Helen Deng

    Deng.hneng@gmail.com

    MUSIC fans and graphic designers should not miss the ongoing solo exhibition by Niklaus Troxler, a world-famous graphic designer and the founder of Willisau Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

    Some 150 posters by Troxler are being shown at the “Jazz&Design” exhibition at the OCT Art & Design Gallery, in the largest solo exhibition Troxler has ever held in China.

    Born in 1947 in Willisau, Switzerland, Troxler was trained as a typographer from 1963 to 1967. He then studied graphic design at the Lucerne School of Design between 1967 and 1971, and in Paris in 1972.

    Troxler also is a jazz fanatic. Nearly 40 years ago, Troxler invited a jazz group to play in Willisau, which then became established as an unlikely destination for jazz musicians and their fans, and Troxler began to acquire a reputation as a designer to watch.

    Today, his work is exhibited, published and collected all over the world, and the Willisau Jazz Festival has hosted Keith Jarrett, Lester Bowie, Dewey Redman, McCoy Tyner and the Kronos Quartet, among many others, over the past 37 years.

    The 150 posters on exhibition were created between 1976 and this year. They are among Troxler’s best works and demonstrate the designer’s deep love for music, his clever use of color, shapes and strokes, and his strong sense of humor.

    His works bear the structure and rhythm of music, creating an effect that blends order and chaos.

    “This style echoes with the soul of the posters — jazz,” said He Jianping, co-curator of the exhibition.

    It’s no wonder that when asked what was the prime inspiration for his works, Troxler answered definitively, simply saying: “Music.”

    The methods the designer uses to express the theme of music are innovative, funny and appealing to the eyes while giving people a reason to smile.

    For visitors, viewing the posters also can be somewhat like guessing riddles.

    “Behind every poster, there is a certain secret,” Troxler jokingly told reporters Saturday.

    In his earlier works, Troxler loved to play with the names of musicians. The dominant image on a poster featuring George Coleman, for example, is a saxophone that warps into a telephone.

    “Callman instead of Coleman,” Troxler explained.

    On another poster, for a musician surnamed Rivers, a fish jumps out of a saxophone. A single cut finger is the sole image on Troxler’s poster promoting a concert by free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor, with the blood from the cut symbolizing the pain Taylor feels in his music.

    Troxler’s more recent works are more abstract, but they bear rich elements that can be seen with careful observation. For example, he superimposes letters in groups of three on a poster for a trio concert, and uses black dots of different sizes to construct the images of two guitar players who can only been seen from afar.

    “It looks abstract, but you can always find something,” he said, laughing as happily as a child.

    Maybe staying like a child is Troxler’s secret for being so creative. Like a child, his art plays with different materials and styles: cut-outs, children’s stamps, old typing machines, Australian aboriginal influences, and so on.

    After experimenting with various forms, he gets to the basics, using simple shapes, strokes and brushes to convey his themes.

    “I don’t want to repeat,” he said.

    Troxler’s suggestion for young graphic designers in Shenzhen is simply, “experiment, experiment, experiment.”

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. (Closed on Mondays)

    Tickets: 15 yuan per adult (8 yuan for teachers and students or group tickets) Free admission for children shorter than 1.1 meters and seniors 60 or older. Admission is free for everyone on Tuesdays.

    Add: 9009 Shennan Boulevard, Overseas Chinese Town, Nanshan District (next to InterContinental Shenzhen)

    Metro: Luobao Line, OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C

    Tel: 3399-3111