Minimalistic, Stylistic, Simply Top-notch - Büro Destruct Interview

The Graphic Design Agency Büro Destruct’s shop is a classic on the international t-shirt shop scene and those into design might have come across their work, knowingly or not. This group of four Swiss designers are prolific in bringing out absolutely top-class work. Their designs, like the faceless bearded man above are brilliantly minimal, yet still seem to radiate warmth in that minimalism. In addition to the Spreadshop, you can get a real idea of the vast spectrum that their work by taking a look at their posters. Loptez from Büro Destruct interviewed:

Who is behind BD?
Büro Destruct is currently made up of an eclectic group of four graphic designers named MBrunner, H1reber, Heiwid and Lopetz (second from right) who create all imaginable types of visual work for small companies, major companies or simply for ourselves.

How long have you had a Spreadshirt shop?
Probably for about three years now. Creating t-shirts has always been one of BD’s passions, long before the so-called “Spreadshirt Era”.

What do you like about Spreadshirt and what could we do better?
We like the great freedom to create, exhibit and sell products without having to worry about the administrative hassle which happens with the “traditional” screen printing of t-shirts. We still think that screen printing is and has been the best printing technique for textiles, which is why we every so often produce some requested designs in small editions with screen printing. The individual product photos which appear in the designer are, in my opinion, not always of the same quality. That has forced us to pass on some products because they simply didn’t look good enough in the product preview.

What kind of new features/functions would you like to have on the platform?
We love being able to offer our shirts to a worldwide audience, which due to Spreadshirt logistical reasons means that we need two premium shops. One for Europe/Japan/Iceland (€) and the other for the US/Canada/Mexico/Asia/Australia/New Zealand ($).  It would be great if that would no longer be necessary some day and we would be able to combine the two. Another idea would be a virtual model which would present the t-shirts – but perhaps that’s a bit too utopian. Something along the lines of an art presentation designer where you could personalise the virtual model’s face and set the background …

How much of your time do you spend designing shirts?
Like much of our other work, working on shirt designs cannot really be described as work.
Our graphic design work is a tree. Shirt design is a branch of this tree.

Your designs are often compact and stylised. What is the process from the idea to the shirt design?
“Compact” definitely sounds much better than “congested”. But I don’t exactly understand what you mean by that. Stylised, on the other hand, makes more sense. We like to simplify complicated things. You could say that we like having it easy. From our point of view, t-shirts are wandering posters on the street – a very short visual image which is quickly perceived. Decorative shirts are nice to cuddle up with at home. Our approach to t-shirt design usually doesn’t originate with the idea behind a shirt design. They are often from work, ideas from our everyday life, which later fit well on a shirt.

What is your favourite design?
We like the pipe. Small, white flock on a brown distressed pullover. It is modest and still somehow provocative. We also like the beard because almost all of the bad guys like it.

Switzerland and design – what’s your take on it?
Hm, there’s plenty to write about that and there has already been plenty written about it … as a Swiss designer it’s best to just shyly smile when asked about this topic.

Which designers do you like?
Currently I like all well-designed things which were made many, many years ago. Often graphic work without signatures. For example, old single vinyl label standard sleeves like those which can be found on Crossed Combs. Or things that appear on grain edit.

Which shirt designer do you like?
My all-time favourite t-shirt (which I am coincidentally wearing while writing this interview) is from the Japanese graphic designer maniackers design.

You haven’t added any of your designs on Spreadshirt’s Marketplace. Why?
No offence to Web2.0 and social networking, but we want our designs and products to retain a certain exclusivity. We also consciously set which t-shirt colour is printed with the specific colour print. This is part of our job as designers and we are very traditional about that.

Thanks for the interview! And keep livin’ it: