10+10 interview with German graphic designer Tom Ising, who was in Riga with a lecture, exhibition and was one of the judges at map contemporary. Tom worked for “jetzt” the magazine of  Süddeutsche Zeitung and later co-founded the Munich based design agency HERBURG WEILAND with Martin Fengel . Since then, he has worked from there as an art director for magazines (Burda, Springer, Gruner & Jahr, etc.), book publishers (Kiepenheuer & Witsch, 2001, Heyne, Delius Klasing) and companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Swiss Re, Allianz, Stiftung Warentest, etc .  Alongside this work he teaches magazine design at the “DJS” German School of Journalism in Munich.

1. Please tell us about yourself (how you started, why design, what drives you?)
I started as a designer at the former “jetzt” magazin of Süddeutsche Zeitung. At that time it was one of the most exciting places to work in Germany because of the people who worked there (Journalists, Artists, Photographers). This exchange of ideas and opinions with people from different areas is basically still what I like most about being a designer today.

2. What is design for you? (what do you find interesting within it, why you’re doing it?)
Everything is interesting that is new or done in an intelligent way. I don’t even dislike bad design, but what I really detest is stupid design. For example changing old but good logos to something new that is far worse than the original design.

3. Is it possible to be ‘out of ideas’?
Not really because there are almost no ‘new’ ideas. Everything has already been done in many different ways. So the challenge is to find ways of communicating that have never been done before for this product and this exact content.

4. How to become a good designer?
I don’t know. Be curious maybe. But being lazy is also very important. The best ideas always pop out of nothing.

5. Please name 3 very important things?
Peace, Love and Happiness. 

6. What is needed to get a great result in design?
Most definitely a great client. There is nothing worse than working for stupid people who don’t understand design in combination with their product. Good design is only possible when designers and clients work closely together on an eye-to-eye level.

7. You were judging the map contemporary competition – please name 3 things that surprised you?
What I really liked was the book design. Many beautiful books were showcased. Corporate design was strong too. Transportation design and direct marketing were awful (except for the rolling sauna).

8. What do you think about participating in design contests? Does winning or not winning influence you somehow?
We do not at all believe in participating in design contests since it always shows only a part of the work that is out there. Work that isn’t entered by its creators doesn’t take part in the competition so you can never see the whole range of good design that has been done in that period of time. Herburg Weiland did an experiment in 2009/2010. We entered for the first time in approx. 10 important national and international competitions and won 40 creative awards (ADC, D&AD, TDC, DDC, 100bestePlakate, IF Award, RedDot etc.). Not only was the preparation of the entries and the paperwork such a huge amount of work but the fees for entering and winning are of course simply too expensive. In the future we will only take part in a few handpicked competitions. Poeple who want to work with us should judge us by our work and not by the awards.

9. Did your favorite works win?
Most of them, yes. Overall I would say the best pieces won.

10. Could you please describe what you think about graphic design in Latvia — what works for us and what doesn’t?
Classic print design is quite strong in Latvia. I do like that one gets the feeling that the designers really tried to understand the piece they were working for and tried to find a design that really fits the product.

Some works of Tom Ising below. More at HERBURG WEILAND.

Tagi: editorial design, graphic design, interview, jetzt, map contemporary 2010, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Tom Ising

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