"Ciao Alfi" - An obituary for Alfi Burkard by Thomas Schöb

Time is the toughest jury in the world. So if you want to be cynically amused, leaf through an ADC yearbook from the eighties. What screams out at you from the massively overestimated zeitgeist - cruel. (Cruel, too, because we won't fare any better one day.) Sometimes, however, one gets stuck with a work: The graphic design is reduced to the maximum, and it is supported by an amazingly logical idea. That would still be good today, damn good even. The eye then sinks to the credits and next to "Art Direction" it usually says "Alfi Burkard". Alfi's work is timelessly good.

When exchanging ideas, Alfi talked about everything except the briefing. About everything except the customer, about everything except the product. Alfi's creative process was mercury. Then suddenly it became tangible, suddenly he was there with his micro-scribbles. Alfi was a lousy draftsman, but once we had deciphered his scribbles, we were amazed at the amazing simplicity of his ideas. No wonder Alfi won awards with his work without a break. The last one, by the way, at the age of 75: Silver at ADC Switzerland for an invitation to his birthday party.

Alfi was hardly to be found at meetings. The call "Wo isch jetz de Alfi wieder!..." accompanied everyone who worked with him. (And also all those who had private dealings with him.) Alfi liked to evade, he evaded the routine, the banal, the unclear. And he eluded the temptation to repeat himself: each of Alfi's ideas was fresh, conceived from scratch, each idea was unique.

As much as Alfi liked to elude, he liked to approach people. He learned from the best, from Helmut Krone and Bill Bernbach at DDB New York. Because he just went to them. He met Milton Glaser and Herb Lubalin because he just went to them. Alfi met John F. Kennedy at a lobster restaurant in Maine. Because he just went to his table.

During his time in Stockholm, Alfi not only worked as an art director at the advertising agency FCB and was not only a member of ADC Sweden. He was also a member of a theater group, meeting Ingmar Bergman and seeing his first performances. Alfi met Olof Palme and the famous developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. Because he just went to see them. - And there was Alfi's encounter with the daughter of General Omar N. Bradley, commander of the U.S. forces in Europe and North Africa during World War II, though encounter is not the most apt of possible terms here.

Martin Suter, then his creative director at GGK Basel, had once told Alfi, "Just look closely at people and the ideas will come." - That's what Alfi did. He could connect with anyone at lightning speed, and he was an extremely careful observer. In Alfi's mind, this created a dynamic network of surprises and inspirations, a kind of Alfinet. Basically, there were no limits to Alfi's thinking. Except for one.

Alfi passed away on the morning of Oct. 21, 2021, at the Golatti Nursing Home in Aarau. Soon Alfi will be with his wife Silv. Of course, there is not just an ordinary tombstone there, but a multi-layered sculpture made of glass, designed by Alfi 22 years ago. And timelessly beautiful.

Where is Alfi again?