Hjaltalín - ∞  nominated to the Icelandic Design Awards 2021

The appearance of “Hjaltalín - ∞”, Hjaltalín´s fourth LP album by Sigurður Oddsson, Matthías Rúnar Sigurðsson and Gabríel Benedikt Bachman is nominated to the Icelandic Design Awards 2021. This week we will be announcing the nominations for the year 2021 and the award ceremony will take place on October 29th. Stay tuned.

From the jury

For the appearance of “Hjaltalín - ∞”, Hjaltalín’s fourth LP record, Sigurður Oddsson, a graphic designer and the art director for this project, brings up ideas about permanence and reification of music in conversation and cooperation with the sculptor Matthías Rúnar Sigurðsson and the three-dimensional designer Gabríel Benedikt Bachmann. 

This soundscape of creation is reified as a wolfchild sculptured in basalt in which also is drawn and saved in a digital three-dimensional form – in order to maximize the lifetime of the art and manifest its accessibility in different media. The graphical presentation is skillful; the interplay between light and shadow creates a unique sense of calm and warmth, the choice of font is appropriate, and the code refers in a tasteful manner to the Golden Record of the Voyager spacecrafts. The design of “Hjaltalín - ∞” is an integrative piece and an ambitious monument for the future. 

The appearance of Hjaltalín ∞ is based on the speculations of Sigurður Oddsson and the band about permanence and the record as an offspring by the musicians who create it. These ideas led to an imaginary sculpture garden where the wolf cub is the center of gravity, carved from stone and located by Úlfarsfell. The wolf was drawn with references to the Egyptian god Anubis and a 3D scan of unborn babies in the womb. Then he was cut into basalt by Matthías Rúnar Sigurðsson and performed at the album's release concert. The wolf was then scanned and transferred to digital three-dimensional form by Gabríel Bachmann, thus ensuring absolute durability both in digital form and in the real world.

Sigurður Oddsson is a graphic designer who, after graduating from LHÍ in 2008, has worked closely with musicians in making album covers and their appearance. He has worked as a designer and art director and specializes in image and visual design for companies of all shapes and sizes. Today, he works both independently and as senior designer at the design studio Hugo & Marie in New York.

Gabríel Bachmann is a motion and 3D designer who has worked extensively on music videos and motion design for concerts. He has worked for many of the country's most popular musicians. He is currently pursuing postgraduate studies at Truemax School in Copenhagen.

Matthías Rúnar Sigurðsson is a sculptor and makes his sculptures out of stone. He first carved in stone in 2009 and since then he has made numerous sculptures and held exhibitions, e.g. in the Museum and in Ásmundarsafn. Since 2018, Matthías has been working on sculptures in the park outside Ásmundarsalur.

The Icelandic Design Award honours the best Icelandic design and architecture annually. The importance of design in our society, culture and business has been growing steadily, and it is therefore vital to increase the understanding of good design and highlight the value of quality. 

Celebrating achievement and excellence, the Icelandic Design Award is given to a designer, a team, a studio or an architect in recognition of an outstanding new work, object, project or collection. The award is given to a recent project that demonstrates creative thinking, resourceful solutions, thorough presentation and professional methodology throughout the design process. Best investment in design recognises successful investment in design or architecture in the past year. It is awarded over to a company that has incorporated design in the core of its operations to create value and increase competitiveness. 

This week we will be announcing the nominations for the year 2021 and the award ceremony will take place on October 29th. Stay tuned. 

The Icelandic Design Award is established by Iceland Design and Architecture in collaboration with the Iceland University of the Arts, the Museum of Design and Applied Art, Promote Iceland, Landsvirkjun and SI - the Federation of Icelandic Industries.