Homegrown talent

Henry Steiner has been flying the flag for Austria for six decades. His graphic designs can be seen all over Hong Kong – most notably on the top of the Norman Foster-designed headquarters of HSBC in Central. Commissioned by the international bank to design a new logo in the 1980s, Steiner created a red-and-white hexagonal logo that now adorns branches around the world. Speaking from his studio in Conduit Road, Steiner says he was inspired by the X, or saltire, that featured on the corporate livery of many of the city’s early hongs, or conglomerates.

Originally from Vienna, Steiner has occupied the same three-storey office since 1964 – three years after he first came to the city for a short-term stay to work on a commission. Known as the godfather of Hong Kong graphic design, the 85-year-old is currently compiling materials for a collection of his work that will be housed at Hong Kong’s new contemporary-art museum, M+. He has a rich archive to choose from: he has created corporate identities for some of the city’s most vaunted institutions, such as the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Hongkong Land. While he has left a visible mark on the city, Steiner maintains that he has no recognisable style. “A designer tries to help his clients with their problems; an artist tries to solve his own problems,” he says.

Steiner’s fascination with Hong Kong’s neon signs and shop signage predates his own designs appearing in lights. Shortly after arriving in 1960s Hong Kong, the Austrian went around the city photographing some of his favourite logos on his Franke & Heidecke Rolleiflex camera. Some of these shots accompanied an article that a young Steiner contributed to a UK design magazine called Typographica. Like the magazine, many of the signs no longer exist. Therefore, with Steiner’s guidance, we set out to capture eye-catching signage in the modern-day visual landscape of Hong Kong.

The Academy of Visual Arts (AVA) is often described as one of Hong Kong’s best-kept secrets but its new director is determined to put the art school on the map. “I’m trying to raise awareness of the artistic talent in Hong Kong,” says professor Louis Nixon, who addressed students at the 2019 undergraduate show from a pavilion in the school’s Kai Tak campus – previously a Royal Air Force officers’ mess building near the city’s former airport in Kowloon.

Nixon is planning to turn the collaboration with the University of Arts London into an annual commission. Several thousand visitors attended this year’s graduation show, which featured 128 young, aspiring artists – double the number when the AVA started in the 2000s.

Nixon took over the art school last year. The 53-year-old moved to Hong Kong with his wife and youngest daughter after having spent his entire career in the UK, most recently at London’s Kingston University. He compares the buzz around the Hong Kong art scene to being in London during the 1990s. “Hong Kong is becoming a global centre of art,” he says while rattling through the city’s new and forthcoming museums and art galleries.

According to Nixon, the availability of public and private funding is one benefit to being in Hong Kong. Alongside upgrading the AVA’s galleries, he offers residencies and fellowships to artists and academics from around the world, who will then be ambassadors for the school on their return home. Susan Collins, former head of London’s UCL Slade School of Fine Art, completed a three-month stay earlier this year. “Internationalisation is a big project for the university,” says Nixon, who has been able to broaden his own artistic horizons by travelling to Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Southeast Asia to cast a critical eye over burgeoning talent. “In Hong Kong we are never far away from anyone.”