This SS17 Look Book Is Bold, Instinctive And A Piece Of Art In Itself The Ucon Acobatics Look Book certainly outdoes its purpose, it is far more than a way of displaying the new collection, it is a piece of art in itself. Art director and photographer, Tobias Faisst, manages to keep the clothes centre stage while building an entire set around it. The collaboration came about due to a long standing friendship between the brands owner and Tobias, so he was the obvious choice when it came to the search and his been helping create their look books ever since. The team for the Spring Summer 2017 collection look book is made up of brand owners, Jochen and Martin, who created the clothing line in 2001 and the latest addition to the team, Fabian. Only the photo assistant and hair and make-up artist are freelance, so the entire team is very connected with the brand: they understand it completely and this ease and insight into the clothing comes across in the bold look book. The book guides the reader through a narrative of fashion, expression, art and society while leaving enough space between the reader and the clothes to allow them to project their individuality onto it. The bold logo and designs of Ucon Acrobatics are reflected in the font used in the book, dominating certain pages in the book alongside snapshots from the line which seem abstract and defiant used out of context. Alongside fashion, the lookbook features items such as knives, courageous musings on life and various limbs covered in stamped black buzz words. All through the instinctive stylings of Tobias, “I think as a designer you always have a feeling which colors suits the company”, he explains. The bold colour choices are also a part of his creative instincts, “Ucon always has in my opinion a forward thinking and state of the art modern approach in their on work, so they like that to communicate with fresh and strong colours”. Here is what Tobias had to say about colour, art and expression. The Plus: How did the team get together? Tobias Faisst: Jochen and Martin created the brand »Ucon Acrobatics« in 2001, soon Fabian started to work with them. That’s the temporary team at moment, the only external people we hire freelance are the photo assistant and hair & make-up. TP: What inspired the look book theme? TF: The look book is slightly inspired by the idea behind the ready-made Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, to raise an everyday object to a sculptural artefact. A typical ready-made is mostly not processed, the objects I display are pasted with typography and they are not found objects that’s why I say, inspired by ready made art. In my work the theme of sculptures always interested me and I try to incorporate that in my commercial work when its possible. TP: Talk us through the colour scheme of the book? TF: For Ucon I always work with one bold colour. Strong colours are a good tool to gain attention and to make a statement. The SS17 look book is the 3rd in a row I have designed and the 2nd I have photographed, of course sometimes its also simple decisions like, ok we got blue and yellow. This time we choose orange, orange itself isn’t to easy to deal with, some hate it some love it. But I think that’s a good thing it has character and it asks for attention, that’s why the color is turned down to a more monochrome look in the photography, styling and hair and make-up to avoid a overload and display a strong contrast. TP: What is the relationship between the artist and their audience? TF: That’s a very complex question. For me the artist has to encourage people to think, ask questions and trigger emotions, they don’t need to be exclusively positive. I enjoy getting angry over art too. In the best case an artist has an extended view on a subject of matter and is capable of transporting his feelings, ideas or visions to an audience. The audience on the other side needs to be open, tolerant and willing to deal with the artist’s thoughts. In my opinion the relationship between the audience and the artist is sometimes disturbed because of a lack of communication. Art isn’t always there to be understood, that’s ok, but I think it shouldn’t be too exclusive so people who don’t deal with art or design on a regular base are able to have a better insight. TP: What is your artistic outlook on life? TF: I never look further than next week, so I can’t really say. To be a real artist I guess I have to stop being a photographer and graphic designer and only focus on the arts, that’s hard as I need to earn money. I never focused too much on the arts world or being an artist, because I was trained as a designer. What I’m trying to do is be somehow commercial whilst having an artistic approach in everything I create. So my outlook just to grow in my professions and on a personal level and to keep some idealism and freedom. I really enjoy being something between an artist and a designer and Id like to extend that. TP: How are self-expression through art and self-expression through fashion similar? How are they different? TF: Fashion to me is a bit more superficial maybe because its such a fast environment it deals more with aesthetics on the other hand some/most art deals also with content. So a fashion designer doesn’t have time to deal with complex ideas that much in my opinion, what they have in common with me is that a vision or a state of mind is expressed through a medium. Clothes can be something like a canvas or a sculpture. TP: What’s next for you? TF: I’m working part-time for a company called Bocci as a photographer. The rest of my time I work as a freelancer in various design and photography jobs. I have a personal photo book in the making – it’s almost finished and I hope I can produce it somehow by the end of the year.
