Andreas Töpfer
Andreas Töpfer was born in Berlin in 1971. He studied industrial, book and communication design at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Arts in Halle, Royal College of Art London and Berlin’s University of the Arts Weissensee, where he was a master student in painting in 1999. In 2000, he received a DAAD grant for the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver in the area of integrated media und animation. Since then he has been working as a freelance graphic designer, designer, visual essayist, live drawing artist and art director.
In addition to his work for, among others, at Adbusters, for pasculli, with Vagant and at atelier : milchhof, he also works as a designer and drawing artist at the Berlin publisher kookbooks, which he founded in 2003 together with poet and editor Daniela Seel. Their innovative programme with its focus on poetry, experimental short prose, essays and translations of foreign-language poems was rewarded not only with enthusiastic portraits in the features pages, but also received the Kurt Wolff Foundation advancement award in 2006, in particular for »rendering a refreshing contribution with its carefully produced books«, as the laudatory text said. For volumes of poetry, among others from Sabine Scho, Gerhard Falkner or this year’s winner of the Peter Huchel Award, Monika Rinck, Töpfer designed layouts using individual typesetting and his own illustrations. For Martina Hefter’s recently released volume of poems »Vom Gehen und Stehen. Ein Handbuch« (2013; tr. About Walking and Standing. A Handbook), he also created an accompanying booklet with drawings. The Buchkunst Foundation has repeatedly awarded prizes for his unusual book concepts: in this year for his design of Hendrik Jackson’s »Im Licht der Prophezeiungen« (In the Light of the Prophecies), which was praised by the jury for its unusual cover and for his »exciting typo-variations inside«. »The overall concept«, they stated further »comes across as diversified, gentle and sometimes screaming, altogether consistent with the interplay between content, material and realisation.« The mostly white-background arrangements bring together geometric figures, silhouettes, drawings, templates and typographic variations. At kookbooks, he also published the bilingual children’s book »Durch dick und dünn / Through thick and thin« (2007), which he wrote together with Samara Chadwick.
Töpfer’s graphic work has been exhibited at many locations, among these Berlin, London, Vancouver, Leipzig, Linz, Moscow, Tokyo, Munich, Frankfurt/Main and Bregenz. His works were rewarded at the 100 Best Posters Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Best German Booksdesign, Best Norwegian Bookdesign, the German Photobook Award, iF-Award and Kurt Wolff Foundation advancement award. Excerpts from his extensive portfolio can be seen on his websites. Töpfer lives in Berlin.
Farben
[Ill: Andreas Töpfer]
kookbooks
Berlin, 2008
Uwe Tellkamp
Die Uhr
[Ill: Andreas Töpfer]
Edition Eichthal
Eckernförde, 2010
Martina Hefter
Nach den Diskotheken
[Ill: Andreas Töpfer]
kookbooks
Berlin, 2010
Hendrik Jackson
Im Licht der Prophezeiungen
[Ill: Andreas Töpfer]
kookbooks
Berlin, 2012
Martina Hefter
Vom Gehen und Stehen
[Ill: Andreas Töpfer]
kookbooks
Berlin, 2013