Lukas Diemling’s identity for copywriter Genie & Wahnsinn captures both his genius and madness

Genie & Wahnsinn (Genius & Madness) is the company and moniker of Youri Keifens, a German copywriter, drummer, speaker and creative coach. Needing an identity to convey this eclectic mix of disciplines, Graz-based graphic designer Lukas Diemling turned to punctuation as the graphic device to sincerely and succinctly summarise as much. Utilising ‘!,’ ‘&,’ and ‘?’ as the lively logo, the mark becomes dominate across the identity, matching the bold, audacious attitude behind Genie & Wahnsinn.

Coordinating this character and candour is Diemling’s use of Atipo Foundry’s Geomanist as the singular brand typeface. With punctuation his priority, Diemling tells us “Geomanist has very pleasing and bold !&? characters so we went for it,” noting the subsequently sympathetic architecture of its construction. “As Geomanist has a very friendly feeling and works great for headlines and body copy,” Diemling adds, “it just felt like the right choice to use it as the brand typeface.”

This brazen tone is also expressed through the purposeful colour palette, with Diemling opting for a bright yellow as the primary, and only, spot colour. “Youri Keifens, the man behind G&W, is a very fun and extroverted person,” Diemling concludes, “which I underlined by the heavy use of yellow.”

Lukas Diemling

Genie & Wahnsinn