Piero Glina is a designer based in Zürich, Switzerland.
He is very interested in a wide variety of media, various forms of communication and the discussion about it.
Please get in touch by sending a mail to → hello@pieroglina.com or follow on → Twitter.
Story w/out Story pt. 1:
Death, Kitsch and those Images in my Head
«Story w/out Story» is an ongoing multivolume book project about the content and origin of our collective visual memory and how hidden codes within visual communication and cinematic imagery can have a narrative influence on our perception as an audience.
The first volume titled «Death, Kitsch and those Images in my Head» opens with iconic images that all of us carry in our heads, such as photographs of major events in world history or pop cultural milestones. The focus increasingly narrows from iconic movie scenes, artifacts and traces of analog and digital special effects to numerous examples of recurrent visual motifs in classic and mainstream cinematography.
138 pages, 19 × 27 cm
Story w/out Story pt. 2:
The Saddest Book in the World
«Story w/out Story pt. 2» is a direct continuation of «Death, Kitsch and those Images in my Head» in which the focus on the collective visual memory and the visual codes in cinematography tightens to the point where one single cinematic motif is exposed as an example for the whole subject of codes, altering our perception of visual media.
The motif dealt with in «The Saddest Book in the World» is the classic death scene, one of the most renowned shots in mainstream cinema and therefore deeply rooted in the collective visual memory of the audience.
From an archive of hundreds of death scenes, a large collection of said shots were put together in new combinations to reveal the interchangeability and randomness of this particular scene. No matter what decade or genre the stills came from, by being juxtaposed in a rather surprising way, they trigger an unexpected chain of associations which might lead to a completely new story based on the personal visual memory of the reader.
194 pages, 27 × 19 cm
HfG Schriftenreihe
For a new concept and layout of the official book series of → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Piero Glina, Martin Borst and Sebastian Cremers focused on a rather decorative design to present the scientific content, every decor plays with the specific content of each book.
Munitionsfabrik 17
«Munitionsfabrik» is the magazine of the → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, issue 17 discussed the subject of simulation. Piero Glina and Martin Borst tried to adopt the idea of simulation in the artwork by transforming a process of movement into a process of printing.
In a short period of time a man was photographed four times. One colour channel from each photo was excerpted and put together into one new CMYK image. The movement is expanded into the colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black while the static part of the image stays black & white.
136 pages, 16.5 × 23.4 cm
→ Publication in :output 10 (2007)
→ Publication in Ping Pong Project (2008)
→ iF concept award (2008)
ISBN-13: 978-3-930194-03-2
kkaarrllss
→ «kkaarrllss» is an edition collection consisting of pieces which originate from the coursework of young European designers at → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. This publication tried to communicate the rich variety of their work.
30 pages, 22 × 31 cm
Copy Right
A typographical magazine about the typeface Helvetica, its bad copy Arial and similar cases.
To compare the original typeface to its copy, Piero Glina and Martin Borst created a new font called RipOff, which subtracts one font from the other.
44 pages, DIN A4
→ iF concept award (2005)
→ Scholarship of AV-Studio Heine (Verein zur Förderung der Medientechnologie) (2005)
→ Publication in :output 08 (2005)
Der Besuch des Bundespräsidenten
Publication about the visit of german Federal President Horst Köhler to the → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in late 2008.
The main feature of the book is its subtle design. Two different kinds of papers, duo tone printing and a typeface especially designed for this publication emphasise the nostalgic aspect of looking back on a special event.
56 pages, 15.4 × 22.5 cm
Maßnahme
(HfG Film Edition)
Silk screen printed DVD packaging for an ongoing series of films produced at → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design.
Lapse In Time
Catalogue design and signage for → Experimenta Design, Lisbon 2009 (in collaboration with Daniel Schludi, exhibition design by Fernando Brizio).
We asked the designers who exhibited their work at the show → «Lapse in Time», curated by Hans Maier-Aichen, to send images of the material and the tools they used to work with.
For the exhibition catalogue, we combined those images with altered photographs of Lisbon. All traces of human activity were erased — no cars, no people, no signage.
By combining both levels of imagery, the city of Lisbon was portrayed as an empty stage on the verge of becoming the center of a lot of different events and activities.
112 pages, 13.7 × 19.5 cm
Designing By Making
Documentation of a collaboration between → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and → CIAV Meisenthal in France (Centre International d'Art Verrier) in early 2009.
No Coffee No Tea
Poster, signage & photography in collaboration with Daniel Schludi.
Exhibition design for → Ambiente Messe Frankfurt by Yvonne Fehling, Matthias Leipholz and Peter Schäfer.
Series of posters, promoting a party (Xeroxprint, 2009).
Each poster carried one bit of the whole information and acted as a teaser, spread across the city.
In combination, the small bits became a new and complete poster.
Several posters for various events which took place at → Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, such as conferences or movie screenings.
Opening of «Telekolleg», an alternative artroom in Karlsruhe, Germany, run by Piero Glina and Johannes Tolk (Silkscreen, 2005).
Various posters and key visuals for → Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), promoting exhibitions, conferences and degree shows.
Poster for «No Coffee No Tea», an exhibition in course of → Ambiente Messe Frankfurt.
The typeface was cut out of a piece of the original carpet used in the exhibition space.
Magic Shadow Boys 2000
→ The Magic Shadow Boys 2000 is a group of visualists, founded 2006, who try to bridge music, film and imagery. Current members are Piero Glina, Oliver Wrobel and Nikolaus Völzow.
Our approach is to compose abstract compilations of various visual outputs, such as cinematic quotation, graphic elements or even very basic components like plain colours or simple movement to create a new level of meaning in interaction with a live music environment – and also available in realtime 3D (→ Live Show at Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre Hong Kong).
→ Facebook
Super Light
Photography, graphic design and website (in collaboration with Johannes Tolk).
For → «Super-Light» by Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz, we developed an visual concept to present the lamps on the web. To show the lamp in various situations, we created ten different rooms, each of them had a more or less strange feeling to it and illustrated a specific environment, such as a bar, a studio, a living room etc.
Our work also included the → website to present and distribute the lamp via an online shop.
You can download the catalogue → here.
Power To The People
«Power to the people» is all about people taking control and deciding what they want to see in a short film
(in cooperation with Sebastian Cremers).
Prior to the making of the video → we offered 3 candidates, 6 objects and 12 actions to vote for.
The number of votes determined the action. Starting off at the left with the results that have been voted the most and therefore are repeated quite frequently.
Freedom of choice is not real.
People can only choose within given limits, specified by somebody else.
Telekolleg
In spring 2005, Johannes Tolk and Piero Glina opened the alternative artroom «Telekolleg», located in an abandoned bakery store in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Providing a location for a wide variety of events, «Telekolleg» was the home for exhibitions of all kind, movie screenings or concerts played by various bands and DJs. Many wonderful connections and future collaborations were made. In summer 2006, this alternative space had to be shut down, the landlord did not tolerate it any longer.
Have a look at → the original website, for old times’ sake!
MOTO MOTO
«A new font, designed by Piero Glina and clearly influenced by Deco Sans typefaces of the 1930's and immediate post-war period. In particular I think it's reminiscent of those found in Spain, southern France or Italy, usually on either political posters or other social and municipal events. Caps-only, although this restriction seems to play to the strengths of the angles and x-height that give it so much character.»
— toobad.posterous.com
You can purchase Moto Moto → here.
Kunst am Bau (Art Within Architecture)
In summer 2009 the → Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin, Germany called for entries for a design for the facade of their new building.
Our entry won first prize.
We tried to use the curtain-type glass-facade to distort an image we beforehand put on the wall. Regarding the meaning of the institute, we tried to find a symbol, which hints to pure material itself. To accomplish that, we simplified a microscopic image of a crystalline surface, abstracted it to a graphic symbol and edited it to a point, where the strokes of the pattern got distorted by the glass and transformed into a three-dimensional-object.
To bring out the special visual feature which appeared when we combined the fluted glass facade with a single stroke, we added blue as a second colour to the image, since that colour very quickly becomes invisible from a distance.
The outcome is an abstract symbol of a crystalline pattern, which looks two-dimensional and flat from the distance, but becomes multicoloured and spacial when moving towards it. The structure of the glass make the strokes of the pattern also appear to move.
In collaboration with Ole Drescher and Ulrike Barwanietz.
Signaletik Alterszentrum Obere Mühle
Signage system for a senior residence in Switzerland (draft).
In collaboration with → unfolded.
To provide a simple and economic way to replace pieces of information, the draft proposed the installation of wodden slots holding removable enamel signs with the required information applied onto them. The enamel and the font, a modern version of an early 20th century typeface, helped to establish a reference to a classic Grand Hotel as the client asked for.
Workshop at → Festival International de l'Affiche et du Graphisme de Chaumont 2012, directed by PrillVieceliCremers and Piero Glina.
«Examine the basic elements of the book ‹Sparkle & Spin› by Paul and Ann Rand and transform the elements into space and movement.»
«When you are talking about freedom of speech, you also have to talk about freedom of perception.»
— Paul Virilio
The visual element is a stylisation by the TV screen itself, which is arranged with small dots. The dots display single letters and form a hidden and deliberately false message which in itself becomes a brainwash.
→ Exhibited at Punto y Raya Festival in Madrid, Spain.
In 2006 Piero Glina and Sebastian Cremers worked on a visual recipe of how to represent a very abstract musical composition by Sagardía, played by the scholarship holders of → Internationale Ensemble Modern Akademie in Frankfurt, Germany on stage, on posters, flyers and on DVD.
By the use of movie scenes and halftone images, the audience was invited to reflect and associate on the video as well as on the music. The imagery was abstracted to a point where only single moving dots of the halftone were visible.
The music project «Pope» (Perception Of Private Entity) stands for a very experimental electronic sound and is basically quite impossible to enjoy. Michael Schirner describes his project as «music we like and therefore destroy».
This is a video for the song «2nd generation».
* 1978 in → Karlsruhe, Germany
Lives and works in Zürich, Switzerland
Education
MA (Dipl. Des.) in Communication Design
→ Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design
Awards & Publications
2011
Publication of various typographical installations based on «Telekolleg» in → The 3D Type Book
—
2nd prize «Karlsruher Künstlermesse» (poster design)
2009
1st prize «Kunst am Bau» (Art Within Architecture) for the → German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Berlin (in cooperation with Ole Drescher and Ulrike Barwanietz)
—
3rd prize «Karlsruher Künstlermesse 2009» (poster design)
2008
«Munitionsfabrik 17» wins an → iF concept award (in cooperation with → Martin Borst )
—
Publication of «Munitionsfabrik 17» in → Ping Pong Project (released in China and Germany)
—
Publication of «Desert Radar» in → Ping Pong Project (in cooperation with → Sebastian Cremers)
2007
Publication of «Munitionsfabrik 17» in → :output 10 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
2006
Publication of «Copy Right» in → :output 08 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
(in cooperation with → Martin Borst )
2005
The typographical magazine «Copy Right» wins an → iF award for excellent design
—
Scholarship of → AV-Studio Heine (Verein zur Förderung der Medientechnologie) for «Copy Right»
Festivals & Exhibitions
2009
«72/300» for the Time Capsule Series at → Qompendium (Berlin, Germany)
—
Screening of «THEM 2009» at → Wahlheimat (Karlsruhe, Germany)
—
Screening of «Power to the People» at → Wahlheimat (Karlsruhe, Germany)
(in cooperation with → Sebastian Cremers)
2008
Screening of «Desert Radar» at → Anadoma Film Festival (Braunschweig, Germany)
2007
Screening of «Freedom of Perception» at → Punto Y Raya Festival (Madrid, Spain)
—
Screening of «THEM» at → Patriotism Tomorrow (Gdansk, Poland)
—
Screening of «Desert Radar» at → .temp (Karlsruhe, Germany)
2006
«Telekolleg» at → UND #1 (Karlsruhe, Germany) in cooperation with → Johannes Tolk
Teaching & Lectures
2012
Workshop at International Poster and Graphic Design Festival Chaumont 2012
together with → PrillVieceliCremers
—
«blue monday #2», Typography and Layout at → Zurich University of the Arts
—
Lecture about «Death, Kitsch and those Images in my Head» at → Swiss Photo Award (ewz.selection)
2011
«blue monday #1», Typography and Layout at → Zurich University of the Arts
2010
VJ Workshop at → Live Art Festival (Faroe Islands)
2009
Graphic Design Workshop at → National High School of Plastic Arts and Design Kazanlak, Bulgaria