Heintz Grubermann

When our supporters do something exceptional we feel the need to honor them by talking about them here. The winner of our recent church sign contest is no exception.

Heintz Grubermann IV was born in Vienna, Austria in 1975, the son of Heintz Grubermann III and the latest addition to the famous ad design family, "The Flying Heintzes." He was steeped in advertising throughout his youth, and produced his first multi-million-dollar ad campaign at the age of three. "I thought all of the children my age were in advertising," he remarked to the Österreich Journal when they interviewed him. While he was clearly adept at design, he recalls feeling immense pressure to live up to the family name. In 1980, at the age of 5, he checked into a local clinic and was treated for stress-induced depression. Before long, however, he was back at the drawing board. "I never studied traditional school topics," said Heintz, "as they were not relevant to ad design. I was 20 years old before I learned of World War II, and I didn't hear about World War I until two years later. My parents never thought to teach me history."

Despite the stressful working conditions Heintz continued to churn out one ad campaign after another, and began to be accepted by his family as an equal. We don't have time to list all of his ad campaigns here, but a simple google search reveals many of his career highlights.

Earlier this year Heintz started work on his logo for the GNU Public Dictatorship. He put his soul into creating the perfect logo, and was quite disappointed when he learned that he had lost to Maksim Svayak. Heintz doesn't remember what he did in the ensuing days, but his father recounted that he stopped doing ad desing work for at least four hours, then went into a trance. His father took him to the clinic that had helped him at age 5, and they were able to get him back to health within a few days.

Heintz did not stay down long. He poured himself into new ad design projects and was able to crank them out at a speed that astounded his father and grandfather. At this time he also welcomed a son into his life. Not surprisingly, he named his son Heintz Grubermann V. He did vow, however, to let his son learn a little bit of history before working full time in the ad design company. When asked if his son would be allowed to pursue the career of his choice, Heintz seemed a bit confused. "What else is there?" he stated, completely seriously.

When he learned of the GNU Public Dictatorship's church sign contest he went to work and came up with what ended up being the winning entry. Said Heintz, "I just thought for a few seconds and then moved on. I never dreamed I would win." Heintz will soon be treated to a two-week vacation at the GNU Public Theme Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. We asked him what he was looking forward to most. His answer? The GNU Public Area.