Elektrosmog: Valentin Hindermann & Marco Walser

Jan-Tschichold Award 2005

Already during their time of study (1994-1998) at the School of Art and Design Zurich (HGKZ), Valentin Hindermann (b.l966) and Marco Walser (b.l973) produced projects of their own in the field of commercial art design. After the completion of their training they founded a joint studio and named it Elektrosmog. Their work focuses on assignments in the field of the visual arts. One important project in Elektrosmog's history where both designers gained experience with booklet formats was the re-designing of the art magazine material of the Migros Museum in Zurich. Each of the three issues of this publication designed by Elektrosmog for presenting international contemporary art was distinguished for the innovative use of pictorial material; the designers undertook hold experiments in the field of typefaces, which made this publication - unfortunately now discontinued - a treasure trove of creative richness.

With Argovian Sun, a book devoted to the work of Andreas Dobler, Elektrosmog presented an artist's book for the first time in 2002. Patrick Frey, a dedicated publisher of numerous art publications, gave the order for this project. Argovian Sun, in which texts, newspaper clippings, photos and pictures of Dobler are combined, affered Elektrosmog the opportunity to include inspirational material from Dobler's archives and treat it in the same way as the artist's finished pictures. A year later, the book Supercritical Fluids, designed by Elektrosmog, in which the pictorial work of the painter Hanspeter Hofmann is shown, was awarded a prize in the competition 'The most beautiful Swiss books'. At the same time it received the rating 'Book of the Jury'. In this project, their second artist's book, the designers succeeded in presenting Hoffmann's exceptionally rich and subtle artistic work despite small picture formats. Dobler's and Hoffmann's works have both been exhibited in the Glarus Art Museum, for whose design presence Elektrosmog has been responsible for several years in a convincing fashion, despite limited financial means.

In the framework of a competition, Elektrosmog was able to assist the Swiss Federal Office of Culture in creating a new, variable concept for information materials to accompany its supportive measures in the field of design: Elektrosmog developed a system of transparent plastic folders which are differently designed, colour and text-wise, yet are recognizable as an overall system. The transparent folders each contain the relevant, updated rules and instructions that are also graphically worked on by other designers. In the course of its collaboration with the SFOC, Elektrosmog succeeded in developing the design concept of a newly created publication in the field of design and produced the yearbook of the 'Swiss Federal Design Competition' for three consecutive years. Twice in succession (2003 and 2004) Elektrosmog's catalogue for the competition 'The most beautiful Swiss books' was awarded a prize. Designed in the same format three times, the aim was to treat the theoretical and the catalogue sections according to different criteria. In the middle of the volumes entitled Swiss Design the products developed by young designers are included in a way permitting them each time to appear with other means of design and with different photo concepts.

Another award was won by Elektrosmog in 2004 with its design for the book published on the occasion of the 20th jubilee of the renowned art periodical Parkett. The history and importance of this important international journal induced the two designers to give the book a dense design in a witty and at the same time informative fashion. Elektrosmog succeeded in harmonizing different graphically playful forms also from outside the field of book design. In fact, its design language is always open to new solutions. Both designers attempt to develop products for the defined subject in an appropriately new way, each time approaching and getting the feel for an area or the work of an artist anew, from project to project.

With this year's Jan Tschichold Prize, the Jury is honouring a designer team that has attracted notice for a number of years with various exceptional book design projects. Elektrosmog has become especially distinguished for the extremely many-sided and undogmatic language of its graphic designs in each of its projects.