Career with aliens
Albin Christen, a young graphic designer from Lausanne, has created a signature style with his characters
The young Lausanne graphic artist Albin Christen has created a trademark with his figuresBy Anita VaucherActually, Albin Christen thought drawing was not his thing. Today, his idiosyncratic figures, aliens with googly eyes and oversized lips, are his trademark. The graphic artist is now also known in Asia and the USA.
The Montreux Jazz Festival 2000 had a lasting effect on the work of the young Lausanne graphic artist Albin Christen. His poster for the major cultural event and the Swatch with his figures, produced especially for the Montreux Jazz Festival, went around the world.
The cult plastic watch found a ready market among the sworn collectors. As a result, watches from all over the world are currently piling up in the graphic artist's studio in Lausanne to be signed by Albin Christen. New business for him comes primarily from posters. A bank in Atlanta, USA, has commissioned a work from him. In Tokyo, too, the Lausanne graphic artist has attracted attention. This consoles Christen a little about the fact that his efforts to establish business relations in Zurich and Paris have so far failed.
Since Christen started his own business at the age of 23 after completing his apprenticeship as a graphic designer, his existence often seems like a dream. He has been able to realize the job of his dreams in the truest sense of the word and would still feel comfortable as a chef if he had to pursue a different profession.
He sees parallels between the profession of a graphic designer and that of a chef in the spontaneity of the creation, but above all in the short-lived nature of the product created. A good meal is enjoyable and brings short-term pleasure, but afterwards it is forgotten relatively quickly, muses Albin Christen. This is exactly the case with his work for the advertising industry, which he considers to be very short-lived.
Communicate from the gut
What the young graphic designer finds fascinating about his work is communicating with images that arise from the gut. Yet drawing was not his favorite pastime at all. Albin Christen first did an apprenticeship as a typographer and was firmly convinced that he had no talent for drawing.
He was fascinated by everything to do with print work. It was rather by chance that he ended up at the Lausanne advertising agency Trio. There he discovered his love of graphics, also rather by chance, but with lasting effect, and completed an apprenticeship as a graphic designer. The agency's AD saw his drawings lying around on the apprentice's desk and promptly submitted them to the client Publicitas for its new campaign.
From that moment on, the figures with their googly eyes and pneu-like lips were Christen's trademark. Until now, his drawings had only amused friends and acquaintances when he designed greeting cards for them. Now the apprentice graphic artist was amazed to discover that his googly-eyed and alien-looking creatures also appealed to a larger audience.
The decision to become self-employed after his apprenticeship was therefore easy for him, and the first commissions were not long in coming. In his kitchen, which he briefly converted into a makeshift studio, Albin Christen carried out his first assignments for the weekly magazine L'Hebdo in French-speaking Switzerland.
He has been illustrating for three years now. Not so long ago, the graphic artist designed an election poster for the Green Party. And just recently, he was able to create the wine label for Vaud's 2000 vintage. His latest commission, the creation of a new plastic watch, comes from Swatch. It is to be launched next year. He does not want to say more about it.
Pressure generates creativity and prevents routine
Christen hardly misses teamwork and the associated creative exchange that an agency could have offered him. In an agency, he would always work in the background, while self-employment allows direct contact with the customer.
This connection to the client is indispensable for his work, in order to be inspired again and again, but also to question his work from time to time. For him, questioning himself means being able to develop further.
The chemistry between him and the client has to be right for him to be able to work for them, he argues. Yet Albin Christen is anything but a thin-skinned character. But he impresses those around him with his modesty and restraint. For him, a certain amount of pressure at work is just as important for creative work. He is convinced that this stimulates him and protects him from routine.
Instead of advertisers, Christians drew for the army
Albin Christen has an ambivalent relationship with advertising. He is fascinated by advertising, but he often wonders whether the agencies are not pursuing an end in themselves and often take little account of the customer's wishes. He would find it exciting to increasingly be the contact person for advertising agencies. His handicap, however, is his figures, which cannot be integrated into any concept, the graphic designer regrets.
He was luckier with the Swiss army. Although he has more trouble with this institution in private, it was by chance that he illustrated an article for L'Hebdo about the army's clothing costs. A commander was so enthusiastic about the work that he called Christen the next day because he wanted to use his drawings for his teaching slides.
Christen's dream, by the way, would be if his characters learned to walk one day, that is, if he could realize an animated film with them.
The Montreux Jazz Festival 2000 had a lasting effect on the work of the young Lausanne graphic artist Albin Christen. His poster for the major cultural event and the Swatch with his figures, produced especially for the Montreux Jazz Festival, went around the world.
The cult plastic watch found a ready market among the sworn collectors. As a result, watches from all over the world are currently piling up in the graphic artist's studio in Lausanne to be signed by Albin Christen. New business for him comes primarily from posters. A bank in Atlanta, USA, has commissioned a work from him. In Tokyo, too, the Lausanne graphic artist has attracted attention. This consoles Christen a little about the fact that his efforts to establish business relations in Zurich and Paris have so far failed.
Since Christen started his own business at the age of 23 after completing his apprenticeship as a graphic designer, his existence often seems like a dream. He has been able to realize the job of his dreams in the truest sense of the word and would still feel comfortable as a chef if he had to pursue a different profession.
He sees parallels between the profession of a graphic designer and that of a chef in the spontaneity of the creation, but above all in the short-lived nature of the product created. A good meal is enjoyable and brings short-term pleasure, but afterwards it is forgotten relatively quickly, muses Albin Christen. This is exactly the case with his work for the advertising industry, which he considers to be very short-lived.
Communicate from the gut
What the young graphic designer finds fascinating about his work is communicating with images that arise from the gut. Yet drawing was not his favorite pastime at all. Albin Christen first did an apprenticeship as a typographer and was firmly convinced that he had no talent for drawing.
He was fascinated by everything to do with print work. It was rather by chance that he ended up at the Lausanne advertising agency Trio. There he discovered his love of graphics, also rather by chance, but with lasting effect, and completed an apprenticeship as a graphic designer. The agency's AD saw his drawings lying around on the apprentice's desk and promptly submitted them to the client Publicitas for its new campaign.
From that moment on, the figures with their googly eyes and pneu-like lips were Christen's trademark. Until now, his drawings had only amused friends and acquaintances when he designed greeting cards for them. Now the apprentice graphic artist was amazed to discover that his googly-eyed and alien-looking creatures also appealed to a larger audience.
The decision to become self-employed after his apprenticeship was therefore easy for him, and the first commissions were not long in coming. In his kitchen, which he briefly converted into a makeshift studio, Albin Christen carried out his first assignments for the weekly magazine L'Hebdo in French-speaking Switzerland.
He has been illustrating for three years now. Not so long ago, the graphic artist designed an election poster for the Green Party. And just recently, he was able to create the wine label for Vaud's 2000 vintage. His latest commission, the creation of a new plastic watch, comes from Swatch. It is to be launched next year. He does not want to say more about it.
Pressure generates creativity and prevents routine
Christen hardly misses teamwork and the associated creative exchange that an agency could have offered him. In an agency, he would always work in the background, while self-employment allows direct contact with the customer.
This connection to the client is indispensable for his work, in order to be inspired again and again, but also to question his work from time to time. For him, questioning himself means being able to develop further.
The chemistry between him and the client has to be right for him to be able to work for them, he argues. Yet Albin Christen is anything but a thin-skinned character. But he impresses those around him with his modesty and restraint. For him, a certain amount of pressure at work is just as important for creative work. He is convinced that this stimulates him and protects him from routine.
Instead of advertisers, Christians drew for the army
Albin Christen has an ambivalent relationship with advertising. He is fascinated by advertising, but he often wonders whether the agencies are not pursuing an end in themselves and often take little account of the customer's wishes. He would find it exciting to increasingly be the contact person for advertising agencies. His handicap, however, is his figures, which cannot be integrated into any concept, the graphic designer regrets.
He was luckier with the Swiss army. Although he has more trouble with this institution in private, it was by chance that he illustrated an article for L'Hebdo about the army's clothing costs. A commander was so enthusiastic about the work that he called Christen the next day because he wanted to use his drawings for his teaching slides.
Christen's dream, by the way, would be if his characters learned to walk one day, that is, if he could realize an animated film with them.
