White on white—from abstract painters Kasimir Malevich and Robert Ryman to the humble tennis shoe, pale monochrome on top of pale monochrome has always proven a classic style. No one knows this dictum better than Mario Lombardo, who has created a distinct aesthetic under the nom de design Bureau.

That’s clear in his poster concept for K-Swiss’ You Gotta Know Your Classics poster campaign, Blond On Blond, where the words and colors (or lack thereof) literally deconstruct off the page. It’s a witty homage to the all-white tennis style epitomized by the K-Swiss Classic shoe, a look that has dominated tennis fashion since… well, the K-Swiss Classic (see history of).

The Berlin-based Lombardo is one of the leading design forces in Europe, re-energizing print media spanning fashion to photography, magazines to corporate design and record labels, garnering numerous awards  with his haunting, unexpected imagery and groundbreaking typography. KSPACE discussed all this and more with the designer who puts “icon” into iconoclasm.

KSPACE: Where are you located? How does your home base influence your sensibility?
Lombardo: Recently I live in Berlin-Mitte; a few years ago I was based in Cologne, Hamburg and Buenos Aires.  When I achingly realized that I really work a lot, I decided to create an environment that keeps me really happy. Now I have a combination of everything I really love. I designed my own furniture out of blackboards and have a lot of lovely people working in my office: we drink good coffee, and as often as I can I cook for us all. . .

KSPACE: How did you start designing? What inspired you? What have been your greatest achievements?
Lombardo: I started designing in the mid-‘90s, always with the goal to design magazines or to make stuff for the music industry. I never thought of making a music magazine, but i did – and I think I’ve done it well. I got over 50 awards for it. Afterwards, I’ve made some fashion, music and politic ones – this was also fun. Now my goal is to combine everything. But I don’t know how to do it yet.

KSPACE: What do you think you bring to the design process? If you had to explain your aesthetic to your grandmother (or mine), how would you do it?
Lombardo: I create poetic pictures with a meta layer, and combine them with a classic typography. I’m not really modern; I never was.

KSPACE: What are your classic influences? What makes a design classic and truly timeless?
Lombardo: My most important influence in my life is music. I also love my family, friends and colleagues, the news and gossip! That all keeps me on the ground. What I also need is stress, but mum’s the word! Don’t tell my other clients!

KSPACE: How did you get involved with this K-Swiss initiative? What were you trying to say about the Classic’s history with your contribution?
Lombardo: I love the thin strokes on the classics. So I made a handmade type out of it. I love to do things with my hands. I wanted to create a camouflage ornament for this poster: white on white, blond on blond.

KSPACE: Lastly, if you could be the all-mighty design guru for humanity, what would you change and instigate globally to make the world a better place?
Lombardo: What? If I would be something like that (If i had the power), my mission would be something like combining all religions into one. I think it’s really silly to fight about something like religion. Do you know moslbuddjewchristhindao? It’s a fragrance a friend of mine, Daniel Josefsohn, created. “Unifaith” – I love this idea.

Non-Format’s contribution (above) ‘We Killed Canvas, Sorry’ to K-Swiss’ You Gotta Know Your Classics campaign, for example, uses oversize type to crushingly illustrate the theme with subtle absurdist humor and a nod to Constructivism.

KSPACE spoke with Non-Format to get a peek into Ekhorn and Forss’ innovative visual alchemy.

KSPACE: Where are you located? How does your home base influence your sensibility?
Jon: We met and established Non-Format in London. We worked together in our London studio until I moved to the U.S. in 2007. Last year Kjell moved to Oslo, Norway. Neither of us is terribly convinced that our locations have much bearing on our design sensibilities, but it’s difficult to prove that.

KSPACE: How did you start designing? What inspired you? What have been your greatest achievements?
Kjell: I studied design in school, then worked for a while for an advertising agency in Norway before moving to London to study graphic design at Central Saint Martins. I’m inspired by anything and everything that sparks my imagination. Any attempts to narrow it down to specifics would be a fool’s errand.
Jon: I completed one year of foundation studies at Cheltenham School of Art and went on to study graphic design at what is now De Montfort University in Leicester. Our greatest achievement is being able to sustain a working relationship for over ten years and with more than 4,000 miles between us for the last three of them. How do we do it?

Cover/packaging for Jean-Jacques Perrey & Luke Vibert 'Mini Moog' cd

KSPACE: What do you think you bring to the design process? If you had to explain your aesthetic to your grandmother (or mine), how would you do it?
Jon: I think P. Scott Makela summed it up best with his business name: Words & Pictures for Business & Culture. That’s pretty much what we do.

Art direction & complete redesign of Wire '01-'05

KSPACE: What are your “classic” influences? What makes a design classic and truly timeless?
Kjell: Nothing is really timeless. Even nature is constantly in a state of flux.
Jon: But even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day.

KSPACE: How did you get involved with this K-Swiss initiative ? What were you trying to say about the Classic’s history with your contribution?
Kjell: We were invited to contribute a poster design. We were simply trying to convey the message we were given with as much impact and clarity as possible.
Jon: We also wanted to give the K-Swiss Classic a voice. Apparently it’s very polite.

Poster catalogue/program for theatre section of 37th Venice Biennale

KSPACE: Lastly, if you could be the all-mighty design guru for humanity, what would you change and instigate globally to make the world a better place?
Kjell: This sort of question is too difficult to answer. It would be nice to think one simple piece of design could end world hunger and poverty, but everything, no matter how seemingly inconsequential has unexpected side-effects.
Jon: Be careful what you wish for…

Get yourself a copy of the Non-Format design (or any of the 8 original designs) here

Get your own copy now of any of these 8 gems by sending us an email simply with your choice or choices of these Limited Edition posters plus your mailing address and they’ll be on the way to you within a few weeks

To that end, KSPACE caught up with Grandpeople’s Magnus Helgesen to talk all things classic and design.

KSPACE:  Where are you located? How does your home base influence your sensibility?
Magnus Helgesen: We’re located in the small town of Bergen, on the west coast of Norway. It’s also known as the “gateway to the fjords”: The mountains shoot up from the North Sea, draining the town in almost constant rain. An unusually cold winter has resulted in quite a lot of snow this year, and people have actually started skiing to work! Living close to nature and its delights and perils has influenced us in a number of ways, but most important is the vibrant cultural activity in Bergen. With only 255,000 inhabitants, there’s still a lot of stuff going on.

KSPACE:  How did you start designing? What inspired you?
Magnus Helgesen: We have always been keen illustrators, long before we ever knew of anything called graphic design. For me, it was my older brother who opened up to the idea of design, by giving me Motorpsycho albums with sleeve designs by Kim Hiorthøy. I think he’s been a big inspiration for many Norwegian designers of our generation. But later we have come to find that all parts of visual culture inspire us. And I mean all parts, from antique to contemporary art, high brow and low brow, pop culture, fine art, science, and so on.

Illustration for Tokion article & front cover, collaboration with Kim Hiorthøy

KSPACE: What do you think you bring to the design process? If you had to explain your aesthetic to your grandmother (or mine), how would you do it?
Magnus Helgesen: When asked by his grandfather, Christian here at the studio usually answers: “Yes, I still do a lot of drawings and stuff, and no, we do not have a printing press at the office,” and leaves it at that.

Cover design for Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club"

KSPACE: What are your “classic” influences? What makes a design classic and truly timeless?
Magnus Helgesen: Think I’ll have to skip this one—too little time.

KSPACE:  How did you get involved with this K-Swiss initiative ? What were you trying to say about the Classic’s history with your contribution?
Magnus Helgesen: Our friend Fabian Jenny invited us to the project. The notes for our chapter inspired us to explore the American modernism of the 1960s; we were looking for a connection between highbrow and pop-culture. Thinking about the K-Swiss sneaker originally as a sportswear for the tennis playing upper middle class, and its present role in contemporary street fashion, the result became a mixture of David Hockney and the LA Dodgers. There’s something truly Californian about the light in Hockney’s paintings from this era, and we tried to capture this feeling.

7" vinyl design project /sound installation for Christian Vogel w/ Pieterjan Ginckels

KSPACE:  Lastly, if you could be the all-mighty design guru for humanity, what would you change and instigate globally to make the world a better place?
Magnus Helgesen: That’s a tough one. 100% sustainable energy supply, food production and transport, for starters? The funny thing is, most of these ideas already exist, but it’s the lack of political will and initiative that hold us back. So maybe my team would also have to design a new system for a sustainable and flexible direct democracy. It’s pretty awesome to think that real change in economic and political systems is actually just a question about logistics and information. In that sense, designers can actually make a huge difference.

Murphy and Value and Service prove versatile in their many innovative projects, putting their mark on everything from books to fashion to branding: recent V&S projects include everything from a history of the Saatchi Gallery to Selfridges’ window display, a particularly Duchampian set of DJ slipmats (see below)
—and of course, K-Swiss’ “You Gotta Know Your Classics” poster campaign.

In particular, Murphy and V&S were responsible for the witty “K for Kalifornia” deconstruction of the K-Swiss logo. We spoke to Sean about what moves him as a designer, and how he got involved with “You Gotta Know Your Classics.”

KSPACE: Where are you located? How does your home base influence your sensibility?
Sean Murphy: I’m located in East London: lots happens there so you soak it up a little. In terms of influence, it makes me want to avoid doing certain things, if that makes sense… Location is generally less important for work nowadays, but it’s always good to be around lots of interesting things.

Selfridges window display

KSPACE: How did you start designing? What inspired you?
Sean Murphy: I used to copy logos when I was a kid, so I suppose that was my introduction to a life in design.

KSPACE:  What do you think you bring to the design process? If you had to explain your aesthetic to your grandmother (or mine), how would you do it?

Sean Murphy: “Familiar but odd” is how I would describe our work—sort of old, but new.

Anti-slipmats for 'A Nice Set'

KSPACE: What are your “classic” influences? What makes a design classic and truly timeless?
Sean Murphy: I think “supernormal” is a good mantra if you want to design a classic object. A true classic is something I would buy and never pass on, something that moves with the times.

History of the Saatchi Gallery - Book in inlaid wooden crate

KSPACE:  How did you get involved with this K-Swiss initiative ? What were you trying to say about the Classic’s history with your contribution?
Sean Murphy: I got an email inviting me to participate.  The story we were assigned was pretty concise, so we reflected that in the design. It pretty much tells the story of how Switzerland became “Kalifornian.”

KSPACE:  Lastly, if you could be the all-mighty design guru for humanity, what would you change and instigate globally to make the world a better place?
Sean Murphy: Cheap and efficient public transport.

Le Rendez-vous Toyota, Paris exhibition

For more on the works of Value and Service click here

For the full Gallery of the 8 ‘You Gotta Know Your Classics’ designs click here

Based in Amsterdam, we design for print, with the goal of pushing content into new form solutions. Working mainly for the creative industry, we have completed several projects, amongst other things, for De Hallen Haarlem (museum for contemporary art, Haarlem), the Netherlands Media Art Institute (Amsterdam), Tubelight Magazine (Rotterdam), the Jan van Eyck Academy (Maastricht) and several artist books. And we both teach typography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague.

Marijke Cobbenhagen (1978, Amsterdam) and Chantal Hendriksen (1978, Delft)

Stay tuned here for insights into 7 more top emerging designers interpretations of ‘the Classic’ and a chance to win a set of the ‘You Gotta Know Your Classics’ limited edition posters

The initiative, entitled “You Gotta Know Your Classics” finds these cutting-edge international designers working on another classic form: the poster. The K-Swiss Classic was one of the first sneakers to go from high performance on the court to street style; how better, then, to bring it back to its roots than a poster that will be seen on boulevards spanning tastemaker style centers like Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, Paris, and Tokyo?

Over the course of eight posters, the history and significance of the K-Swiss Classic is depicted. Did you know that the Classic jumpstarted the tradition of the white leather sneaker ? You do now. The quiet iconoclasm of this achievement gets a volume boost over the course of each poster, starting with the brand’s birth in a suburban Los Angeles garage by two actual Swiss tennis fans. The endless sunshine of California (the iconic “K” actually stands for “Kalifornia”) provided the ultimate research & development hub, the year round tennis courts untainted by ice and snow proving an ideal hothouse laboratory to perfect the product. There the enhanced performance of the leather sneaker, first introduced for soccer/football, quickly made canvas obsolete (hence ‘We Killed Canvas. Sorry’) as a real contender for tennis shoes intended for real athletic use. But the Swiss-inspired modernism of the shoe made it explode as a style accessory, its comfort enhancing its status as a leisure object.

The K-Swiss Classic has endured for over four decades in its original design; it has proven so enduring, this design initiative proves the perfect choice to shake it up a little. From Jimmy Connors to Helmut Newton to today’s skateboarders and designer/artists like Shinichiro Arakawa and Julia Hederus, it’s been the stealth choice for performance and style, the personality of the wearer filling it and making each unique. These limited edition posters express that individual spirit the Classic has provided for those trendsetters: here at KSPACE, we will be profiling the designers from this campaign over the coming weeks, revealing insights into their inspiration of what’s sure to be a new crop of design innovation ready now to last for future generations to come.

Designers:
Non-Format / Minneapolis & Oslo
Life of the mind / Los Angeles
Bureau / Berlin
Lemon Scented Tea / Amsterdam
Sulki Choi and Sung Min Choi / Seoul
Value and Service / London
Grandpeople / Bergen
Cobbenhagen & Hendriksen / Amsterdam

It goes a little something like this – between 1966 and 1986 California sports brand K-Swiss created and sold a single shoe: The Classic. In that short period, The Classic rapidly evolved from being the world’s most advanced shoe on the tennis court to being the first high-performance white leather sneaker. Dare it be said that every other leather tennis shoe that followed was derived from The Classic. Now um after a mere forty-four years after its launch, K-Swiss is finally telling The Classic’s story and sharing some choice secrets along the way about its quietly iconic shoe.

Secrets like why its original owners only produced a single shoe for twenty years and what the ‘K’ in its name actually stands for, all unusually interpreted and told with the help of Amsterdam storytelling agency Lemon Scented Tea and eight top emerging international designers visually narrating the story via a series of collectable and we do mean Limited edition posters.

Each chapter of this classic tale from ‘No Talk Policy’ to ‘K is for Kalifornia’ to ‘Blond on Blond’ and ‘We Killed Canvas. Sorry’ all provide a fresh unique ontext to The Classic, while the designers were given free reign to interpret the stories graphically. Each poster is a stand-alone illustration, underscoring the lack of hierarchy in The Classics’s own story.

Stayed tuned here as the story unfolds and for details on when and how we will be giving away these choice collectables and a chance to win your own Classics.