All Access

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

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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

p197

197

Born, raised, and educated in Switzerland

and inspired by working in New York,

Martin Woodtli set out to become an author-designer

and established himself with his signature style

of subversive technical illustration.

WOODTLI

A

basic idea is still the most important thing to be able to do

work. But if all you do is start with an idea and execute it,

you’ll end up with something you—or others—have done before.

I want all the insecurities and doubts of the production process

to be part of the finished piece.”

Martin Woodtli began his formal art education at the Schule für

Gestaltung Bern und Biel (School of Design in Bern). He spent two

years majoring in ceramics, then decided to switch to graphic design

instead, only to learn that his school is no different from most others:

The administration balked at the transfer. They insisted that to switch

his major, Woodtli would have to reapply to the school. Woodtli

relented, reapplied, and was—remarkably—rejected.

Instead of seeking a place at another college, he took an apprentice

position at a local graphic design studio where he designed projects

for research institutes and clients in the cultural policy sector. “Working

as an apprentice, you have less room to experiment than you would

at school, because you have to wrestle with the reality of clients, but

you quickly learn to take responsibility managing projects.” By the

end of his apprenticeship Woodtli had a few clients of his own, mainly

emerging artists on the local scene. One of them was Kiosk, a gallery

that would later become the Stadtgallerie Bern, for which he still

designs today. Working for clients such as Kiosk allowed him to start

developing a strong, highly idiosyncratic visual language. Using

exactingly detailed technical renderings, he created a constant flow

of machine characters and Dadaist objects, such as rotary picture

phones and memory-chip-enhanced remote controls.

Schooled in production techniques and printing, Woodtli loves to push

the boundaries of his tools. One of his techniques involves saving files

and opening them in other versions of a program to generate errors

and artifacts. “I don’t take for granted the functions of the computer.

I combine them in new ways to discover new possibilities.

“The idea used to be that it’s only good design if it’s anonymous design,

without a detectable signature style identifying the designer. Today we

see an established school of graphic authors, well-known names such

as Neville Brody or David Carson, for example. I enjoyed a lot of freedom

with these assignments. I didn’t want to practice anonymous design,

so I accepted only jobs that would benefit from authored graphics.”

“

I

MARTIN

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