“Good design is the aesthetic embodiment of the message.”

Ralf Buckendahl’s client list has to be seen to be believed: Leading publishing houses, record labels and world-renowned banks belong to the contact list of his agency Buckendahl Editorial Design. Ralf Buckendahl develops complete graphic concepts for print media, takes care of print production of journals and newspapers, and acts as Art Director for his clients.

He has been working with QuarkXPress® since 1992 – and with the newest version, QuarkXPress 7, since summer 2007. “In my daily work I derive enormous benefit from my many years of experience and familiarity with the QuarkXPress user interface. This means I can use it intuitively and no longer need to stop and think about each individual step when drafting a design”, explains Ralf Buckendahl. “As my clients also work with QuarkXPress 7, the decision to upgrade was an easy one. Mac OS® 10.4.10, QuarkXPress 7, Illustrator® and Photoshop® give me exactly the creative environment I need.”

“What I like about QuarkXPress 7 is that I can generally create info-graphics directly inside the software. I also particularly like using the colour-based transparencies, drop shadows, visibility and blend modes, distance and skew from the parent object, Bézier lines and text paths. These are my favourite features.”

When asked what the secret is of his success as a designer, Ralf Buckendahl replies: “Good design is the aesthetic embodiment of the message. QuarkXPress 7 is the tool I use to create this embodiment.”