This Book is the missing link between
art, design and theory. Within 472 pages in 8 colors printed Fons
Hickmann introduces a world of Graphic Design, Photography,
Illustration and Rock ’n’ Roll. The result is intelligent
design that is conceptual and political, always transcending the limits
of its content. That’s why the studio Fons Hickmann m23 is one of
the most award-winning teams in the world.
CONTRIBUTORS AND INTERVIEW PARTNERS
Gerald Bast, Volker Bertelmann, Bazon Brock,
Anke Dessin, Simon Gallus, Frank M. Göldner,
Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg, Markus Steur,
Klaus Hesse, Uwe Loesch, Barbara Morgenstern,
Jens Nieth, Thorsten Nolting, Christian Reder,
Nicola Schudy, Peter Tinnemann,
Kurt Weidemann, Gabriele Werner
If a University has got such an outstanding reputation that it attracts talents and lecturers from all over the world, and if it suddenly generates work that increasingly sets standards it is due to one or several tutors or professors who take the teachings seriously but not deadly serious, who fathom the limits and extravagate them, who demand a great deal of themselves and others. Open, not just the windows. International, not just the lecturers. Play is allowed, and not just football.
How to trace the best, how to develop talent? And which trend-setting projects arise from such an environment, in such an exciting contrast? Beyond Graphic Design is everything but a collection of dinky little examples we’re all tired of. Fons Hickmann reveals his concept of teaching and puts it up for discussion, gives impulses that provoke thoughts or even stir. He carries on asking where others would be content. The projects are not only presented but also illustrated in the context of their intellectual background. Even though many a picture book makes people forget, Beyond Graphic Design thinking goes on.
> Click here to have a look <
190 pages, 21 x 25,4 cm
Printed in five colors
Soft Cover
ISBN: 2-35017-035-7
Pyramyd Press Paris
5 x BERLIN
What do the five Berlin studios featured in this book - Angela Lorenz, Atak, anschlaege.de, Cyan and the Fons Hickmann m23 studio − have in common? They are all on show at the 2006 Chaumont Festival, and they each have a special and consistently relevant relationship with graphic design. What role does the city play in the work they create?
“Berlin isn’t Germany” is a constant refrain. Before, there were two cities, clearly demarcated by a wall. Berlin still has a dual identity, but now as the capital of a decentralised country and as a cosmopolitan city with a provincial feel. Every parcel of the city is tangibly alive with creative activity and experimentation.
Berlin invites designers to invent their city in images and visual adventures. This book testifies to this incredible creative ferment.
> Click here to have a look <
18 pages, 32 x 46 cm
Printed in five colors
Soft Cover
University of Applied Arts, Vienna
DISPLACE YOURSELF_!
‘Form Follows Fehlschlag’ is the antithesis of the ‘Form Follows Function’ concept quoted by countless authors and designers when describing their work. The antithesis is based on the book ‘Understanding Computers and Cognition’ by Terry Winograd, which ascribes exceptional cognitive importance to experiences of breakdown and collapse, viewing such experiences as a potential source of inspiration in design.
Fons Hickmann GmbH m23 Mariannenplatz 23 Gartenhaus D 10997
Berlin Fons Hickmann GmbH m23 Mariannenplatz 10997 Berlin
F 0049.30.695185511 m23@fonshickmann.com Gartenhaus T 0049.30.
Directors: Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg, Prof. Fons Hickmann
Commercial register, District court Berlin HRB 82161
VAT ID No.: DE218237891
Concept and Design: Fons Hickmann m23: Fons Hickmann, Martin Sperling
Organization and programming: Martin Sperling
This website contains photography by: Wolfgang Bellwinkel, Gerald Biebersdorf, Kira Bunse, Markus Büsges, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Simon Gallus, Fons Hickmann, Nina Lüth, André Müller, Thomas Schrott, Martin Sperling
Freelancers and staff of Fons Hickmann m23 since 2000
Thanks for cooperation: Sabina Albanese, Barbara Bättig, Martin Blättler, Anna Bühler, Markus Büsges, Franziska Cordes, Kerstin Finger, Iris Fussenegger, Simon Gallus, Salina Gandji, Carsten Giese, Marco Gjergja, Christina Graeni, Carolin Hansen, Birgit Holzer, Andreas Hucks, Daniel von Klippstein, Sabine Kornbrust, David Krause, Anaïs Krebs, Ilka Kremke, Julia-Sophie Kuon, Jonas Löffler, Anke Meier, Guillaume Mojon, Adrien Moreillon, Franziska Morlok, André Müller, Christof Nardin, Nina Nicolaisen, Verena Petrasch, Paul Roberts, Björn Rüther, Nicole Schade, Ute Schindler, Viola Schmieskors, Sebastian Schöndorfer, Thomas Schrott, Lisa Schweizer, Susanne Stahl, Ulf Stein, Martin Sperling, Jan Totzek, Annik Troxler, Thies Uthmöller, Sabine Wilms, Björn Wolf, Kenan Darwich, Cindy van der Meijden
What is Beyond for you? And where is it?
"Beyond is always where I'm not. Where
I'm striving for. When I've arrived I set off again."
Selected Literature containing
works of Fons Hickmann m23
Contemporary Graphic Design
Taschen Publisher, London 2007
New Masters in Poster Design
Rockport Publisher, 2006
No Art – Keine Kunst
Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz, 2006
Who is Who in Design
AV edition, 2007
Festival de l’affiche Chaumont 2006
Pyramid Press, Paris 2006
AREA
100 of the word best designers
Phaidon Publishers, 2004
Graphic Design for the 21st Century
Taschen Publisher, 2005
All men are brothers
He Publisher, 2006
This gun is for hire
DGV Die Gestalten Verlag, 2004
The Design of Dissent
Rockport Publisher, 2005
Poster Collection 08 Black and White
Lars Müller Publishers
Poster Collection 05 Typotektur
Lars Müller Publishers
rosebud Action
DGV Die Gestalten Publisher
Bildsprache Otto Neurath
WUV, Facultas Verlag
Helvetica, Homage to a Typeface
Lars Müller Publishers
Trigger
DGV Die Gestalten Publishers
Parallelwelten
Fons Hickmann Hrg.
DGV Die Gestalten Publishers
Publications about the
work of Fons Hickmann m23
Fons Hickmann - Touch Me There
DGV Die Gestalten Publisher, Berlin 2005
Beyond Graphic Design
Verlag Hermann Schmidt Mainz 2007
5 x Berlin
Pyramid Press, Paris 2006
Fons Hickmann & Students
Chinese Youth Press, Beijing 2004
Displace yourself_!
University of Applied Arts, Vienna 2001
What do I want from work? Philippe Apeloig: Big-bang. Dimitris Arvanitis: I want to interpret the world according to my thoughts, culture and ethos. I want to communicate ideas and informations, speaking with people instead of speaking to people. Erwin K. Bauer: Ongoing enthusiasm along with keeping the playful mood of a child. Kari Bauer: Lots of resistance to generate lust for more. Ruedi Baur: I expect my work to contribute to my personal goal in life: A permanent experimenting, discovering, understanding, learning, redefining, changing, winning, losing, experiencing, retrying process which I pass on after all. I love to design something which is of use for a third, I love to examine a problem, I love to invent something new, I love to develop a process which continues to develop autonomously. Antonino Benincasa: I want to transform prose into poetry. Cari saluti dalla bella Italia! Branquinho: Fashion is not art. I see it in the Streets, I don’t see it in the Museum. You have to show more – you have to show a whole world. Markus Büsges: Fulfilment and confirmation in oneself. Alison Clarke: To pay the bills and transform a very small corner of the universe – with relentless passion. Bill Douglas: Honesty is always good. Whatever it takes to not make things worse. Joseph Foo: To allow and sustain me from what I want from life(1) and love(2). John Foster: Work to me is much like my marriage. (I have an uneasy feeling about which one I spend more time working on.) I have often thought that if I wanted to just be happy in marriage, I would have wed one of my close male friends and spent my days arguing about sports and swilling beers. Instead, I married a beautiful women who challenges me at every turn and never fails to hold my interest and ultimately... makes me happy. I want much the same from my job. I want to be challenged and never grow stagnant in my thinking. To discover new things - even about a task I have completed numerous times before. I want to be able to branch out into areas that stretch my abilities knowing that I have the support of my talents in the areas I have passed through before. And ultimately I know that these daily struggles and yearning for something more will leave me exhausted... and happy. Reinhard Gassner: Playful learning and liberated frivolity. Heike Grebin: I want it to work for me and others. Hansa Günther: Fun and money. Juli Gudehus: Rejuvenation. Frank Hartmann: Work then, lovin’it, right? Jianping He: Being understood without comment. Achim Hickmann: Yesterday = money for working. Today = sex at working. Tomorrow = money for working. Robert Klanten: Freedom and challenge. Bernhard Kleber: Passion. Petra Knyrim: Money money money + sun sun sun. Barbara Kotte: Work gets inspired by live. Janna Krenn: Freedom. Axel Kufus: Work. Urs Lehni: To lure me out of my shell - maybe. Armin Lindauer: I don’t understand what actors do. I can hardly act out myself. Sophie Lovell: Warm hands. Andrea Lugli: Do better things. My things. Wilf Moss: Enough money to survive. Admiration and inspiration as bonus features. Reiner Nachtwey: Achievement. Christian Reder: For me work means: not acting like a money-maker or just belonging to a hired work force, but contributing in some way to positive social changes by at least irritating common »no-alternative« main streams. That our system doesn’t allow for most people to have such a chance (and the privileged few who do, don’t make use of it) is clear on a global scale, and shows what is still going wrong (and always will, it is said. But why?). Stefan Sagmeister: Thinking about ideas and content freely – with the deadline far away. Working without interruption on a single project. Using a wide variety of tools and techniques. Travelling to new places. Working on projects that matter to me. Having things come back from the printer done well. Nicole Schade: Challenge and easy money. Clemens Schedler: Nothing. I just do it... Ralph Schraivogel: From work I want that it makes me feel alive. Thomas Stricker: A lovely life. Niklaus Troxler: Work brings variety and tension into my life. When I’m starting a new project I always hope to get surprised myself, to discover something new what I never reached. The older I get the more I feel that know-how and knowledge are the real killer to reach new discoverings. Today I know that I have to liberate from all I know and already have done. I only can reach new results when I’m free in my mind and can forget everything I’ve ever done. Anja Vormann: Money. Henning Wagenbreth: I can’t answer that spontaneously. I’m thinking way too complicated. I have no time to think about it at the moment and I don’t want to recycle something already written. Alex Ward: To keep opening doors to see what lies behind them.
“Aesthetics are regarded in a philosophical sense, communications in a social context and design in an experimental manner.”
The studio “Fons Hickmann m23” is run by Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg and Fons Hickmann since 2001. It is one of today's most awarded design studios; virtually every work has won a prize of international reputation. It varies a lot in size and scope: “There are seven of us at the moment, sometimes there are four, sometimes fourteen” says Gesine. The staff originates from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The Berlin studio focuses on the design of complex communication systems. Its activities include corporate design, book and poster design, magazine design and digital media. The work is conceptual and analytical but at the same time has an enormous sense of humour. Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg is an Illustrator and lectured communication design and typography at the Universität Gh in Essen. Fons Hickmann has taught at several Universities, held lectures and workshops around the world and is a professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin. He is a member of the ADC, TDC New York and the AGI Alliance Graphique Internationale.
TOKYO NEW YORK BRNO MOSKAU OGAKI NINGBO WARSCHAU MEXIKO
WIEN COLORADO LATHI HELSINKI CHAUMONT PARIS JERUSALEM
HONG KONG TAIPEH WARSCHAU WIEN NINGGBO OGAKI MOSKAU BRNO
2009
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Festival de l‘affiches de Chaumont, FR
2008
TDC Excellence Award, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, D
Festival de l’affiche de Chaumont, FR
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
21st International Poster Biennale Warsaw, PL
ZGRAF Special Award and Award, Designbiennale Zagreb, HR
Red Dot Best of the Best und Award, D
Chinese Academy of Art Award, CN
ADI Art Design Institute of CAA, CN
Beste Plakate 2008, Ströer, Aussenwerbung, D
---
ADI Invitational Posterexhibition, Ch
Graphisme dans la rue, Fontenay, F
Festival de l’affiche de Chaumont, FR
The helping hounds of Hell, Berlin/Hamburg, D
Dimension der Fläche, Goethe Institut München, D
European Championship of Graphic Design, De Beyerd, Graphic Design Museum, NL
emzin Gallery, Ljublana, SI
2007
Lead Award in Gold, D
TDC Excellence Award, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, D
ADC Art Directors Club of New York, USA
Red Dot Award, D
IF Award, D
1. Prize, Graphisme dans la rue, F
---
ADI Invitational Posterexhibition, Ch
Lathi Poster Biennale, FIN
Tehran Poster Exhibition, Iran
Biennale of Theater Poster Rzeszów, P
Graphisme dans la rue, Fontenay, F
Rencontres Photographiques du Cambrésis, F
2006
ADC Art Directors Club, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, D
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Red Dot Award, D
Innovationspreis, Deutsche Druckindustrie
Golden Pixel Award Austria
---
Festival d‘affiches de Chaumont, France
Taiwan Poster Award, Finalist, Taiwan
MR_Award Tehran, Iran
Invitational Posterexhibition, China
Museum of Modern Art Toyama, Japan
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
2005
TDC Excellence Award, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, D
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Stiftung Buchkunst Award, D
Trend Award Austria, A
---
Intenational Poster Biennale Korea
Environmental Exhibition Daegu Korea
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
2004
TDC Excellence Award, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, USA
ADC Art Directors Club, D
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Joseph Binder Award, A
Red Dot Award, D
---
Festival d‘affiches de Chaumont, F
Political Poster Festival Mons, B
Design Biennal Brno, CZ
Tehran Biennal Iran, IR
Poster Biennal Warsaw, P
Golden Bee Moskow, RUS
Chinese Poster Festival, Hingzhou, CN
Design Biennal Korea, KR
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
2003
TDC Excellence Award, USA
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
ADC Award, Art Directors Club, D
ADC Award, Art Directors Club, USA
Tokyo TDC Excellence Award, J
Red Dot Award, D
Red Dot >Best of the Best< Award, D
Formular Corporate Design Award
in bronze, D
1st Prize, Best Poster Austria, A
---
4th Block Triennale, Ukraine
Lathi Poster Biennal, Finland
Trnava Poster Triennal, Slovakia
Poster Triennale Toyama, Japan
The Black and White Poster, MFGZ, CH
Summit PAN Kunstforum Niederrhein, D
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
2002
TDC Excellence Award, USA
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
ADC Award, Art Directors Club
Red Dot Award, D
Joseph Binder Award, Design Austria
Kieler Woche 2002
---
Brno Design Exhibition, Czech Republic
Displace yourself! Exhibition, Vienna
Poster Biennale Seoul, Korea
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
2001
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Excellence Award, Ningbo China
Hong Kong Poster Festival
Triennale of the Stage Poster Sofia
2000
TDC Excellence Award, USA
100 Best Posters, A,D,CH
Joseph Binder Award, Design Austria
Honorary VDG diploma
Golden Bee Award, Moscow, Russia
Tokyo TDC Award, Japan
German Prize for Communicationdesign
---
Biennale Warsaw Museum Plakatu, Poland
Bienal del Cartel en Mexico
The Museum of Modern Art Toyama Japan
Museum on the Seam Jerusalem, Israel
Festival D‚Affiches De Chaumont, France
100 Best Posters,
Austria/Germany/Switzerland
.
Laboratory
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Page
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Unmögliche Enzyklopädie
Semperoper
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Politics
Silent Movie Festival
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Fons & Students
Bayerisches Staatsorchester
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.. Johanneskantorei 
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Red Dot
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100 Beste Plakate
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AGI..... Dummy 
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ROC
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Bayerische Staatsoper
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Hauschka/Nonex
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Amnesty
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Diakonie
Graphic Design Museum
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Converse
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Kieler Woche
Mercedes-Benz Museum
Hallo Utopia
11 Designer..................
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Pianolina
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Bird Catcher.........
Maestro Margarini.
