Trademark Austria is an idea competition in the form of a media series to which 20 high-profile visual designers from or living in Austria have been invited. The occasion derives from the impression that the question of Austria’s identity is often unsolved or at least underexposed and that the currently widespread discussion of “Austria as a trademark” is not having much effect. The project plays on the ambiguity of the term, by linking the question of the identity of Austria and its representation to the format of a postage stamp. The results were presented in the Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” between 1 May and 11 September 2011 and assessed by an expert jury.

On the meaning of the term “Trademark Austria”: What is presented under the heading Austria seems to so many people to be strangely antiquated, or lacking in design inspiration and of little informative effect. Numerous examples are put forward, ranging from the design of logos, texts and printed material through the presentation of brochures and websites of the various state agencies to the appearance of the public space. The symbols and signs of official Austria often originate from a sphere that has little to do with the present self interpretation of its citizens. However, in Austria, unlike other countries, the topic of identity and its contemporary representation has not really been the subject matter of a broader discussion in the course of which answers could be found. Where Austrian identity is visualised, it is most likely to be in order to serve tourist marketing. In addition, set pieces from imperial history are frequently used to form a kind of archive to which recourse is frequently made.
The winning design in the idea competition mentioned at the beginning originates from Nik Thoenen, a Swiss graphic designer living in Vienna. His work always adopts the path of an experimental approach, and the individual results mostly combine conceptual sharpness and radical reduction. On his creative motif, he comments: “The work attempts to draw a metaphor that does not romanticise the wonderful Sisi image, which remained with me as a landmark on a journey over the Grossglockner High Alpine Road, in the same way as the name Empress Elisabeth Rest and the Kaiser Franz Josef Heights. I was very close to the highest point in Austria and was looking at the Pasterze glacier as it melted. Thus the crown of the red 0 marks the navel, while the telescope behind gives the observer an in-depth view.”

Source: Austria Post 

published October 18th, 2011