Hard on the wind
From his Stäfen studio, Hürlimann & Friends, Peter Hürlimann offers consulting services in design and visual communication. His secret: building close relationships with clients.
Peter Hürlimann offers advice on design and visual communication in his Stäfner Atelier Hürlimann & Friends. His recipe: proximity to the customer.
"Because all the possible names around Hürlimann were already occupied, I found the solution in the Friends." By this, designer Peter Hürlimann means freelancers who now form a network for him depending on the job.Hürlimann's entry into the world of design took a roundabout route. After graduating from the Diplommittelschule in Basel, he "didn't want to come home empty-handed". That's why he applied for a job as a cemetery gardener at the Jewish cemetery on his way home. After being turned down, he also tried the Psychiatric University Clinic. Here the answer was: "Too sensitive."
His mother was not particularly enthusiastic about these hasty attempts to enter the world of work. "Why not become a graphic designer?" she said. A few weeks later, Peter Hürlimann "spent three days moving black paper around". He had found his future career.
He discovered photography at the School of Arts and Crafts. "I did nothing else for days on end and spent endless hours in the darkroom." While still at school, the picture hunter won the Golden Minolta in a photography competition with a postcard idyll of the Greek island of Santorini.
After school, a stage at TWBA in Zurich followed in 1982. This reference opened the doors to Sommer Marketing in Basel. After two years, Peter Hürlimann became a freelancer. He was responsible for the design of Marc Surer's Barclay Arrows team in the Formula 1 circuit at the time. He later also worked for Porsche in Stuttgart.
After an initial trip to Australia, Hürlimann took up a permanent position again. He got to know agency life as a junior AD at Young & Rubicam in Zurich and later as an art director at McCann
Erickson. Kodak with Faces, Coca-Cola and Schweizer Illustrierte were important customers. Max Weber and later Rodolphe Deville were his foster fathers. A second detour to Australia ended with Seiler DDB Needham in Zurich. Hürlimann worked there for six years, for example for Subaru, Jaguar and Frisco Findus. Later at Bosch and Butz, mainly for UBS, Philip Morris and Landrover.
When this agency was sold, Hürlimann had to decide on a new path. As he had won many prizes during his time at the agency - including from ADC Switzerland - and had also been honored several times in the German Advertising Yearbook, he took the plunge: at the beginning of 2000, the designer opened his Hürlimann & Friends GmbH in Stäfa. The fact that the studio is based in Stäfa and not Zurich is due to Hürlimann's sailing dinghy. "She has her mooring there." Hürlimann, who grew up "as a sea boy" in Herrliberg until the age of 12, has both an inland waterway and an open sea license.
In Stäfa, however, he has not only found his boat, but also his Colombian wife Liliana in his neighbor. He likes the atmosphere on the Gold Coast. "Stäfa is good, the people are friendly and there is a good infrastructure." Hürlimann works in a shared office. Yann le Cunff offers French translations here. Psychologist Patrick Seiler is setting up a company for coaching, training and development.
In his still young studio, Hürlimann has already won several prizes, for example the Swiss Star Consumer Award 2004 for his Heidiland mineral water design and several mentions in the Econ Ullstein List 2004 advertising yearbook, including for
the sports sponsorship campaign with Phonak for Team Alinghi - a dream job for the sailor Hürlimann.
Hürlimann's clients mainly come from the SME sector. He loves direct customer contact, "which was less common at the agency". As many of his clients are SME bosses and hardly have time for meetings with the passionate advertiser during the day, Hürlimann "can also be called at weekends or in the evening". During a spontaneous visit to his office, clients also appreciate "a quick look" at ongoing design work.
He is currently working on the logo and website for an international real estate holding company. Another three websites have also been ordered, as well as flyers, leaflets, brochures and other corporate design projects.
Hürlimann found some of his customers in the private network of his rugby club. After moving from Basel to Zurich in 1986, Hürlimann wanted to make connections and heard that you can quickly play National League A rugby, which is still rare here, "even if you only train once a week". There are people from over 22 nations in his club. Hürlimann likes to quote the saying: "Rugby is a hooligan sport for gentlemen - while football is a gentleman's sport for hooligans." His third passion alongside rugby and sailing is still photography. "I can increasingly incorporate this hobby into my job." Thanks to the encouragement of his "friends", Hürlimann, who has traveled to New York, Miami and the Maldives with Alberto Venzago on many photo shoots during his agency days, decided to hold his first photo exhibition in 2004. At the Villa Sunneschy Gallery in Stäfa in October 2004, Hürlimann showed pictures from his "Journey through time" with photos from Santorini, New York and Australia.
Good infrastructure and the boat on the doorstep: Peter Hürlimann prefers Stäfa to Zurich as a place to work.
"Because all the possible names around Hürlimann were already occupied, I found the solution in the Friends." By this, designer Peter Hürlimann means freelancers who now form a network for him depending on the job.Hürlimann's entry into the world of design took a roundabout route. After graduating from the Diplommittelschule in Basel, he "didn't want to come home empty-handed". That's why he applied for a job as a cemetery gardener at the Jewish cemetery on his way home. After being turned down, he also tried the Psychiatric University Clinic. Here the answer was: "Too sensitive."
His mother was not particularly enthusiastic about these hasty attempts to enter the world of work. "Why not become a graphic designer?" she said. A few weeks later, Peter Hürlimann "spent three days moving black paper around". He had found his future career.
He discovered photography at the School of Arts and Crafts. "I did nothing else for days on end and spent endless hours in the darkroom." While still at school, the picture hunter won the Golden Minolta in a photography competition with a postcard idyll of the Greek island of Santorini.
After school, a stage at TWBA in Zurich followed in 1982. This reference opened the doors to Sommer Marketing in Basel. After two years, Peter Hürlimann became a freelancer. He was responsible for the design of Marc Surer's Barclay Arrows team in the Formula 1 circuit at the time. He later also worked for Porsche in Stuttgart.
After an initial trip to Australia, Hürlimann took up a permanent position again. He got to know agency life as a junior AD at Young & Rubicam in Zurich and later as an art director at McCann
Erickson. Kodak with Faces, Coca-Cola and Schweizer Illustrierte were important customers. Max Weber and later Rodolphe Deville were his foster fathers. A second detour to Australia ended with Seiler DDB Needham in Zurich. Hürlimann worked there for six years, for example for Subaru, Jaguar and Frisco Findus. Later at Bosch and Butz, mainly for UBS, Philip Morris and Landrover.
When this agency was sold, Hürlimann had to decide on a new path. As he had won many prizes during his time at the agency - including from ADC Switzerland - and had also been honored several times in the German Advertising Yearbook, he took the plunge: at the beginning of 2000, the designer opened his Hürlimann & Friends GmbH in Stäfa. The fact that the studio is based in Stäfa and not Zurich is due to Hürlimann's sailing dinghy. "She has her mooring there." Hürlimann, who grew up "as a sea boy" in Herrliberg until the age of 12, has both an inland waterway and an open sea license.
In Stäfa, however, he has not only found his boat, but also his Colombian wife Liliana in his neighbor. He likes the atmosphere on the Gold Coast. "Stäfa is good, the people are friendly and there is a good infrastructure." Hürlimann works in a shared office. Yann le Cunff offers French translations here. Psychologist Patrick Seiler is setting up a company for coaching, training and development.
In his still young studio, Hürlimann has already won several prizes, for example the Swiss Star Consumer Award 2004 for his Heidiland mineral water design and several mentions in the Econ Ullstein List 2004 advertising yearbook, including for
the sports sponsorship campaign with Phonak for Team Alinghi - a dream job for the sailor Hürlimann.
Hürlimann's clients mainly come from the SME sector. He loves direct customer contact, "which was less common at the agency". As many of his clients are SME bosses and hardly have time for meetings with the passionate advertiser during the day, Hürlimann "can also be called at weekends or in the evening". During a spontaneous visit to his office, clients also appreciate "a quick look" at ongoing design work.
He is currently working on the logo and website for an international real estate holding company. Another three websites have also been ordered, as well as flyers, leaflets, brochures and other corporate design projects.
Hürlimann found some of his customers in the private network of his rugby club. After moving from Basel to Zurich in 1986, Hürlimann wanted to make connections and heard that you can quickly play National League A rugby, which is still rare here, "even if you only train once a week". There are people from over 22 nations in his club. Hürlimann likes to quote the saying: "Rugby is a hooligan sport for gentlemen - while football is a gentleman's sport for hooligans." His third passion alongside rugby and sailing is still photography. "I can increasingly incorporate this hobby into my job." Thanks to the encouragement of his "friends", Hürlimann, who has traveled to New York, Miami and the Maldives with Alberto Venzago on many photo shoots during his agency days, decided to hold his first photo exhibition in 2004. At the Villa Sunneschy Gallery in Stäfa in October 2004, Hürlimann showed pictures from his "Journey through time" with photos from Santorini, New York and Australia.
Good infrastructure and the boat on the doorstep: Peter Hürlimann prefers Stäfa to Zurich as a place to work.
Andreas Panzeri
