OUT OF NOTHING, EVERYTHING - THE UNIVERSE OF HOLY MOTORS

Holy motors is far from being an ordinary design-duo. With one holding a finance degree and the other being trained in icon painting, they bring an unconventional mixture to the table that finds its power in marching to the beat of their own drum. In this interview they talk about the force behind symbols, and why "out of nothing everything" is more than just a slogan.

Holy Motors will speak at the Forward Festival Vienna.

What was the first design or art piece that stuck with you or influenced you?

Giorgi: It happened in a church when I was a kid. Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, the mystical religious heart of Georgia, is a place of many wonders. Among them the cathedral houses a tiny icon of Jesus himself which comes with a legend - if you look Jesus in the eyes for long enough, he will wink at you. And after 5 intense minutes of direct eye-contact, he did! For a kid's brain this was an equivalent of a nuclear blast of thousand suns - is the icon alive? Is Jesus really a funny guy who likes joking around? A truly immersive piece. Forget Mona Lisa! You’ve seen nothing, until you’ve experienced the Winking Jesus of Svetitskhoveli.

Nick: It has to be illustrations in the Soviet encyclopedia - dinosaurs, trains, etc. As a kid I fell in love with the colors and shapes explaining the world around me. I recently got my hands on the full collection, and they still hold up.

How did such an unconventional combination like the two of you come together and start a design studio?

Giorgi: We realized none of us fully fit into the traditional agency, design studio, or corporate mold. So we built a mythos where we didn’t have to. A place where we could do us. Coming up from a completely different background - me with a business school degree in Finance (GPA 4.0, baby!), and Nick being trained as an Orthodox icon painter, our union was probably not so easily expected, but one to last through more than a decade (and counting!)

Nick: I have dyslexia, and Giorgi doesn’t know how to draw. It just makes sense.

For people thinking about making the big step and starting their own studio or following their artistic career, what are the biggest challenges one faces?

Giorgi: The biggest challenge is faith. Not in a religious sense — though maybe that too — but in believing your vision matters even when no one else sees it yet. Judging from our experience, understanding your creative identity is the only brief you have as an artist or as a studio.

Nick: Never stop working on yourself. It’s a constant struggle, but once you stop, you drop. There’s no final destination.

The Cambridge dictionary describes the definition "holistic" as: dealing with or treating the whole of something or someone and not just a part.
Your slogan, "Out of nothing, everything," hits the nail on the head—offering brands from various sectors the opportunity to create their vision and meet their needs, with you being a jack of all trades. How do you live a holistic life, and what does holistic design mean to you?

Giorgi: It’s about playing with the big picture. Out of nothing, everything pretty much sums up our work ethic, ambition, and naturally, expected budget-to-results ratio.

Nick: Everything is connected. That’s how I see the world around me.

Living in ever-changing, uncertain times like these, do you think design can be an escape from the grim reality we often face and something that can move the world?

Giorgi: Our aim as design people isn’t just to understand the world, but to change it. Hopefully, for the better.

Nick: Design is an embrace, rather than an escape from reality. We break the world, we fix the world, it’s the eternal spiral.

You work a lot with symbols in your designs. Do you think symbols hold a special power?

Giorgi: Symbols are ancient technologies. They bypass logic and speak straight to the marrow. A good symbol is like a tuning fork — it vibrates with something older than language. That’s why we often weave symbols into our work — not to replicate them, but to reactivate their energy in a modern context to rally people. My absolute favorite of them all, the cross is a symbol that is deeply rooted in the Georgian psyche. We have 5 of them on our national flag, and they are scattered all around the country on top of churches, on the roads, even on apartment buildings. Being at a crossroads between the West and the East, the cross is a shortcut for national identity, which some people feel is threatened with the country's European aspirations. For statistics - more than 80% of Georgians, the European flag represents a symbol of hope, while the rest of the nation is skeptical, and even overtly aggressive at times. They go as far as burning the starry flag of Europe, unable to picture a future where we join forces with Europe while retaining our national character. Changing stars with the crosses from the flag of Georgia, we created a Georgian flag of Europe - a hopeful symbol of integrating Georgian into the European family without forgetting our values, without losing who we are. That’s a flag nobody will burn, out of respect for the cross. Initially launched as a t-shirt, the flag has made appearances at Forward Festival in Berlin and Hamburg, and picked up a few design awards. It even got featured in a presentation by Stefan Sagmeister at the Tbilisi Design Conference. Funny story - we didn’t get a chance to send over the file, so he recreated the design himself, I’m told. A major win for the Georgian design scene, I suppose.

Nick: Everything is a symbol. It’s that simple.

Thinking about the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death, what in your opinion must die in the artistic world nowadays for something better to grow?

Giorgi: The idea of death itself. So 10’000 BC.

Nick: Entropy. It’s a word I always forget, and Giorgi has to remind me, but really it’s the loop we have to escape from. Maybe there’s a chance for a fresh start after that.

Nowadays we are used to a perfect aesthetic.
How do you deal with imperfections? Would you describe yourself as a perfectionist or do you celebrate the imperfect.

Giorgi: Where we come from, “perfect” is a curse word. Enough said.

Nick: There’s always room for improvement. For me, achieving perfection is impossible. “Perfect fit” is the best we can aim for.


Owning a design studio can be hectic and a big responsibility.
How do you continue to go your own way and push yourself while maintaining interest in the substance of your creations?

Giorgi: By getting bored often, and chasing that boredom to the edge. We study things outside of design. We make things we can’t sell. We travel to places that confuse us.

Nick: You either love what you do or don’t. That’s the kind of profession we have. I just love making everything out of nothing.

Do you think it is crucial to sometimes be out of the loop and escape the constant attention economy?

Giorgi: For this we try to build pockets of slowness into our work culture. Long lunches. Analog tools. The goal isn’t to keep up. It’s to keep it fun. The Forward Festival has been such a blessing for us in that sense. This stage has lit the fire that has inspired us for years. Every visit at Forward weaponizes our hunger to create something that stands out from everyone, to meet our heroes and wow them. We are eternally grateful to Othmar and the team for building up this global hivemind of emerging culture pushing people like us to become our truest selves.

Nick: You gotta be present, it doesn't matter what you do. Even if it means starting over from scratch.

Interview by Tina Enöckl