20 posts tagged “art”
What do you get when you combine stop-motion video and
graffiti street art in Buenos Aires?
MUTO! Graffiti artist Blu created this cool animation, MUTO, based on some of his
public art. The video is a constant evolution of his artwork across the city
streets of both Buenos Aires
and Bade. The flow and transformation between each character is fascinating to
watch and the video itself is a nice tribute to street art.
- P. Tade
I was reading a blog post about the relationship designers have with music on Design Observer. Adrian Shaughnessy writes: “I’ve never worked in a design studio where music wasn’t being played pretty much constantly… What is it with graphic designers and music?” Adrian has a good point. The image of a room full of designers with headphones on while staring at the computer screen is almost becoming cliché.
So, what is it with designers and music? Designers often listen to music to drown out ambient noise for focus and concentration. In Shaughnessy’s post, he also talks about the fact that music feeds a designer’s creative sparks. Music has influenced many artists. Paul Rand often cites jazz as a major influence in his work. Jackson Pollack has done the same. And in motion design, music often dictates the visuals of title sequences.
On a grand scale, however, I believe that design and music have always had a symbiotic relationship. For example, I grew up in a household where music was very important. As a result, I gravitated toward the visuals of records and CD covers. The artwork was often imaginative and more creative than anything I had ever seen. One of my favorites was Peter Saville, the English graphic designer most notably responsible for the Factory Records covers promoting such bands as Joy Division and New Order. Saville’s designs were inspirational. In fact, they taught me about graphic design and eventually inspired me to become a designer.
Whether or not music directly affects the creative conscious is still debatable even amongst musicologists. I do believe that there is a connection between design and music even if it’s not measurable. Maybe we’ll never know why designers need to listen to music while they work, but we do know that it’s important and that it has the possibility of being influential.
- C. Lin
Found: the most compelling art form for both typographers and laymen alike. People of various significance in the art world have taken famous cinematic scenes and re-created them using motley typefaces along with audio to showcase the enigmatic effect on our psyche.
What I cannot wrap my mind around is how delicious these clips are! Always Watching.org provides a synopsis of the concept and plenty little vids so you may make your own deductions. Of course, I have a few faves and a couple that I thought could have been a bit saucier. Don’t forget each video, once played, gives you the option to check out others of this genre, a notion I recommend indulging in.
Top two faves featured on the site have to be dedicated to Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. The color scheme is punchy, the typeface is felicitous with each movie’s feel while keenly representing the narrative character. In my mind, what separates the rocks from the gems in this case are the aforementioned qualities. The Oceans Eleven and Full Metal Jacket scenes, for example, were desperately lacking this appeal.
The medium itself is an exceptional expression. Like hearing a book complete with action-motivated type and a killer soundtrack of effects. Kinematic Typography receives two thumbs up, four stars, two critics on a sofa, and the Mystery Science theatre 3000 seal of approval. Check it out!
- B. Juergens
Linzie Hunter is a UK based freelance artist whose whimsical (if not a bit cheeky) humor and breezy, retro-inspired illustrations has garnered her the covers of glossy mags and websites worldwide. Her latest designs are a series of colorful, clever illustrations that take their inspiration straight from the headlines of junk email inboxes everywhere. “Realise All Your Dreams With Our Help,” “Local Chicks Who Need Lovin’ on the Side,” and the ubiquitous “For Fun Seekers Only” are given the Linzie Hunter treatment with bubbly curvaceous fonts in fun vibrant palates.
- Carley Johnson
Kozyndan, the LA-based artists who also happen to be husband and wife, are perhaps best known for their whimsical city illustrations. Their New York City panoramas are particularly popular and “Uprisings,” the playfully tongue-in-cheek take on the famous “Great Wave Off Kana Gawa,” is perhaps Kozyndan’s most famous work.
It seems that the fine folks at Sony’s Passion Pictures are fans of these particular Kozyndan pieces as well.
Yesterday, a passionate blogger over at Gizmodo point-blank called Sony’s new TV spot for their Bravia HDTV’s a “rip off” of Kozyndan’s work. The ad is a toe-tapping, clever little spot that features stop motion claymation of the bright, multi-colored bunnies that run rampant in Kozyndan’s NYC panorama, climaxing in a tidal wave bursting with bunnies that’s straight out of “Uprisings.”
Over on the Kozyndan Livejournal, they admit that “Its hard to think that people at Passion Pictures did not have this early panoramic of ours in mind when they created this new spot for the SONY Bravia line.”
As it turns out, two years ago Passion Pictures requested samples of Kozyndan’s work and never followed up after the samples were sent.
The fact that over seven hundred days have passed since requesting those samples does much to suggest the Passion Pictures didn’t intentionally set out to … er … sample Kozyndan’s work specifically for their Bravia line.
But in the same way that Rolling Stones fans will immediately recognize that “She’s A Rainbow” is the song blaring over the TV spot, Kozyndan fans will certainly likewise recognize that those are unmistakably Kozyndan’s bunnies taking over the city… or at least their reincarnated counterparts. (And while the Stones will no doubt have been amply compensated for use of their song, Kozyndan will, sadly, emerge entirely empty-pocketed.)
So, are Passion Pictures guilty of a shameless rip-off or should Kozyndan be flattered by their creative inspiration?
Have
a look and decide for yourself
- Carley Johnson
My latest discovery is of the German illustrator Anke Weckmann. She has a very cute illustration style that is reminiscent of the late Margaret Kilgallen. The feel of her work has a hint of San Francisco’s Mission area’s streets as well as an impression of Yoshitomo Nara’s cute-but-deadly mantra. Her drawings are lovely; the coloring muted and beautifully subdued, and the images are always neat and tidy. Weckmann has a sharp sense of humor and is unafraid to show it, and yet her drawings manage to have a tinge of awkwardness to them that is hard to describe.
- Chy Lin
Swiss conceptual artist Christoph Buchel’s newest installation for Massachusett’s MASS MoCA gallery was meant to be a statement on America’s war effort through Buchel’s eclectic use of, among other things, a blown up airplane fuselage, a re-creation of Sadam Hussein’s hiding place in Iraq, and a kiddie carnival ride where bombs are used as passenger cars. The exhibit entitled “Training Ground for Democracy” was so grand in scale that it was going to fill the whole MASS MoCA’s gargantuan “Gallery 5.” Ambitious? The hefty $320,000 price tag certainly confirms that. Ridiculous? Ah, unfortunately that delicious debate will probably never truly take wing since Buchel’s installation is, according to an article run in the LA Times today, destined for the dustbin.
Of course there have always been artistic disagreements between the inventor and the investor, but this stalemate between Buchel and MASS MoCA has turned into a dirty business indeed, involving the Federal court. The project went way over budget and MASS MoCA cancelled the exhibit back in May, having had enough of what they felt were extravagant requests on Buchel’s behalf. “The jet fuselage [was] non-negotiable,” the gallery director told the Times. “[He also] wanted a large airliner and the charred remains scattered throughout the gallery…it was at that point I began drawing the line.”
MASS MoCA sees their $320,000 investment as a loss they seek to salvage by turning Buchel’s unfinished piece into an exhibit profiling the processes involved in creating installation art. Buchel’s solicitor fought back and countersued MASS MoCA, citing violations of the federal Visual Artists Rights Act in what they call an attempt to “mock and humiliate” Buchel by re-imagining his original concept as “a drastically distorted and modified version.”
And so Buchel’s epic creation at the MASS MoCA remains, quite literally, under cover.
Fitting, perhaps, as the exhibit in its unfinished state is almost certainly more important than the finished product would have made the pretense of being. Instead of making a statement about a carte blanche war, the exhibit is a living testimony about what can befall carte blanche conceptual art.
And for any foes of conceptual art out there, well, this can only be a good thing.
- Carley Johnson
And while the concept is highly engaging (little wonder since his firm is based more on concept than style anyway) the fascinating thing about the whole project is its ink blot effect: for example, two people can take his billboard declaring “trying to look good limits my life” and say ‘wow, what a great design’ while the other says ‘what a great piece of art.’ And the two will surely go to blows for about an hour arguing over what makes it a piece of installation art versus what makes it an example of graphic design (leading surely to the fundamental issue of really what is art and what is design.)
But that’s not exactly the point. The point is that the questions are even raised to begin with: obviously Sagmeister’s experimental projects are blurring previously very distinct lines between design and art.
But what Sagmeister’s work does do is communicate—the hallmark of all great art.
And design.
- Carley Johnson
Subjective as art may be, in its essence, art is communication. And in
that way, art is fundamentally conceptual because every piece of
artwork begins with an idea—a concept they want to communicate to the
viewer.
But a shark in a vat of formaldehyde? (Damien Hirst) See, that’s a concept I just don’t get.
And that type of conceptual art is exactly what the Stuckist movement
rallies against. Formed in 1999 by a group of London based artists, the
Stuckists advocate the importance of painting as a medium for
communication and expression: their cry that “artists who don’t paint
aren’t artists” pretty much sums up their stand on conceptual,
“postmodern” art. But don’t think that they’re conservatives who simply
wish for a return to simpler times—according to Terry Marks, a well
known New York Stuckist, the point is “to use paint to describe our
lives now.”
Stuckism has gained international notoriety and has chapters in major
cities all over the world—thanks largely in part to their very vocal,
public demonstrations. (Think PETA for painters.) Charles Saatchi and
Sir Nicholas Serota (the Tate Britain’s curator) have long been favored
targets. (Serota’s acquisition from a Tate trustee prompted a huge
reaction by the Stuckists, which actually lead to the Charity
Commission censuring the Tate!)
Stuckists view conceptual art as being ripe with lack of meaning and
devoid of artistic skill and, as such, the Stuckists are staunchly
“Anti Anti-Art.” The Stuckist vision is to replace “postmodernism” and
its prevalence of “shock art” (something they label as “anti-humanist”
and cold) with “remoderinism”—a renaissance of values in art and
culture.
You can take a look at Stuckism’s LA chapter here or to see where it all began click here.
- Carley Johnson
Remember back in elementary school all those cut and paste projects you would do for class? The joy of folding, pasting, and seeing your creation slowly come to life doesn’t have to end now that you’re in an office for 9 hours a day. Papercraft is sweeping the intertubes and you too can have your own little paper buddy to keep you company during those long days at work. The creative team at Gloo Digital Designs has designed a simple flash app that lets you customize and print a cute Gloo Man (or Woman). All you have to do is print, cut, and paste.
But maybe you’re feeling a little more up to the challenge. Papercraft ranges from very simple and basic designs to extremely detailed and time consuming ones. A simple google search will lead you tons of sites providing ready to print designs and instructions. One of my favorites is Advance Wars Bunker. The first little tank took me 5 hours to build and I can’t wait to complete the entire army and invade the space here in the office. :)
- Miguel Campos
