Inviding new territories: Siggi Eggertsson, designer without borders by veerle devos

DAMn° magazine # 29 / SIGGI EGGERTSSON

Invading new Territories Siggi Eggertsson, designer without borders This young designer is bursting with vim and vigour. Hailing from Iceland he soon became aware of the need to extend his boundaries of exploration, and after a fairly selective spot of research involving the changing of locations, he landed in Berlin. From there he continues to work abundantly and with much pleasure, on as many different sorts of projects as he possibly can, in whatever medium is necessary. The challenge of invading unusual territories is one that eminently appeals to him, and he has made it quite clear that he will not rest until he has dipped his capable hands into each and every domain.

text VEERLE DEVOS images siggi eggertSson

Siggi Eggertsson is one of those Viking sons who tiny Iceland can be proud of. The 27-year-old illustrator, graphic designer and typographer, is an international rising star who collects awards for designs packed with patterns, geometry and symmetry. But however prominent he may have been as a main speaker at the bustling Design March festival in Reykjavik, Eggertsson absolutely does not want the ‘made in Iceland’ brand attached to him. “I’m a designer without borders”, says the chap who has found a home in Berlin. “I don’t see the point of associating myself with Iceland. I’d rather just be a person from no country.” His terrifically empty apartment in Friedrichshain, part of former East-Berlin, is also his studio. (No traces of books or magazines here? “Print is a complete waste of paper!” And this from the guy who actually designed the DAMn°29 cover). This part of Berlin is now one of its most fashionable areas, but Siggi Eggertsson is never bothered by hipsters. That’s because he works until he drops; some days he doesn’t even leave the house. “I like to work, and for me that means I have to isolate myself.” Eggertsson sticks to specific, small, self-selected rules because he thinks that challenges his creativity. “It’s

about finding new ways of producing my work. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s graphic design, illustration or type design. I approach it the same way, with rules I make up myself. One of my rules is that I never use typefaces designed by others. Consequently I always have to draw a typeface myself if I want to use one, which happens every day.” Icy cool

When you live on a completely isolated island where the weather is too rough to go outside you apparently end up doing cool stuff. Eggertsson spent his childhood developing his graphic skills. He grew up in Akureyri, a tiny fishing town in the remote North of Iceland. “It was fine until I realised it was pretty boring. It’s internet

Siggi Eggertsson at ‘the missing building place’, Cuvrystrasse in Berlin, with a mural by the Italian street artist Blu. Due to urban planning issues, this place will disappear, as the needy city government is selling-off its best public open spaces to property investment groups, like this one along the river Spree (above) Photo: Veerle Devos Illustration for the volcano bag, limited edition, for Eggertsson’s talk at Visuelt in Oslo. It was designed before Eyjafjallajokull erupted (top, left)

DAMn° magazine # 29 / SIGGI EGGERTSSON

ATHLETES / Michael Schumacher “This exhibition is a tribute to my favorite athletes of all time. Michael Schumacher. (Germany) Date of birth: January 3, 1969 I used to watch F-1 when I was hung over on Sundays. I liked it, nothing happened and they just drove for some hours. I was usually hung over when I used to watch it. But I guess I won’t watch it again, since my favorite driver, Michael Schumacher recently retired. There was something really special about him. He was the best, and he knew it well. He sometimes played dirty, was arrogant, had the best car and made the most money. And he is German. How can someone not like him?” Future Issue for Little White Lies Cover design for the 30th issue of Little White Lies, the Future Issue

Previous spread, left: Berlin, En Plein Air: TV tower. “En Plein Air was an idea I had last year when I was living in Berlin. I wanted to modernise the working methods of the Impressionists, who took their canvases outside and painted what was in front of them. My idea was to take my computer outside and draw what I saw.”

that first gave me the opportunity to break through this isolation. I started making websites to show my early work, and I started receiving feedback from all round the world. That’s the beauty of it: everybody pretty much gets an equal chance at attention on internet. Your work doesn’t have to be in a magazine anymore! This definitively changed my thinking, and from then on I had a strong desire to escape.” Which he did. At 17, he moved to the capital Reykjavik (population: 120,000) to study at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. But even there he became short of breath. “After two years there I was sick of that place because it doesn’t change. It’s always the same with the same people. Iceland is a very remote island. Apart from fish and boats, everything is imported. There aren’t even dangerous animals, perhaps a couple of foxes. So when you’re born in Iceland you always have to go further, otherwise you don’t evolve.” Zigzagging

He spent a couple of years in New York, Berlin and London, respectively. Eventually he returned to Iceland to answer a call for isolation, and settled in the village Tálknafjordur (population: 200) in the West Fjords of Iceland. “I’ve always been attracted to isolating myself and just working. But it was too much, and I missed Berlin: the space, and the chance to do a multitude of things, like going to a museum, having a beer in the park, watching the wolves in the zoo. I missed the inspiration of its omnipresent history and architecture,

the obscure old typefaces you can find on its walls. You know, another one of my rules is not to follow what’s current; I try to learn from the past. In Iceland there is almost no past – the country was made after the Second World War; before it was a third world country where people lived in mud houses. Also, in Iceland people tend to show themselves and what they’re doing, whereas here in Germany they just work and produce. They even don’t put their face on it. I like that kind of modesty.” Eggertsson might give the impression of keeping Iceland at bay, but there’s a good piece of the country in him, and he’s actually even touched by the way his fellow compatriots deal with their inescapable fate of living on this rough and thinly populated island. “Isn’t it amazing how this country, with only 300,000 inhabitants, can win silver at the Olympics? Which is what the Icelandic handball team did at the last games. The Icelandic underdog complex is the catalyst for great work. Icelanders always want to prove to be the best. I don’t know if I would have this drive if I was born in a big city like New York instead of in Akureyri. Coming from this small town has a lot to do with how I am. Without goals nothing is really gonna happen.”

Pitch Perfect for Fader & Nike Posters for Nike Sportswear and The FADER’s Pitch Perfect project. 6 posters for 6 mixes by 6 DJs from 6 continents (above, left) Patchwork Quilt For Eggerston’s graduation project at the Iceland Academy of the Arts he made a quilt based on his childhood memories. The size is 2 x 2.5 metres, and it’s made out of 10,000 pieces (above) Pólýfónía for Apparat Organ Quartet Cover for the 2nd and long awaited album by one of Eggerston’s favorite Icelandic bands, Apparat Organ Quartet. The initial idea was to make a crest for the cover, but turned into making a crest for the 5 band members, 9 for all the songs on the album, and one for the cover that unites them all. To make it a little harder for himself he decided to create all the crests with vinyl foil, by cutting and stacking coloured layers on top of each other (left and below)

Sky’s the limit

He is indeed ambitious, ignoring obstacles and boundaries. “I’m interested in taking my work to as many mediums as I want. A magazine cover, an advertising campaign for a corporate company, a poster for a char-

DAMn° magazine # 29 / SIGGI EGGERTSSON

Polar, a drawing Eggerston made while working on the H&M stuff. He quite likes it. Might print it on shirts some day (above) ‘Portraits’ is the self-published book Eggerston made in 2005. The book has over 60 geometrical portraits of people, and is looking for its perfect publisher; so if you are the one, don’t hesitate to contact him. Currently out of stock (above, right)

Visual identity for the 2011 DesignMarch festival / conference in Iceland (right)

ity event, a T-shirt for H&M, an exhibition, a typeface. But I would love to design houses, make stained glass for a church or a public building, design a botanical garden or a house for for penguins in the Zoo. Also, at one point in my life I want to have designed a chair. You know, it’s about me having done it. And then I can move on to the next thing. This is never-ending, and I don’t see myself retiring, since working is my main hobby. Oh, and I would really like to design money – that would definitively be something! Everybody would see my work, and would want to have as much of it as possible!” “I love challenges like that, and I also love that I can bring a new way of thinking into the world. Like my graduation project at the art school in Reykjavik: a patchwork quilt made out of 10,000 pieces. That’s pretty much a world dominated by middle-aged women, and that’s what I thought was interesting: what could a 22-year-old boy do? I guess I like invading new territories, and finding a way to apply that new field.” However, sometimes he doesn’t take the challenge. “I’ve been asked a few times to do tattoos - but I’ve always said no. I just think it’s a bit embarrassing to know that a person is carrying your work around permanently... What if they’re over it? But never say never; I might do it one day. And maybe I’ll try it on myself first.” # www.siggieggertsson.com

opening weeK 28 sept-2 oct

28 sept – 27 noV 2011

In a society driven by the twin engines of production and consumption, the idea of useless is met with dismissal, if not flat-out reproof. Design-wise, it is an oxymoron, a schism with its functional tenets. EXD’11 takes to this unchartered creative territory to explore ideas of worth and value associated with use or its absence. An across-the-board reflection that touches upon the paradigms of manufacture and productivity; the transformative potential of self-referentiality, beauty and pleasure; the mechanisms - material or immaterial - that generate and dictate uselessness. Could it turn out to become a necessity for the 21st century?

biennale of design, arcHitecture and conteMporary creatiVity reVealing exHibitions + inspirational lectures + tHeMed panel debates + filM series + cross-diMensional urban interVentions + experiMental sHowcases + creatiVe labs + lounging space + Multidisciplinary parallel eVents

detailed prograMMe: 1 July www.experiMentadesign.pt

DESIGN MARCH The third annual DesignMarch, taking place in Reykjavík, showed work by Iceland´s internationally renowned veterans as well as by its young birds. Think of fashion designers Mundi and Sruli Recht, Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter, Vík Prjónsdóttir, 10+ furniture, Icelandic Display Typeface Design, KRADS architects, and many more.

www.icelanddesign.is/DesignMarch

institucional partners