The magazine Ruhm & Ego founded by Hamburg-based designers Sophia Weider and Lucas Hesse proves that fame and ego are the last things you need to get things done. The publication champions the side projects and personal passions of artists from various creative fields, showing that enthusiasm, dedication, and a true love of one’s craft are crucial to any creative process.

Aiming to inspire other creatives, the magazine encourages readers to venture into new areas, regardless of their lack of industry experience. The first issue of Ruhm & Ego was published in 2020, followed by a second issue in 2022, which is shown here.

Ruhm & Ego has a strong typographical presence. The use of two different styles of fonts creates a playful and modernist design.

The designers Sophia Weider and Lucas Hesse used Tempos Mono (Samara Keller) and TWK Lausanne​​​​​​​ (Weltkern) typefaces in the magazine.

Hooded sweat detail

“Offenbach ist nicht Berlin” is the title of a poster and accompanying apparel for German techno club Robert Johnson. The club’s founder, Ata Macias, and Cinthie from Elevate Berlin initiated the idea, in part to support the venue during the Covid-19 crisis. The collection consists of an A0 print on affiche paper, and a limited edition T-shirt and hooded sweat. Artwork and motion design were created by Lucas Hesse, using an early version of Oldschool Grotesk Compact.

From the press text:

New York ain’t Berlin, Paris ain’t Berlin, Frankfurt ain’t Berlin – and neither is Offenbach. Yet we take pride in running a club for 23 years now that most of you wouldn’t expect to be situated in Frankfurt’s not-so-popular neighbor city.

But this isn’t about favoring one city over another. This is about connecting the dots, this is about cooperation. Thus we invited Berlin DJ, producer, record label, and “Elevate Store” owner @cinthie_dj to join us in presenting a lovely t-shirt in classic »Berlin-black« and its snow-white companion poster.

The Robert Johnson logo was designed in 1999 by Double Standards, based on the typefaces used on British numberplates.

A0 print on affiche paper

Dancer at Melt Festival

Visual identity, website, poster, and flyers designed by Lucas Hesse for Call for Creatives, an archive platform for graduation projects in the field of design.

Lausanne and JHA Times Now in use.

Is Normecore still a thing in graphic design and fashion? Is it just an outdated trend or a permanent counter-movement to overloaded visual aesthetics? This is the first drop [1/4] of a small, experimental collection series. The longsleeve is durable with a thick neck, thick elastic sleeve cuffs and boxier cut. — Lucas Hesse

Designed by Lucas Hesse using Lausanne by Nizar Kazan and Mono Love by Julia Ballmann in use

Lucas Hesse was asked by March 2004 to create a playlist and artwork to go with. He used Lausanne by Nizar Kazan. Now available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Lucas Hesse is 27 years old and currently living in Mainz Germany, where he will pursue his bachelors degree in graphic design this year. He primarily works in typography, graphic & motion design, but also likes to experiment with code and 3D. He spent a semester abroad in Seoul, South Korea, and interned at Studio Dumbar in Rotterdam, Netherlands and took a course lead by Eike König in Offenbach, Germany. All these different experiences broadened his horizon and influenced his practice.

The archive – a place where data of the past is being stored. Archives, as we know them only existed from the 18th century. Basically it’s only data which is not being used any more, so that our descendants can always have a look in the past. Our message into the future. Having more options to store big loads of data on storage that’s always shrinking, makes it easy to store a whole private life. Doing this, we’re saving our daily made pictures, music and movies in moving them onto a external hard drive. But what will be left in 30 years? Will we have time and be willingly looking through those data? Will we still be able to open those files? Or will the technology be so different that there will be now more JPG, TXT and MP4 format, so that we can’t use them anymore? Is that a reason to trust and use streaming- and cloud based services more and more to avoid archiving?

We’ve taken a look into the past by buying and reading and analyzing lots of floppy disks, to find out about the future. What happened to the archives which have been created – deliberately or unwittingly? Are they still useful? An archive of the past — a look into the future.

The book was conceived and designed by David Broenner & Lucas Hesse as a student project at HS Mainz, using Lausanne (old version) by Nizar Kazan and IBM Plex Mono by Bold Monday. Hesse comments:

Since the content is largely based on datasets and tables, we used IBM Plex Mono to imitate the typical database style with monospaced type. Lausanne harmonises very well with Plex and adds some zest in the larger headlines.