THE BEARD OPENS THE DOOR

You design mainly company logos, last year you created the new embroidered logo for the band Mig 21. How did you enjoy the cooperation?

It was really enjoyable with them, I got really relaxed. It was not only about the embroidered logo but about the whole corporate design including the embroidered visual of the record, the autumn tour and many other things. What was most enjoyable was looking for the location for the photo on a boat for several days with captain Jirka and photographer Martin Tis. I really enjoyed it.

 

Who did the band play for there?

Mainly for Czechs and Slovaks who work in the Emirates and the surrounding countries. The concert was organized by the corporation G5+ who have doctors and nurses in the area of the Near East. At present, there are approximately 500 people and the best team takes care of the royal family in Saudi Arabia.

 

You also often travel to the Near East for business.

Yes, for example just now I´ve designed a line of hospital beds for children for the local market. I was thinking about why hospital beds couldn´t be more joyful, and in cooperation with the company Linet I designed beds with animal motifs. I also have one speciality – a bed for a sheikh with a surface made of 24 carat gold.

 

Quite morbid to lie in a golden bed when you´re ill.

But they have it like that. Have you ever been to the Near East? You come to a luxurious hotel and there is a cash machine giving out golden bricks.

 

You were made famous by the logo of Občanské forum which you created as a student of the first year of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design. What do you think about the transformation of Prague since 1989?

I think the city could change much more. It´s true that every second house has been recon-structed and the greyness has disappeared but, on the other hand, really little high-quality architecture has come into existence. Many new houses could be more courageous and more interesting because then they´re really weak in comparison to other big cities.

 

But are people in Prague curious about modern architecture? Don´t they just want to fill the free plots of land with something they know from the past and that has proved good?

I think that this is the situation in all cities – well, except Dubai and other cities in the Near East. In monarchies, big projects are decided more easily, that´s the disadvantage of demo-cracies. It´s a shame, there could be many interesting buildings, which would also mean a benefit from the point of view of tourism. Just take the example of the Dancing House – it´s mentioned in all guidebooks but when you come to it, you find out it´s just a small house on the embankment. There is no “big” modern building in Prague. Speaking about architecture, what I feel good about is that Prague suburbs are waking up. For example the new building ArtGen Office Gallery in Holešovice, which has grown up between the Holešovice market and Bubny. When I was creating its logo and strategy connected with art, it was just a hole in the ground. Now we have exhibitions, displays and concerts there. Simply, it´s alive.

 

You also do reconstructions of houses and flats. What do you think about the fashion of minimalism? Do you like it?

Yes, I do, but the problem is that it´s impossible to live in such interiors. What do you do first when you come home? Do you put your shoes in the shoe cabinet?

 

No. Instead I kick them somewhere in the corner.

Exactly. And what do you do with the keys? Do you put them on the rack? Probably not either, you throw them somewhere. And the same with the bag with grocery. And this un-organised chaos is right when you want to live in your flat, not to have a catalogue interior.

 

What´s the proportion of your clients who desire minimalism?

It´ll be about twenty percent. Of course for some clients we created something that was very close to minimalism, but pure minimalism – that´s not what we would do. And I always try to explain to the client why not. Minimalism in real life is the same fiction for me as when some-body is trying to convince me that my car will never need to be serviced. And the clients usually understand.

 

Have you ever been to a minimalist interior after a longer time after reconstruction?

I have and it´s usually a complete disaster. Things usually gather there where they shouldn´t or where it wasn´t planned. A crocheted decoration over a super modern TV set has probably been the funniest thing so far.

 

Your interior is typical for its original details that are usually made for the needs of a concrete project. But it´s said that you don´t deprecate Ikea furniture either.

Ikea is good, it´s one of the best manufacturers which is aiming for design and for a reason-able price at the same time. When we do low-cost interiors, we can´t swing and throw millions all around, and so we buy components that aren´t visible – inner cupboards, war-drobes and technical stuff – in Ikea. We then perfect by outer surfaces and give primal prefabricates a new face.

 

Which is better – working with individuals or couples?

The ideal is a man or woman living alone. Cooperating with those is great because they usually have a clear idea about the reconstruction and they´re arranging the flat or house for themselves. When a family comes to me, it´s worse. I always say: “Look, I´ve already recon-structed several flats and family houses, usually the people got divorced so I warn you in advance.” (laughs) No, seriously, a reconstruction might damage a weak relationship com-pletely.

 

So to reconstruct single in principle?

It´s always better.

 

Are Czechs more interested in design nowadays?

Yes, the majority of my clients are interested in design. Clients who don´t care about their housing don´t come to you. They have a positive attitude towards design, and I usually look for exceptional things for them.

 

You´ve mentioned the administrative building ArtGen. What are the trends in office architecture and design?

Offices must by highly functional and variable. For example in ArtGen, there´s a great demand for small offices, which begin on approximately 20 square metres, with the possi-bility of sharing a reception or meeting rooms with other companies. That didn´t use to be possible – you usually had to take a quarter of the whole floor at minimum, which small companies couldn´t afford. Now it´s possible to hire a place that´s as big as a living room, and when the company starts doing well, it can expand or move to a different floor. It extends its office but it keeps the address. Ideal room for small start up companies.

 

Your main domain are logos and corporate design. What do you like most about this work?

That it has sense. Only logos survive for years. Good corporate design helps the logo to grow and it multiplies the scope of the logo from business cards over websites to signs on façades ten metres big. My work is demanding and entertaining too. Even the tiniest detail can change the emotions that the logo should radiate. I like it when the client comes to me with an interesting challenge: “What about parachutes? You probably have not designed those yet…” Cool! Or he gives me freedom and wants ideas from me. So I ask and offer: “What about a harp of about five metres with no strings and with laser rays? Droplights made of tree needles? Or an embroidery for Mig with more than 23 thousand hand stitches?” Yes, I really like that!

 

You have created the logos of Seznam and Datart. Isn´t it sometimes unpleasant to come across one´s own work on every step?

Why unpleasant? After all, it´s like meeting your own child. You like to see her. Just that we have more of those children, we take care of some of those for their whole lives (Datart), others are brought up to their adulthood and live on their own (Seznam.cz), and some others are brought up to the world and we´re with them only for a while.

 

 

In 2010 you started the first Prague farmers market in Dejvice. Why?

Food is my life hobby. I was evaluating the best restaurants for ten years and I co-published the guide “Gurmán – Selection of Prague and Bohemian-Moravian restaurants”. If you want to make a good meal, you need good and high-quality ingredients. Before we started doing the Kulaťák farmers markets, the information about good farmers was spread as a precious whisper from ear to ear. Where did you get this, where do you have it from?

 

You´ve been doing the markets for six years – hasn´t it become a bit of a routine?

No, with my colleague Mirek Dušek we keep looking for new products and farmers. There´s not just one type of bread and you can have more than ten kinds of tomatoes as well as many kinds of carrots. The variety of gastronomy is unbelievable and we are still being surprised by new tastes. We always have something new at each market and farmers come from the whole country. I am pleased that we have many farmers from the surroundings of my birth town Roudnice nad Labem. The Labe lowlands have always been a very fertile land. So the routine is only in tasting, and we like that very much. There´s just one problem to it – unfortunately, I´m not losing weight.

 

I must ask about your patriarchal beard. What´s your life like with it?

Entertaining. I´ve always had a quickly growing beard. I also had it when I was young – I shaved in the morning, went to school and in the afternoon I got a note that I hadn´t shaved. So I went to the doctor and he gave me a piece of paper saying that I have to have a beard due to health reasons. By the way, now it´s rather short.

 

Can the beard be taken as an important part of the brand “Pavel Šťastný”?

Yes, the beard helps me to open certain door. It works especially with the clients from Arabia where only respected men have such beards.

 

You were fifty this year. Do you take it as a life milestone?

It´s no turning point. The only thing that I´ve realized is that I miss painting, which I had studied at school together with graphics. And so I´m returning back to painting now – logos are great but you don´t hang them on the wall.