76 — Studio Bruch

Graphic Design

STUDIO BRUCH 76

STUDIO BRUCH

Cover: Corporate Font for Ethicamper Left: Typedesign for the carpentry Hea Back Cover: Illuminated lettering for Hotel Blü

JOSEF HEIGL AND KURT GLÄNZER

A BREAK WITH TRADITION

Top: Signage System for BSC Bottom: Signage System for Blü Hotel

IT’S EASY TO BE ENTHUSIASTIC WHEN YOU BELIEVE IN A PROJECT.

YOUR WORK FEELS ORGANIC, FULL OF LIFE. WHAT’S YOUR PROCESS FOR CREATING DESIGN WITH THIS KIND OF DEPTH?

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It’s hard to explain, but there’s always a kind of perfection that we want to reach. A kind of perfect imperfection.

Josef

A lot of design is so flat. It looks nice at first. The typeface, the colouring, the material. They’re all nice.

But if you want to dive deeper, there’s nothing more in it. This is why we always try to create a design system. Something that seems easy at first glance, but could also be very complex.

There should be various levels, we call them ‘speeds.’ Normal speed is like when you’re driving down a regular city street. But then there’s the fast lane too. The flexibility of the brand has to be able to move at many different speeds.

SO YOUR PROCESS ITSELF HAS LAYERS? We take a lot of time in the initial stages to find something that we haven’t seen before.

Kurt

Often this takes a form that appears perhaps not so nice at first, but has the capacity to evolve.

This makes it feel a bit edgy, a bit difficult, perhaps uncomfortable.

Then we try to make it kind of nicer.

In the end, this process creates something that has depth to it.

HOW DOES THAT WORK IN PRACTICE? A strong base, or concept, always makes the design work easier. When we founded our studio, 10 years ago, we called ourselves ‘Bruch’ which means ‘Break’. And the tagline was ‘Idea & Form’. So the first part is always the idea.

J

We aren’t ever faced with a completely blank sheet. There are always hundreds of millions of possibilities for any project, but our chosen idea should be very close to the client, to the process of the client.

For example, ‘Kaffeeform’, this is a German company which invented a coffee cup, made out of coffee!

We started from the shape of a coffee bean, which is this very tactile ellipse and the process of producing these cups involves a negative form. So we combined this coffee bean as a negative shape within a square. From this we created a typeface and a visual language that sticks very closely to the product. That’s how it is for us with every project.

‘Blü Hotel’ is another good example.

The hotel was created by Eva Eder, a former lawyer, she’s very entrepreneurial. She wanted a place where you are free to do anything you like. You can have good food, go out and enjoy

Above: A dynamic & flexible use of the Kaffeeform brand elements Right top: Bye bye single-use plastic Right bottom: Weducer Cup Essential.

The colorful version

the mountains, go skiing, do yoga.

We tried to put this idea of freedom into the typeface we created and in the kind of illustrations we did with Seb Curi.

He has such a great style, it fits so perfectly with the founder’s feeling for her hotel.

HOW DO YOU TURN THOSE INITIAL IDEAS INTO FINAL DESIGNS? When clients come to us, we are always very excited by the possibilities. We meet the people and we have lots of ideas. I say that the clouds are above my head, and they’re full of ideas, possibilities and directions.

J

After the first talk with clients, Kurt and I talk a lot. And most of the time, the directions and ideas we have are very similar. So, we have some ideas, we’re confident we can find solutions. But then comes the hard process of finding the most fitting design.

AH YES, THE JOB OF REFINEMENT, THIS IS WHERE THE HARD WORK IS DONE! The starting points are there, the concept behind the design. But then, there are so many design solutions out there today, and all the platforms look very appealing.

K

Finding something that differentiates your work from all the solutions that already exists. This is the hard part.

A LOT OF YOUR WORK IS FOCUSED ON THE REAL WORLD, ON REAL THINGS. IS THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU? Materiality, the texture of things, haptics have always played a really important role for us.

K

This is the next level for communicating design and the idea of quality. We really love that. But also in the digital world too, you can put a level of identity into things that was just not possible years ago, when you were limited to certain fonts and so on.

But in the end, what we love is having access to the full range of design elements. From type, through to the materiality.

For example, we love paper. We love coloured paper from GF Smith, GMUND or Fedrigoni. So when we have a new project, we order a lot of paper samples. There’s always a lot of paper on our desks.

J

It’s different to create type and see it actually printed. You can feel the material, you can see the colour. We have a close partner who prints on classic letterpress machines. That’s such a nice printing technique.

Similarly, you can feel the emotion when you go into a hotel. You see the interior design, you see some greeting cards or some of the other touchpoints.

Feeling is very important to us, and that’s easier to understand when you see it in real life.

FOR US, THE MORE TOUCHPOINTS THE BETTER IT IS. THE BRAND GROWS WITH EACH ONE AND BECOMES MORE DYNAMIC.

Left: Blü up totebag Above top: Stationary Above bottom: Door hanger Right top: Notebook Right bottom: Design of the carpets

HOW DID THE TWO OF YOU MEET? HOW DID YOU COME TO SET UP A STUDIO TOGETHER? We had a history of studying and working at an agency together, but we never worked as close as we do now.

As it turned out, it’s perfect fit.

Although we are quite different, our brains are connected really well.

DOESN’T IT? NO ONE CAN REALLY BELIEVE WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS. EVERYTHING TURNS OUT TO BE FAKE. CAN DESIGN HELP WITH THIS?

K

We really love to work on each project together. Usually, one starts the job, after we’ve talked about it of course. Then, at a certain point we swap over and the other one tries to move the project on. We repeat this back and forth till we are happy.

We’ve been doing that for 10 years now.

This back and forth speeds up our process a lot because, whenever we get stuck, we just talk about it again. and new solutions pop up. This is a really efficient process.

When you’re working at an agency, what you find is that you’re basically doing projects alone. The other designers are there but they also have their own projects. So, they don’t have time to discuss your work!

It all depends on the clients. We are a very small design studio. We don’t need huge clients. The most important thing to us is to work for people who believe in what they are doing. So there’s no fake. They’re very honest.

J

THE WORLD SEEMS TO BE HAVING A BIT OF AN AUTHENTICITY CRISIS,

When you have that direct connection, things are often very obvious.

J

Advertising which just says, ‘buy this, it’s the best product ever,’ that’s something we could never do. In branding, we really try to get close to the client, or the product. We want to be honest. And when you do this everything just feels right.

‘Eisperle’, the vegan ice cream brand, was just like this. Mariane came to us seven years ago. She had a passion for vegan ice cream. She had spent three years coming up with recipes to make very delicious vegan ice cream.

The design is not just something that you pull over the client so that they look nice. In the end, people will find out if something is fake. So, authenticity plays a really important role for us.

We talked with Mariane about her clients, they’re very young and open. We talked about ice cream, and the summer. We talked about ice cream melting in the sun...

BRANDING FEELS LIKE SOMETHING WHICH YOU LEARN TO DO OVER TIME. A SKILL YOU DEVELOP. HAS YOUR APPROACH TO BRANDING EVOLVED?

J

For us, we really want to get the most out of every project, because that’s also where we get our new clients from. It’s all word of mouth.

So we work on everything together.

Also, most of the time we work with smaller companies where we can talk directly to the decision makers. This helps a lot. When you have huge marketing teams involved, you don’t have this connection to the DNA of the company.

You have to work at it, watching people, how they behave. It’s like doing your own personal analyses.

K

Having done that work through the years, we have a feeling for authenticity. But it’s not as complex as it seems. I think it would be way harder to invent something without that authentic connection.

After this talk, we had the idea of those shapes melting and running together.

It should be colourful, and the interior design of the store should be very playful. By this point, the idea was obvious to me. But the key was working with a person who has a strong idea, a passion.

ANOTHER THING THAT’S WONDERFUL ON A SUMMER’S DAY IS A CHILLED GLASS OF WINE. BUT IT’S SO HARD TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT BOTTLE. HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE PACKAGING DESIGN FOR ’WEINGUT ENGEL’?

Branding for Eisperle

Left: At the winery, every year is unique and no year is the same – the wine, the people, the whole life is in motion. Label design for 2020.

Right: Label design for 2021

FINDING SOMETHING THAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR WORK FROM ALL THE SOLUTIONS THAT ALREADY EXISTS. THIS IS THE HARD PART.

Engel is a young winery, run by a young family. And for them, every year is different. The grapes, the weather, the children growing up... and they want to communicate this.

ILLUSTRATORS AND OTHER CREATIVES ARE IN TROUBLE?

K

So, they want something new for their labels every year. It’s a playground for them. The initial setup is always the same, but each time, we look for new, interesting illustrations, and to get to the feeling for that year.

The target group of the winery are young, and they love this flexibility of the brand. This approach is probably not suitable for every brand of wine.

Most wine brands try to have a certain consistency, so their customers will recognise them immediately on the shelf. But, for Engel, this aspect works out really, really well. Their clients always look forward to the new designs and labels every year.

No! We need the person and the style of the person. Their personality and emotions, their ideas and their process. All of this goes into bringing an idea to life.

J

For ‘Weingut Engel’, for example.

The product is organic so we definitely do not want something artificial. This is really important to us.

In the end, AI just re-composes things that have already been created.

It lacks authenticity. It’s so important to bring people together, to have personality, and style.

K

It’s important to us to have writers and photographers and illustrators who know our clients and know how they are as people. Then they can put this personality into their work.

YOU USE GREAT ILLUSTRATION, PHOTOGRAPHY AND TYPE DESIGN. DO YOU ENJOY COLLABORATING? We really love the flexibility and the diversity that working with other specialists brings to our projects.

Sometimes a certain style, or characteristic just fits perfectly. This is fun because it’s great to work collaboratively, but you also get new inspiration and ideas from new collaborators.

YOUR TYPOGRAPHY IS ANOTHER ELEMENT THAT REALLY CARRIES A LOT OF PERSONALITY.

K

THERE’S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT AI TAKING ALL THE ILLUSTRATION WORK NOW. DO YOU THINK

Playing with type has always been a passion for us. We have always taken great care, paid close attention to the details of type because it has such expressive power for a brand.

K

In the last few years we’ve given type even more attention, designing our own typefaces for client projects. This is great because you can put so much identity into it.

Of course, there are many really

WE ENJOY TALKING WITH PEOPLE WHO MAKE THINGS AND HAVE INTERESTING STORIES TO TELL.

Typedesign for Hotel Zum Hirschen (deer) including the characteristic shape of the antlers of the deer.

nice solutions out there already, but in the end, if you do some research, you’re often still looking for that special something. So, the only way to achieve this is to create your own type face.

And when you add to that the work of our friends at Infinitive Factory, using their Heidelberg letterpress machines, you have something wonderful. You can feel the paper, feel the print, the letters. It’s very special.

J

TYPOGRAPHY IS A PASSION THAT REWARDS THE TIME YOU INVEST, ISN’T IT? Actually, we’re working on our own type design foundry at the moment. In the last couple of years we’ve made quite a few typefaces that could be useful for other designers.

K

And at the same time, hospitality has become an important part of our work. So, we’re also working on a self-initiated magazine project, about travel and hospitality in German-speaking regions.

‘The Amused Traveler.’ We enjoy talking with people who make things and have interesting stories to tell.

It’s not too serious though, because traveling should be fun!

J

In recent years, we have gained a lot of insights from working with hospitality clients - restaurants, hotels and so on. So, this was something that felt right to us.

We don’t travel so much just now because of kids and stuff, that’s why we wanted to make the magazine about our surrounding region, like Austria, Switzerland, South Tirol.

We know a lot of people there and we are working on the magazine with Barbara Klein too. She knows so many passion driven people (cooks, winemakers, producers) and she is great at telling their stories.

THIS LOVE OF TYPE DESIGN IS CARRIED THROUGH TO YOUR WAY-FINDING PROJECTS. IS IT MORE DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH TYPE AND DESIGN IN THIS THREE DIMENSIONAL CONTEXT? No, never. Because for us, working with ‘real world’ elements is a natural part of the process. It’s also visual, the same as it is on the screen or on paper. It’s an integral part of the design branding concept.

J

This helps us think about how we can develop more extensive branding for our clients, how they can position themselves in better and more interesting ways. But it also gives us an outlet for our love of type design.

DO YOU HAVE A TITLE FOR THE MAGAZINE?

So when we are dealing with a hotel or another project where signage is important, it’s always in the first

presentation of our branding concept. We think very deeply about how we can develop the brand elements in 3D or the ‘real world’.

Depending on the client’s budget, it can get really, really interesting.

It’s another great area where you can play with the underlying brand elements.

SO THE STRENGTH OF THE UNDERLYING CONCEPT BECOMES INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT AS THE PROJECT GROWS IN SIZE AND COMPLEXITY? If you have a strong idea, a strong base, the design elements can play really well throughout all the various touchpoints. We think through our projects carefully, testing all the possible touchpoints.

K

For us, the more touchpoints, the better it is. The brand grows with each one and becomes more dynamic.

Plus, it’s just more fun for us as designers. In the beginning, when we started out, some clients just needed a logo and a business card, and probably a website. But, right from the beginning, we always created a huge concept. And we were always sad because the concept was never able to come to life.

J

These days, companies and brands need to work with many various outlets.

For us, that’s just great, because the concept can live fully.

Signage for Hotel Leni

HAVE CLIENTS BECOME MORE DESIGN LITERATE? Yes, that’s one point. The other is that our clients are getting a little bigger. In our first couple of years, we had smaller clients like startups, and they only need a few touchpoints.

Now, we have, hotels, for example, and they need everything. Printed stuff in the hotel, a way-finding system.

They need merchandising, clothing... so many interesting touchpoints.

So that’s really fun.

the Bruch - ‘break’ - of our name, explored through visual forms. So we were very proud of this prize.

J

MAYBE IT’S YOUR DETERMINATION TO BUILD WITH STRONG CONCEPTS THAT HAVE BROUGHT YOU SO MANY AWARDS. YOU MUST HAVE A VERY CLUTTERED MANTELPIECE! WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PRIZE? At the beginning, when we started our studio, we spent a lot of time thinking about which part of design was important to us. For me, it was Bauhaus and the way they thought about form and shape.

J

Swiss typography, type from the Netherlands too. And people like Jan Tschichold who tried to make concepts, not just beautiful things.

That was a very, very important base for us, and for the branding of our own studio.

We won gold at the Creative Club Austria, for the initial branding of our own studio. The concept was about

Of course, we are very honoured whenever we get awards, but that one was particularly meaningful. It gave us such a great boost personally, it confirmed we were heading in the right direction. And it gave us some much needed visibility too.

K

IT’S CLEAR THAT YOU ENJOY YOUR WORK, THAT FEELING COMES THROUGH IN THE DESIGN YOU PRODUCE. It’s easy to be enthusiastic when you believe in a project. Like when Julian from Kaffeeform told me about making coffee cups out of coffee, I just thought, ‘That’s brilliant!’

J

We are just really happy that we can do stuff that we enjoy, projects that we find exciting.

WE REALLY LOVE THE FLEXIBILITY AND THE DIVERSITY THAT WORKING WITH OTHER SPECIALISTS BRINGS TO OUR PROJECTS.

Left: Corporate Font Sim Campus Right: Corporate Font for Sestra

Left: Cards for The Mozart Hotel printed on color papers by Fedrigoni Middle: Tone in tone. Greeting card fits perfectly into the interior Right: Door hanger for Hotel Maximilian

WE HAVE ALWAYS TAKEN GREAT CARE, PAID CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS OF TYPE BECAUSE IT HAS SUCH EXPRESSIVE POWER FOR A BRAND.

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