gröbl, Mirjam Kuchling, Annika Braun

2024: ADC Germany Talent: Bronze