A designer’s colorful journey

It’s 1977. Ferenc Baráth and his wife give birth to a son in their homeland, the former Yugoslavia. Ferenc works as a graphic designer and often took his son, David, to his spacious studio. David carefully watches his father as he practices what is known as serigraphy, or silkscreen printing, to create theater posters in sizes as large as B1. This printing technique involves using a squeegee to press ink through a thin silk or polyester fabric, strapped to a frame. To create patterns and images, stencils cover parts of the fabric that block the ink. This technique always fascinated David, sparking his curiosity to find out how it really worked.

In the early 90s, the family moved to Hungary. David began to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, wanting to follow his father’s footsteps. Back then, David already was very interested in both gastronomy and fine arts – two areas that play a central role in his life today. 

– I've always been interested in gastronomy, an important contribution from my mother, as an art form and now I get to combine my two passions, which is amazing. I’ve done many cookbooks as a creative and art director and created branding for the finest restaurants, bars and bakeries in Hungary. It is great when you can combine your two passions, says David.

Recently, David created the brand identity for a restaurant called Kollázs, an establishment at Budapest's most exclusive hotel, The Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest, which he’s very proud of.

– It was a very exciting project, because the client was extremely open-minded and allowed us to use a series of different papers and techniques, like embossing and duplexing for example, says David.

He’s also proud of the “Graphic Europe” travel guide, where he designed a series of artworks mapping Budapest.

– It was an unusual travel guide, which might mainly appeal to graphic designers and other creatives actually. All the content and design is created by local designers and I had the honor of doing Hungary and Budapest’s contributions. We have so much great architecture in this city, which was incredibly fun to illustrate. And although it was almost six years ago, people still remember it well, says David. The series reflect the style of the famous Hungarian-born master, László Moholy-Nagy.

David’s love of gastronomy is evident in his project choices. In one of his projects he worked together with one of Hungary's top chefs, Victor Segal, and David’s brother Áron Baráth, who’s a painter, to create a cookbook based on not only taste but also colors.

– The chef created the dishes and my brother created a painting for each dish inspired by the colors and other visual assets of the ingredients. Besides creating a cookbook containing photos and paintings of the dishes, we also organized an exhibition where fine art and fine dining were celebrated in a special setting. The book won two Gourmand World Cookbook awards, says David.