Patrick Harjei and the Roots of Polish Design

Patrick Harjei is an internationally renowned, multidisciplinary illustrator, graphic designer and researcher who we will have the pleasure of listening to and watching live as one of the guests at the one-day symposium at the MELBA 2021 Design Festival (November 11 - 20) coming up on November 13, Saturday , at The Steps, but will also be available online.

Hardzej is a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and founder of the Art of Design courses and the Karol Śliwka Foundation. He collaborates with brands and institutions such as Amnesty International, British Airways, BMW, Levi's, New Scientist magazine and others. While studying at university, he developed an increased interest in the roots of graphic design in Poland, which led him to delve into the subject and begin researching it, meeting and getting to know many of the old masters of modernist design from the 60s. those and the 70s. In addition to his thesis, several books were born from this interest, as well as an extensive exhibition and catalog presented in six countries under the name "Polish Exhibition of Graphic Stamps". He is the author of the monograph on the designer Karol Śliwka and the book “CPN. Logo, identity, history" - a graphic presentation of the original visual identity of the only Polish gas station chain Centrala Produktów Naftowych in the past, in which there is an in-depth commentary and discussion of the author's work and its importance for the history of Polish design.

You are very interested in exploring the roots of graphic design in Poland. Why is this important and what fascinates you most about it?

As a student I didn’t know much about graphic design history in Poland and graphic design history at all, of course I knew a few names as Paul Rand and Saul Bass and that’s all.
I wanted to find more about „roots”.It all began with my master’s diploma in “Polish Graphic Signs” (2014) in which I placed 50 signs by 50 authors, completed over the course of 50 years. While working on this book, I came across information about the 1st Polish Exhibition of Graphic Marks from 1969. I got hooked on the subject and decided to recreate the event together with Rene Wawrzkiewicz. Since 2015, we have organised 16 editions in 6 countries. It helped me and I think many other designers to analyze and compare different eras in graphic design. What fascinates me the most if fact that lot’s of old modernist work is timeless. It was good 50 years ago, it’s good now and probably will be good in 50 years.

This kind of large-scale corporate branding has reduced in recent years. What is the main reason for this change?

It’s true. The main thing is that we don’t print as much as we used to. The next thing is that everything is changing quickly nowadays and it’s waste of time to design a 200 pages brand manual. Otherwise we live in the time of the templates, lots of resources are free, and within reach. Companies are more oriented on short-term attractive campaigns than long-lasted static solutions.

The Internet and technological possibilities, which are basically unlimited, have reformulated everything. In an interview you say you understand the changes but still miss the monumentality and meticulousness of the old graphic design. Why?

 If you spend days creating logos, systems, books, layouts etc. you want to do your best and create functional, aesthetic and needful projects. Sometimes you need to compare your work to others and these „old” examples are great on many levels its hard to beat them. And it’s not about copying it’s about create something adjusted to todays’ needs but with the same visual and functional impact.

What can we learn from the old generations in terms of design?

Many things, these three are the most important in my opinion, they characterized designers I meet (Karol Śliwka, Ryszard Bojar, Roman Duszek Jerzy Treutler):

PATIENCE – in the past projects were made by hand. Every designer was a good artist and craftsman and spends hours to create for example a hand-made typography in small size, a complicated pattern or multiple layers lithography illustration.

KNOWLEGE – In the past designers were very knowledgeable not only about their own job but also about art, culture, philosophy and technical issues. It’s the reason why idea in their projects was so important. This idea vas very often passed on through clever symbolic and lapidary forms. Every project was well thought out.

KINDNESS – Except that they were great designers they were also good humans, you could always rely on them.

 Who are the Polish designers whose work you're following right now?  

I’m an illustrator and a designer so I live in these two words and I know lots of amazing designers and studios: Ola Niepsuj (illlustration), Ryszard Bienert (Book Design), Pan Generator (interactive design), Ksawery Komputery (interactive design), Ada Zielińska (design and illustration), Macek Połczyński (Typography), Mateusz Machalski (typography) and many many others. You can check STGU society of Polish designers, they are associate great people.

You're lecturer at Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk and founder of the Art of Design courses and Karol Śliwka Foundation. Which are the main values and work ethics you wish you to pass on to your students? 

At the end we always communicate to other people, so I try to explain to my students why functionality is more important than form. Of course I also design various projects and not always legible in 100% but it depends on context. So the next thing is to teach how to find the proper context of functioning of their projects. I always try to sensitize them to the problems: responsibility in graphic design, sustainable design and accessibility design and of course the history.

Teaching is a two-way process. What do you learn from it?

 Everything :) A humans’ brain can’t accommodate all informations (unless you are some kind of genius) and I forget many things. Learning is an opportunity to check things you know to consolidate them. Students are open to experiments and it’s refreshing. They also ask, so it’s good reason to organize your thoughts into statements. It helps.

What are the main challenges in graphic design and illustration today?

 Social media gives us possibility to show our work literally to everyone, it’s amazing, but it gives this possibility to everyone so the competition is growing. I think now it’s harder to break through but if you break out, it's on a large scale. It was about promotion, but the more important is ability to communicate in the world of small screens, fake news and digital formats all of us are amateurs and we can only observe, learn and react.

What are you most interested in right now? What are you working on?

As always I’m working on multiple tasks in various fields: illustration, exhibition design, book design, and branding. I think it’s the only way for me because I’m never bored with my work. The most exiting for me recently is building wayfinding systems You need to think about your pictograms and layouts in a context of a building. I like this scale.

What would your lecture in MELBA 2021 be about?

I want to tell more about searching for roots and identity as a designer. There will be a little bit about meetings with the legends and how to combine work in different fields without burn-out.

Away from work - how do you recharge creatively and where and how do you prefer to relax?

I’m learning to relax. After years of constant work I realized that free time and good sleep are just as important as creative work. I love to travel but if I’m a t home a good book is enough.

If you're to draw an self portrait, what would it include?

I’m trying not to focus on myself anymore. I drew some self portraits in the past and it was always my face nothing more, now It would be a reflection of other people, events and things because they are creating me as a designer and a man.