After finishing his studies in Basel, Hanns Schmid established his own design studio and worked for customers from industry, culture and architecture sectors. Designing, with its manifold aspects and ever new challenges, became the focus of his creativity. He designed printed material, brochures, catalogues, books, periodicals, fair stands, orientation systems, appearances, websites. In his work Hanns Schmid always conscientiously strove to achieve precise and meaningful sensory impressions. Thus the painters and decorators Siegrist’s company logo itself becomes a painting: Blue paint flows down into a red field in designed streams, thus forming the characters of the company’s name. Elsewhere, on the cover of a book published by his publishing house, a freshlyorange square heavily sits in deep blue surroundings. This reduced composition speaks in accordance with the publication’s title: «Wie schwer das Leichte» (How heavy/difficult the light/easy; pun due to the double meaning of the words «schwer» and «leicht» in German). In a different work, typographically reduced lettering and an elegant car over several posters develop step by step – as did the company Saab, which with this series wanted to look back on its history. Finally, Hanns Schmid also worked his way towards the moving image. Between 2006 and 2008 his first big video production was realized: an image film for the Ziegelei Rapperswil, a brick factory. Seemingly abstract close-ups range within calm sequences, which show the cooperation between man and machine in the course of the manufacturing process. Elegant panning shots provide spatial localization and overview. And a brief digression to the regions of North Africa and into contemporary architecture explains the cultural-historical significance and aesthetic potential of clay as a building material. The principles of cinematic storytelling and the technical skills of film editing were abilities Hanns Schmid acquired in the course of filmmaking. Every customer, every task, every format for him requires a new narrative and an individual approach, allows for a new learning experience or even opens the way to an unexpected creative adventure. The Search for Perfection Yet of all formats and means of expression, it was the poster that Hanns Schmid always liked best. And this preference led to success: several such works received the renowned reddot award, the international prize for communication design, or were included in the collection of the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Meanwhile, photography was becoming less important to Hanns Schmid. Even so, some of his photographic works are to be found in various Swiss collections such as the Swiss Foundation of Photography, Winterthur. Photography was the beginning of Hanns Schmid’s path of creativity, poster design was its completion. agency, called this the «decisive moment». This means a sudden balance where everything is just right. This moment cannot be measured. It is determined by emotion. Hanns Schmid describes it as follows: «When your inner feelings are in harmony with the world around you.» This poetry of situation and composition is to be found in his photographs as well as in his posters. An old woman looking out of a window at exactly the moment a man leans over his bicycle. A floating cloud artistically curling above the top of a palm. A product name placed by a lamp shade in such a way that the lettering looks like the cord of a pullswitch. Or a white stick figure posing as in a dance with typographical elements, the composition appearing as though everything were just in the right place at the right time. The search for the right moment is accompanied by a state of heightened attention. «The best thing you can experience in life is to work on a job with a 200% concentration», says Hanns Schmid, «then you can feel everything flowing within you.» This state of total concentration lasts much longer in graphic design than in photography. Even if Hanns Schmid did not share the dogmatism of Cartier-Bresson, for whom the pressing of the release alone was crucial and who refused any post-processing, in reportage photography it is the choosing a section of the picture that finally brings the end of the search for perfection. In design, this process continues further. For there, photography is but one element among many that have to be brought together. New technological designing tools open ever new possibilities of further processing. Thus Hanns Schmid used digital image inversion and colouring for the representation of machine parts to give them a special planet-like nature. Never should one close oneself off from new means of designing, Hanns Schmid finds. Never should one refuse new ways of sensuality. To Hanns Schmid, not only the designing of things, books and exhibitions, logos and films, or posters and photographs is a creative act, but also life itself. Moments of decision and decisive moments are to be found at every corner of everyday life. The sense of something feeling just right also applies to situations and persons. Everyone has the ability of aesthetic awareness, but not everyone dedicates their life to increasing and developing it. Hanns Schmid has done just that. Just as he strives to perfect any photograph or poster, he cannot let his life simply happen. «Enough is just not enough», he says to that. All along he has wanted to learn more, know more, see more, sharpen his senses, refine his sensitivity. He has dedicated his whole life to developing his sensitivity vis-à-vis the world. Or, as Hanns Schmid himself says: «Good design is also an attitude towards life.» «A graphic designer is not an artist, he has to be truly creative in the first place», says Hanns Schmid. Yet for him, photography as well as posters have always had an artistic aspect, a certain aura of their own. Both media also develop their effect in two stages. A reportage photograph has to make clear what it is about, so that it can be grasped at first sight. Also a poster, usually to be seen in public space and from afar, must convey its essential meaning immediately. It is only at second glance that the subtleties and precision with which the harmonious first effect was created become visible. Every creative product, be it a photograph or a poster, at some point achieves an aesthetic equilibrium. The famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the co-founders of the Magnum 12 13
Plakatgestaltung Poster Design