Bernd’s work should need no introduction. You can see his work’s influence in many “modern” designers portfolios, whether they know it or not. His design really has a refined beauty and transforms regular jobs into objects of desire. He works regularly with ECM and various galleries to make some of the finest work around. I had chance to ask Bernd some questions recently and here are the results, enjoy.

1. How did you get started working with ECM and can you tell us what that relationship is like? How has it evolved?

I first met Manfred Eicher, the founder of ECM, when he incidentally got his hands on a book I designed. It was the 1999 catalogue “New alpine architecture” and I think he really liked it. In any case, he asked me to do the design for their website, even though they had started to work with a full-sevice webdesign agency and I had never done any project for the internet of this scale before. I took over the interface design and tried to transfer the ECM attitude into the digital. This happened almost ten years ago.

Last month Manfred and I just finished a project we had been working on since december and which finally resulted in an iPad app. Inititated by mono.kultur magazine I led an interview with him about sound, silence and his musical aesthetics, which was first printed as mono.kultur #26 in march. While designing the issue, we had the idea to translate the content into the digital environment of the iPad and to add all audio/video material, Manfred and I were talking about. The app finally made it into the iTunes store and is available for free. Besides some cover designs for next year I am currently working on promising concepts for different media.

2. Is there a strong connection between music and design though your work?

At least one can say my working methods are strongly interwoven with music and language — the most direct forms of communication. I studied music and composition when I first got interested in design. I realized soon, that I am probably not the most gifted composer. At the same time my interest in the formal presentation of my student projects started to grow. In the end I spent more time in copy shops and the library, realizing fancy bindings and researching on book design and typography, than at the piano. Another spur was my love for album covers. I admired Barbara Wojirsch’s designs for ECM. After a one-year intermezzo in a small design studio I studied visual communication at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart. At this time Wolfgang Weingart was teaching typography basics at the Merz and later I studied with two teachers Jürgen Hoffmann and Berthold Weidner who both worked for and with Otl Aicher.

I became aware that I used the same approach and working methods in design, as those previously established in composing music. Yet another influence grew stronger with my studies at the Merz: language. These two, music and language, shape my thought process when tackling a new project. First, there is not the idea. First, there is language. “In the beginning there was the word”. The idea is hidden in the subtext and needs to be developed or sculpted out of the unshaped mass of language. This forms the message. Now the music comes into play: You need rhythm, orchestration — Klang. I am working mostly with typography, which is of course a restriction. From orality to literality with a mechanical bastard: the font. It’s like playing a cembalo. You need taste, a sense for space and the knowledge of how to keep your instrument in tune. My creativity comes only into being within restrictions. The tight limitations set by budget, briefing and production possibilities are another important impulse for my design process.

3. How do you see yourself and your work in the landscape of design?

My work is, if at all, only maginally perceived by the “design community”. In part, this serves me right as I am so much more interested in working on exciting projects than in doing my own PR. The advantage of this attitude is, that you can almost — to quote Henry James — “work in the dark”. My work needs my full concentration. I definitely prefer the unforced, the natural to the sensation of the latest fashion. I firmly believe in the concept of continuity. Be patient, humble and honest and give yourself time to evolve. Then you can try to establish an attitude through consistent work — this is my credo. For me, the process is far more important than the popularity of my designs.

4. Do you have any philosophy behind why you design?

Nowadays designers are often so busy formulating philosophies, that their work can’t keep up with their thoughts. I like to put it simple and straight: It’s courageous to speak or design clearly. Sometimes it’s even more courageous to pass over in silence.

5. What are your future goals?

Let’s be clear about something: we designers only produce attractive containers, that can potentially be filled with life. My latest projects are more about bridging the gap between form and content and trying to eliminate this traditional dichotomy. I become increasingly involved with curating information and giving it room to flourish instead of producing mere graphical artifacts. “Wu wei” sums up my ideals: “Teaching without verbosity, producing without possessing, creating without regard to result, claiming nothing.”