Speed Date / MATÚŠ HNÁT, graphic designer
Photo: archive of Slovak Design Award 2023.
Where are you from?
I come from Trebišov, I work in Bratislava.
Where did you study?
I studied Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava.
Who was your best teacher?
I’m self-taught in my field, so I can’t send props to respected academics from the scene in this way. At least I attended primary art school and so the only and best teacher can only be Tóno Vasilko.
Who were/ are your parents?
My mother worked as a lab technician, my father as a researcher in the field of agroecology and translates from the Ukrainian language.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
Self-presentation, PechaKucha type formats, conferences, talks… but I don’t dislike them, as long as they contribute to spreading awareness about design and at the end of it the client is also educated, then ultimately I gain from it. Besides, I’m not amused by bulky hardback art monographs and various coffee table publications. Overall, I’m put off by the pomposity caused by too much time to create and an unlimited budget.
And on the contrary, what do you?
As a viewer, I am drawn to the weird aesthetic, the strangeness, the mysteriousness to the point of primal unreadability in the subject matter, which is combined with practicality, attention to detail and unpretentiousness in execution. Figurativeness, humour to awkward realism, pop culture references. I enjoy freelancing as such, I enjoy the initiative of others and being invited into their projects, and I don’t have to be the prime mover myself as I don’t feel the need to initiate anything myself. Finally, I enjoy waiting for prints.
What do you listen to?
A2larm Soundsystem, Špína, Wrong collective, Rapspot, Zip & Doublecup… Besides that, a lot of all-timers that I’ve been rotating on repeat for years in several-week cycles, at the moment it’s Carla dal Forno and, as a guilty pleasure, a live album from Rio in 1994 by Pet Shop Boys.
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
I consider Jordan Peele’s Nope to be the best film I’ve seen this year, and of the series, Adam Curtis’ more challenging TraumaZone and the more relaxing The White Lotus. My all-timers are Cassavetes, Jarmusch, Eric Rohmer… and The Simpsons.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
The cultural columnist I respect the most is Karel Vesely.
What thing did you last buy?
A ticket to Basquiat at the Albertina and Michael Gira + Blixa Bargeld at the Volkstheater.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
Recently The Politics of Design by Ruben Pater, but that was an exception, otherwise I don’t study design literature, at the moment I’ve been more interested in studies and essays on music and overlapping phenomena mostly from the UK, from industrial to the British esoteric underground to the hauntology of “lost futures” and mythogeography based on the “wyrd & eerie” aspects of the British rural landscape for a while now.
Do you vote?
Depends.
Who throws the best parties?
OLAM collective, Juraj Hoppan (Next and Sensorium clubnights, PLNKA…)
Your favourite dome?
I don’t have any.
Party dress. Made by…?
Mostly Off-White or Y-3.
Your hero from the past?
Terminator.
Best/nicest house?
I don’t or can’t apply these criteria to the building itself, what’s important is the experience in the space, which doesn’t have to meet quality and aesthetic criteria, it can be provisional, shabby etc…
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I often can’t break out of the neon pantone palette, and unless someone explicitly protests, I use bold pagination.
What’s on your desktop?
Invoices, cooking recipes and pictures of hairstyles that I have shown or may show my hairdresser in the future.
Best exhibition, work of art?
Most recently, I was very taken with Tracey Moffatt’s Up in the Sky series of photographs at the Tate in London.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
I don’t come up with anything new, with the local forty or so award-winning and renowned graphic designers, I mainly watch how they approach some practical and material aspects in the creation of book publications and for me, Palo Bálik unsurprisingly leads the way in good ideas on good projects, and I also highly respect Pavlína Morháčová for her reasonableness, eye for detail and overall cleanliness of her work. Their works have a contemporary and timeless expression, it is obvious that they follow trends but do not apply them in a first-rate way. I have a few favourite all-timers from abroad: Bureau Borsche, Studio Laboratoř or Alex McCullough for the Whities label.
Ethics or money?
Ethics.
Extraordinary book?
The work of William Burroughs, the magazine Živel since I discovered it in 2002, from the local scene the work of Vašo Pankovčín.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
Realist.
Do you have any hobby?
Quite a few, I devote about the same proportion of time to them as I do to work: concerts, making up jokes and puns, reading, movies, cooking, traveling, fitness, running, cuddling with my cat, nature walks…
Solo or in a collective?
Solo.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
There are still things to enjoy and people to enjoy it with, perhaps as long as the struggle for the character of the country has been going on, at least for three decades now.