1. Which work are you particularly proud of? Which work best represents your style or approach?
We love all of our »children«, everyone for a different reason, but one of our first projects that represents our way of working is Banjo Music. We developed a flexible visual identity based upon the grid of the Capitalis Monumentalis. The elements that derive from that grid represent music in an abstract way. We did this project 4 years ago and are still exploring the many possibilities the visual system offers.
2. What inspires you?
We published last year an entire article about inspiration in the design magazine Form. A short answer to that question would be: Inspiration is the ability to connect the dots. Anything can be an inspiration if you know how to let yourself inspire.
3. The theme of this year’s TYPO Berlin is »Sustain«. Sustainability seems to have evolved into a »buzzword« in the last couple of years, with which agencies and companies aim to fulfill a desire for stability and values. Can you name a project in which this ambition has led to concrete, exemplary design solutions?
We designed the visual identity of the Helsinki Design Lab in 2010. Both, the institution and the visual identity want to be sustainable. The driving idea of the visual identity is drawn from the »space« occupied by the strategic framework of the HDL, which draws together a diverse group of actors and entities from various fields. These actors, each one a specialist in his field, contributes a unique point of view within a group that can offer a holistic definition of the problem, thereby creating the opportunity for a more effective range of solutions.
4. TYPO Berlin 2012: What are you especially looking forward to?
The best part about giving lectures is meeting new people. Having two young children, directing a postgraduate degree, organizing a series of lectures, working at TwoPoints.Net and being addicted to TV-series like Damages, The Wire or Breaking Bad doesn’t leave much time for making new acquaintences.
Lupi Asensio
Martin Lorenz
5. Required reading/watching: What are currently your favorite interesting/beautiful publications, books, movies and/or links?
We definitely recommend the TV-series Deadwood, Damages, The Wire and Breaking Bad. We also enjoyed lately The Artist, A Dangerous Method and Carnage. Design related literature we re-discovered are Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky, Principles of Two-Dimensional Design by Wucius Wong, Designing Progammes by Karl Gerstner and The New Typography by Jan Tschichold. A newer design related book that is an absolute must is Adrian Frutiger Typefaces. The Complete Works by Heidrun Osterer and Philipp Stamm. We could go on for hours. There are so many books we are very fond of. Meet us at the Typo Berlin 2012 and we will give you the complete list.