Interviews with two representatives each of ten areas of applied and desing art on their own careers and the current state of profession | The artists talked to Hedvig Dvorszky and László Attila Márton

- How did you find your way to the area in which you became a well-known and recognised artist?
- In which of your works do you think you succeeded in realising the objectives you had set?
- What is the current situation and the future of your profession like? What are its opportunities?

Graphic design has undergone major change, at least when we look at its technical background. Technological innovation has contributed not only to the form but also to the content of the genre. This – besides the changes that we can celebrate – has unfortunately led to the homogenisation of the profession. Printed advertising materials, logos, illustrations and stamps made in different corners of the world are difficult to tell apart now, and the fact that there is a thing called a `pictorial mother tongue’ is talked about less and less. The role of advertisements has been taken over by faster, more directly targeted and, most importantly, cheaper mediums. The `century of the poster’, i.e. the twentieth, is gone, and the poster has lost its previously occupied space – or street, to be accurate – and it is exiled among the walls of exhibition halls. Such appearances are no longer a bonus opportunity for graphic designers, who can show their work at biennales, joint exhibitions and solo shows at best, but not on advertising columns. There is one thing, though, that might change this pessimistic outlook. While being increasingly side-lined among the media selected to transfer information, the poster has been stripped of a lot of binding expectations. We are no longer held accountable if a play does not attract a big enough audience; we are not expected to fill the pockets of fashion dictators; and perhaps politicians no longer give us a beating if their parties fail at the elections. The genre has become more genuine, unrestrained and fresher.

In the past we believed, learnt and at times taught that a well-designed and -drawn image is able to instantly show content that would take much longer to write and read. Posters with texts feels like a kind of admission on the part of the designer that he has run out of ideas. The essence of the development of poster art is exactly that the poster became increasingly more in control of communication through, and only through, images. I once explained this at a student workshop: if you want to make a poster, formulate the message you want to convey in a few simple lines, read the text, and you will feel that there are words, parts of sentences or even entire sentences that are redundant. Repeat this process of rereading and crossing out a few more times, and when you do not need a single letter, then your poster is ready.

Interview conducted by László Attila Márton

The new logo and identity design for Magvető Publishers were designed last year. It was a restricted tender, announced by the new management with the aim of refreshing the publisher’s appearance. My concept won the competition, and I completed the work, which, to our delight, was awarded the Hungarian Design Award in 2016.

The publisher wanted an identity design that equally reflects the value-oriented book publishing practices of the company, its openness to new literary trends as well as its highly prestigious position in the domestic and foreign markets. I found a very simple visual solution for this. Since Magvető is among Hungary’s literary publishers looking back on the greatest tradition, I wanted to capture this and render it in the purest language of typography. The hungarumlaut – a double sharp accent – can only be found in the Hungarian alphabet; moreover, it is included in the name of the publisher. I designed a new character by combining the first and last letters of Magvető. This is how a new letter came into being, which became the company’s logo.

My project called Anaptar (literally meaning ‘the calendar’) is my own, completely autonomous brand. It is the conceptual development and implementation of a special lunar cycle calendar system. So far it has won six international awards, including the Red Dot Design Award. It is a special cyclical calendar with each of its versions linked to a given point on Earth. Its innovative element is that I used a completely new method to display the astronomical data pertaining to the Moon. This is a data visualisation system of the lunar cycles that no one else had done before me and to which it probably owes its huge success at home and abroad.

As far as I can see, there is a trend for graphic art, the visual professions and design to be more transparent. Perhaps this is easier to trace in the case of design, because you might have a superb object, but it will not be alive and marketable without the necessary ‘trimmings’, like visual and other forms of communication. I believe that those working in related professions will have to join and work together in the future.

Interview conducted by László Attila Márton