Paul Snowden: Wasted German Youth

2 Jun 2008 Category: Graphics, Worldwide

Paul Snowden: Wasted German Youth

Simple forward – and sometimes very fast forward in Berlin-style. Paul Snowden's claim as graphic designer.

Creating record covers, fliers, posters, ads, lots of editorial and his own bilingual BANG BANG BERLIN fanzine, Berlin-based Paul Snowden just LOVES so many aspects of Berlin — and has an obvious soft spot for its rave culture. His trademark is minimalist graphics with huge lettering, not so subtly conveying a message. For a while now, the New Zealand native has been busy with a WASTED GERMAN YOUTH T-shirt edition, again referencing the party attitude of the youth in the city. And, after a BROOKLYN version, there is now also a * TOKYO WASTED YOUTH!* PingMag talked to Paul about his approach to graphic design.

Written by Verena


Identity for JGF - Japan German Forum, a student exchange program. From 2002.

An ad for German cola. As simple as its label.

I know your work from back in the ’90s when you made all those lovely record sleeves. What makes a good sleeve?


Cover for electronic musician Turner

Basically, good music really. The music has to paint pictures for you and you just need to be inspired. And only by working for things you really like leads to good results.

True. But what advice would you give for work you’re not so much into? How would you motivate yourself?

To be perfectly honest, if you are gonna do a job you don’t want to do, then you are doing it for some reason. Even if it’s just the money, but it may be some advantage, just concentrate on that. Shut the fuck up and get it done as fast and professional as possible.

Posters for German movie “Jagdhunde” (hounds) for Berlinale film festival 2007.

Eventually, you started to cultivate this special black-and-white style and typography. When and why?

White is my favourite colour and I love black too. Maybe it came through my love of photocopies too, laser printers and screen printing.
Once upon a time, writing somehow became a hobby of mine and I just got into transporting ideas through words rather than images. My work functions more like advertising, the concept is stripped down to its simplest form and delivered as direct as possible — that’s the official version. The unofficial version is basically, I just really hate Photoshop and all the problems involved in getting the colours perfect.

Train station billboard campaign for Nike Air 180 during the second Bread & Butter fashion trade show back then in Berlin, now in Barcelona

Fanzines! What kind of specifically? You were into ’80s hardcore and punk fanzines?

My brother was seriously into U.S. hardcore. He was all getting post from around the world. That was real punk: sending envelopes and stamps to people and getting records and fanzines from somewhere in return. There was something so direct and tough but always chic about this artwork that fascinated me. My brother was also the inspiration for making all these shirts I do now too. He had a new favourite band every week, so I was hand-printing these shirts all the time.

Photocopied punk zine restaurant menu for White Trash Fast Food bar in Berlin.

Record cover for German electronic band Boys Noize’s first release

Going back a bit — what did you do at Redesign Deutschland?

While living in Hamburg, I created the concept REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND. The idea was to simply make life easier and better. After moving to Berlin, I felt the time was right to start it properly. As a small group we built up the office and the infamous REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND manifesto and started creating these products. There was something pretty insane about it all, very creative, extremely futuristic, yet very Bauhaus.

Logo for techno label Cross Fade Enter Tainment or CFET.

As the name suggests, it was about redesigning Germany. The idea was simply to standardise everyday objects for better living. REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND time was based on a metric system, a table and a chair was invented, a colour scheme, standard portrait photos, all mildly insane. It was half intellectual, half visceral. We were pretty busy and I was involved in the project from official start for 1,000 days — a REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND year.

Layout for German Dummy magazine no. 13, the ‘Advertising & Sales’ issue, with an article saying “How I did ads about pickles one time” …

… and from the same issue, an article about trademark rights.

… a REDESIGN year?

The whole concept of REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND was based on metrics, and having time based on 60 minutes simply didn’t fit into our concept. So in REDESIGNDEUTSCHLAND time, a normal day had 100 hours, and an hour 100 minutes, a year 1,000 days.

OK . . . I remember your ‘Deutschland’ cover of Germany’s Dummy magazine that seemed to generate quite some buzz. Please tell us about that.


Cover of German Dummy magazine no. 4 with ‘Germany’ as theme.

That year, I had set myself a goal to do a magazine and approached Dummy with my wish. Ironically enough, they offered me to art direct the fourth issue — the ‘Germany’ issue. It was a text only cover, possibly the start of my black and white typo crusade. The cover text read in German — ‘Attention! It’s gonna get stressful and frustrating and boring and depressing and grey and a little bit annoying. Welcome to Germany. Issue number 4. P.S.: The weather’s gonna be crap too.’ It pretty summed it up with that nice bit of Paul Snowden humour, probably one of my favourite works too. At the German Lead Awards that year, Dummy won the ‘Newcomer Magazine of the Year’ and the ‘Best Cover’ 3rd prize. If I was to do a Japan issue, I wonder what the text would read.

Now, I’d like to know about your WASTED GERMAN YOUTH Tee edition. You told me earlier that it all started with a certain party incident at Berlin’s veteran Tresor club.

As history goes, I was in Tresor at a party in 1999. It was in one of those inspirational rave moments where I parallel saw the beauty and insanity of this rave culture. I turned to my friend and said, ”these kids, all so fucked up. All of them, so off their fuckin’ faces. It’s just . . . wasted German youth.” Six years later, I made some shirts and in true underground style, it just exploded. It’s been quite crazy really.


WASTED GERMAN YOUTH as Tee motif…

… and hinting at a similar aspect of rave culture: MINIMAL MY ASS.

What does it imply — a certain lifestyle, an alternative attitude in this special Berlin setting?

I believe that the city of Berlin symbolises the individual in search of its own identity and you can feel this freedom here. It’s also pretty notorious for its nightlife, which can be interpreted as getting lost. Nightlife is a really big part of life and history here and obviously a serious attraction for tourists. I see this rave lifestyle as an attitude to life to the fullest and nothing to be ashamed of. WASTED GERMAN YOUTH is about living it and living it proudly!


Poster for Masse und Macht vs. The Wartburg performance

Invitation for Paul’s exhibition at Galerie Sandra Buergel, Berlin.

Then, there are several variations, such as Brooklyn Wasted Youth… and now Tokyo Wasted Youth (available now!) At the last Minimal Tokyo Party, people had a lot of fun customising the stickers with these lines. Tell us more about your current project, the BANG BANG BERLIN fanzine.

I was approached by Liz Mcgrath, the chief editor, to create this project as creative director. It is a full-colour quarterly English and German publication from fans and for fans of Berlin — the first of such a fanzine here ever. It’s typical that two foreigners did it and it is available in selected stores in Germany and Europe. We have just released our second issue and have started on the third. It is a lot of work, but a lot of fun. We don’t have any outlets in Tokyo. Any ideas?

From Paul’s “In The Battle Against Evil The Good Will Prevail” exhibition at Galerie Sandra Buergel. Photo by Galerie Sandra Buergel

You also had some exhibitions too — like one at a Berlin gallery, or another one last year in Munich…

I kinda started my art career a couple of years back and it’s slowly getting serious. My current show is a group exhibition at Sandra Buergel gallery, Berlin. Then it’s something for Lacoste’s temporary 12.12. window gallery in the KaDeWe department store, also in Berlin, and then it’s Design Miami/Basel.

A Cannes Lion on Paul’s shelf back from his stint at the Springer & Jacoby agency in Hamburg, Germany. We love his other toys too!

Thanks Paul. And yes, we’d go for your WASTED TOKYO YOUTH Tee! Folks, if you want one, drop by combine in Nakameguro, Tokyo.

51 Comments

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    Ive got to make it in Berlin to see my Fraulein!

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  3. great design work. really powerful and individual I think.

    oh and White Trash Fast Food is one of the best clubs I’ve ever been to (and ‘The Cathedral’ spooky goth bar next door)

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