We chat with book design fiend and HERBURG WEILAND co-founder Tom Isling about books, books and more books! ;) Jks. We get a lovely introduction to the whole team, and how they went about an identity design using only Arial & NO colours, plus Tom gives his thoughts on where design is heading.
Tell us a bit about yourself and the studio that you work for.
Following my studies I founded HERBURG WEILAND design agency, together with Martin Fengel and Judith Grubinger. I have been based at the agency ever since, working as an Art Director for magazine and journal publishers (Burda, Springer, Gruner&Jahr, Callwey), book publishing houses (Suhrkamp, Klett-Cotta, Kiepenheuer&Witsch, Random House), and organizations such as the Residenz Theater, the stateopera in Berlin, the Lenbachhaus in Munich and the Bauhaus in Dessau. During this time, HERBURG WEILAND has been awarded many national and international design awards. In addition to my own professional activities, I teach magazine design at the German School of Journalism in Munich and give talks about book design. Together with Marc Ritter, I just published my first book "Das Allerletzte", which was named as one of "the best books of 2014" by Stiftung Buchkunst.
Tell us about any collaborations you have been working on.
We recently developed a new corporate design for the famous Bauhaus in Dessau using only Arial, no colors and DIN formats. Probably the most challenging task we did in the last years.
Any passion projects you would like to share?
Yes! A website we dedicated to our book designs only -> bookswemade.com
Who’s on the team, what are their roles and why do you love them?
Best team ever! ??(check picture, left to right) Tobias Aigner, Ingmar Spiller, Lars Haensell, Yvonne Bauer, Stefan Rosiger, Fabian Glatzeder, Tami Hasselbring, Stephanie Ising, Philipp Koch, Daniel Ober, SoYeon Kim, myself
Where do you think design is heading in the next five years and how will you adapt?
It’s going to be even more about content, ideas and concept.
What advice would you give students starting out?
No fear of failure!
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