2001 | BEIJING OLYMPICS 2008 POSTERS, SHOWING THREE CHINESE CHARACTERS: "CHINA," "TOGETHERNESS," "MANKIND" | CREATIVE DIRECTION BY RICHARD HSU | CLIENT: IOC

Tiziana Haug may have been born Swiss, but graduating summa cum laude from Pratt Institute in New York—the city she now calls home—has probably had the most impact on her design sen­sibility. “My work isn’t traditional Swiss typography,” she explains. “It does look clean and orderly, but it’s not necessarily spare and minimalist.” However, her Swiss origins do show up in her work process. “I’d say it is in the precision; I have a precise way of going about design.”

Whatever the influence, Haug’s work definitely makes an impression. Her most interesting pieces are a kind of typographic landscape, playing with spatial relationships and arranging color, imagery and space to support or counteract her typography. Whether working on designs for artists, consumer packaged goods or high-end retailers, Haug surprises and delights. “Tiziana has ‘Wow’ factor,” says Laura DesEnfants of The Art Directors Club (ADC). “The work transcends your expectations, with solutions so tightly connected to the problem that they immediately make sense. Yet the direction still surprises you, and it’s always beautiful.”

Working full time for the past year and a half for the international branding firm Wolff Olins, Haug also practices freelance under the name In the Habit—a company name she chose because, “I’m in the habit of designing everyday,” Haug explains. “It comes quite naturally, and I look forward to it. It’s my habit.” Her client projects run from high end (Tiffany, Godiva Chocolate) to com­mercial (Target, Sunglass Hut) to cultural (citizen-citizen). “I’d definitely say my freelance work influences my Wolff Olins work, and vice versa,” admits Haug. “The freelance work makes me more creative, and my position at Wolff Olins makes me more professional.”

Haug often collaborates on freelance projects with designer Steve Rura. The duo recently did a project for the ADC, about which DesEnfants remarks, “They designed a poster for us in which they created the entire type font for the poster front. It was well crafted and well thought out.” This is a practice that Haug enjoys. “I’ve made several typefaces, but I haven’t sold any yet,” she says. “So far, they have been mainly project-specific. I really like making display fonts—it brings in my background in illustration.”

Thinking about where she’d like to go professionally, Haug reveals a hunger for growth. “I’m highly critical of my own work and get tired of similar executions quickly,” she says, “and thus try to reinvent myself over and over again.” When asked what’s next for her in life, Haug replies, “Who knows? A dog, a kid, an apart­ment in London, fame and fortune—maybe.”

www.inthehabit.com