A couple of weeks ago, I followed through on a brilliant idea of my friend and colleague, Patrick DiMichele. We bumped into local artist Nick Butcher of Sonnenzimmer Studio while grabbing lunch and Patrick suggested that we might organize a field trip for the mStoner creative team to visit Nick’s studio. The benefit to us is that sometimes looking at work being done outside of the mainstream design (and outside of the field of higher and secondary education) can be an inspiration.
We took most of the creative team (and some project management types) over to the studio and got to take a look at what Nick’s been up to lately. In addition to his paintings which you may have seen in group shows at various galleries around the city of Chicago, Nick’s been producing work for Threadless and lots of poster, LP, and CD designs for various musicians.
Nick and his girlfriend are heavily influenced by classic poster design, Bauhaus, and Swiss design of the last 50 years, but they’ve managed to fuse these aesthetics with a modern edge that’s more than just a reference to history. The work is totally different from other work I’ve seen done lately on the music scene. You should check out the new stuff or the older posters.
Our thanks go out to Nick for putting up with about 10 people in his studio over lunch.