March 9th, 2010
High Five
Magnus Voll Mathiassen—

In the last few months I’ve become quite captivated by the burgeoning Norwegian design scene. There’s something that really appeals to me about the playfulness, poetry and artistry that characterizes much of the work coming out of Norway.

One designer who I believe has been instrumental in shaping and advancing the Norwegian design is Magnus Voll Mathiassen. MVM came to my attention a few years back, then as a member of Grandpeople – a design collective who decided to challenge the status-quo of design in Norway and forge their own path, both visually and intellectually. In 2009 Magnus left Grandpeople to forge a new path on his own, and in 2010 he continues to produced work that is highly distinctive, often beautiful and always filled with brilliant ideas.

1. Powerblytt Myths Compilation Series

The first in what is intended to be a series of dance music compilations, this cover is one of the most striking entries in MVM’s oeuvre. It’s a little sinister, a little scary, but at the same time incredibly playful and intriguing. The alien-like creature on the cover, with its wooden tendrils, jet black abdomen and decorative pearls, was conceived and built by MVM as a response to dance music covers of the 70′s and 80′s that would often feature a woman objectified on the cover.

According to MVM— ” The Powerblytt project was the perfect opportunity to work with an idea I had been thinking of for a while. I had been drawing and making small scale models of these “creatures” for some time, and when I found some pinetree branches in the woods around my parents house, I collected them and brought them to the studio. The branches themselves sort of laid the foundation of how the rest of the sculptures should look like. I wanted a refined look, and polished them, primed and clear coated them. I like the Japanese way of working with clear coat, layers upon layers, giving the wood almost a plastic-like feel.”

I love the fact that he has taken a natural object and then given in an almost synthetic, manufactured quality. It’s quite a brilliant metaphor for the creation of electronic music too, with the idea of sampling or synthesizing instruments and then electronically tweaking the sounds till they only vaguely resemble their origin.

Its interesting to consider what other areas of design MVM could take his organic shapes, and while he has expressed interest in industrial design, he seems content to appropriate other skills into his graphic work— “I have always been interested in furniture design, but what the world doesn’t need is another version of a chair. But graphic design is a profession that borrows from every other profession, and even stepping on other professions’ toes. It is quite flexible and you decide yourself if you want to take it a step further or not. Sometimes I do that, but I know my limitations and do what I think I am capable of completing.”

This cover also displays a particularly stunning example of Magnus’s bespoke typographic skills – a frequent feature in his work. I can detect a touch of Norwegian black metal to it, which makes for a very interesting, genre-bending design decision. If you’re a fan of (or if you’re unfamiliar with) this design subset, check out this new book from Gestalten, Lord Of The Logos.

Photography for the Powerblytt Myths cover is by Magne Sandnes

2. Maja S.K. Ratkje – Cyborgic

This is the piece that really drew me into MVM’s work, with its mysterious organic forms, minimalist approach and beautiful palette.

It’s an album cover for a live recording for Maja S.K. Ratkje, an award-winning electronic composer and performer who creates incredible experimental soundscapes. In an attempt to contrast with her orchestrated, often complex sounds, MVM created soft, almost naive illustrations.

The album was released by The Last Record Company, whom MVM designed the identity for. It’s a concept label, run by Rune Grammofon‘s Rune Kristoffersen. The label is a conceptual venture, sparing no expense on production and packaging, and as such designed to see how long it can last in the era of digital music.

The label limits its releases to vinyl only, and in limited editions of only 500 each. The music and packaging are seen as two autonomous entities, and neither are intended to influence or represent the other. To enhance the ‘object-feel’ there is no information on either the cover or the vinyl label. The design luxuriously folds over a gatefold sleeve, which contains a 16 page art booklet, making each release incredibly desirable.

I find that there’s an incredible amount of restraint in MVM’s work. This cover in particular demonstrates the ability to convey complex ideas in a way that is both decorative and minimal. I asked him how he decides when an illustration is complete—

“I seldom know when things are ready to ship off to the client. There are always things that can be polished even more, but the deadlines tend to be the single thing that tell me when to stop. But I try to keep things simple. It has a lot to do with my Norwegian background, I think. As a designer I like complex ideas made visible by using few elements. In general I like things to be simplified. And easy on the eye.”

3. Alog – Catch That Totem!

MVM’s work frequently takes a turn for the strange and psychedelic, such as on the Manga inspired cover of Alog’s Catch That Totem. There’s a sense of energy and animation on this cover and an extraordinary sense of scale, with tiny details and activity hidden in the folds of massive, fluid forms.

According to MVM it was Alog’s Espen Sommer Eide who drove the direction on this piece. Essentially a compliation of tracks from 1998 – 2005, the cover had to somehow take in the diversity of those seven years, and somehow represent the entire scope of the band’s music. Eide’s concept was to create something that fell between bubble-gum pop and metal, and MVM’s challenge was to not simply visualize those ideas, but to somehow represent the feeling of them.

People often talk about making colours “pop” in design, and this is a case where I think that fabled quality is actually in effect. Love the bubbly, organic typography for the band name too.

4. Juvelen – 1

Juvelen (The Jewel) is a Swedish artist who marries club music and classical pop in the vein of Prince. For this cover MVM draws on glossy magazines and popular science illustrations to create truly bizarre and beautiful illustrations. It’s interesting to see his trademark organic illustrations given depth and texture, and the use of colour and light is really something. Again we see some more incredible bespoke typography, this time in a much more formalized style – tall, condensed, but still featuring some lovely, experimental details, particularly on the E’s.

While MVM has done extensive work for the music industry, he tells me that listening to music has become less of an important part of his process over the years. I find this incredibly interesting, as he is so often able to capture the emotional and fluid quality of music in his work.

“I just need some commotion or sound around me, not necessarily music. Radio, people, anything. I only need silence when I read. Music itself has seldom an impact on my work … I like to listen to Darkthrone or other harder and darker music when I work with illustration for some reason … that usually works when I vacuum clean too. “

5. Kunstplanen

Just when you thought you had a handle on MVM’s style and approach, you discover a piece like this, designed for Bergen county council in Norway to assist in documenting their 10 year plan and goals for art and culture.

This has to be one of the most visually interesting and beautiful pieces of government design I’ve discovered in some time. It manages to be a formal and official document and a beautiful piece of design with lovely print embellishments.

Taking inspiration from the Bauhaus Bauspiel constuction set, MVM went about creating his information graphics in a way that was both easily understandable and graphically interesting. While these basic shapes are the only illustrative elements, the use of colour and simplicity in the layout make them incredibly fresh, decorative and eye-catching. Governments of all levels please take note!

MVM’s High Five

Ray and Charles Eames – Study House No.8

Ray and Charles Eames influence on everyday life has been huge. Their work isn’t particularly intellectual, but it connects easily to your mind and body. You might call their body of work functional poetic modernism. Or not. To me it is. Yes, it is an oxymoron.
Well, the Eames aesthetics have never influenced my work, it is more their approach, the joyfulness, the lack of dogmas and the sheer lack of creative restriction. The only thing I can think of that I would like to transcribe to graphic design is the façade of the the Eames house, also known as Study House No.8, in the Pacific Palisades, California. Very Neo-Plasticism. And very different than any Mondrian paintings. But I am not gonna try to make anything like that.

Jake and Dinos Chapman – Etchasketchathon

The work of the brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman is conceptually and visually brutal to most people. If you don’t like what you see most people will understand just that. But beyond the shocking art, there are two clever chaps in the background laughing at the spectator’s reactions. Their concepts are more solid, calculated and long-lived than any identity program.
The Etchasketchathon series is something I just love. It is horrific, funny, familiar, colourful, and dark. Darkness is underrated. Well, probably not here in Norway.

Jean/Hans Arp

Arp has followed me for ten years. His art is terribly naive, yet pretty serious. Almost dark. Actually, I don’t know what it is about his work, but Arp’s simplicity just slides into my work to lighten (or darken) things up now and then. I have no favorites among his production. All of it works for me.

Donald Judd

Let’s leave his conceptual foundation aside. The aesthetic quality is just astonishing. Just amazing. But I need some nature after breathing in all of that minimalism after a while. It can suffocate you.

Random images and Cult Minimal

As you can see from my selection of “inspiration” above it isn’t exactly much from the world of graphic design. I am not bored of graphic design, but there are seldom stories behind graphic design work that catch my attention. And with all types of sites like Ffffound and such, the history behind the work displayed just evaporates. A friend of mine just told me that inspiration to him is simply overrated, what drives him is information. True, true. I hate random images. So, to add insult to injury I have started a personal website with random images. Since it is not an “official” site, just for personal use, I am not going to go public with the URL. Let’s just say it is called Cult Minimal. Use your imagination if you absolutely need to find it. A friend of mine did the programming. I said I wanted something like Haw-Lin, and I think he just copied the WordPress-setup. I try to update it now and then, but usually just forget it.

.
My High Five project was primarily created to showcase some of the incredible work being produced around the world, and to provide some insight into what has inspired the designers to create it. What it hopes to achieve is to stimulate some discussion about the theoretical and conceptual side of design, and how this is translated into the final visual output. Not only is MVM is an extremely interesting designer, but a great case study for this purpose. His work is vibrant, unusual and highly graphical, but it seems to be driven by information and theory far more than the influence of other graphic design.

I think this is an extremely important consideration for designers, to not only have a broad visual language and not to become too influenced by graphic design itself. If our inspiration is too focused on our own industry, we’ll end up simply recycling ideas and not moving design forward. Communication is constantly evolving, and graphic design needs to evolve with it.

Many thanks to Magnus for sharing his work and insights. Thanks to you for reading and be sure to keep an eye on his site for future developments. I think there’s some exciting stuff ahead.

Magnus Voll Mathiassen
Grandpeople
Norway Wiki

Back to Top ↑
previous post: Flickr
next post: #9