József Scherer is a versatile and significant creator across multiple genres and fields, equally active as a designer, fine artist, educator, and professional writer. Not least, he is a personality who harmoniously integrates his diverse activities, one to whom his own definition of designers aptly applies, namely that “designers will be those who are open to complex social, cultural and technical problems alike.” It may also be added that he is a native of the sunlit Pannonian hills of southern Transdanubia, as he was born in Kölesd in 1947, a region which in his case, alongside Szekszárd, also encompasses the radiant spirit of Pécs, a city important in modern Hungarian art. Even though for the greater part of his adult life he has been permanently connected to the capital, this attachment has been specifically to the Buda side, characterised by rolling hills and a calmer environment conducive to life and creative work.
The foundation of his professional knowledge was laid in a formative period of Hungarian culture, the 1960s, when the spirit of twentieth-century Europe and the achievements of the Modern Movement re-emerged in secondary and higher education and in certain fields of creative practice. In an ambivalent and restricted manner, yet tangibly, the world opened up again to people, both in reality and, even more so, virtually, particularly through the powerful new medium of television. This already holds true for his secondary school studies, which he completed at the Képző és Iparművészeti Gimnázium (Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts, today Kisképző) in Budapest between 1961 and 1965. There he acquired the solid foundations of his drawing skills in the graphics programme, under the guidance of Tibor Zala and Gábor Gacs, and it was also there that he became acquainted with the craft of type design and the art of printing. An encouraging and inspiring atmosphere, along with friendships that have endured to this day, made this period unforgettable for him. Even then, his early works, choice of themes and solutions were characterised by openness and diversity, ranging from drawings memorable for their subtle irony to mature posters and book covers, and not least to various product designs. A telling example of their quality is a later, curious form of professional recognition, when one of the capital’s highly prestigious galleries exhibited a painting from his youth as an early work by Árpád Szenes.
On the basis of his wide-ranging interests and achievements, upon completing his secondary education his path led almost naturally to the Hungarian College of Applied Arts. All the more so as the institution was itself entering a major period of development under the leadership of the architect and architectural historian Frigyes Pogány, who first served as director general and later as rector. Between 1964 and 1973, an ambitious attempt was made to comprehensively modernise the college, aiming to approach international standards through the invitation of distinguished foreign artists and, at times even in the face of resistance from individual departments and teachers, by introducing a new, more complex design-oriented approach. The institution, and with it the department, opened up to the world, and Scherer came under the direct influence of the formative figures shaping its approach, among them department head András Dózsa Farkas and his successor, industrial designer Aladár Németh, as well as painter Pál Gerzson. He himself became an active participant in this international opening. The best qualities of one of the defining trends of this early phase of European design, the so-called Braun line, is reflected in his design for a hand-held electric drill, characterised by honesty, innovation, durability, and the principle that less is more, which achieved success in an international competition. The design was selected for exhibition in the international Braun design competition and was presented in several European cities. From this period also date his early, positive experiences of teamwork, which would accompany him in his entire later practice as both designer and educator.
In 1970, he successfully defended his diploma with distinction, presenting an ideal design for a deployable satellite-tracking station, emblematic of the spirit of the era and closely linked to space research. After graduating, together with László Nádas, Rozi Antoni, Tamás Zala (Zalezsák) and Tibor Bezzegh, he attempted to establish a design studio. Their venture, however, was unable to grow and develop under the prevailing political and economic conditions. Professionally, nevertheless, they achieved a notable success: at the International Bicycle Design Competition held in Japan in 1973, they were awarded third prize among several hundred entrants for their pedal-powered airport transport and service vehicle. As fellow professionals and friends, they continued to collaborate for several years thereafter, working primarily on playground design projects. One such example was a playground climbing structure designed in 1975 together with Tibor Bezzegh, constructed from prefabricated elements and installed at the Vérmező park in the capital, where it served children’s play and physical activity for approximately 6-7 years.
In the first half of the 1970s he produced several further noteworthy works, ranging from his toothbrush with a subtly curved head for the Mosonmagyaróvár Brush Factory in 1972 to the Elkon S 200 motor tester, distinguished by its elegant and lightweight design, developed for HITEKA in the same year. In 1974 he took part in the international watch design competition held in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Although he was not among the prize winners, his work did not fade into obscurity; in 2009 the online portal Watchismo Times presented his earlier designs with the remark that they had “clearly been ahead of their time.”
In the middle of the decade, in 1976, during a period of searching for direction and place, he applied for and was awarded a scholarship from the Japan Foundation. He spent a year in Japan, becoming acquainted with the diverse culture of this remote and successful country, as well as with the practice and methodologies of industrial design at the world-renowned GK Design Group led by Kenji Ekuan and at the IDD office of Matsushita Electric. He studied the professional and support organisations of industrial design and their activities, including JIDA, JIDPO, and the G Mark system. As a visiting researcher at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geijitsu Daigaku), he conducted individual research, took part in a short course on traditional Japanese architecture, and studied the fundamentals of contemporary computer technology at the Design Research Institute. In addition to studying the language, he also had the opportunity to deepen his interest in contemporary music through the works of Penderecki, Takemitsu, Xenakis, Lutosławski, and Partch. This study period enriched his entire career with formative experiences, prompting him to rethink his previously Euro-American–based conceptions of design, and remaining evident in his fine art practice to this day.
Upon returning home, he designed and built a house for his family, including his wife, the textile artist Éva Penkala and their daughter. The building remains fully livable to this day, and the family has lived here since. With renewed ideas and energy, he resumed his creative work and the development of his professional connections. He took part in Interdesign workshops organised by ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design), first in Vienna in 1979 under the theme Design for Small Enterprises, where he was a member of the Alpine Tourism and Environmental Protection working group, and then a year later in the joint workshop held in Keszthely under the title Design in the Service of Healthcare. On this latter occasion, he led the Hospital of the Future working group.
In 1978 he joined a new design collective, when architect Zsolt Nagy, goldsmith Károly Kovács, and graphic designer István Kulinyi invited him to collaborate on exhibition design projects for the Tiszai Vegyi Kombinát (Tisza Chemical Plant) and subsequently for several other companies. Through this, he became a member of a successfully cooperating working group that remained active for eight years, during which he also gained first-hand experience of the functional and aesthetic requirements of large-scale design.
In 1978 he received another invitation that ultimately had a lasting impact on his entire subsequent career: at the invitation of department head Aladár Németh, he returned to the Product Design Department of the Hungarian College of Applied Arts. As a junior lecturer, he was entrusted with teaching design and form studies, at the time perhaps not yet realising that this would become a lifelong commitment.
This year also marked the beginning of his activity as a professional writer. Alongside publishing his Japanese experiences in Hungarian (Ipari Forma (lit. Industrial Form), 1978), he began presenting the results of Hungarian design practice and later design education in professional journals published in Japan, including Graphic Design (1977), Design News (1977), Industrial Design Japan (1977), and Japan Interior Design (1977, 1979).
Between 1980 and 1981 he also undertook the artistic direction of the Toy Studio established by the Ministry of Light Industry, with the aim of facilitating collaboration between manufacturers and designers and of shaping long-term development concepts. Following the successful organisation of a restricted design competition, however, the initiative was discontinued, and his position was terminated.
His work as an educator proved all the more productive: in 1984, together with his students, he completed the design and implementation of the information system for the Országos Baleseti Intézet (National Institute of Traumatology). This significant and pioneering project was realised with the support of Professor Jenő Manninger, then director of the institute and an internationally renowned hand surgeon.
Alongside this, in collaboration with his former schoolmate from secondary school, the graphic artist György M. Fekete, he created the new corporate identity of the IBUSZ travel agency between 1981 and 1984, a project that rightly remains among the most important projects of both designers. The travel agency’s distinctive logo carried the reputation of their work far beyond national borders.
In 1983, from the outset, he took part in a nationally significant, three-tier educational reform initiative launched under the leadership of István Gergely, the new rector of the Hungarian College of Applied Arts, and was involved in the establishment of the Alapképző (Foundation Training Institute). Among the members of the preparatory working group led by industrial designer and painter András Mengyán were highly respected colleagues, including textile designer Margit Szilvitzky and sculptor Bálint Józsa. Working with them was a genuine intellectual challenge and an exciting task for him. Following the launch of the programme, he became deputy to András Mengyán, and after Mengyán’s departure abroad, he assumed leadership of the institute. At the centre of the curriculum were the fundamental questions of visuality, proportion, composition, surface and colour, balance and rhythm, and the study of harmony, alongside the introduction to drawing, modelling, form studies and basic design principles, with a primary focus on developing creativity and design flexibility. Equally important was the practice of working with materials and experimentation, and the transmission of professional traditions in a way that did not inhibit but rather strengthened the natural innovative impulse of young students.
Alongside his teaching and leadership responsibilities, the creative atmosphere of the institute prompted him to return to autonomous work in the field of fine art. Initially, his interest centred on planar compositional and pattern-forming questions of geometry, explored through the use of various materials, followed by experiments in three-dimensional space. Later, after a latent period of two decades, he turned decisively towards the strict yet mysterious world of calligraphy, focused on letters and symbols, and, following his earlier colourful works, began to create taut monochrome compositions in both two-dimensional and spatial form.
Beyond his work as an artist, during the 1990s he undertook graphic design commissions of varying scale in collaboration with György Czapp, and participated in a number of design competitions. Among these, the integrated clock and sound-recognition unit proposed for the Mainichi International Competition in 1984 stands out as a refined and forward-looking concept, as does his inexpensive, simply constructed folding chair, which was also well-received by the professional community in Hungary. For the latter, he was awarded first prize in a competition organised by the IKEA company in 1989. He also continued his publishing activity, presenting the results of university education and contemporary Hungarian design practice in various international professional journals, including Design Journal (1990), Car Styling (1995) and Interni (1996).
Following the regime change [the Hungarian transition from state socialism to parliamentary democracy in 1989–90], within the transformed system of design education he was entrusted with new challenges, first involving the further adaptation of the Foundation Training Institute to the new conditions, and in 1996 he was also appointed Vice-Rector for Education. In this latter role, his primary responsibilities included the development of the new educational concept and the associated financial management system, while he also undertook international relations activities. In connection with the latter, he continued his professional publishing work with the intention of integrating the institution as fully as possible into the forefront of international education.
In 2000, the now-university’s educational system changed once again, with the nationwide introduction of a multi-tier higher education structure. Within this new framework, the highly successful Foundation Training Institute was dissolved, and he returned as a lecturer to the Department of Industrial Design. As a synthesis of his accumulated knowledge in form studies, he edited the bilingual volume 100 Years of Formstudies – The History of Formstudies Education at the University of Applied Arts, 1900–2000. On this basis, he resumed the teaching of Form Studies with renewed enthusiasm for both design and architecture students. Compared to previous years, the assignments were now expanded to include semantic investigations as well. In 2002, together with a group of enthusiastic and enterprising architecture students, he realised the ‘node’ assignment at full scale as a Japanese teahouse in the University’s garden on Zugligeti Road, with the support of the Japan Foundation in Hungary. As a continuation of his experiments in form studies and their translation into practice, further excursions followed, first into the field of autonomous sculpture in 2000, and then, in 2004–2005, into product design, more specifically porcelain design, through the award of a scholarship from the Zsolnay factory. These efforts resulted in hotel porcelain series and other porcelain decorative designs.
In parallel with these activities, he became intensively involved in the design-education collaboration established by the Department and Mercedes-Benz Design under the direction of Stefan Lengyel. He regards it as the second great gift of his teaching career, and as the result of their joint efforts combined with a fortunate constellation of circumstances, that the Vehicle Design master’s programme was established, of which he became head in 2010. The success of his teaching activity is evidenced by the long line of graduates from the programme, including Zoltán Balla, Tibor Bíró, Szilárd Hajnal, Tamás Hartai, Péter Iglói-Nagy, András Kollár, Balázs Ligeti, Richárd Nagy, Gábor Németh, Tamás Novák, Viktor T. Sass, Tamás Siklósi, Levente Szabó, Márton Szamos, Zoltán Szász, Péter Vető and Csaba Wittinger, as well as by doctoral candidates working on a range of topics, among them young colleagues such as Márton Magyari, Csaba Szegedi and Balázs Lenkei.
He took part in the editorial board of the Department's anniversary volume (Design Felső Fokon (lit. Design at Higher Level), 2005), as well as in the creation of the publications START – 5 év járműtervezés a Daimler-Chrysler támogatásával (START – 5 years of vehicle design with the support of Daimler-Chrysler) (2007) and SPRINT – 10 év járműtervezés a Daimler AG támogatásával (SPRINT – 10 years of vehicle design with the support of Daimler AG) (2012).
His creative work has been presented on several occasions in exhibitions, ranging from the Babits Mihály Cultural Centre in Szekszárd in 1985 to the Tölgyfa Gallery in Budapest in 1999. A summary of his forty years of creative activity was presented in an exhibition held in 2010 at the Klebelsberg Gallery in Pesthidegkút. On this occasion, he also compiled, designed, and published his oeuvre catalogue. Its visual conception constitutes a further high-level materialisation of his design thinking and serves as a fundamental reference for the ongoing overview of his work. Graphic works produced during the 2010s were exhibited in 2015 at the B32 Gallery in Budapest, together with his wife’s tapestries. Most recently, at the beginning of 2016, his new works were shown as part of a joint exhibition with his wife and their interior designer daughter, held in Szekszárd, the site of his youth.
The oeuvre of József Scherer thus continues to expand today as well, with new aspects of his multifaceted personality emerging in response to the transformations of the world around him.
[2016]