Ich liebe Friedensreich Hundertwasser!

Pardon my Deutsch, but I need to get to Vienna some day to check out the fabulous KunstHausWien. This museum houses the only permanent collection of works by the above mentioned Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Known for both his art and his architecture, he was responsible for building the museum and  making it look awesome, inside and out!

The Austrian artist, whose self-appointed name translates roughly to Peace-Kingdom Hundred-Water (gotta love that German compound noun action), was always a left-of-center kind of guy. Born to a Jewish mother, he posed as a Christian and became a member of the Hitler Youth during WWII to avoid persecution. He would later create iconographic images for flags, coins, and stamps, including one for the 35th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; But, by far, his poster art leaves the most lasting impressions. One of Hundertwasser's central concerns was the environment, and much of his work expressed a desire for humanity to reconcile its place within the natural world.

Earlier this spring, I experimented with redesigning an identity system for KHW (although it was nearly impossible to improve upon the existing one). By way of  its curatorial choices and by its own architecture and design, KHW presents an alternative to the stereotypically hard, symmetrical, and minimal Western European visual ethos.  Much like the artist around which the whole enterprise pivots, KHW spirals out from the middle and frolics in the margins of modern art. I tried, in my design, to evoke what I imagined Hundertwasser's aesthetic personality to be if it were personified: a colorful and flamboyant entity, covered head to toe in decoration at once whimsical and organic; not exactly childish, but bursting forth with the exuberant hues of a child's imagination, playful and bright, with no surface ending in straight lines or hard edges. I enjoyed getting familiar with Hundertwasser's way of handling typography. I am not normally a big fan of logos made entirely out of letterforms, but his letters made for such interesting graphic shapes I had to incorporate them. The result was something of a compromise. I probably ended up with more than 20 versions in various color palettes. I have included my favorites below, in all their eyeball-biting glory.