I first heard of Human Empire about two years ago. Somehow I found out about the label morr music, went on their website and was mesmerized by the design of both the site and their CD covers. I clicked on the “design by” link, an icon of a square face, and there it was, my first encounter with Human Empire - if I recall correctly, a one-(yellow)-page website with many photos of people in t-shirts, some featuring that same square face. The top of the page had some Japanese words. I didn’t know what to make of it.

Last year, I bought a CD at Other Music completely on the basis of its package design: Isan & Styrofoam, Morr Music Japan Tour 2004. It didn’t occur to me that this is the morr music of Human Empire until I looked it up later on, and by then, Human Empire had a new website with a portfolio, store and all that good stuff. I found out that they’re located in Hamburg, Germany, and it just so happened that I was about to visit the city later that year. I had a chance to meet Jan, one-half of Human Empire, while visiting Hamburg, and was happy to find a humble and kind person.

This interview, however, was not conducted in person in Hamburg, but later via email. We discuss Jan’s new design for Home EP by Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab and Cutie) and Andrew Kenny (of American Analog Set), Human Empire’s mythical origin, paradise and George Bush, beer and designs.

P.S. Human Empire has just released a bunch of new (and gorgeous) t-shirts and sweatshirts on their online shop!

Who are you, how old are you, and how long you’ve been doing what you’re doing?

My name is Jan Kruse, I am 35 years old and worked since 6 years as a freelance designer and illustrator in northern germany. Now i am living in Hamburg.

Would you tell us more about Hamburg?

Hamburg is the second biggest city in germany. 1,7 million people are living here. It has a large harbor and somehow a maritime flair. A very active underground scene with a lot of clubs, musicians and concerts. Hamburg is a bit underrepresented cause everybody is focused on Berlin (the biggest german city with 4,5 million people).

How did you come up with a name like human empire?

Our first idea was to build a website/world were only “good and kind” people get entrance. War lords and all the bad things and people of the real world should kept out. A kind of paradise – a human empire. It should be a place which makes people smile.

So would George Bush be allowed in your human empire? What about me?

Hmm… George Bush and a lot others will get no entrance. But I am sure he isn’t interested. There weren’t found any oil deposits in the human empire and there is no other “big man” who wants fight against him. We are just small losers. ;)

Of course you will get entrance. Haha…

Is that face your logo?

Yes – since 4 years we use the “edge head” as our logo. We have a lot of different edge heads on old shirts and other prints. We always use it in new combinations with colors and types.

Please show us a couple of designs that you feel best represent your work… and talk about them.

I did cover artworks for 6 years now and the first 4 years the designs were very clean and reduced, sometimes with vector illustration, but in the last 2 years it gets more playful with some more collage elements our hand drawn illustrations.

I like the populous, masha qrella and benjamin gibbard & andrew kenny releases [Home EP]. They have different styles. The populous cd and lp has a 50th style and some trees, plants and birds on it. i really like the color combination and the typography which has something of a graffiti font. An unusual combination – a graffiti/bubbles font and a fifties illustration but i think it works very well. the masha qrella release uses a lot of “modern” elements like clouds, trees, copy elements and a hand drawn typography. I like it but sometimes it seems a bit too “stylish” too me cause i used a lot of elements you see in many designs these days.

For the Benjamin Gibbard & Andrew Kenny release i used leaves i found in front of our office (in autumn) and scissored letters from this leaves, scanned them and build the typography with it.

You designed the Home EP CD, by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and Andrew Kenny of American Analog set. What was it like working for them?

They have been very busy during these days and so i had a lot of freedom. I met them in Berlin some month ago. Really nice guys and very humble. Some month ago Benjamin asked me to do designs for the death cab for cutie release plans. A great honor for me but unfortunately they asked some more designers and they decided to take another cover.

Don’t you think CD designers should get a little more credit, since they make the rock stars look good?

I think they should get a bit more money for their work. But this is illusion – there are hundreds of young designers which are waiting for your job cause they like to work for the music business. No one wants to spend a penny for a good cover artwork (morr music seems to be an exception). You can do this stuff if you are young and need no money but some day you will have to look for a real job. ;)

How does it feel to see people buying CDs you designed?

Hmmm… mostly I am not already satisfied with a cover artwork – I am a total perfectionist and you always have some things which could be better. Of course in general it is great if you get some feedback and you see that there are some people who like it. For me it would be great to have a sticker on every cd/lp with a text like this:” We are sorry but the colors are not so brilliant as we expected. The band likes this image – we don’t. The typography is a bit too big … and so on. But i suppose every graphic designer knows what i am talking about.

Let’s talk about your store now… How did you start selling t-shirts?

It has been a dream since long times to have shop one day and sell my own products. Four years ago when we started with some morr music shirts i recognize that it might be a good idea to try some own designs. I sold a lot stuff too friends ans some on our website.

Then we started selling them on a great alternative festival and we sold sold nearly all our shirts. I was a bit embarrassed cause we sold as much shirts as all other (mostly more famous label) together. But this really motivated me and we are selling our shirts since 3 years on this festival. This year they asked us to do all the graphics (website, poster, tickets etc.).

Tell us more about this new calendar in your store.

The calendar was a project 2 illustrators from Berlin started. They asked 12 other illustrators to take part.

What do you do when you’re not designing?

I like sports (soccer) and watch it in the stadium or play it myself with friends. I like nature and sometimes I walk through forests or at the seaside. And i like to travel. It is always really fascinating to meet people from other countries cause you learn so much and you loose cut and dried opinions.

If you don’t design, what would you do (professionally)?

I did civil service after school and worked with mentally handicapped persons. I like that work, cause most of them behave and feel like children. I enjoyed this.

What are some things you can’t live without? How about limiting this to just three things…

Hmmm… sounds silly but, my family, my girlfriend and i really love my “work”. I would be really frustrated if i had to do something else.

How much does German beer influence your design? How much beer do you consume to come up with your ideas?

I need 2-3 beers and everything flows. ;) No – I don’t consume too much drugs. Haha…

So if it’s not the beer, then where do you come up with those great designs?

Ohh – I studied 7 years and it visited a really good design school cause we had the time and freedom and the workshops to try everything we were interested in. I was always really enthusiastic of all kinds of design, illustration, typography… – I think this is the most important think. Hmmm … may be that’s it.

How you feel about the popularity of purchasing music via downloads (such as with iTunes)? I bought a new CD on iTunes store lately it came with a PDF (which would be the CD booklet)… So in a way, this could open up more possibilities of designs, but of course, nothing replaces paper (though the popularity of CDs also meant no traditional big record sleeves to design). How do you feel about all of this?

I think you can’t stop the technical progress. As a designer/illustrator you be close to tears of this fact, but it makes no sense to revolt against it. To download a PDF is ok, but in my opinion the print quality is very important for a product. Almost every print on a color ink jet printer looks worse. Noone uses the expensive special colors and papers to get a good looking result. Today’s vision of the future is that there isn’t longer any paper – everything you see on a flatscreen, you get all services by the internet – so you don’t need any designers for print products any longer. But I am sure that I am already dead when this gets reality and I am sure that there will be some printers left who care for this tradition in museums. ;)

Thank you, Jan!