New York City and Berlin based designer and art director for print and digital, working on a variety of projects from identities and websites to books and magazines. Cultivating a holistic approach to graphic design, Hugo’s portfolio includes a large spectrum of collaborative and commissioned work of different scales.
Born 1988 in
Cologne to a furniture/design conservator and an instrument builder and musician, he was exposed to arts, craft and entrepreneurship throughout his childhood.
Being fascinated by architecture, design and typography from an early age he started shaping everything he could get his hands on, resulting in extensive collections and graphical universes, with his own label PIQTO becoming his main output during that time.
A visit at the house of his hero
Adrian Frutiger in Berne consolidated his fascination for Swiss graphic design and ultimately lead to his studies at the prestigious
ECAL (University of Art and Design Lausanne) where he graduated in 2011 with a diploma in Visual Communication.
Alongside his studies he interned at
Bureau Mirko Borsche, worked for
032c magazine in Berlin and founded his own publication Better Mjstakes with long-time collaborator Johannes Breyer.
After graduating Hugo spent a powerful year as an art director at
Meiré und Meiré being involved with clients including Kenzo Paris, GQ Italia, 032c, Interview Magazine and Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 2013 he returned to independency working for local and international clients as well as pursuing his personal projects and teaching at educational and cultural institutions.
In 2015 Hugo joined
2x4 in their New York City office to work on a wide range of diverse projects for clients including Fondazione Prada, Miu Miu, Knoll, Marc Jacobs and Sies Marjan. In the same year he had an exhibition of his work and was awarded as a 2015
Young Gun by the Art Director's Club in NYC.
In Spring 2016 Hugo decided to focus on his own projects and studio again and currently works from Brooklyn for clients throughout Europe and the US, where he recently had the honor to be invited as a guest critic at
Yale School of Art and give a talk about his work at
Apple in SoHo, NYC.
TEACHING AND LECTURES
Apple SoHo, NYC, Presentation and Lecture
Yale School of Art, Guest Critic
FH Düsseldorf, VOID, Typography Workshop
FH Bielefeld, Editorial Design Workshop, Lecture
Typographische Gesellschaft München, Lecture
FH Mainz, Editorial Design Workshop
FH Mainz, Typography Workshop
PRESS AND EXHIBITIONS
032c
AIGA Chicago
Apple
Arcademi
Arkitip Intel
Art Director's Club Gallery, NYC
Drop Magazine, Australia
Dublab Radio, Los Angeles
ECAL Graphic Design (JRP Ringier)
ELAC, Espace Lausannois d’Art Contemporain
Electronic Beats Festival
FILE Magazine, London
Gestalten, Berlin (various publications)
Haw-Lin
It’s Nice That
Library Paper
Manystuff
Makers and Founders
Milk Magazine, Hong Kong
PAGE Magazine, Typeface of the Month
Sandu Publications, China (various publications)
SSZ Sued Gallery, Cologne
The Shelf Journal, Paris
Tijuana Gallery, Sao Paulo
Unit Editions, London
WDR Radio