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

CLIENTS

032c
2x4
Alexander Basile
Alexandra Senes
Arts Foundation North Rhine-Westphalia
Assembly London
Böwer
Brand Eins
Carhartt
Contemporary Conservation
District Vision
ECAL
EWO
Fondazione Prada
GQ Italia
Interview Magazine
Jonas Unger
KENZO
Meiré und Meiré
Miu Miu
Mini/BMW
Namsa Leuba
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Prada
Sies Marjan
Unavailable Network
Wilsberg von Monkiewitsch


Hugo is co-founder and resident DJ of Cologne Sessions and Alaaf and Kickin’, ComeTogether member and president of football club Piqto United.