Andi Rahmat, a designer who founded Nusae, an art studio in Bandung.
Andi's focus as a designer is on environmental graphic design. This caused Andi to experience a mismatch in values with his company when he worked at a multinational agency company. Many of the agency projects he works on support consumerism.
One example is the use of billboards which can damage the environment. Billboards themselves can damage the city landscape and reduce the aesthetics of the city layout. Apart from that, the use of billboards itself supports consumerism and can lead people to behave consumptive towards tertiary goods.
Andi feels that design should be a language that designs our behavior to be more polite. Apart from that, in design, for Andi what is needed is consistency in doing things that are believed to be good. Andi has four favorite graphic designers who are his role models. Who are they? Listen here, come on!
1. Josef Muller-Brockmann
Josef Müller-Brockmann, who was born on 9 May 1914, is a typographer from Switzerland. He studied architecture, design and art history at the University and Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich.
In 1936 he opened his studio in Zurich specializing in graphic design, exhibition design and photography.
Brockmann is known for his simple designs and clean use of typefaces, especially Akzidenz-Grotesk. The shapes and colors have inspired many graphic designers in the 21st century. Although it's a shame, maybe he didn't get to know the rise of his design style again because Muller-Brockmann died in 1996.
"Akzidenz" is a sign that the letters used are commercial printing letters such as advertisements, tickets and forms. While "Grotesk" was the standard name for a sans-serif typeface at the time. First released by the Berthold Type Foundry in Berlin in 1898, this type was popularized again by Brockmann after the war in the 1960s and initiated the simple and clean design of "The Swiss Style".
2. Emil Ruder
Emil Ruder was born in Zurich, Switzerland on March 20, 1914. Ruder trained as a typesetter in Basel (1929-1933), and studied in Paris from 1938 to 1939. Ruder published a basic grammar of typography entitled, Typographie.
The text was published in German, English and French, by Swiss publisher Arthur Niggli in 1967.
This book helped spread The Swiss Style and became a foundational text for graphic design and typography courses in Europe and North America. In 1962 he helped found the International Center for Typographic Arts (ICTA) in New York.
Similar to Brockmann, Ruder was also one of the pioneers of The Swiss Style which is simple for various needs.
3. Kenya Hara
Kenya Hara is one of the internationally recognized Japanese designers. He graduated in design from Musashino Art University of Kodaira in 1983, and immediately joined NDC (Nippon Design Center).
In 1992 he founded the Hara Design Institute which works across all areas of design from advertising to branding, exhibition design, sign systems, packaging, products and books. The designs communicate the essence or deep meaning of each reality through symbolic visual solutions derived from traditional Japanese culture.
In 2001 he was appointed as Muji's art director by Ikko Tanaka, a Japanese graphic design master who was its former art director. Since then, he has developed communication designs while helping companies formulate an integrated vision.
He curates Muji's ads, apps, advertisements, exhibitions, magazines and packaging following the original concept of "simplicity over grandeur". Under his artistic direction, Muji has become an international symbol of aesthetic and conceptual quality.
4. Wim Crowel
Wim Crouwel is a graphic designer from the Netherlands. From 1947 to 1949, he studied Fine Arts at the Academie Minerva in Groningen, Netherlands. In addition, he studied typography at what is now the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam.
His famous works are the New Alphabet and Gridnik fonts with the Modernism theme. In the years Crouwel worked for Total Design, he designed many geometric letters, one of which was the letter for Rabobank designed in 1973. The shape of the letters was influenced by the need to place them in 3D light, which gave rise to creativity within limitations.
In fact, after the 3D application is complete, a new 2D design is designed by adapting the letters. According to Wim Crouwel, the New Alphabet is a unique letter and was never intended to be actually used. However, the font became popular again in 1988 when designer Brett Wickens used his version for the cover of Joy Division's Substance album.
That's the graphic designer who inspired Andi Rachmat. Are you also a graphic designer? Which graphic designer is your role model?