French designer Pierre di Sciullo and his Qui Résiste design studio have won the international competition organized by the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum for the creation of a new visual identity. Five design studios competed: Irma Boom Office, LUST and Mevis & Van Deursen from the Netherlands and Pierre di Sciullo and Pierre Bernard’s Atelier de Création Graphique from France.
Now that a winner has finally been chosen, di Sciullo will develop the visual identity in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum in the next few months. It is a comprehensive project, ranging from the logo and graphic applications such as stationery, visiting cards and posters to signage and architectural applications.
Pierre di Sciullo rose to fame as a graphic designer and typographer via his Paris-based magazine Qui Résiste. In 1995, he and his design studio of the same name were awarded the Charles Nypels Prize for extensive research in the field of typography. Di Sciullo is famous for blending text and images and has designed several fonts (Minimum, Quantange, Sintetik, Gararond, Scratched out). He conducts typographical research into printed matter, exhibitions, video, and web and graphic design. He also designed the Amanar font for the Tuareg, a people who lead a nomadic existence, on the basis of their traditional script.
The participants’ submissions consisted of a visual essay that served as a conceptual framework, plus a presentation of solutions to a number of design problems and their applications. The visual essays were made in response to a briefing on the Stedelijk Museum’s identity and the rich tradition of its visual identity. The participants had been asked to create an open-ended system of graphic signs that was hybrid in nature. During its deliberations, the jury considered criteria that are pertinent to a visual identity for the Stedelijk, such as brand power, freshness, openness, hybridity, complexity, typographic excellence, legibility, durability and, last but not least, affinity with the visual arts.
The jury, composed of Paul Hefting (author on graphic design), Hendrik Driessen (director of De Pont museum in Tilburg), Dingeman Kuilman (director of Premsela, Dutch platform for design and fashion), Mels Crouwel (from Benthem Crouwel architects, who renovate the Stedelijk Museum and build its new wing) and Hester Wolters (former editor of design periodical Vormberichten), convened on 8 and 12 January to choose the designer who will create a visual identity for the new Stedelijk. In its report, the jury motivates its choice as follows:
“After due deliberation the jury confidently chose Pierre di Sciullo’s French agency Qui Résiste. It believes that with this designer the museum may be able embark on a new adventure that is reminiscent of Willem Sandberg, the Stedelijk Museum director and graphic designer who contributed to the museum’s international renown with his unique typography.
Di Sciullo is commended for his professional involvement in, and interpretations of, the Stedelijk, for his feeling for the relationship between art and life, for his playful, slightly anarchic mentality, for his candour and bravura. His graphic work is prized for its individual visual stamp and effectiveness and also for its employment of traditional techniques, visual richness and versatility. Di Sciullo’s approach and working methods provide an inspiring and vital alternative to the formalism of various late modernist styles.
The jury believes that in Di Sciullo the Stedelijk Museum welcomes a professional sparring partner who operates at the highest artistic and intellectual level. The museum will be happy to enter into a dialogue with him about the follow-up assignment that is geared to the specific context of the Stedelijk.”
Graphic designer Lex Reitsma records the process in a documentary film, De stijl van het Stedelijk, to be released in 2009.
For further information on the work of Pierre di Sciullo, please visit www.quiresiste.com.
