Hugo Hoppmann Blog http://hugohoppmann.com/blog Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:57:34 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Nice Quote #41 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/pb5hF1TGWnU/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/nice-quote-41/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:51:51 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=8007 Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.

Steve Jobs (→)


This is a random quote from THE NICE QUOTE, a highly curated collection of motivating quotes from a wide range of different people who are inspiring me. It was initially built to serve me personally as a functional tool and accessible base for my quote collection. Maybe you’ll like it too!

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/nice-quote-41/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/nice-quote-41/ Studio Sessions http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/TYAIkuko1Nk/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/studio-sessions/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:20:03 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7975

Tomorrow we are throwing the third Studio Sessions at the beloved Studio 672. The party is the little more “clubby” sister of the Cologne Sessions also organized by my homeboys Magnus of Aroma Pitch and Mitch of Mueller und Mitch.


The flyers measure 6cm × 6cm and are printed on pretty thick and stable paper to be put in a shirt pocket like a handkerchief …



More soon!

See you on the dancefloor!

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/studio-sessions/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/studio-sessions/ V.U.C.A. Grotesque in sexy use! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/45q6fGwpCcA/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/v-u-c-a-grotesque-in-sexy-use/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:32:05 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7878 Big-up to Swyndle & Hawks for fabricating this sexy motherfucker:


(Note: http://youtu.be/CQ27AM3RTv8 — Min. 1:54)




Plus a very warm thank you to ZOUK club down in Singapore for also using V.U.C.A. Grotesque and sending me the beautiful poster and flyers they created with it! This is one of them:



Grab more background info and images of the font here. I also wanted to kindly inform you that I picked up the work on all my typefaces again and hope to be able to officially release them soon …

Have a great week everyone!

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/v-u-c-a-grotesque-in-sexy-use/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/v-u-c-a-grotesque-in-sexy-use/ News from the day-job: NZZ Folio redesign and brand eins cover http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/qFrtWHPtsN4/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/news-from-the-day-job-nzz-folio-redesign-and-brand-eins-cover/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:12:37 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7789 One of my first jobs when I started working at Meiré und Meiré in October was the redesign of the NZZ Folio which is the monthly supplement magazine of the world’s oldest newspaper (founded in 1780!) which is still published today: the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

(Together with Jochen Ruderer, Georg Brüx and Mark Bernhardt — Thank you, guys!)


Lately the first issue in the new outfit was released:



For the december issue of German economics magazine brand eins I made the cover together with Tim Giesen and Mike … fun!


(This one and more Brandeins covers on Coverjunkie)



What’s coming next:

Since several weeks now we are working on the first issue of a German version of Andy Warhol‘s legendary INTERVIEW magazine. That’s really exciting stuff for me and I’m going to post more about this very soon.

Stay tuned Brothers and Sisters!

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/news-from-the-day-job-nzz-folio-redesign-and-brand-eins-cover/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/news-from-the-day-job-nzz-folio-redesign-and-brand-eins-cover/ The Nice Quote http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/IZMLUaBZBAQ/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-nice-quote/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:58:27 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7766 Obviously, you need to get the right amount of perspective. The best tool for that, I’ve found, is a famous principle of Stephen Covey’s: begin with the end in mind. And here’s how he tells us to do that: By imagining what we’d like people to say about us at our funeral. Do we want them to say that we were kind-hearted, or charitable, or loving, or successful, or that we accomplished great things, or found a cure for cancer? However we want to be remembered, that’s how we should live our lives, every moment of every day, starting right now.

Leo Babauta (→)

This is a random quote straight from THE NICE QUOTE, a small side project I developed the other night. TNQ is a highly curated collection of motivating quotes from a wide range of different people who are inspiring me. It was initially built to serve me personally as a functional tool and accessible base for my quote collection. Maybe you will like it, too. Let me know!

Oh, and from now on I plan to have a few regular columns — for ex. one random quote from the base per week or so … — to finally have more of a solid consistency here. This blog is so important for me, but I seem to find too little time to maintain it the way I intend to do it. This has to change. This will be changed.

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-nice-quote/feed/ 2 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-nice-quote/ Visual Identity and Website for Namsa Leuba http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/HQD9hO8Akr4/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/visual-identity-and-website-for-namsa-leuba/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:28:14 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7590


One of my side projects in the last weeks was the visual identity and website for my friend, ex-ECAL colleague and super-talented Swiss photographer Namsa Leuba.

The Logo is based on a modification of the Theinhardt typeface created by François Rappo and is optionally combined with a NL monogram.

The frontpage of the website shows a randomized and therefore always unique composition of thumbnails that direct to the subpages of the projects. By refreshing the site, pushing the accordant button, or simply by dragging the images him/herself the user can create his/her own composition, or choose between the default black or white background.

See some previews below — or better — try it out yourself at www.namsaleuba.com

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/visual-identity-and-website-for-namsa-leuba/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/visual-identity-and-website-for-namsa-leuba/ Twenty Twelve http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/MH30bTOzpTs/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/twenty-twelve/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:11:38 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7697 I write this small text in the last few hours of this year which has been an incredible one. Right now I’m just feeling thankful for all the new experiences I made and for all the great people I met a long the way in this fucking wunderful year of 2011.
Thank you all!

“Think about the things that you want to do and write them down. Then look at these things and identify the things that you really want to do, and write these down. And from those things, identify the things that you really, really want to do, and then go ahead and do it. You know, life is short. We don’t have that much time. And it’s too short to do what we feel that we have to do; it’s barely long enough to do what we want to do.”
– Tal Ben-Shahar

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/twenty-twelve/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/twenty-twelve/ ComeTogetherProjekt Exhibition + Publication http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/Wj7jtJyY6ic/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/cometogetherprojekt-exhibition-publication/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:56:25 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7614

This is the flyer I created in collaboration with Thea Barkhoff for the upcoming exhibition of the ComeTogether project. We are also happy to participate with a large-scale publication we designed containing an extensive essay about the last years of the festival and movement including lots of great archive photography screenprinted in a limited edition of 100.

(Oh, and check out Summer Flashback I: Come Together Festival I posted last year if you want to know more!)

Here are some little previews and test print details of the publication … final thing soon!


Shout out to my buddies Béla and Hermes, founders of CTP for making everything happen!


Back in summer 2010 in PIQTO

PS:


(The typeface Grace Simple, used for logo and publication, will be available to download soon!)

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/cometogetherprojekt-exhibition-publication/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/cometogetherprojekt-exhibition-publication/ Sentiment VI http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/Vj8t-j_11fs/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/sentiment-vi/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:12:15 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=6097
Fig. 1

Fig. 3

Fig. 2

Fig. 5
“We must all suffer one of two
things: the pain of discipline or the
pain of regret and disappointment.”
Fig. 4

Fig. 6

Fig. 7

The Sentiment series are spontaneous collages of found images and other material.


Fig. 1        WORRYING SOLVES NOTHING (source unknown)

Fig. 2        Cover of an LP by Wolfram at Permanent Vacation

Fig. 3        Headquarters of Geneva based typefoundry Optimo founded and ran by Gavillet & Rust

Fig. 4        A quote by Jim Rohn

Fig. 5        Devon Aoki by Daniel Jackson

Fig. 7        An image of a forrest in Lausanne shot by my friend Leon Laskowski

Fig. 8        The cover of Express Yourself (1988) by the N.W.A.

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/sentiment-vi/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/sentiment-vi/ Interview Christoph Pracht / SPEX http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/Y9X94fsJujw/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/interview-christoph-pracht-spex/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 20:11:47 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7079
SPEX designer and co-founder Christoph Pracht, Cologne in ’85

The following is (a finally translated) interview I made back in 2009 for a small publication on the early days of german music and culture magazine SPEX. I talked with three foundation members — one of them, and the first one in these series for the blog, is designer Christoph Pracht. Enjoy.


What’s the story behind the foundation of SPEX?

Everything was started with an initiative of Gerald Hündgen and Peter Bömmels. Back in the days there were a lot of fanzines, small photocopied magazines created by fans who wrote about concerts, the scene, the music. They were roughly bound together and had this specific extreme black and white aesthetics and the bad quality of images printed with a copy machine. Peter and Gerald wanted to do something like that, too. I got to know Peter in the Kurfürstenhof which was a punk bar at the time. He asked me if I wanted to take part in it.
Then we had our first meeting: Peter and Gerald, Wilfried Rütten, the photographers Bernhard Schaub and Wolfgang Burat, Clara Drechsler and a few others. Quickly it became quite clear that we didn’t want to make a fanzine but rather a real magazine. So we needed money. Everyone of us then put 50 Mark in a hat and we started working. Bernhard knew a printer in the Sauerland who printed the first number.


What about the name?

This was quite a long journey. Peter wanted a rather pragmatic title, I wanted something short. We then decided on SPEX — Musik zur Zeit. SPEX comes from spectacles – there was also was a band called X-Ray-Spex at the time.


How was the process designing a SPEX issue back in those days?

There has so much changed technologically the last 30 years that you could write a book about it …
Well, we prepared artworks of every page. Everything which was to be published in the magazine had to be set and drawn and produced reprographically. Then it was glued on carton to get photographed. The pictures were made separately, rastered and then copied onto film. This was a very exhausting and expensive process.
Only the costs for the textsetting made 20% of the overall expenses. The lithography was expensive too, colour was not affordable. Back in the days a four-colour print in A4 was ca. 400 DM, so around 800 EUR. A cover with special font, logo etc. would cost you from 1000 DM. Of course all this had a huge impact on the design. A lot of things you wanted to design were just not affordable. At the same time the design was on a whole different level — simply because everything was so expensive. Only with the introduction of cheaper photo-set-machines you could layout more liberately.


How did a typical workday look like?

The work was structured totally different then today. Everything had to be made by hand. The production of the magazine with 48 pages took 10–12 days. I remember that the last five days we worked 16 hours and shortly before the deadline of the artworks last changes had to be made.
The procedure: at first you read the texts and looked at the pictures. Regarding the length of the text you could count the height of the set (amount of lines). Then you made a first layout sketch, a rough layout. Then the text would be drawn out, properties of font size, set width, bold and italic fonts — all that would be written in the manuscript so that the typesetter had the right properties.
A messenger brought all this stuff to the typesetter. The photos were marked too (size, crop, …). The next day the entire set came as a huge “flag” from the typesetter and had to be corrected and eventually be given away again. Regarding the little amount of intern memory of the set-machines, only the lines were corrected were the mistake was. These were to be replaced in the artwork again.


Are you looking back happily on the 80s? How was that time?

Beautiful and scary. It was exciting to try out new things. Everything was great fun but you had money problems and everything had to stay on a low level. It took another 2–3 years until everything became more professional.
Additionally I opened my own studio in 1983 and had additional commissions. It then evolved slowly. In the middle of the 80s there was a technical evolution with better machines for the typing, fax-machines, repro-cameras, copy-machines with zoom function. We were one of the firsts to have bought a DTP station. The Apple with a printer and scanner costed 60.000 Mark but it would be amortized in six months. I still have an early Macintosh at home with a 20 MB harddrive and 512 KB RAM.


In the 80s Cologne apparently became the mecca of the contemporary art, design and the music scene. How was the energy in the city? How was it really?

In the beginning of the 80s the scene was rather small and straightforward. There were ca. ten meeting points where you could meet everyone. Out of this melting pot there were formed interesting constellations. When you were there in the centre … but it was exciting and had a great energy so that were always new people coming in and the whole grew further. It was a thrilling time when Cologne was suddenly mutating to an art metropole.


How was it like — also in regard to today — to publish your own magazine? The good sides, the bad sides?

Looking back I have to admit that it we were lucky that we could make it so long. Of course this is also due to the 80s and the difficult circumstances back then. And there wasn’t so much competition, also because of the fact that is was hard to make money with a magazine.


How did you manage it financially?

We worked partly without being paid or for a very small fee. Today I wouldn’t publish a printed magazine anymore but only in the internet. It’s senseless to pay for paper. What’s going to stay important: to deliver good content visually. For this design is important. But design with weak content is just embarrasing.


How old have you been when you founded the SPEX? And how did you came to do it? What did you do before that?

I was 22 years old and had just finished my civil service. I began studying architecture. While doing the civil service I worked for a magazine which was published by the Jugendfilmclub in Cologne and which presented films for young people. So I already had a certain experience in editorial work. But I still was an amateur. My brother was a trained typesetter and we sometimes collaborated — he showed me the most important technical stuff.


What are your favourite musicians and LP’s from back in the days?

Fehlfarben — Es geht voran
Gang Of Four — Entertainment
Also: Clash, ABC, Siouxsie, Neubauten etc. …


Thank you!

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/interview-christoph-pracht-spex/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/interview-christoph-pracht-spex/ Whatever path you decide to take in this life … be true to yourself. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/jk4Bvq1xhpA/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/whatever-path-you-decide-to-take-in-this-life-%e2%80%a6-be-true-to-yourself/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:08:38 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7521

Whatever path you decide to take in this life … be true to yourself.

This is the last sentence from one of my favourite movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/whatever-path-you-decide-to-take-in-this-life-%e2%80%a6-be-true-to-yourself/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/whatever-path-you-decide-to-take-in-this-life-%e2%80%a6-be-true-to-yourself/ Kyūdō http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/G8tOLaMEt1Y/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/kyudo/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:03:39 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7153 I recently discovered these videos of Japanese girls practicing traditional Kyūdō.
It’s great to see their total focus and concentration. Graceful.



]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/kyudo/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/kyudo/ The Workshop http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/bzFojwv9zcM/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-workshop/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:49:41 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7227

Back in April this year I was invited to give a workshop at FH Mainz (University of Applied Sciences Mainz) together with my friend Johannes Breyer.

The experience to teach others while still studying was a strange situation. Why we? Maybe because we are already doing what we are doing for a long time, starting autodidactically and with an unbeatable naivety years before our ‘official’ studies, organically developing an unbreakable passion for our craft. And we ‘achieved’ so many mistakes along the way that maybe we have become experts in some areas … in some way.

Anyway, we were facing the tricky situation to ‘teach’ people who were in large part in our age or older. We approached the challenge in reflecting about the workshops we have been part of as students ourselves and what we liked and disliked and what we would have made better. And then we tried to make it better …


Breyer and Hoppmann ready for action.


We started by giving introductions to our own work and the work of other that we found to be significant in regard to the briefing we were handing to the students …



Lively discussions were a huge part of the whole process … it was great to see everyone involved in every part of the production — and not only the own problems but also caring about the whole ensemble i.e. trying to improve the works of the colleagues and challenging the own approach.






Big thank you again to Sebastian, Oleg and Sven the guys of ZWEIZEHN for giving us the chance to make this wonderful experience!

And merci to all the people above. You were really fantastic! Good times!


(Update: they also uploaded some pictures of the final booklet here …)

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-workshop/feed/ 2 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/the-workshop/ John C. Jay: 10 Lessons for young designers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/_zAP1lvhMdY/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/john-c-jay-10-lessons-for-young-designers/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:14:54 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7231

1Be authentic. The most powerful asset you have is your individuality, what makes you unique. It’s time to stop listening to others on what you should do.

2Work harder than anyone else and you will always benefit from the effort.

3Get off the computer and connect with real people and culture. Life is visceral.

4Constantly improve your craft. Make things with your hands. Innovation in thinking is not enough.

5Travel as much as you can. It is a humbling and inspiring experience to learn just how much you don’t know.

6Being original is still king, especially in this tech-driven, group-grope world.

7Try not to work for stupid people or you’ll soon become one of them.
8Instinct and intuition are all-powerful. Learn to trust them.

9The Golden Rule actually works. Do good.
10If all else fails, No. 2 is the greatest competitive advantage of any career.


(See also: John C Jay, Exceptional Ad Man (Theme Magazine) and John Jay on creativity)

]]> http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/john-c-jay-10-lessons-for-young-designers/feed/ 0 http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/john-c-jay-10-lessons-for-young-designers/ Resistance with a capital R http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/hugohoppmannblog/~3/exMC-wKSufE/ http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/resistance-with-a-capital-r/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:32:24 +0000 Hugo http://hugohoppmann.com/blog/?p=7205 I really don’t know where to start, or with what to start … I only know that the Resistance to get myself writing and sharing my thoughts and works publicly again has become too big lately. And this fear of doing it is the sign that I absolutely have to do it. So I just start again. Step by step …

One of the reasons why I became somewhat absence (here) is that I just started to work fulltime at Meiré und Meiré some weeks ago. So luckily have a lot to do and many beautiful projects to invest my energy in at the moment. It’s a true pleasure to be there!

I’m sure that I’m going post more images and background stories in the near future (for those interested) — for now it’s only this little video, recently published by ARTE Creative showing my new working environment that I wanted to share with you:




There is a lot more to come — Thank you very much for your attention for now!

HUGO


PS: Resistance is a term brought up by Steven Pressfield, whose book The War of Art had (and still has) a huge impact on my life. You should read it!

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