All Access

Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

Scn :

#

175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

5th Black

p189

P

retty much anything goes in graphic design.

As in fashion, trends remain—currents and quirky

little eddies that curl away and disappear—

but the authoritative party-line style of earlier times

is gone. At this point it takes desire and a tight focus

to learn the craft of minimalist Swiss typography.

It takes a young eye, guided by immaculate taste, to use

its tools to create design that is relevant and holds its

own amidst the flood of dazzling, more effects-laden

work. Valerie Kiock describes her approach: “Stylistically,

I tend towards the pragmatic approach: legible, clear,

comprehensible, well-founded, rather straight ahead, strict,

but certainly neither boring nor bland. I always like to

play around, figuring out what works and how it works.”

C

ANDY AND THE CLASSICS Growing up in

Munich, Valerie Kiock started collecting candy

wrappers as a child, attracted by the combination

of colors and typography. She remembers small chewy

squares wrapped in colored paper, ringed with printed

tinfoil that identified the flavor of each piece with words

and picture. It didn’t take long for her to form a Pavlovian

connection between sugar and graphic design.

The second push toward design occurred when Kiock

went to see a Raymond Loewy exhibit. “I remember the

progression of the Shell logo exactly. I was intrigued by the

reworking, the mutations. I remember the Lucky Strike

package, of course. Beautiful to begin with, it turns from

green to white for nonaesthetic reasons. The brand, the

application, following a need was what interested me.

You might call it ‘freedom within boundaries.’” Following

the exhibit, she started leafing through magazines,

clipping typestyles, pictures, ads—image/type combi-

nations, colors, and patterns—and placing them in

scrapbooks. “Also packages, postcards, and stamps—

everything I thought was beautiful.”

189

2002

Taylor Bloxham Diary 2002 The day planner advertising

the client’s new twelve-color press was a studio collaboration

at Williams & Phoa. “My section is die-cut and shows dots

and flowers that use eleven special inks, including day-glo

and metallic inks and a varnish.”

German designer Valerie Kiock

has integrated her love for graphics

with an ever-growing interest

in furniture design to forge

a unique body of work that benefits

from its exposure to both worlds.

KIOCK

26

VALERIE

All_Access_154-208-10-13-05-M6.qxd 10/25/05 11:11 AM Page 189