Awarded
Laurent Benner
Publications, posters, invitation cards and flyers
Graphic Design
Awarded
Publications, posters, invitation cards and flyers
Graphic Design
Sound on Paper
How can paper make music? Graphic artist Laurent Benner, currently based in London, combines two passions: graphic art and music. The covers he designs for the minimal/ambient label Dreck Records, of which he is a founding member, deftly visualize sounds in abstract patterns. For the club series 'Discoambulante' and 'Ritmo', Benner simulates the sound in a diversity of agitated typefaces: the almost vibrating lettering of 'Sound Stream' is seen against the background of stylized, popping soap bubbles, while the zigzagging letters of 'Secondo' seem to be suffering from electroshock. This fun-loving visualization is reminiscent of comics and cartoons. Benner also exploits odd retro devices in his use of found materials, such as an invitation that pictures a woman of the 1980s with carefully blow-dried hair and wearing a pink dress, or a soccer player in a gym suit and sporting a bouffant bundle of curly hair. These embedded images are clearly legible as appropriations in contrast to the unmistakably contemporary graphics. As a book designer, Benner has done catalogues for artists like Gary Hume and Christian Marclay, with whom he shares his passion for music. Benner's work is richly varied and shows great attention to even the smallest details. In one of his conceptual works, he focused on a material. For his edition of posters 'XYZ by Night', he collected joke postcards from the 1980s: 18 postcards from 18 holiday destinations, all of which present a night-time view of the location that is just a plain black postcard. The hackneyed joke becomes even more absurd by presenting all of the postcards at once. Laurent Benner has received many prizes for his work, including 'INFORM: Preis für konzeptionelles Gestalten' (Leipzig, 2007) and the Swiss Federal Design Award (2001, 2004). In addition, between 2004 and 2006, he designed Die schönsten Schweizer Bücher, the publication for the most beautiful Swiss books, published by the Federal Office of Culture.
Peter Stohler
Laurent Benner
Born in
1975
Education
BA Graphic Design MA Communication Art & Design
Group name
Dreck Records, Reala