Kai Damian Matthiesen's Graphic Design / Typography Portfolio

Aby Warburg (Typeface) Part of my Final Project at the RCA was the design of this typeface. See the Rhetoric of Typography for more information. 2015 Graphic Design, Typography
The Rhetoric of Typography Experimental typography has fascinated me for a long time, already before coming to the RCA. In various projects I had tentatively looked for new ways to explore typography as a form of self-expression.

Then in my dissertation “Authenticity in a Visual World” I was interested in a seemingly very different topic, namely the omnipresence of the term "authenticity" in contemporary culture. I wanted to find out, how designers in different fields handle the phenomenon that I called "authenticity pressure" and how it affects their approach to visual communication. By interviewing professionals who face these dilemmas regularly, such as successful designers, but also a tribal tattoo and a commercial street artist, I tried to figure out their strategies to authenticate their work. I then identified four different ways of coping with this pressure: Reinvention of Tradition; Underground, Subculture, Tribal Structures; Tools of the Time; The Cult of Selfhood.

Our everyday environments are visual worlds, all the time we are confronted with an abundance of pictures without reference or context. One can only respond subjectively, following inherent (unconscious) selection and aesthetic rules. But to what extent are these decisions made randomly or are rather embedded in our cultural memory? This question led me to the work of Aby Warburg – and then back to experimental typography.

There is substantial evidence that type design has a great impact on the reader and that designers and non-designers perceive typography differently. Therefore I looked at existing psychological research that attempts to quantify the effect of typeface designs. I designed a typeface that is equal in its expression by combining traditionally separate categories of typography. “Sans-Serifs” for traits such as Consistency and Logic (Logos), “Humanist” for emotions, imagination (Pathos) and “Serifs” for credibility and trust (Ethos).

In Aristotle’s theory of Rhetoric: Logos, Pathos and Ethos are the key dimensions for speaking and communicating effectively. I think that also typefaces communicate and have a kind of rhetorical ability. Therefore I felt the need to investigate to what extent the reader can be influenced by typography. I looked through psychological studies to find three typefaces that can be representative of Logos, Pathos and Ethos and then took their unique qualities in order to design a typeface called Aby Warburg that would be equally unique in it’s persuasive character. 2015 Graphic Design, Typography
Authenticity in a Visual World ‘Authenticity’ may be a “hoax” (Andrew Potter); and is certainly a hype. This particular term appears everywhere: in the art world, tourism, the marketing industry, fashion, and in UNESCO cultural world heritage sites.
Not only does a work of art have to be authentic, but the artist as an individual is also expected to be so. This is an expectation which seems to extend to all of us. Experiences, products, adventures, body and mind all fall under the umbrella of ‘authenticity-pressure’, as designers continually strive to design with the imperative of being authentic: real, true, approved, honest, reliable, credible and trustworthy, not false, not fake, not untrue. We are living in a ‘visual world’, saturated with imagery. Confronted by an abundance of pictures without reference or context, one can only respond subjectively, following inherent (unconscious) selection and aesthetic rules. How do graphic designers as specialists in visual communication find ways of staging authenticity - and at the same time remain authentic to themselves?

This dissertation features interviews and contributions by:
Åbäke, Adrian Shaughnessy, Daniel Eatock, Design by Desire, dbyd, Eine, Herbert Lachmayer, Katie Scott, Sagmeister&Walsh, Scott King, Teal Triggs, Zulu Tattoos

The full transcript of this writing is on: http://rca.academia.edu/KaiMatthiesen

Thanks!! 2014 Art Direction, Editorial Design, Writing
Animated Identity for RCA SoC Work in Progress show As the title says, this is the proposed visual identity for the Work in Progress show at the Royal College of Art, which happens in the middle of the 2nd year. Using a font that I designed, I was trying to highlight the possibilities of something being unfinished and still in flux. 2014 Exhibition Design, Graphic Design, Typography
Animal Alphabet This project was my response to a class visit to the Horniman Collection in South London. I took many photographs and was intrigued by the pastel colors and the low artificial lighting of the cabinets where the stuffed specimens were. The stark contrast of black frame and animal seemed to merge and create a new layer of information.

I am trying to blur the lines between image and form. As many letters in our alphabet are already derived from organic forms but have become abstracted in time I want to freeze this transition between hieroglyphs and symbol.

These animal/letter hybrids can be used for general signage or communications for the museum. 2013 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Typography
150 Years TFL London: Poster Competition 2063: All the way home!

We were asked to advertise the TFL service of the future, in 50 years. The idea is that the Tube will bring you all the way home in the future. This poster is part of the 150 years London Underground Exhibition now at the London Transport Museum. 2013 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Photography
The Graphic Design Reader by Bloomsbury This entry was part of a cover design competition issued by the Bloomsbury Publishers for Teal Triggs and Lesie Atzmon's new book on Graphic Design History. Also I created a bespoke typeface for this project called "Born Grotesque". Any feedback is welcome! 2014 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Typography
Made of Motion: GIF Font This is my entry for Neville Brody's Fuse Brief in 2014 at the Royal College of Art.
2014 Graphic Design, Motion Graphics, Typography
Book Design 'Die Bleiche der Zeit' 2011 Typography, Publishing, Graphic Design
Mozart Exhibition Albertina Vienna MOZART. Experiment Aufklärung –
im Wien des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts

vom 17. März bis 20. September 2006
Albertina

Ein mehrdimensionaler Denkraum zum Mozart-Jahr 2006 in Wien –
eine Wissensoper für Mozart
In Kooperation mit dem WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006

Hrsg. Herbert Lachmayer, Texte von Herbert Lachmayer u.a.
Erschienen anlässlich des 250. Geburtstags von Mozart zur offiziellen Jubiläumsausstellung in der Albertina, Wien.

Logo & Coverdesign: Kai Damian Matthiesen
Layout: Loys Egg
Layout and Typesetting Assistant: Kai Damian Matthiesen

http://www.daponte.at/ 2015 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
Staging Knowledge by Herbert Lachmayer (Cover Design) Book Cover for Herbert Lachmayer's "Staging Knowledge"

The Wallpaper is a original artwork by the late Austrian Artist Franz West for this publication.

Staging Knowledge:
The staging of knowledge space and performative Kultureprocurement
The communication of cultural-historical content calls for a mediation strategy that also functions as a research strategy – and vice versa.
The “Staging Knowledge” concept describes an artistic-scientific cultural technique that complies with the demand for education in our society by recurring to the medium of exhibitions.
It is the objective of “Staging Knowledge” to endow the practice of artistic research with cognition status, thus providing scientific discourses with “thought spaces of the imagination” to widen the scope for formulating scientific hypotheses through artistic creativity.
Only an intuitive intelligence of taste and a mind capable of embracing passion can ensure that theory production will embody an inspired imagination and the desired, libidinous possibility of cathexis. Thus cultural mediation as performative rhetoric may also follow our emotions (and their modulation), inclining towards the fantasy production of the unconscious and upheld by the momentum of a subversive obsession with freedom.

www.daponte.at 2015 Creative Direction, Graphic Design, Print Design
Mediale Lebens(t)räume Poster and Exhibition Brochure for: "MEDIALE LEBENS(T)RÄUME – DROHT UNS EINE DIGITALE HEIMAT?" at the TLM Thüringen Museum in Germany.

Full Brochure here: http://www.tlm.de/tlm/20jahre/MedialeLebenraume_TLM_Web.pdf

Client:
Professor Dr. Herbert Lachmayer
DA PONTE Research Center, Kunstuniversität Linz 2015 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Print Design
Phantazie und Pharmazie Ausstellung Graphic Design & Art-working for the Wallpaper for the Exhibition
Wallpaper: Herbert Lachmayer & Margit Nobis

PHANTASIE UND PHARMAZIE
Kulturelle Einbildungskraft als Placebo-Effekt einer erweiterten Schmerztherapie
15. April 2011, dem „5. Wiener Schmerztag“
Rathaus Wien
2015 Exhibition Design, Graphic Design
Lorenzo Da Ponte Assistant Designer/Typographer of Loys Egg in Vienna.

Lorenzo da Ponte: Opera and Enlightenment in Late 18th Century Vienna
Author(s): Herbert Lachmayer, Reinhard Eisendle
Publisher: Da Ponte Institut / The Italian Academy, Bärenreiter 2015 Graphic Design, Print Design
Frankography (ISTD Award) International Society of Typographers student awards:
The brief was to typographically express the spoken words of two film scenes. Therefore, I designed two typefaces for Blade Runner and Frankenstein. 2015 Graphic Design, Print Design, Typography
Flanagan Lawrance Architects (Branding) Simple new Identity for the London based Architects Flanagan Lawrance. By introduction of a black bar across all media of the new Identity ensures a cohesive and coherent visual identity. For the business cards and promotional publications five colours, representative of the five divisions (Architect, Interior Design etc.) were applied. 2015 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
University of Bern Cover Designs for the University of Berne, Switzerland. Sociology Department 2015 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Print Design
Bleiche Motor Trophy (Vintage Car Rally Branding) Branding for the Bleiche Motor Trophy
http://bleichemotortrophy.bleiche.ch/ 2015 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
Bleiche Wald Resort in Zurich 2011 Advertising, Graphic Design, Illustration
Close 2 You (Video Clip) Graphics and Video Editing by Kai Damian Matthiesen 2015 Motion Graphics, Visual Effects
Haydn Explosive Haydn Explosiv –
eine europäische Karriere am Fürstenhof

vom 10. April 2009 bis 31. Dezember 2011
Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt

Client:
http://www.daponte.at/ 2015 Exhibition Design, Graphic Design, Illustration
Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools (Drank) Bowser x Dr!ve This Cover was done using my Bespoke Typography "Born Grotesque" which I then manually interfered with.

Pantone Colour: 304 C 2014
LoryBau Branding Complete branding of the construction business LoryBau AG from Berne Switzerland.

Client: www.lorybau.ch 2015 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
English Contemporary Heritage (Fake Blue Plaques) I used the blue plaques to create and influence our understanding
of social value. Blue Plaques are highly socially charged, well known and respected. Almost all the people covered on my version are certainly not famous for their input into society, but still got national or worldwide attention and this is very well a certain Heritage - whether positive or negative is not the question. It seemed always rather difficult for me to explore this kind of side effect of mass media intellectually but I still found it a subject worth to expand on and criticise.

This was my final BA project at the London College of Communication in 2009. 2015 Advertising, Graffiti, Graphic Design
Album Artwork Yuri Artwork for "Yuri"
Single & Album 2015 Art Direction, Graphic Design, Music
Ballymore Properties (Re-Branding & Advertising) Selection of Advertisements, Promotional Materials and Re-Branding proposals for Ballymore Properties its Developments and other subsidiary companies.
2015 Advertising, Branding, Graphic Design
I Believe In You (Crowdfunding) Design work for the new crowdfunding start-up "I believe in you"

Logo Gestaltung für das Crowdfunding start-up "I believe in you - Dein Beitrag zum Schweizer Sport."
www.ibelieveinyou.ch 2015 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
Yamaha "Kando" Competition The proposed symbol is loosely inspired by the 1966 essay of Bazin called „Plumons l’Oiseau“ where he introduces six new symbols under which one was for love, showing two mirrored question marks. The aim was to create a new symbol which seamlessly blends with existing Yamaha icon. While simultaneously creating a mark which seems as if it were a new character for an alphabet, by creating a symbol that feels very natural in its simplicity that conveys the duality of the Yamaha story. 2014 Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
Various Exhibitions with the DaPonte Research Centre Selection of exhibitions I was involved with.

Client:
DaPonte Research Centre.
http://www.daponte.at/ 2015 Graphic Design, Typography
Mozart Children Museum Vienna Collage using Mozarts handwriting and my Mozart logo for the workshop area in the "Wolfgang Amadé – ein ganz normales Wunderkind" show at the Children museum in Vienna.

Client:
www.daponte.at 2015 Graphic Design, Illustration