Tucked away in a quiet corner of Berlin, Fons Hickmann’s studio feels like a laboratory of ideas where design, music, and motion constantly intersect. Shelves packed with books sit alongside guitars, vinyl records, and sketches pinned to every surface.
Here, Hickmann explores the boundaries between order and rhythm. His creative process moves between analog and digital, testing patterns on paper, reworking them by hand, and letting geometry evolve into movement. The same experimental spirit that shaped our collaboration. From early drafts to the final reflective print, the design captures his fascination with optical illusion and structure — transforming every backpack into a piece of art.
Interview with Fons Hickmann
At what age did you find art was something you had a passion for? And where did the art inspiration come from?
I think it started before I was born and will probably continue after I’m gone. For me, design is less an activity than a state of change. Things take shape, lose it again, are read, misunderstood and rearranged. Images, music, football, politics and the street my love have always interested me. Inspiration is not really a place you go to. It happens when one thing meets another.
How would you describe your design style? Are there any specific techniques or mediums that you frequently incorporate into your designs?
If you can describe your own style too precisely, it may be time to change it. Certain things keep returning: typography, reduction, strong images, optical irritation, and the point where something that looked perfectly clear suddenly becomes unstable. The technique is not the idea, Ideally, it arrives because the idea needs it.
What role does art play in your life? How does it influence or reflect your personal experiences and perspectives?
Art is a way of thinking without having to know the answer in advance. That is probably why I like posters. They have to communicate quickly, but they can still leave something unresolved. They can inform, seduce, disturb, contradict. I think good work changes the person looking at it a little. And, if you’re lucky, it changes the person making it too.
Can you tell us a bit more about the pattern design you created for our collaboration? Does it have any specific meaning to you?
The pattern is based on optical illusion and the idea of Razzle Dazzle – strong geometric structures that interfere with the eye’s attempt to make sense of what it sees. This idea appears in many of my posters as well. I like images that seem simple at first and become less certain the longer you look at them. With Ucon Acrobatics, the pattern leaves the flat surface and wraps itself around an object. It moves, folds, reflects light and constantly changes. A bag has to function, of course. But it doesn’t have to behave.
Your new exhibition will start on 2 October in Cottbus at the Museum of Modern Art. What are you showing and what do you expect as a return for all the work you put into it?
The exhibition brings together more than thirty years of posters – commissioned and independent work, cultural and political projects, typography, experiments, old work and very recent work. It isn’t really a retrospective in the sense of demonstrating a neat development from A to B. Ideas disappear, return, change direction. And after thirty years, you sometimes discover that you are still asking the same questions. The distinction between commissioned design and autonomous artistic work has also become much less important to me. The exhibition shows how those things have gradually merged.
What do I expect in return? Certainly not a sensible hourly rate. I hope the exhibition allows me to see my own work from a slightly different distance, and perhaps allows other people to find connections that I missed. If someone leaves with a different idea of what a poster can be, that seems like a good return. A few good conversations and a cold drink at the opening would also be acceptable.
Where can the Ucon Acrobatics community find out more about you?
My website and Instagram are probably the easiest places. There is also more about the exhibition through BLMK, and Slanted Publishers is releasing the new book FONS HICKMANN Posters—Now and Then. So there are now several ways to find out more than is strictly necessary.
What’s your favorite Ucon Acrobatics product?
The Hajo Mini Backpack. I like how clear and functional it is. Then my rather nervous Razzle Dazzle pattern comes along and disturbs the order. That seems like a healthy relationship.
DISCOVER THE COLLECTION
The special Artist Edition is now available in our online shop and at select retailers. Crafted from recycled textile waste, this Limited Edition doesn’t just stand out by day but it becomes highly reflective by night.
