As part of the launch of Night Dreamer Records, apart from the Art Direction of the label, I was honoured to design the record sleeve of the first live recorded project of Grammy Nominated Seun Kuti (Son of Fela Kuti) who performs with the original Egypt 80. Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 jumped into the studio and cut all four tracks in a single take, capturing the atmosphere of the session itself, with all its imperfections! A snapshot of a legendary outfit at the top of their game! The Vinyl is available digitally in all good record stores and also on tour throughout Europe! Buy/Stream Here: https://lnk.to/l36IBn/

A selection of recent Logos, Marks, Logotypes as part of Branding Projects.

Selection of Posters Designed by Kai Damian Matthiesen in the year 2019. Clients and Artists include: Night Dreamer Records, Seun Kuti, Seu Jorge, Roge, David Rodigan, Foreign Beggars, Electroboy, Said, Wege Wuethrich, Naomi Lareine, Sarathy Korwar, Baba Zula, Etuk Ubong, The Beauty of Gemina, The Analogs, Gaskessel Bern, Bleiche Wald, Ethnokino, Reitschule Bern, Priya Ragu, Evelinn Trouble and more.

Branding, Logodesign and Custom Typeface for "YogaKollektiv". www.dasyogakollektiv.com

Part of my Final Project at the RCA was the design of this typeface. See the Rhetoric of Typography for more information.

Graphic Design / Art Direction / Branding for Night Dreamer Records. (https://www.nightdreamer.co.uk) Direct-To-Disc Sessions, Recorded at Artone Studio in Haarlem, NK.

Logo design and branding for the tech start-up "Ads and Figures"

This entry was part of a cover design competition issued by the Bloomsbury Publishers for Teal Triggs and Lesie Atzmon's new book on Graphic Design History. Also I created a bespoke typeface for this project called "Born Grotesque". Any feedback is welcome!

‘Authenticity’ may be a “hoax” (Andrew Potter); and is certainly a hype. This particular term appears everywhere: in the art world, tourism, the marketing industry, fashion, and in UNESCO cultural world heritage sites. Not only does a work of art have to be authentic, but the artist as an individual is also expected to be so. This is an expectation which seems to extend to all of us. Experiences, products, adventures, body and mind all fall under the umbrella of ‘authenticity-pressure’, as designers continually strive to design with the imperative of being authentic: real, true, approved, honest, reliable, credible and trustworthy, not false, not fake, not untrue. We are living in a ‘visual world’, saturated with imagery. Confronted by an abundance of pictures without reference or context, one can only respond subjectively, following inherent (unconscious) selection and aesthetic rules. How do graphic designers as specialists in visual communication find ways of staging authenticity - and at the same time remain authentic to themselves? This dissertation features interviews and contributions by: Åbäke, Adrian Shaughnessy, Daniel Eatock, Design by Desire, dbyd, Eine, Herbert Lachmayer, Katie Scott, Sagmeister&Walsh, Scott King, Teal Triggs, Zulu Tattoos The full transcript of this writing is on: http://rca.academia.edu/KaiMatthiesen Thanks!!

Various Poster Designs for www.gaskessel.ch Poster Aufträge für den ältesten Jugend Kulturveranstaltungsort der Schweiz. Das Brief beinhaltet die Inkorporation der zwei Kreise welche die zwei Kesselräume des Gaskessels repräsentieren. Im 2017 habe ich nah mit dem hauptsächlich Volontär arbeitenden Jugend Teams vom Gaskessel zusammengearbeitet um die Sichtbarkeit von ihrem Kulturschaffen zu steigern. Mit dem Slogan „Kultur statt Luxus“ wollen sie auf den stark politisierten Standort des Gaskessels aufmerksam machen, da die Regierung von Bern mit Baufirmen Luxus Neubauwohnungen und die Schliessung des Standorts plant.

Film Poster and Rebrand for: EthnoKino: Transactive Dialogues The 6th season of ethnographic film programme Films Featured Include: 19.9. The Proposal ǀ Jill Magid 2.-3.10. Masters in Bern: Laurent Van Lancker ǀ Surya 23.10. EthnoKino Shorts 5 inspiring short films 31.10. Theatrum Botanicum ǀ Uriel Orlow 14.11. Global Science Film Festival Bachir in Wonderland ǀ Els Duran & Evelien Vehof Eldorado ǀ Markus Imhoof 5.12. Murghab ǀ Martin Saxer & Daler Kaziev EthnoKino: Transactive Dialogues Location: Kino in der Reitschule Sponsors: University of Bern More Information: https://www.ethnokino.com/

Branding for a Electronic Music Festival in Bern Switzerland.

As the title says, this is the proposed visual identity for the Work in Progress show at the Royal College of Art, which happens in the middle of the 2nd year. Using a font that I designed, I was trying to highlight the possibilities of something being unfinished and still in flux.

Wege Wuethrich - My Brazilian Year https://www.woodwind.ch/ Artist: Werner "Wege" Wuethrich Album: My Brazilian Year Label: Housemaster Records Year Of Release: 2019 Quality: FLAC (tracks)

Logo and Identity for the Hans Hubacher Sport Foundation supporting upcoming Athletes in Switzerland. https://www.hans-hubacher-stiftung.ch/

MOZART. Experiment Aufklärung – im Wien des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts vom 17. März bis 20. September 2006 Albertina Ein mehrdimensionaler Denkraum zum Mozart-Jahr 2006 in Wien – eine Wissensoper für Mozart In Kooperation mit dem WIENER MOZARTJAHR 2006 Hrsg. Herbert Lachmayer, Texte von Herbert Lachmayer u.a. Erschienen anlässlich des 250. Geburtstags von Mozart zur offiziellen Jubiläumsausstellung in der Albertina, Wien. Logo & Coverdesign: Kai Damian Matthiesen Layout: Loys Egg Layout and Typesetting Assistant: Kai Damian Matthiesen http://www.daponte.at/

Summer Program Poster for Gaskessel Bern "Sommer im Chessu"

BILLBOARD BBC Worldwide Creative Competition As part of the "BBC Worldwide Creative Competition" I created this ident, and channel identity to host various BBC programs for the worldwide marked. KEY CRITERIA BBC PUSH: The Identity attempts to be strong/young & creative, while still be broad enough to accommodate the wide variety of programming planned for this channel. NAMING CRITERIA: The name “BBC Push” stems from the idea that what unifies the targeted age group (17-28) is a certain drive and energy for making more then at any other stage in life. It is that age when new things are created, cultures are founded and the world is changed.

Fourteen artists have been paired with twelve hair & beauty salons along the route of the number 63 bus (Clerkenwell to Peckham) to make site-specific works that reflect upon these vibrant institutions and their crucial role at the heart of the local community. Artists Including: Larry Achiampong, Nick Bashall, Gabriele Beveridge, Ellen Gallagher, Gery Georgieva, Beatrice Hasell-Mccosh, Tyga Helme, Daniel Kelly (Dkuk), Paul Kindersley, Eloise Lawson, Andrew Logan, Isaac Olvera, Paloma Proudfoot, Hans Rosenström, Stasis, Freddy Tuppen, Kirsty Tuner Jones Hairsalons: Barbara Streisand, Diamond Nails, Divine Destiny, Dkuk, Fab Uk Unisex Salon London, La Bodeguita, Manuel Guerra Skin Care & Sylvio’s Juice Bar, Miami Health Club, Old Kent Barber Shop London, Sam’s Barbers, The Lewis Barber Shop http://www.salon63.co.uk/

Exhibition Design for the Group Show "Opera Publica" at the Kuenstlerhaus in Vienna. Concept with the exhibition curator Margin Nobis Typeface: GT Haptik by Tobias Rechsteiner & Reto Moser

Me and Laura Jouan were asked to propose a branding system for the Royal College of Art Final Show in 2016. We came up with this modular design system that would grow and retrieve in conjunction with the show and reflect its process. The poster and icon show the hierarchy and all the simple design elements used for the branding project, including directional elements and colour guides for the different parts of the show. This creates a system that is highly flexible in its application and visually memorable because of its use of pink, which hints at Christo and Jeanne-Claude for their Pink Surrounded Islands project in Miami in 1983.

The book is on the history of a former textile company in Zurich. Published by Chronos Verlag.

Branding for the Creative Agency "Motion Media" from Bern Switzerland.

The quote below and an inspirational symbol that was given to me by the client were important for this talk. It was clear to me that I would not represent the businesses approach of challenging business practices by creating a logo or a symbol. Therefore we worked together to find an evolving idea that was part of a greater structure to represent the clients philosophy of holistic development for businesses. "Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness." Charlie Chaplin “The great Dictator” Client: http://gesagordon.de/

Experimental typography has fascinated me for a long time, already before coming to the RCA. In various projects I had tentatively looked for new ways to explore typography as a form of self-expression. Then in my dissertation “Authenticity in a Visual World” I was interested in a seemingly very different topic, namely the omnipresence of the term "authenticity" in contemporary culture. I wanted to find out, how designers in different fields handle the phenomenon that I called "authenticity pressure" and how it affects their approach to visual communication. By interviewing professionals who face these dilemmas regularly, such as successful designers, but also a tribal tattoo and a commercial street artist, I tried to figure out their strategies to authenticate their work. I then identified four different ways of coping with this pressure: Reinvention of Tradition; Underground, Subculture, Tribal Structures; Tools of the Time; The Cult of Selfhood. Our everyday environments are visual worlds, all the time we are confronted with an abundance of pictures without reference or context. One can only respond subjectively, following inherent (unconscious) selection and aesthetic rules. But to what extent are these decisions made randomly or are rather embedded in our cultural memory? This question led me to the work of Aby Warburg – and then back to experimental typography. There is substantial evidence that type design has a great impact on the reader and that designers and non-designers perceive typography differently. Therefore I looked at existing psychological research that attempts to quantify the effect of typeface designs. I designed a typeface that is equal in its expression by combining traditionally separate categories of typography. “Sans-Serifs” for traits such as Consistency and Logic (Logos), “Humanist” for emotions, imagination (Pathos) and “Serifs” for credibility and trust (Ethos). In Aristotle’s theory of Rhetoric: Logos, Pathos and Ethos are the key dimensions for speaking and communicating effectively. I think that also typefaces communicate and have a kind of rhetorical ability. Therefore I felt the need to investigate to what extent the reader can be influenced by typography. I looked through psychological studies to find three typefaces that can be representative of Logos, Pathos and Ethos and then took their unique qualities in order to design a typeface called Aby Warburg that would be equally unique in it’s persuasive character.

This project was my response to a class visit to the Horniman Collection in South London. I took many photographs and was intrigued by the pastel colors and the low artificial lighting of the cabinets where the stuffed specimens were. The stark contrast of black frame and animal seemed to merge and create a new layer of information. I am trying to blur the lines between image and form. As many letters in our alphabet are already derived from organic forms but have become abstracted in time I want to freeze this transition between hieroglyphs and symbol. These animal/letter hybrids can be used for general signage or communications for the museum. Dieses Plakat und Schrift entstand nach einem Besuch im Horniman Museum in London und für den Adobe Design Award. Die Pastell töne der Räumlichkeiten des Museums und die dunkle Beleuchtung der Tierkollektionen war sehr aussergewöhnlich und skurril und nach einigen Überlagerungen habe ich festgestellt das ich die Tiere nur minimal mit Photoshop bearbeiten muss. Das Tiefere Konzept geht zurück auf den Ursprung Lateinischer Buchstaben Formen. Die Idee spielt mit Formen die wir vereinfacht als Symbole wahrnehmen und auch wieder dekonstruiert werden können.

eine europäische Karriere am Fürstenhof Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt, Österreich. Client: DaPonte Institut Vienna.

Branding for the Bleiche Motor Trophy http://bleichemotortrophy.bleiche.ch/

These Adverts for the Resort in Zurich, I designed recently as part of a campaign including cinema still designs, adverts and a poster.

Simple new Identity for the London based Architects Flanagan Lawrance. By introduction of a black bar across all media of the new Identity ensures a cohesive and coherent visual identity. For the business cards and promotional publications five colours, representative of the five divisions (Architect, Interior Design etc.) were applied.

Poster and Exhibition Brochure for: "MEDIALE LEBENS(T)RÄUME – DROHT UNS EINE DIGITALE HEIMAT?" at the TLM Thüringen Museum in Germany. Full Brochure here: http://www.tlm.de/tlm/20jahre/MedialeLebenraume_TLM_Web.pdf Client: Professor Dr. Herbert Lachmayer DA PONTE Research Center, Kunstuniversität Linz

Book Cover for Herbert Lachmayer's "Staging Knowledge" The Wallpaper is a original artwork by the late Austrian Artist Franz West for this publication. Staging Knowledge: The staging of knowledge space and performative Kultureprocurement The communication of cultural-historical content calls for a mediation strategy that also functions as a research strategy – and vice versa. The “Staging Knowledge” concept describes an artistic-scientific cultural technique that complies with the demand for education in our society by recurring to the medium of exhibitions. It is the objective of “Staging Knowledge” to endow the practice of artistic research with cognition status, thus providing scientific discourses with “thought spaces of the imagination” to widen the scope for formulating scientific hypotheses through artistic creativity. Only an intuitive intelligence of taste and a mind capable of embracing passion can ensure that theory production will embody an inspired imagination and the desired, libidinous possibility of cathexis. Thus cultural mediation as performative rhetoric may also follow our emotions (and their modulation), inclining towards the fantasy production of the unconscious and upheld by the momentum of a subversive obsession with freedom. www.daponte.at

Complete branding of the construction business LoryBau AG from Berne Switzerland. Client: www.lorybau.ch

Selection of exhibitions I was involved with. Client: DaPonte Research Centre. http://www.daponte.at/

Cover Designs for the University of Berne, Switzerland. Sociology Department