GET TING
GETTIHG UP: T AS EK DAIM
UP
Tell me about Getting Up. How did you all come together, what' s the background history of Getting Up?
z
~ z 9 w
.... o o
Z
:g eil CD
Tasek: I started painting initially tor myself. All of us started painting around the late 1980s. We aJl had the common background in aero~ and painting. so when WB all met up in Hamburg it was a universal decision to start the Getting Up ateliers.
Who and wh at are your main inspirations in your paintings and creative process? T : I try 10 keep focused on the relationships I have w ith the urban environment. Uke having all these exchanges and feelings with colours and spaces that you face every day In the b lg eitles. So thls 15 what I love when I travel, 10 90 somewhere else and see different eities aeross the world. Oa lm : I get my Inspiration trom everythlng I see. It's a lot of things like TV, traditional art, graffiti, animation.
cinema , all that . I see graffiti and also hip-hop as sampling things. Pul all these different things together and try to mix it 10 something new.
What would you say to someone who is just starting out with graffiti?
00 you see any crossover between design and graffiti?
0 : Don't do it, you are a loser, this has no future - my mum always said that to me ~aughs) . I would say wear a mask, because spray paint is really unhealthy, and change your filter regularly. And prattise, practise, practise. You need inspiration, but don't replieal e.
T: Of course, there are guys crossing the bridge between the two every day. Back and torth, back and torth.
What do you feel is more important the character or the typography? T: This is the question . 0 : Just tour letters, just a D, an A , an I and an M. That's it. T : Ws the oldest question in graffitI. The bas ic assoeiation with the New York style is writing your name. So it's letters definitely, but it's being creative with your letters. Following all the years of development it must be something really new and abstract. 0 : I think that the main thing is your name. If we are talking about Toast or Won or Mode2 and all these guys, they always have a name. They always have to write their name next to their characters. Dali and Van Gogh always have thatr name on thelr paintlngs. Dali had a specific logo, his own signature.
0 : Sometimes you see graffiti on the walls and you think, oh this could be a design or somelhing from a graphie designer. And someUmes you see the same image in a magazine as graphie design, but I thlnk it is something totally different. T: The two basic important points that make il different are that graffiti started when someone thought, I want to wrile my name, and design started when someone thought, I want 10 design somethlng. But a good designer has both , and a good graffiti artist has both as weil. Good people have to cross the bridge.
REORGANIZE: ETIENNE BOURQUE-VIENS ALRT : SASCHA MERG
Who and what are your main inspirations in your designs and design process? Sascha M erg: Nature and the things around me. Meditation and the connection it gives me. Etienne Bourque Vlen s: Definltely not the web. 4
SM: ,'rn not sumng too rnuch . The web is tike a cheap copy opposed to what I am con necting to (Iaughs). VOll know what I mean ... I would rather take the real thing.
Who would you like to collaborate with in the future? ES: A lot of triends I have made along the way. I have a frlend, Christian Zander from Denmark, and some oId friends from the SchooI of Communlcation, Fabrica, in northem Italy, Tom Hobbs and Jen Dugan, who are now back in San Francisco. SM: Collaboration is very Inspiring. Maybe not for what eomes out of it but in terms of meeting people and sharing new experiences.
ES: It's Interesting to note that one of my inspirations was Futurefanners and Sascha.
What projects are you working on at the moment?
What do you think you would do if there was no web or computer technologv?
EB: I am doing a website for a paper company. We just finished a job for Universal Records in Gennany. i1's like an advent calendar. Every day you have new prizes and infonnation.
SM: I think I would be asewer in textiles , because programrning is a little bit like sewing ing pieces of thoughts together
lt '5 tike sew-
EB: I would be a graphie designer lor print. using the old methods, of course, or an illustrator. er Involved In the arts. I am a very visual person. SM: I think if you look for inspiration in the outside then you will never find yourself. Because it's on the inside. da you know what I mean? I don 't tike schools so rnuch because they make you follow something, instead of finding something.
What do you hope to achieve at Alrt? SM: Thls A1rt thing is just like a name. It's important to give people a base. It's a network of open -minded people that aren't in their cages. ES: It's just a tool that people use to make more contacts and friends. So Alrt is a place to meet and make work with like-mlnded people. SM: It is also helpful with clients. Branding always makes the elient f~ safer and maybe they wou ld be scared if it were just a few Individuals doing a project without the brand.
SM: I am working with Etienne on an anti -war game. People can check out what I am dolng at www.sas21 . de, that saves me talking a lot. I am doing a few experiments with 30 Oirec tor stuft with the new version of Director.
What would you say to some one who is just starting out in design? EB: Have fun Oaughs). SM: Go for it. People shoukt do design il that's what they reaUy love. don't do it for the money otherwise you are golng to be very unhappy. We have enough shit on the web.
What trends do you see or what would you say the future is for web design? SM: Individualism and minimalism. Not huge sites where you get lost. We have to re-thlnk and see what we can do with this med ium of the web . In the beginning everyone just wanted to make money, with all those start-ups, everyone was just doing all these unthoughtful things; now the people with the vision can do somethlng - that's how I'm feeling It. The tide is changing, definltely.
Any final comments? SM: Free accBSS, file sharing , open source and alt that stuff. We shouldn't have to pay to communlcate with one another, it 's stupid ; It's just a matter of t ime betore alt that changes.
11
'--
"
.--_.
:=-
/~ -........ _---_ . _-_. __.._.....
' ~7
"
COt.4t.4UNICfliTlON aOß •• TARGET THE DOMINANT SIDE
AGRESSIVITY LVL