Interview With Holger Jacobs

My interview with Holger Jacobs from Mind Design in London:

1) What first made you interested in graphic design, in particular typography and layout?
I was a punk rocker and wanted to study painting at the art academy in Düsseldorf (Germany) because a lot of other punks were messing around there and were doing wild things. However, they didn't accept me because my work was too clean and organised. So I got into graphic design and typography where I could do clean and organised things.

2) How did you start out in graphic design, and get yourself noticed in the industry?
After the RCA I wanted to go to Japan. I would have taken any job there but I was lucky and managed to get a job as the art director in a large publishing company more less by coincidence. After returning from japan I continued designing books but tried very hard to do projects in other areas of design as well. Now we mostly do corporate identity projects which combine everything from print to web, to interior design. Our work has been shown in quite a few magazines, books and on blogs. I guess there is a certain snowball effect, once you are in one or two publications others follow.

3) What does an average day consist of for you?
answering e-mails. They never stop coming.

4) Who/What has been your inspiration for your design work?
Friends and people I worked with. Mostly from Switzerland. Art Deco. The work for the Mexico Olympics by Lance Wyman. A lot of inspiration also comes from the printing process and various other production processes.

5) How much does budget play a part in your design process?
It should play a far bigger role than it does. We never really time our work to the budget. We just work until we are happy with the result. Maybe thats why we are so broke.

6) How important is the cover of a publication as opposed to the design of the inner spreads?
The Marketing people always think its the most important thing. I disagree with that.

7) When you develop a design, in what order do you undertake a project and then in which order do you work?
I think of the printing or production method first. Then I start structuring and organising the content. The actual design comes very late and can be based on rather spontaneous ideas or random influences. I almost design backwards.

8) What attributes should a good layout have and why?
It really depends on the content. In some publications the layout should just serve the content and communicate it as good as possible. In other publication the layout can be more expressive and become content in itself. However, there are some basic typographic rules that should be followed in both cases.

9) What considerations need to be made when developing a layout for editorial design?
See above. There are practical reasons as well. Especially with books. Books are usually paid quite badly so it is important to develop a grid and a system that allows you to design a book relatively fast. I used to be very good at designing very functional grids. One of the important things was when there were standard picture sizes to start developing the grid based on those.

10) Which publications do you think are particularly well designed?
I think most Swiss books are very well designed.

11) Where do you see editorial design heading in the future?
The death of print has been predicted too many times. I think print design will always be there. An i-pad just doesn't have the same smell as freshly printed uncoated paper.

12) Anything else you’d like to add, or any other advice you could give to a budding designer?
If you want to earn money don't become a book designer. If you want to learn about design that will help you in all other areas as well then do.