Background and Manifesto
I started this blog in spring 2009 some weeks before the second semester at ECAL in Lausanne where I’m now studying visual communication in the third year. At the beginning I used the blog mainly as a tool to communicate my new experiences and the process of my progress with friends and family back in my hometown of Cologne. Eventually everything became bigger and the whole experiment grew organically into an important output and a platform for my thoughts on a variety of subjects, background information on projects, and new ideas.
Moreover this blog was born out of a second necessity: I was simply missing a honest reflexion of someone of my age in the ‘creative business’ providing not only some random material with no substance but sharing more profound background information with honesty and attitude. I was sick of all the cluttered portfolio blogs and I searched for a fresh approach, more transparency, more process, realness, failures and success stories …
Writing helps me tremendously to structure my thoughts and get clearer vision of my position. So I see my work here as a practice and I want to encourage people to be more active in sharing their ideas and ideals.
Follow me on the journey if you are interested — or better — get inspired share the love and do your own thing!
Yours truly,
Hugo
Browse these categories if you look for a specific theme:
→ Theoretical and visual material to motivate and refresh your mind, including collected quotes I found to be important to share.
→ Recorded conversations and interviews with me … or by me.
→ The Sentiment series are spontaneous collages of found material. (This category was once titled Ffffunde)
→ Remembered moments …
A quick selection of articles you might like. Chronological:
• Interview with Veronica Ditting
• Health vs. Graphic Design
• Amsterdam ✖ ✖ ✖ Classtrip
• Interview with Kai von Rabenau / mono.kultur
• Radical Transparency — An Open Letter
• Radicalness + Substance = Revolution
• Side Hustlin’
• Turning Pages …
• Grace Jones Typeface … A Super Journey!
• Aroma Pitch, Bitch!
• Experimental Posters for Tobias Madison
• Accept the New.
• Better Mjstakes Volume I — Vernissage
• 032c Website: ready for action.
• Berlin / Part III — at 032c
• Interview with MILK magazine
• A Methodology for Design and Life
• München / Bureau Mirko Borsche
• Riding High
• Piqto: Geschichte und Gegenwart
• Ich blogge wieder.
→ An interview with the charming Amsterdam based designer of Fantastic Man and The Gentlewoman.
→ Interview for a project of Johannes at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie …
→ Documentation of our trip to Holland meeting Linda van Deursen, Veronica Ditting, Bart de Beats …
→ A conversation with publisher Kai von Rabenau.
→ Background information on two current projects at ECAL.
→ Like above but earlier + a sexy photo!
→ Several new projects and an interesting video about 032c when I was working there.
→ Spreads of my feature in a new book by Gestalten.
→ About the history and future of my GJ typeface.
→ Insights on my logo for Aroma Pitch.
→ Results of a workshop with Thomas Buxy; poster designs for Swiss artist Tobias Madison.
→ A detailed documentation of the projects from the fourth semester and more.
→ Info and pictures of the release party of the magazine I publish with Johannes Breyer.
→ Background information on my work for the website of 032c (see below) …
→ A documentation of my stay at Berlin based 032c.
→ An interview for Hong Kong based magazine MILK! (See also MILK Feature)
→ Dated but insightful.
→ A little review with images on the beautiful internship at Bureau Mirko Borsche.
→ Monocle feature, Streetwear Today feature, Better Mjstakes Manifesto …
→ A detailed history of my t-shirt label PIQTO — unfortunately in German only.
→ The first article in this blog from March 2009 … seems to me like decades ago!
Browse the entire archive in months: