“I find it easy to decide on things, especially when it comes to watches and cars. I trust my instinct and have a good eye. I know what suits me and what my style is. The other day, I bought a beautiful vintage Citroën. I just knew right away that it would fit into my collection of classic cars. I grew up with cars and they were always a topic in my family. We are actually all a bit car-obsessed, but I’m the one living it out the most intensely with my collection devoted to cars designed by Flaminio Bertoni. I admit to being a bon vivant. I drive classic cars not to race them, but to enjoy the surroundings, the landscape, nature, cities, people. If I want to race, I use a modern sports car. But driving a Citroën – especially a Citroën DS – is a unique experience. It’s like a motor boat on the road, a Riva on four wheels. The engine does play a big role, but it’s not the most important one, in my opinion. It’s all about the way of driving a car and its design and composition. There are some cars with a design that you simply can’t get enough of. I could gaze at them forever.”
Graphic design vs. economics
“Already as a child, I was extremely observant and carefully investigated everything around me. I was constantly drawing, building or making things, and always had a soft spot for design. An art teacher at my school once saw me draw and said I should study art or graphic design. I had never considered it before, never had anything to do with art; I didn’t even know that this could be a profession and that you could make a living from it. My dad actually wanted me to study economics, but I was suddenly determined to study graphic design. At that time, I did not have anyone to look up to or learn from, so I just had to start and build up everything from scratch.”
The things surrounding us
“I walk through life with my eyes wide open, and I enjoy the fact that everything surrounding us is designed. It makes me particularly happy when design is good, meaningful and sustainable. I love design because I am a visually sensitive person, and I like things to be in harmony with each other. I cannot look at the world in an unencumbered way. My children and I explore objects together, and then talk about how the design might have been improved – the composition of a brochure, for instance, or a tool, a watch, a service offer, a building. We observe things and we analyse. There is too much superficiality in the world nowadays. Everyone thinks they can design. But nothing is worse than superficiality. I try to teach my children the values I have always lived by: a sense of social cohesion, love, respect and the trust to speak about anything – no matter what.”
Hans Ulrich Scholpp is a graphic designer and marketing consultant who lives in Stuttgart. He is a passionate collector of classic cars and IWC watches. Scholpp’s most recent book “Passion DS” is devoted to the Citroën DS 19 Cabriolet and is due to be published this year (www.ulrichscholpp.de). To take a look behind the scenes during the video shoot, click on the image gallery below.
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