Jan Sattler
Every week, Het Nieuwe Instituut invites a designer to create a cover for the website in response to the question: What's occupying you now? This week Jan Sattler.
2 June 2020
What's the story behind your web cover design for Het Nieuwe Instituut Online?
ASCII images are made by using typographic symbols in text messages to expand our limited expression by illustrating emotions or gestures. Here, the ASCII comic figure is distorted by purposely making the mistake of using a non-monospace font. Common structures transform and the familiar mutates to an unknown threatening appearance.
How does this piece relate to the rest of your work?
Based on conceptual thinking, I'm always giving away certain formal decisions to the process. By producing failures or misunderstandings, I'm creating an irritation to point out a problem. This way, the problem becomes the solution.
Is the coronavirus pandemic changing the way you work?
Ufff! Urgh! Hmpf! I still love working.
Jan Sattler studied graphic design with Maureen Mooren and art with Michael Riedel at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (Germany). After graduating in 2019, he now lives in Berlin where he works as an artist. His practice merges the fields of art, music and design.