Visual communications designer Tomaž Plahuta has an entirely original look, deriving from a feeling for refinement and his extraordinary sensitivity to detail. In his design for the publishing house Založba Eno, he has created an extremely distinctive book series that displays a unified approach. We might characterize this approach as a textbook example of the best way to “exploit” graphic design – this is a design that, in the deluge of book covers, stands out from the rest. In its lush appearance, the book’s design offers an additional reward for potential readers and at the same time (as sacrilegious as this might sound) transforms itself into a fetish product.
Similar virtues can be seen in Plahuta’s design of wine labels for the Štekar Vineyards from the Goriška Brda region. In both cases we see an elegant expression of maximal design, which, it would seem, puts the lie to the modernist dictate that less is more. The fact is that only a handful of designers can afford to transgress Mies van der Rohe’s decree “Less is more”. Plahuta is, undoubtedly, one of the rare designers who do this successfully, and such rarity only confirms the exceptional nature of his unique style.