Season Zero is an art & illustration studio I discovered based in Germany. They've won numerous awards for their artwork in the music industry and produce original, striking designs. I caught up with Matthias to chat about their work.
1) As musicians yourselves, did you always want to work on artwork
within the music industry?
I started to make music about 14 years
ago. Since the bands I've played in always had the ambition to release
music it was necessary to have an artwork and cover for our demos. So the
first cover artwork I made was for my own bands. By playing live
shows and meeting other bands I had the opportunity to do this for other local
and underground bands. 10 years ago I began to work by my company name "Season
Zero“ and continued to work for bands during my studies.
Close to my final
exams I got a phone call asking me if I would like to do an artwork for
Universal Music Germany – it was an amazing opportunity for me to then go freelance after I did my bachelor thesis in Media Design. It was kind of a natural
development and I’m thankful that so many bands and musicians gave me their
trust, thereby allowing me to build up a portfolio over the years. One
thing led to another and major bands and labels joined the ride.
2) What project have you been working on recently?
It might seem a bit strange but the last few projects I’ve
been working on reflect the way in which I see my job quite well! I was working on
the new album of Schwarzer Engel (a german Dark Metal/Gothic band) and for
Glasperlenspiel (popular german Pop/Electro duo) – to name a few. Totally
different styles, genres and labels – but that’s what makes it so
exciting: every project has a different approach in style and feeling . It was always my goal to be able to translate any kind of design to fit the
music of a band or musician. I'm
working for underground Metal bands, as well as pop acts at the same time – which is cool. Through this I get the chance to
venture into all kinds of different styles and artworks!
3) Do you have a preferred style of music to listen to whilst
working?
Not really. If I like the music of the artist I’m working
for I tend to listen to it while I'm working – but most of the time their music
is still in process when I start to work on the designs. Though my
musicial roots are rock/metal, nowadays I’m listening to a wide range of
music like Folk, Jazz, Electro… for me the genre
doesn’t really matter. It’s all about the song itself – either it’s good
or not.
4) Where do you draw inspiration with fonts for
logotypes?
I’m a huge fan of traditional sign makers. I always try to find a way to see some kind of an image in
the word that has to be transformed into a logotype or brand. It’s fascinating
how every word bears it’s own potential to work with. Every letter has to
be treated uniquely, thus it’s like a design micro- cosmos where
every line, space and dimensions matters.
Discover more of their work here
