Lürzer’s Archive, and where it led me

For years, Lürzer’s Archive was my window into the best advertising in the world. Issue after issue, I studied how agencies from São Paulo to Stockholm turn a single idea into an image that needs no explanation.

Walter Lürzer, who founded the magazine, also led the class for graphic design and advertising at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Before my Bachelor studies in Salzburg, I applied there two years in a row. I passed the first exam, not the second, but I stayed in touch with him, and one thing he said has stayed with me ever since: it doesn’t matter how something came about, only how it looks in the end. I still work that way. I rebuild things until the result is right, and the road there is simply part of the job.

The archive also led me to Durham. In one issue I came across an ad by THE REPUBLIK, an agency in Durham, North Carolina. When life took me there for a year, that is where I applied, and where I worked alongside a former Apple art director who, among many other brands, looked after Apple’s marketing and branding. I learned a lot from him. Funny enough, he is back at THE REPUBLIK today.