Ein toller Auftakt! Zwei inspirierende Vorträge, ein voller Saal, glückliche Gäste und zum Abschluss ein wunderbarer Frühsommerabend im Garten!

Julia Keltsch
David Knappe
Suárez Hölters
Fabian Greve
Dominik Thieme
Martha Gädeke
Anja Kapschütz
Jennifer Lietz
Malte Tröger
Julia Keltsch
David Knappe

For my BA I studied in the Netherlands and came to London completely by chance, started a two month summer course and decided to stay. I then started an internship with an animation company and continued working for them for a year. It was an interesting experience, but not interesting enough for me to stay, the film directors who worked there and produced work that was interesting and challenging to me, went to the Royal College of Art. I realised then that this was where I should be headed. Soon after starting at the Royal College of Art, I met Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel. We graduated two years later and together we set up Troika. London is a great place for people who are just starting out and I think the biggest difference in comparison with Germany and France is that clients are more likely to give young people a chance. I think this is quite different in other countries, unless you already have a proven track record and worked for years you are unlikely to be given an opportunity to prove yourself. We were really lucky and soon got some interesting requests for different kinds of work and everything just continued from there on.

How would you describe British Design?

To be quite honest, it’s not really the main focus of our work. Conny Freyer and I both come from a graphic design background, Sebastien is an engineer and studied product design, but the actual output of our practice is more to be found at the intersection of contemporary installations, architecture and sculpture. There is a graphic dimension to some of our work. For example “All the Time in the World”, one of the earlier installations, that is installed in Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport. But it’s not really the starting point, it’s just one of the skills we have and sometimes it comes to pass. In general I’m not sure if there is such a thing as a recognisable graphic design style in England. The work of Emma Thomas and Kirsty Carter from “A Practice for Everday Life” reminds me more of a an attitude to graphic design that I used to think of as Dutch. However, some of my friends who run their own studios in the Netherlands have adopted a more multi-layered and playful approach instead, something I would associate with British Design. I assume the fact that we get less of a recognisable style for each country now is part of a normal development. Graphic Designers tend be curious people who travel a lot and work internationally and especially in a city like London you are subjected to a variety of influences from all around the world.

You’re coming from graphic-design background – in which way are you contributing as a graphic designer in the realisation of your projects? Meaning: what is your actual part in the realisation of your projects?

That completely depends on the project. We first start with the concept, which is carried by the three of us. We bring different initial ideas to the table, these are then picked up by the next person and this will then be developed even further by yet another. I quite often work on the kinetic elements such as the animation for the “Cloud” or the graphic elements of “Whether Yesterday”, “All The Time In The World and “Zoetrope” There are also pieces like the “Small Bang” series and the “Light Drawings”. We most often build teams to take projects further and, for example, collaborate with software programmers and structural engineers or, at on earlier point in the process, with scientists and writers. There are always different roles involved, in some projects there is a can be a huge mechanical structure and others don’t involve mechanical elements at all. It really differs greatly for each project.

Troika has a very significant and extraordinary style – were there some tendencies for that during your studies, or did the idea of a style just happen when you met your partners?

We are not very interested in style. For us it’s more finding the form that is already embedded in the material that we’re working with. A practical example might be the “Whether Yesterday” which is An LED-sign consisting of LED-strips and the module is five LEDs long. Everything is based on that module, the font as well as the graphics. It’s not a retro-style we have chosen, but a consequence of the material. For us, it is more about an attitude to designing; to strip everything away and work with the essence rather than to add things that are unrelated.

Do you sometimes feel the need to work as a graphic designer in the classical way again? Meaning in print or typography etc.?

I still use a lot of my graphic skills regularly, the context is just different, rather than communicating someone else’s ideas, you communicate your own. I don’t really miss the context and the discussions about colour you have as part of you client relationship as a graphic designer. I work in the same area I would have chosen to work in, as a graphic designer meaning the cultural, public and institutional sector. I find the way we work very rewarding.

How much freedom do you get in commissioned work?

It depends really. The brief for the “Cloud” installation for the airport was completely open, we looked at the semantics of the space and our starting point for the idea was that we compared the journey people make up the escalator to take-off. For us the most magical moment is when you break through the layer of clouds. For our site specific installation we spend a lot of time researching the context by visiting spaces and carefully observing its surroundings.

How do you achieve having people pay you for doing the stuff you enjoy doing? How does one establish oneself?

I think it just boils down to the fact that you get asked for the work you are doing, meaning for the work you have previously done. We have been working on projects we really wanted to realise for years, for very little money, we then, after some time, started to be commissioned to make exactly the work that we wanted to do. You just need to invest yourself in what you want to do, and ultimately clients will appreciate that and will be prepared to pay for it. I figured at some point that I would probably spend a big part of my life working, and I just wanted to make sure that that time would be spent on something that is worthwhile and meaningful to me.

As far as we know, none of your installations is interactive. Why is that? Is there a reason for this?

Most interactive art is in some ways a mirror, it reacts to the actions of the spectator. The parameters of the kind of response you can derive, as well as what is being responded to, is clearly defined by just one party, the maker of the installation. This renders most so-called interactivity an illusion. We use modified forms of interactivity sometimes. For example on our project “Shoal”, a ceiling installation in Toronto consisting of 450 small moving, fish like sculptures. For the movement of the installation we worked flocking behaviour. We collaborated with Karsten Schmidt to develop a program in processing and then took these initial animations and combined them with other animations. So it’s not a responsive program but rather an interpretation of our perception of natural movements.

The realisation of your projects is really intensive and time consuming. You invested 9 months in working on the “Clouds”-Installation for example. How do you compensate and find the time to get new inspiration, new creativity?

We typically work on several projects at any one time. Each project has different phases. It starts from a concept phase, research and development, prototyping, the final design, fabrication and installation as well as deinstallation for some projects. We are trying to offset the different phases between the different projects that are running in parallel. So rather than having to develop five ideas at once, we prefer to work on one new idea whilst another project is in fabrication and yet another one is in its final design phase.

How does it feel, when a project this large is finished?

It’s an interesting question. When does a project start to be finished? – when the fabrication is finished; when it’s installed; when people start to respond to it; when you have had some distance to reflect on it?
A project to us is more than it’s physical manifestation, it’s everything you have learned in its context and that stays with you and changes with you, it’s never really finished.

You and Emma are good friends – How would you describe “A Practice f or Everyday Life”s Style? And: Do you think a collaboration between Troika and APFEL could be possible?

(laughs) I think it’s less a style and more of an attitude that defines their work. I admire the dedication and research that they put into their projects to consistently find a way which is every time different and true to the artist, exhibition or whatever they have taken on. I also think their sense for tactility and materiality characterises their work.
Of course, I could imagine a collaboration.

It’s an amazing city, I love London, but I can also hate it (laughs) – it’s expensive. But it is fantastic, there are loads of great galleries, museums, other creatives, amazing music things going on. There’s just something happening at every moment if you want it to. I grew up in the remote countryside in the North of England, the total opposite of London. I moved from the middle of nowhere to study in a big city – and I really enjoyed it, so I stayed.

How would you describe the British Graphic-Design(er)? Is there one?

In London many of the designers working here aren’t necessarily British, they are from all over the world. I think that really influences the design coming out of our city. There’s people coming in and moving away all the time, so there’s a big mix of people, for sure.

Every city and town in Britain is different, so it’s equally difficult to sum up a typically British graphic designer! There are references coming to our work from our immediate surroundings, of course, like typography and local visual vernaculars that influence us. They are subtle, so that you might not notice them immediately.

You clearly have a great amount of clients and your work is getting a lot of attention, also because it is seen in public places, like museums. How did you achieve, to get so well established and what would you say is the reason for that?

I don’t really know how one would describe established. I think we’re really lucky, that we get to work with a lot of really good people and on some great projects. Kirsty and I started working together when we were at the Royal College of Art. We were initially working for some artists and curators and actually there wasn’t so much interesting  work going on for cultural institutions at that moment – we saw an opportunity there. We were in some ways trying to push the work a little further. We enjoyed working with other creatives, because we enjoyed working with like-minded people and for subjects which we found valuable. It was a good creative process for us.

If you work on something that you truly believe in, then you absolutely put in 200% effort, and from that comes more work. If people are happy and enjoy working with you, and they also enjoy the work, than they often tell somebody else about it. So, I suppose, we’ve been really lucky and worked hard.

Would you describe your style as feminine? And if so, does that have an effect on your clients?

No, I don’t think it’s particularly feminine at all. We deliberately chose to use a company name that doesn’t have our own names in it – this enables the studio and the work to belong to everyone rather than just Kirsty and I, so everyone feels included as an important part of the studio.

I find the idea of a studio ‘style’ problematic – it goes against our approach, which is where our work develops out of a concept, research, content and context rather than a ‘style‘; our work looks different for each project.

Do you think the collaboration and exhibition design for the artist LINDER is to be connected to that topic?

The content of the LINDER exhibition was quite particular. The exhibition is of her work, which inherently includes women. She’s making work as a feminist, and is very prolific in the punk and post-punk scene in the UK. In her work she often collages pornography and domestic objects, as a feminist statement or reaction to what was going on at the time she created it. With the exhibition design, our approach with architects Carmody Groarke came out of her work and the context in which she was making it – we extended some of those preconceptions and ideas. For example, the hanging net curtains that you partially see people through was a reference to Manchester, domestic life and the voyeur. But the fabric wasn’t meant to be directly feminine. The colours on the walls were about make-up, but it wasn’t because we wanted our work to be associated with a feminine idea, it was just about the content of the show.

How much freedom do you get from your clients, when working on projects? How do you proceed?

We always meet someone before we work with them. It really is so much about the type of people you work with, and that relationship is often what forms and shapes the project. It’s not just about the brief, it’s the people and the team that you’re working with. We enjoy meeting all sorts of different people and learning something new with each project.

It is said, that the design of german exhibitions is very shallow or simple. Your exhibition-design seems more like one big concept, with love for details. Do you think, that this could maybe have something to do with the british mentality? Or is its something else?

I’m not sure about that and I’m not interested in whether what we’re doing is typically British. What makes us suited for exhibitions is that we have worked a lot with artists, for whom we have to really understand their work and approach to be able to create something right for them – the identity for the show comes out of the work itself and therefore communicates more about the content. We like to work in different mediums – print, editorial and identities as well as spaces, and that adaptability is suited for working on exhibitions. With exhibition design we often work as a reasonable size team which includes the museum curators, project managers, 3D designers or architects etc. We like working with teams, perhaps because we’re a team too – in the studio there are five of us now. When you work on exhibitions, it relies a lot on good communication, between us, the curators and any other collaborators or producers. Our aim is to work as one group all together with a common goal, sharing ideas, and that’s what grows into the project.

Do you share the opinion, that cultural institutions have more respect for the work of a designer than others?

They are different, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they have more respect per se.

We were talking about it recently, because we did a project for a new restaurant and hotel that has just opened in London. It’s a really lovely space – for us it is a more commercial job than the ones we do for cultural sector clients, but that hasn’t made it any less rewarding. Working with the chef there is in some ways like working with an artist. We realised that curators are used to working with designers, because they’re doing shows or publications regularly – when working with commercial clients, though, we might be the first designer they’ve ever worked with. But it’s interesting, because we show them a different way of working and they show us how they work. Sometimes we can help advise what they need more. On the other hand, some projects allow you to have more authorship and creative input than others. It really depends on who the person is that we’re working with, rather than whether the project is for a public institution, an individual or a company

It seems to us, that your daily working routine is very complex and intensive. Do you also work on free projects apart from the work your doing for the agency?

Yes but we love it. We are also doing some other studio projects at the moment. You’ll find out about them soon (laughs).

We are working on some products, posters and textiles. Sometimes I’ll work on some research and ideas in the background, and those turn into a studio project or feed into other projects.

How would you describe the style of Troika?

We actually studied together at the Royal College of Art. I think they’re amazing. They forged an interesting path that is a mixture between graphic design, communication, products, installation and art and then it’s nice to see their work existing in all those different places and venues.

You and Eva, your good friends – Do you think a collaboration between APFEL and Troika could be possible?

Yes, perhaps (laughs). It should be interesting.