Behind the CultAWARD stand a person who tells stories and gives brands their shape, and a house where both come together.
CA:Gestalter · Founder and Publisher
Oliver Hillebrecht
Author and brand designer · Head of Production, Universal Brands
“Aesthetics means knowing through the senses: proportion, harmony, the quiet balance in things. What we perceive as aesthetic, we call beautiful. Beauty has to do with symmetry, with a wealth of ideas and with the effort one makes. Beauty is the moment in which we raise our heads. It wants to be hatched anew, again and again. It is the very opposite of slackness, and it demands our vigilance.
When it touches us, we experience devotion. It lasts a second. Then everything begins again. One has to work at it, take on the effort again and again. This process never ends, for beauty can never be captured, never be held.”
Oliver Hillebrecht · Author and brand designer
Oliver Hillebrecht is an author, brand designer and founder of the Bamberg creative studio Universal Brands, which he has led as Head of Production since 2011. He develops brand architectures and campaigns for companies in industry, retail, media and sport – from name and slogan to graphic design, key visual and international film production.
In 2009 he conceived the CultAWARD and designed its trophy, Monique: the woman who stands on the globe, reaches for the star and merges with it – an image of the moment when an object becomes a cult. As publisher, he is responsible for every nomination and every tribute.
As an author, he is writing the life story of the Olympic diver Jan Hempel – as a biography, as a novel and as the screenplay for a feature film. He is drawn to characters with depth and stories that stay. The same attitude carries the CultAWARD: look closely, research thoroughly, tell with respect.
Universal Brands · The guiding line
Made for the best.
Under this guiding line, Universal Brands designs for German and international brands in industry, retail, media and sport. It always begins with understanding – brand, market, people – and ends with a presence that does not just work, but moves.
The CultAWARD takes this line further. It is made for the best a society brings forth: for things, works and people who are loved beyond their time.
The house: Universal Brands
The creative studio in Bamberg brings together brand development, storytelling, book production and film – and is the house where the CultAWARD is made.
The jury
An AI researches and assesses according to the Cult Canon. Three juries of seven people each make the nominations, and the public chooses the Cult of the Year. To the jury
Designed by
Küchelstraße 2 · 96047 Bamberg · Germany
oliver.hillebrecht@universal-brands.de
universal-brands.de