The volume Icelandic Contemporary Design – furniture, product design and architecture by Elísabet V. Ingvarsdóttir was recently published. The book ties in with the Icelandic Design 2009  exhibition, first set up as part of the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2009 in Kjarvalsstaðir. The publication´s design is by Hörður Lárusson.  

Hörður studied graphic design at the Iceland Academy of Arts and the Third Basel Basics in Design and Typography. He worked independently from the year 2000 but joined Atelier Atli Hilmarsson in 2005. Alongside his work there, Hörður has taught courses at the Iceland Academy of Arts as well as serving as president of the Icelandic Association of Graphic Designers.

Hörður´s website lists numerous projects and his portfolio contains work done for clients both at home and abroad. He has participated in exhibitions and his work has been published in international professional journals and books. Hörður has been awarded numerous prizes and acknowledgements for his work; most recently the 2009 FÍT prize in the category graphic design for printed media for the publication Fáninn (The Flag). 

Hörður Lárusson answers the Design Centers questionnaire:

 
The motivation?
For me the drive lies almost entirely in whether I am interested in and enjoy the project. Of course one does not only do these really great and fun projects but these sustain one´s interest in the profession.

The process?
The most important part of the process is the beginning when you are still meeting the client and researching the project. How well a project succeeds depends entirely on how much time I get to prepare. If I get to control the process to my liking, then I like to start by looking into the project / client properly. I go for a visit and see what is going on and how things are done. It has been my experience that it is best not to think about the project for a few days afterwards and to do something completely different. Ideas then come to me and these are usually enough to start the project off. After this it is just the conventional. Finish a few sketches. Show them. Change them. Look at them. Amend them. Like them. Forced to change them. Like them less. A few more changes. And in the end hopefully happy with the final outcome. This is not always possible so the one thing to make sure you always do, is to get feedback from good people throughout the process. The outcome is always better if you get others to help you.

The vision?
My personal vision of graphic design and design in general is really very simple. When it comes to my own work, I look upon it as a solution to a problem, i.e. very practically. To me it is essential that the designed object does what it is supposed to do. Of course it should be beautiful but to me this is secondary to the function of the object. This holds true for all design. Take a key ring which is the most beautiful key ring ever made but the keys do not fold together very well and it is problematic to keep it in your pocket. This is a badly designed key ring. Objects can of course be designed with the sole purpose of being beautiful and that objective has then been achieved. Mine may be a simple vision of the discipline and undoubtedly it is a vision not everyone shares. And far be it from me to try to make others see things as I do because I think our different visions makes us different designers.  

Does design matter?
Of course. But I do not think it is necessarily good to discuss it too much and argue and reason and try to explain to people who disagree. We should be focusing our energy on showing why it matters.

What makes a good design?
I feel I have partly already answered this question in my vision of the discipline. It might perhaps be added that we are all different and this has a huge effect on what we consider good design and what we do not. By this I mean that an object, which to me is a good design, might to you be a poor one. At best, the majority of people might agree that certain things are badly designed. But to get everyone to agree on what is a good design, let alone the best design, is impossible. This is just as well for diversity and also for book publishers all over the world who make big money making books about “the world´s best design”. What makes a good design is a person looking at it and being happy with it, seeing in it something they like.

What is most interesting at the moment?
Possibly the book Icelandic Contemporary Design, not because it is a beautiful book but because of the enterprising spirit of the publishers, the Iceland Design Centre and Crymogea. Despite my quip earlier about book publishers and these sort of books, they are important. Especially when you take such a narrow group of people and look at them closely. It should not be forgotten that publications such as these are not only made to be beautiful and showcase good design. They are also important in the documentation and preservation of our design history. That this book should be published at this point in time is even more amazing and goes to show that design is always relevant, possibly more so now than ever. I hope this will only be the first of a whole series of books about Icelandic design from the Iceland Design Centre.

Design of all time?
For me I think it will always be a particular poster. Not because I think it is the best design of all time but because it is the object that ignited in me a serious interest which I retain to this day. This poster opened up the world of design in such a way that I was immediately enchanted and still am. This is the poster Der Film by Swiss designer Josef Muller-Brockmann.

Global/local?
I had an interesting comment on the book Icelandic Contemporary Design when it was published, which was that it had quite a foreign look. This made me think back to how I thought about this book throughout the process and I think the bottom line is that I don´t think about this when I design. I feel it would just be a distraction. This is again about designing each object as well as possible and making sure it is fit for purpose. Global or local just depends on the object, the time and the feeling.

All information on images and photograpers please see Hörður Lárussons website.