Xavier Monney uses type to weave words into something weird, warped, and wonderful

Gourmet chocolate, swanky timepieces, and an unwavering commitment to total neutrality when it comes to matters of foreign policy: these are just a few of the fabulous things that Switzerland is known for. Here in the creative world, there’s something else, something more important than Velcro, cellophane, or the humble potato peeler, all of which are superb Swiss inventions that each and every single one of us is grateful for.

We’re talking, of course, about Swiss Design, that heady combination of Bauhaus, De Stijl, and Russian Constructivism which bubbled up in all its type-heavy glory in the mid-20th Century and still has the power to influence and inspire here in 2019. Things have moved on in the home of Eduard Hoffmann and Max Miedinger, the men responsible for the now beyond-ubiquitous Helvetica, but the country still seems to know exactly what it’s doing when it comes to producing the sort of designers who other designers look to for inspiration.

It was Peter Saville and Riccardo Tisci who grabbed the headlines when Burberry decided to spring a new look and logo on the world back in August last year, but Xavier played his own part in the repositioning of the iconic British brand. “I was contacted by Highsnobiety for a collaboration with Burberry,” he recalls. He had been assigned the role of digital artist and was given license to “play around with Burberry’s new identity and create animations within my own visual universe.”

Describing it as the project he’s “proudest” to have worked on to date, Xavier used the newly revamped Burberry logo in a way that feels identifiably Monney-like. The orange and white “B”s whirl around 3D space, condensed into curls and curves, falling up and down, over and under. Hypnotic, and oddly haunting, it is a brave thing to do with a brand so traditionally elegant and understated. But that, you sense, is the whole point. “The fact I was absolutely free to do whatever I wanted was motivating,” he says.

Long before big brands came knocking, however, there was a teenager holed up in his bedroom with a broadband connection and a burgeoning interest in the power of posters. Tumblr, as it was for many designers of a similar age, opened up a young Xavier’s mind to design’s past and present.

It was typographically oriented poster work which he found himself fascinated by, and the image-heavy social media platform offered a plethora of styles and signature approaches. “This included a lot of typographic posters from well established Swiss designers as well as weird textural or 3D visuals that were trending on Tumblr at the time,” Xavier remembers. “I was posting some of the results on Instagram to get live feedback from people who were doing the same. If I had a ‘Eureka moment’ it was when I came up with putting together typography in 3D motion. After that, my Instagram account went crazy so I figured I should continue this way.”

And continue he did, even if Tumblr’s relevance has faded somewhat since the heady days of 2012. “I think Instagram slowly took over Tumblr’s role as a creative platform,” Xavier muses. “It has good and bad sides though; Instagram feels more like a place where ego comes first, whereas Tumblr felt a bit more content-focused.”

When he’s not wrapping his head around mind-bending applications of typographic experimentation, the Zurich resident can often be found gazing at the graffiti-spattered city walls. He has, largely at least, retired from graffing himself, but still admires the way that the medium is, in his words, “basically graphic design without clients and computers”.

There is, you get the impression, no sense of Xavier Monney without computers and, increasingly, clients. This is no bad thing. After all, his movement-focused practice continues to enthral us, exactly because it is so indivisible from the machinations of hardware and the limits of software. It is, in its own way, naturally unnatural.

His tunnels of text, syllabically constructed slinkies, and waves of words, flap, undulate, bob and weave. Whether he’s producing digital posters for Bristol’s best music magazine, Crack, or creating a circular column of moving text for American streetwear label Easy Money Clothing, Xavier’s way with words continues to enthrall, amuse and energise us.

DEMO, a “design in motion festival” will take place in Amsterdam Centraal Station in November. “For 24 hours,” Xavier says, “all advertising screens in the train station will be showcasing works from designers from all around the world!” From beers in his bedroom to working with some of the biggest brands around, Xavier Monney’s journey has been an exciting one, and we think it’s only really just beginning.