commod – Feines in Holz Stationery by Jens Lattke

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DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?

JL : The main idea of our design was to make the haptical work of our client visible and tangible in his stationary. We wanted to get across his love for detail, his amazing solutions, the extraordinary materials he is working with.

DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?

JL : Our client’s claim is „Fine wooden commodities“. He is a luxury carpenter. The original German claim is a word play that means „fine things made of wood“ but could also be read as „fine things within wood“. We wanted to reflect this ambiguousity in his stationary. We wanted to achieve that those who received his business cards would remember him – even if they met for only a few minutes.

DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?

JL : We plan to adapt the idea of the stationary design to a corporate book.

DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?

JL : It took approximately one week to design this concept.

DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?

JL : It was comissioned.

DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?

JL : The design is being used by our client.

DI: What made you design this particular type of work?

JL : It was the clients request to design stationary.

DI: Who is the target customer for his design?

JL : The target customer are builder-owner (private and corporate) as well as architects and designers.

DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?

JL : The design is special because of ist three dimensions, the materials being used, and because of ist sophisticated and clean but still warm look. The colour had been designed especially fort his artwork.

DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?

JL : As mentioned, the claim „Fine wooden commodities“ is a wordplay in its original German version and means „fine things made of wood“ but could also be read as „fine things within wood“.

DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?

JL : Photoshop, Quark XPress, FreeHand MX on an Apple computer.

DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?

JL : It is reduced and clear but still warm and it perfectly links form and meaning.

DI: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?

JL : I collaborated with a very talented and creative graphic designer colleague: Kerstin Hlava-Landeck.

DI: What is the role of technology in this particular design?

JL : Apart from the usual software: None.

DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?

JL : It was not easy to find the right colour that was plain and warm at the same time. So we ended up to have a colour blended that fit our needs. This took a bit of patience.

DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?

JL : We wanted to give our client an international platform to make his name known to international designers and architects.