George & Harrison

George & Harrison ist das Design-Studion von Martijn Maas (a.k.a George) und Maarten Stal (a.k.a Harrison) in Eindhoven / Niederlande. Als ich das Corporate Design gesehen habe, das die beiden für Mark Peet Vissers Galerie für moderne Kunst entwickelt haben, war ich begeistert und habe sie zu einem kleinen Interview eingeladen …

What was the task given by Mark Peet Visser?

The task was to design a visual identity that is appealing to both artists and art buyers. It is important to realise that C-MPV is a sub division of the Mark Peet Visser gallery brand that focusses on young / modern art and modern art lovers. This meant that the identity needed to appeal to that target group.

What was your idea and how did you came up with it?

The idea came to us when we started talking about the visual identity and art in general. The inevitable question 'what is art' or 'what makes a good art piece' came up. We soon realised that is is a quite philosophical and hard (if not impossible) question to answer. We concluded that it was important to have a visual identity that doesn't try to tell people what art is but will tell people that art is a matter of perception, context and -last but certainly not least - taste. The idea is based on the notion that different people interpretation art in different ways, C-MPV is the constant centre that collects, shows and combines. The circles function as 'windows', or 'eyes' which is a metaphor for different point of views.

Did you have alternative ideas which dealt with the circle as main focus?

We did, the first idea was to translate this idea of different point of views as a collection of things that are round. We thought it would be nice to have a collection of forms, objects and living things that are round, saying that even though things have the same shape the meaning and perception of how we look at it is completely different. We had all these images hanging on our wall, from basketballs to eyeballs and from lollipops to the wheels of a tractor..... Even though the results of this research were quite exciting the main concept for the identity was getting further and further away. So; we decided to go in a different direction.  Secondly we gained access to all these great art works from the gallery and decided it was almost a crime not to use them.

Alternatividee während des Prozesses: Eine Sammlung an runden Objekten

Why did you decide developping a dynamic identity?

The gallery works with a lot of artists and is on the look out for new ones to add to their catalogue all the time. To keep the identity relevant and fresh it was important for us to be able to show lots of different art works. If a new artist joins the division it is important to be able to communicate that artist' work and to be able to show the work in relation to art works that are already in the exciting portfolio of C-MPV.

What are the rules for the inner life of the circles?

By 'inner life' I suppose you mean the C-MPV (round) logo? Well; the name of the gallery's director is 'Mark Peet Visser' so there you have the letters 'MPV' The letter 'C' stands for 'contemporary' . Visually we thought is was important to emphasize the letter 'C' and gave it a different colour. This also helps you to know where to start reading (we did some research and apparently is is quite hard for people to determine where a text starts if the text is set in a circle - do you start reading on the left on start at the top....). The colour of the C is based on the main colour of the art work that is featured in the diagram.

When do you use the classic logo and when do you use it as center of various circles?

This depends on the content. If the gallery decided to put out a folder with information about one specific artist the basic logo is used. If the gallery wants to communicate from the gallery itself the circles come in. So for all things promoting the gallery itself (like website / business cards / stationary and so on) the circles are used and for special publication (like a artist catalogue) the basic logo is used.

Alle Fotos: © George & Harrison

Considering the whole identity: What do you – from your point of view – like the most?

This is going to sound cheesy but the impact of the identity gets stronger which every item that you get to see. If you isolate one specific aspect is would not be as strong and outspoken as when you see the 'identity family' as a whole. We tried to make the individual identity items in such a way that it makes one curious about the rest of the identity. We were careful not to design everything that the identity has to offer on everything, hope that makes sense ;-)




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George & Harrison is the design studio of Martijn Maas (a.k.a George) und Maarten Stal (a.k.a Harrison) in Eindhoven / Netherlands. I was thrilled when I saw their design for Mark Peet Vissers gallery of modern art and invited Martijn & Maarten to talk with me about their design process. Thanks a lot!