Right after Graduating with some of his mates Daniel Peter created an alliance of graphic designers and illustrators (amongst others)—organising lectures, exhibitions and workshops! Inspired by different fields of design Daniel makes bold decisions and tells narrative stories through design, typography and shapes with his beautiful touch of traditional Swiss accuracy.
What are some of your earliest creative memories and what lead you into design?
Since I was a school kid I played drums. When I started playing in a band with friends, composing songs was my very first step to being creative. As a musician I was charmed by the beautiful album covers and concert posters. Then at one point, I wanted to do design them myself and started doing my first designs. Looking back at this time, of course it was not always the state of the art, but I just liked doing it.
Where did you study and what were some of your first jobs?
I studied graphic design at the art school in Lucerne. Lucerne is a small Swiss town with a very compact art and design scene. Right after graduation in 2009, three of my friends and I rented a place to work. We called it „Detective Bureau“. It was a an alliance of graphic designers, illustrators and politically highly committed people, but also a space for young arts, discussions, designs and coffee. We organized exhibitions in the fields of arts, illustration, video and did lectures and workshops. For our events we designed posters, magazines and exhibitions. These were some of my first jobs.
Give us the elevator pitch on what you do.
I create visual concepts for culture, art, music and advertising. My work includes graphic design, typography, editorial, interaction and web design, motion, object and exhibition design. Other activities consist of lectures and workshops. I was recently part of Studio Feixen, worked at Velvet, Raffinerie, Thonik and Hi. I like to keep my design simple, loud and give it a touch of traditional Swiss accuracy. I make bold decisions and tell narrative stories through design, typography and shapes.
Any passion projects you would like to share?
As a graphic designer I release a lot of printed matter. Although I like to work on books or posters I am delighted to face new fields in design. I curate and design exhibitions for the Weltformat poster festival in Lucerne. For the interior design about Korean posters I did a fine construction with small pieces of wooden laths and strings, placed in the middle of the room. For the exhibition about the Rote Fabrik in Zurich, I built some furniture. Keeping an eye on different fields of the design area enriches my daily work in many ways.
"Keeping an eye on different fields of the design area enriches my daily work in many ways."
What career advice would you give your 16yr old self?
Go through life with open eyes, look left, look right, back and ahead. Whether you are interested in design, art, politics, technology or anything else is irrelevant. It is important to concentrate on matters in depth, that you are working hard on your goals, always keeping honour and affection in society, be nice and honest to other people, stay open-minded and have fun.
Who would be the “dream client” that you would do anything to work for?
I think it makes no sense to imagine a dream client. I think good design results from joint effort and good cooperation in team or with clients. When the customer thinks the same way as the designer does, gets involved and is open to new things, then great accomplishments can originate.
