[Introducing] WE ARE BÜRO BÜRO
WE ARE BÜRO BÜRO are an art, illustration and graphic design collective based in Hamburg and Braunschweig (Germany), run by Julian »BITER« Faudt and Stefan »STUKA« Mückner.
As part of our new series of artist interviews focusing on the awesome talent roster over at our sister agency WE ARE GOODNESS, we sit down with the guys to find out more about their creative practice, influences and how they manage co-working whilst living in different cities.
Can you start by telling us a little about your background and working relationship – how did you meet and start collaborating together? We understand you started out as street artists?
The first time we met must have been around 1993 while we were teenager and playing Basketball for the same club in our hometown. Later on we met again through our shared passion: Graffiti. Because of the same interests we were always crossing each others paths.
The next overlap was meeting again at the school of Arts (HBK Braunschweig) during our Graphic Design studies. We started working together on all our study projects, made first jobs together and founded W.A.B.B. in 2003 during our studies.
The work you produce has a very recognisable style – are your own individual styles very similar or is this aesthetic something you have worked on developing specifically for the work you produce together?
We certainly influenced each other through the daily hangouts and the close cooperation during our academic years. One could say that we’ve got a ‘mostly’ similar taste for Art and Design. That could be a reason why our styles are matching, too.
Our works act as small portals into alternate realities where clean finishes, considered colour palettes and playful, cartoonish figures align…
How do you describe your visual language?
Sarina Meuleman from Pitch Present blog wrote that: “…our works act as small portals into alternate realities where clean finishes, considered colour palettes and playful, cartoonish figures align.” Furthermore she said that „…The designs are delightfully bright canvases of grids, gradients and graphics.” We think that´s quite a good description for us 🙂
We understand that you’re based in different cities and work between Hamburg and Braunschweig. Where did you grow up? How do you think these early experiences impacted your style? Did you go to art school or were you self-taught?
We both grew up in Braunschweig, a small city in north Germany with a population around 250.000, and studied at the local School of Arts.
For certain we were influenced by Graffiti, Streetart and Character Design in the beginning but during the studies we became more open for other creative fields like Fashion, Fine Arts and Design. In addition to that we both love to work with vector tools.
Probably our style is a mixture of all these worlds.
How do you manage a remote working relationship? Can you talk us through your creative process for digital projects and how you produce work this way?
Actually we are always working in a sort of “ping-pong” procedure.
We share all our files and projects in a cloud so that both of us can monitor the process of a project in all stages. All Projects got the same folder structure so that all files can be easliy found by each of us. Important aspects or issues are discussed and clarified on the phone.
Once a year we take a time-out to do a joint workshop abroad. Either for finishing ongoing projects or to develop new ideas.
Once a year we take a time-out to do a joint workshop abroad. Either for finishing ongoing projects or to develop new ideas.
Which have been your most significant and satisfying projects to date and why?
In 2016 we were invited to Millerntor Gallery – this was a varied, exciting and fun project.
MTG is an international art, music and culture festival initiated by Viva con Agua and FC Sankt Pauli. All artists and musicians donate their pay for clean drinking water and by that, make the festival a social event. For this event we developed a mural concept under the theme ‘empathy’ with three unique Fine Art Prints. Furthermore we designed a limited Edition Poster which was released on the ‘pay what you wish’ principle. In a little while all Posters were out of stock and 100% of all donations for the poster went to Viva con Agua.
You can take a look on the whole case here.
Besides your professional work, what do you have a passion for and why?
The internet, good food and gin tonic.
Be nice to people, have fun, work hard, party hard.
Do you consider yourselves artists or designers, or do you prefer no labels?
We don’t prefer labels, but you can call us feminists.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your ‘Failure Series’?
The ´Failure Series´ was a self initiated project to develop own ideas, and to generally try things out for ourselves. One of these projects that ends up in a drawer, if you are not satisfied with it.
Although the original plan was to create some mirrored works, resembling a kaleidoscope. It can be best explained by the yellow one. The artwork is ba
For us trust, respect, friendship, empathy and loyalty go without saying and are prerequisites for working together.
sed on four identical pieces. They are horizontally and vertically flipped and reassembled to a larger piece. It soon became apparent that the look seemed too static, so we decided to loosen it up with outbreaking elements.
Working so closely together must be challenging – how do you manage creative differences?
Rock, paper, scissors.
What advice would you give to fellow artists / illustrators who might be thinking of forming a collective?
A collective is a little bit like a marriage. You probably spend more time with your partner than with your girl/boyfriend. We believe that the most important values are in either case exactly the same.
For us trust, respect, friendship, empathy and loyalty go without saying and are prerequisites for working together. Also communication is not the worst idea. Every big problem used to be a tiny one. And its quite easy to solve a small problem.
Last but not least, don’t try to please everybody and don’t do things for the sake of it.
Be nice to people, have fun, work hard, party hard.
What are your goals for 2017?
We are looking forward to a good relationship with our agents at WE ARE GOODNESS and other adorable people and sustainable and responsible companies.
WE ARE GOODNESS is the sister agency of Inkygoodness – a Birmingham based illustration agency representing creatives worldwide. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring the work of the artists and illustrators they represent. Find out more at wearegoodness.com.