Max Siedentopf explains why creative perfection is a dead end

Max Siedentopf is a creative working in advertising, who on the side creates a myriad of brilliantly oddball and original personal projects. But it is this eclectic output that can sometimes confuse people, he admitted at Nicer Tuesdays. “I’m pretty sure that no one here has any idea who I actually am,” he joked, and attempted to clear things up by telling us about his work at KesselsKramer – where he recently became partner – as well as his latest passion projects including a sticker book, gif series Instructions for World Peace, and Ordinary magazine.

He went on to share his mindset towards creativity in all these fields, for example his opinions on striving for perfection. He took as an example KesselsKramer’s branding for the Hans Brinker budget hotel, considered the worst hotel in the world. “A lot of design and advertising and photography and filmmaking always tries to be as perfect as possible, everyone is aiming for perfection, but as a creative that doesn’t really make sense because creativity is a never-ending process so that’s pretty much a dead end,” he said.

“With Hans Brinker they went the other way; instead of trying to be the best hotel they were the worst hotel and that’s a lot more interesting.” Along a similar vein, he showed his work on the branding for We Love Graphic Design festival in Copenhagen. Previous identities, he pointed out, were “trendy and contemporary” and avoiding any association with typical “I Heart” logos, “which is a shame – it’s nicer to embrace it,” he said.