By Jeanne Tan /asdf 29-06-2009

It all started with a party flyer in the mid 1990's. Since then Amsterdam-based graphic design collective Machine (formerly DEPT.) have been making trouble on the streets of the city with their posters, flyers and projects, creating exquisite album covers and teaching student workshops in rather unconventional ways. Here, we chat with co-founder Paul du Bois-Reymond about the two new books which present a retrospective of their work.

So tell me a little about the book/s about Machine that have just been launched.
There are two books on us out at the moment. One is called 'Designed by Machine-The Loud Sound of Graphics', the other is a pocket in the 'Design&Designer' series by Pyramid publishers. 'Designed by Machine' is more or less an overview of our work and history, including our first collective 'DEPT'.

What are you working on currently?
As always we are doing some album sleeves, working on the publicity for our bar, the MiNiBAR, type stuff for Patta and we are about to launch an exciting new project onto the streets of Amsterdam, much like the plastic bags we used to make while working as DEPT.

When you set up DEPT straight during/straight after your graduation, what was your main aim really? And did you always want to work for youself?
We (Mark Klaverstijn, Leonard van Munster & Paul du Bois-Reymond) set it up the day we finished at the Rietveld Academy. Our goal was and still is to work under one umbrella that would allow both working as designers for clients as well as independently. We never cared much for boundaries between media and professions. Next to these starting points, we always maintained a very strict attitude towards what projects we liked to do. That got us in trouble sometimes i guess, but at least we never made crap. Or at least not much of it : )

How has your work evolved in the last decade since you graduated?
I guess I would have to say read the book! It's hard to put that into a few lines. Since 1996 I guess it has been a continuous flow of working on visual language, as vague as that may sound. It's more and more about craftsmanship the last years. In the early days we felt the need to do everything ourselves, programming, designing, editing etc. Now we tend to focus more on the parts where we can focus on how and why something could feel, look, smell.

The flyer was the medium/project that started it all for you guys. Are you still doing flyers?
Flyers played a big role in our work in the beginning because they are an excellent platform to experiment on. It made sense to us to put in serious hours on those tiny sheets of paper that only lasted a few eeks, usually ending up on the floors of clubs but sometimes on someone's bathroom wall. Because they had a limited life span, they allowed experiments I guess. They can also be a stepping stone to bigger projects, if the right people see them. We still do them, but not as much.

What were some of the major project highlights and why?
The funny thing is that for us it's so much about the kick of the moment that I don't feel it's right to single out a few big projects. A nice little find in a logo can be just as satisfying as seeing your name BIG. One thing we more and more discover is that our lifestyle is one of our achievements. We may not get the big jobs, and it's a struggle and frustrating to see the same boring designers get the interesting work but the way we work together, have lunch in a beautiful studio, surrounded by records and books and all you need to make stuff is worth a million. Next to that we have the time to box twice a week with our personal trainer Lee so deadbeats beware!

What do you love most about what you do?
Next to the direct appeal of working with graphics - the black, the white and the inbetween - I would say that one nice thing about design is that different projects get you thinking about different issues. Issues that you ordinarily wouldn't think about can become a little obsession...

And lastly, your advice to young designers...
There's a lot to say but one thing is that design/art never stops. Your teachers only know so much, it's really up to you to do it differently than the ones before you. We get copied a lot, and so do our friends. I never understand why people feel the need to repeat even if it looks good. I mean it's very useful to use what has been done but please remix that, and invent new grounds to work on, play on.

Check the website to find out how to buy the book.

Images: Spreads from 'Designed by Machine'.

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