Thomas Thü Hürlimann

: "For the Swiss writer, see Thomas Hürlimann."

Thomas Thü Hürlimann (born 1969) is a Swiss graphics designer, illustrator and multimedia artist. Already from early childhood on he was known by friends as "Thü", a shortname he gave himself, composed by the initial letters of Thomas & Hürlimann.

Biography

Thü studied art, drawing and painting in Lucerne with Werner Meier (Zeichenschule Luzern) and in Zürich with Müller-Emil (Vorkurs Kunstgewerbeschule), advertisement with Bootz & Grolimund, graphic arts and design with Norman Hasselbrink. Graduated on the Academy Of Art (Hochschule für Gestaltung) Zürich. He also did extensive music studies, playing piano from early on. Studies of piano with Francoise Kayayan, percussion with Mike Quinn, french horn with Karl Fässler, Stefan Ruf, Heiner Krause and Wendell Rider.

Work

In 1986 as a pioneer in computer graphics design with Norman Hasselbrink, Thomas Thü Hürlimann was one of the first in Switzerland producing full colour posters, flyers and advertisements completely on the computer, including vector illustrations with a vector point count always at the edge of the technically possible. The duo was the first to produce 4-colour prints out of a conventional black & white laserprinter, using chromakey foils.

magazines. As art director of the Macworld magazines he created not only the layout and advertisement designs but developed a special style of computer vector illustrations (known as the "Thü"-style) for the magazine that gave it a unique appearance – never before was a computer magazine so strongly dominated by illustrations. He also created one of the first image and animation driven magazine websites on the internet for Macworld Switzerland in 1994, maybe even one of the first swiss magazine representations on the internet in those years.

Since 2000 he works as an independent graphics designer mainly in Southamerica and Germany with the company Ecliptic, which he founded in 1994 in Switzerland. The company creates logotypes, corporate identities, illustrations, CD and book covers, advertisement, flyers, 3d images, animation and webdesign. Thü moved back to Switzerland in 2008. He opened his office in Baar, Zug with a new company named "Zugergrafik.ch".

Thü also had an early career as a classical musician playing timpani & percussion with the Mike Quinn Percussion Ensemble, the Zuger Blasorchester, Stadtorchester Zug and Pierre Favre in Switzerland. He founded Heroica Brass, a classical brass ensemble in the tradition of the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble maybe the only Brass Ensemble of its kind in Colombia.

References

* "Firmen Design & Identität" (Corporate Design & Identity), Shaker Media Aachen, 2008 (ISBN 978-3-86858-009-9)
* "Insiderbook Freehand 8", by Hermann Bauer, illustrated by Thomas Thü Hürlimann, Midas Press, 2001 (ISBN 978-3907020326)
* "Macworld Magazine", IDG Publications Switzerland, 1995 – 1998 (ISSN 1420-5122)
* "Computerworld Magazine", IDG Publications Switzerland, 1998 – 2007 (ISSN 1420-5009)
* "Macwelt Magazine", IDG Germany, 1998 – 2007 (ISSN 0937-4906)

External links

* [http://www.ecliptic.ch Official homepage of Ecliptic graphics design & illustrations]
* [http://www.ecliptic.ch/Stock/home.html Thomas Thü Hürlimann Illustrations]
* [http://www.creativeblvd.com/how-everyone-can-discover-the-secrets-in-the-last-supper-for-himself.html Last Supper discovery]
* [http://www.zugergrafik.ch Zugergrafik Zug, Switzerland]