1. What influenced you to combine yarn and letters?

a large part of my work involves digital media (working behind a computer screen all day) and the idea to go back to handmade work was a reaction to/against this, string and nails are very flexible materials (literally and figuratively) so they offer a lot of space to make graphic shapes and typography this was the reason i chose them… also perhaps a certain nostalgia for ‘forgotten’ techniques like knitting and crochet (my mum taught me to knit when i was five) also the fact that working with these materials is very time consuming and often unpredictable adds interest to the process

2. Is legibility or visual impact more important in your designs?

legibility is certainly important in any design where text has to convey a message so yes… certainly it needs to be legible, unless making it difficult to read is part of the intention of the design (in my ‘bored’ piece made with pins this was partly the intention, i didn’t finish making the text as it was boring to do, that was a sort of design joke…)

however in most illustration pieces (at least my own ones) the impact of the visual technique is usually very important, if it is made by hand then it is usually also a priority to ensure that this is visible, otherwise it is pointless making it ‘by hand’ if you see what i mean…

3. Is it important for you to let your viewers know, how your type is made?

i partly answered that above by nr. 2, but yes it is generally definitely my aim to show the way it has been constructed and this is part of the reason i use these kinds of materials you can almost ‘feel’ how it was done… no tricks or hidden stuff, it looks like what it is…

4. What is your opinion on graphic design / craft collaborations? such as typography and embroidery, do you think there is a trend for this type of work?

well, there definitely seems to be a revival of ‘handmade’ type and analogue work, certainly as a reaction to the digital age and also because designers usually look for new techniques and methods to create imagery all the time

for me personally i do not hate computers or have a problem with digitally created work (quite the opposite in fact) i just like to use as many different methods as possible handmade work has prove to be a very fruitful route for me and my work in the past few years, however i always combine handmade and digital together whenever it suits me

i also love stuff like the ‘wild knitting’ trend and a lot of the 3D type work which is being made by young designers all over the world right now; i think it is a really exciting time to be a young designer right now…

hope this helps amy? let me know of you need any more info, incidentally there are quite a few pieces and interviews i’ve done on this subject on my blog (also an interview for IDN magazine) which you can find under the ‘me stuff’ part of my website

good luck & kind regards, martin

this is a recording (very poor quality, unfortunately) of a talk i did together with my good friend, photographer ruud baan, earlier this year during the vroaam career day for students in amsterdam, we talked about the work we have done together for amongst others the dutch national ballet, the talk is in dutch and lasts about 25 minutes…

(link via the ‘bno’)

our work was featured in issue #19 of ‘graphic’ magazine (published in korea), entitled: ‘what a beautiful book is’, it focusses on several of the (many) international and national ‘best book design’ competitions; including the dutch version and i was asked to submit a piece regarding the ‘dingen’ childrens books which have now been selected amongst the winners for the previous 2 years (2009-10 with 3 separate volumes)

the text from the article firstly, featured a transcript of the ‘best dutch books’ own jury report as follows:

…also on the table were parts three and four of the Dingen (Things) series from Uitgeverij Gottmer. So what are these little volumes? They are toddler-proof cardboard booklets containing thirty-three square full-page photos and preferably no more than one word at the bottom of the page. The photos are a tiny bit emptier than reality, but there is not a trace of nostalgia about them. Every now and then they offer a surprising detail. In books to be read aloud you get children to look at the pictures to explain the story. These Thing books aren’t books to be read aloud, they’re books to be looked at aloud. They make children look at language to explain the pictures. It’s all very open and interactive. To the panel these books were meat and drink. Naturally the talk was also about what fun they were for toddlers, but this appreciation was more than vicarious: even panel members were once toddlers…

and secondly the article featured a small contribution from me, whereby the editors asked me to tell something about the process, how the project came about, my thoughts (etcetera):

…the latest two additions to the ever-expanding ‘dingen’ series of picture books for children devised by my clients & friends Nathalie and Matthijs. When first designing the books i was very focused on making them as ‘reductive’ as possible. Like most educational books the content has to be uncluttered and clear. The imagery is their most important element and i felt that my role as a designer was to allow the ‘flow’ of the pictures and the (intentional) humor they contain, do the hard work.

On a separate note, the third edition ‘j/m’ dingen’ had already been selected for the ‘best dutch book designs’ competition last year, so it was a big surprise to us all when a further two made the selection this year. We also won a ‘vlag & wimpel’ award for best childrens book two years ago. An award which has never before, been awarded to a photobook. ‘Things’ are looking positive right now I guess…

on a final i would like to thank project editor ‘jinah min’ for sending me the magazine… it looks great

Can you please give a little bio of yourself.
Where did you study? What work experience do you have? Can you tell us something special about the way you work?

born in bristol UK in 1967, went to grammar school, (yes we had to wear a school uniform & tie everyday) very strict teachers and people still got the cane… then four years at art school (lincoln & ipswich, suffolk: 84-88) worked in Cambridge UK for a year at design agency ‘optimus’, moved to NL worked in-house at Philips design for 1 1/5 years, moved back to london worked for an american design firm ‘corporate graphics inc.’ for a year then moved to amsterdam worked at Michael Peters design (6 months), then VBAT for 5 years, then helped set up CCCP media collective for about 2 years, then design director / art director at FHV/BBDO (4 years), left in 2003 to become creative director at PPGH/JWT, left in 2005 after 3 years, i consciously decided to spend about 15 years first working for others getting as much experience as possible and seeing how it all works before going solo and starting my own thing… i usually work alone and do everything from talking to clients, doing the design work, making the coffee, writing the bills and cleaning the office, it is sometimes a bit of a solitary existence but i enjoy tackling design projects ‘hands on’ fron start to finish, the whole process makes it interesting and i feel that i still always have a lot to learn so it will never become boring or routine, i love my job just as much as i did more than 20 years ago when i started… lucky me

What made you start as a designer?
(Can you tell us about a childhood memory which influenced the way something looked. Where did you find the joy of designing?)

i lived in france for 4 years as a child and felt quite isolated
from other kids my age so i decided to research, write illustrate
and design two books on the history of the second world war
(strange choice for a 10 year old i know) that’s when i knew
what i wanted to do and those two volumes
are still in my bookshelf to remind me..

What do you like about designing posters?
(What is it about the process you like. What is it about
the result you like? What about the medium it self?)

the poster is a highly analogue, old school medium and
yet it convenes very neatly to the norms of the
digital ‘thumbnail’ visual culture we now live in, it a
very direct communicative piece of design and everything
about a poster is there on the surface in one viewing,
this makes it unique and very challenging for me
as a designer and probably stilll the ultimate form of
graphic design that i love to make, my work
often ends up at A0 size and i love the process of
organising and visualising in my mind
the way all of the elements will come together on that
large expanse of paper… and how it will
function out on the street…

Where do you get your inspiration from?
(Do you get it from other posters, books, films,
nature, fashion or from any other places or particular people?)

yes all of those things you mention and photography,
music, pornography, other graphic designers, artists, mistakes,
bad television shows etc. etc. in fact anything and
everything can be inspirational, even shit stuff, what
makes something inspiring is yourself and how you
look at a thing, not the thing in itself

music is definitely my greatest personal source of inspiration

What makes a poster a good poster?
(What are the things you pay attention to make sure a poster becomes good?)

it’s funny i regularly sit in design juries and look
at a great deal of work all the time
but find it very hard to answer that one, in theory a
good poster has a strong focal point, a singular image
or strong piece of type and yet there are so many
examples of posters that do none of that but are still amazing…
originality is important, but even that is debatable

look for example at the work of michiel schuurman,
he uses type as image/image as type, he constructs
patterns and builds confusing multi-layered pieces that
have no real focal point or singular image in a conventional
manner but still work amazingly well, in fact they perhaps
work because of the fact they look so unusual…
so i suppose the answer is there is nor real formula
for making a great poster, which is to me a fortunate
state of affairs, anything is possible

What are your three favourite (series of) posters – done by someone else?
(Could you explain why these are your favourites?)

the classic ‘staged photography’ series made by studio
dumbar in the late eighties for holland festival
are still a real benchmark for me, the same background image
was used over and over again with different colour typography
screenprinted on top for differnet productions,
way ahead of their time… those posters were probably partly the
reason i came to live and work in the netherlands even

a lot of anton beeke’s old work still appeals to me for his
sheer design ‘flair’, the striking use of imagery and uncoventional
choice of styles, currently the ‘mahler’ series
(concertgebouworkest) by rené knip for impact and confident
use of type and the ‘matter of monument’ series
recently made by michiel schuurman, these are some the
freshest posters i’ve seen around for ages…
weird colours, unexpected approach etc etc.

Which designer do you admire?
(What do you admire about this designer? Why do you
admire this aspect/trade/art of this designer?)

i admire most designers to be honest, there is so much
talent around, especially in a country with such a rich
graphic tradition and pool of skill as the netherlands

someone who really inspired me at a young age was british
designer ‘peter saville’, his approach was more that of an
art director than a traditional graphic designer,
in the late 90′s i was fortunate enough to be able to invite
him over to amsterdam to talk at a design event i organised
with friends (mind the gap) we got the chance to spend a
couple of evenings with him, peter is a bright, uncoventional,
well-read, intelligent person who has the enviable quality
of being curious and interested in everything

What’s the most exciting design project you ever worked on?
(Why is this project so exciting? How does it compare
with other projects?)

i’m not sure i’ve ever felt that any project was ‘exciting’ really,
the dutch national ballet which i’ve now worked on for ten years
has been a good source of experience in all kinds of ways over
the years, i designed their new identity back in 2003 and was
then able to implement my own design for the following
decade, which is quite rare i think, i learned a lot about dealing
with clients, managing expectations, handling disagreements
and learning how to convince a client about your ideas, in the
past year i have been approached with some very interesting
jobs by all kinds of new clients and this is certainly an ‘exciting’
development, seeing where my profession wil lead me next…
never a dull moment

What design project are you currently working on?

i just finished a poster for ‘cinéma arabe’ a small film
festival, which i’m really pleased with, two new posters for
the dutch national ballet (the first in ten years without a dancer
pictured) a whole new series of posters for amsterdam nightclub
‘the sugar factory’ and i’ve just been approached to make a
poster for the ‘picnic’ media event in amsterdam this year

this is the (dutch) transcript of the speech i gave during the opening of the exhibition ‘dare – 8 years of posters by studio matusiak’ in the dutch poster museum on the 27th of march 2011, for the english translation see below:

dames en heren, lieve mensen

ik merk dat er nog minstens 30 minuten over zijn, dat is dus een meevaller… ik dank u voor de aandacht

and here is the english translation, for more information on paulina and the studio see here…

ladies & gents, dear guests

it would appear that there are at the very least 30 minutes left over… which you must agree, is a stroke of luck…
thank you for your time

(update the magazine has now been published: see here)

IdN: What is your view towards Tactile Illustration?

The term ‘tactile illustration’ has become something of a trend in the past few years and a quick look around on the web shows that many people have started playing with ‘tactility’ in their work. Trends in graphic design tend to be a bit ‘transient’, especially now that the internet provides easy access for everyone, on the other hand the move towards ‘tactile’ design is, I believe, more than just a quick trend that will pass… precisely because of the technology you mention in your next question.

Tactile illustration is not a new phenomenon of course, if you look at the Bauhaus, Russian constructivism or people like ‘Piet Zwart’ in the 30′s for example it’s always been around. The field of graphic design has always been subject to fashion and the times we live in.

Some of the people who have inspired me personally in this type of work are Piet Zwart, UK designer Vaughn Oliver (in the late 80′s), Stefan Sagmeister, Marian Bantjes, Julien Valée, Studio Dumbar, Isidro Ferrer and UK photographer Dominic Davies.

IdN: Do you think somewhat the growth of technology increases peoples’ appreciation towards tactile / crafted design? How do you see the effect these two have towards each other?

Yes i do, technology is a great thing, computers and the web have helped propel graphic design & communication forward at an amazing speed, the number of people making high quality work all over the planet, right now just surprises me sometimes. But at the same time, the computer has also become our worst enemy, we have to work quicker, the competition is tougher and the internet means that people can quickly ‘copy’ or assimilate a style of design from somewhere or someone else at the touch of a button. This is perhaps the reason that we seem to be making a move away from just relying on the computer and the digital world. In my case this is certainly so. The move away from the screen and back to using my hands more has been a liberating experience and one which has taken my work in new directions. It slows things down, makes room for making mistakes again (which is necessary) and it often results in work which just looks and feels more original. We all have the same computers but my hands and mind are not the same as yours. The word ‘tactile’ refers to touch and feeling, these are the senses which are often missing in a lot of purely digital work.

IdN: What is the most interesting element you’ve found from Tactile Illustration trigger your initial interest to practice such style?

The move into ‘tactile’ work wasn’t really a conscious decision i think, but it came about from two different types of projects i do.

Firstly my work for the Dutch National Ballet, i spend a lot of time in photography studios, art-directing photo shoots and after a while i wanted to become somehow more involved in the process and to actually influence the way that we go about making images. Firstly through having a direct influence on the idea and what the image will communicate and ‘feel’ like but also by trying to blur the lines between the art-director and the photographer who presses the button. I have worked intensely in the past few years with photographer ‘Ruud Baan’ on this project, who felt the same way. We started to play around with the way we acheived a result and who did what in the process. Sometimes this meant building a very complex set, spending a lot of time on the design of the whole rather than concentrating on just the moment when the dancers are on the set. On the other hand we sometimes try to leave room for the ‘unexpected’ and only take the idea half way, allowing room for things to just happen as we go along. This has made the process of art-directing photography a lot more fun and experimental for me.

The second area which affected my choice for tactile work is the corporate identity work. The tools you have as a designer to create a unique identity for a brand or an organisation are often quite limited. We make a logo or mark, we have type and colour etc. In my identity projects a few years ago I was looking for a new direction to take the idea of an identity and the world of ‘tactile’ seemed to provide a new area to play around and give an identity more feeling or depth. More personality, which after all is the essence of what an identity aims to be.

Again this made my work more interesting and opened up a lot of space to play around, be less formal in my thinking about what an identity is and fortunately, the clients i work for seemed to be ready to go along with me.

There has been a definite shift in our understanding of what constitutes an identity in the past few years, brands have become much more flexible and seem to be relying less and less on rigid parameters than they used to. Tactile work seems to me to fit well in that new thinking. The use of a particular type of material or the way things are put together or combined can suddenly be an essential part of the look and the consistency within an identity.

On the other hand i think that the current trend for ‘tactile’ work will die down and pass on. In fact it probably already is. The challenge for me personally is to apply that thinking to all areas of my work. It doesn’t necessarily mean having to make stuff by hand using paper and objects to make ’3D looking’ images. It’s more about trying to find your own voice and constantly searching for a new way to express an idea or give your work a personal and genuine feel. If we can move that tactile approach into the digital world things could become even more interesting i think. The good news is that this is precisely what is happening i believe. The ipad has taken digital interfaces back to the metaphor of a book and the tactility of turning pages. This is already affecting the way the web is being consumed and and understood, it is in my opinion definitely a good thing.

IdN: When comes to talk about Tactile Illustration, paper would be the major element for props making, what would be the advantage and disadvantage of using this materials and also is there another materials you would like to use for Tactile Illustration?

Paper has been one of the big factors behind the current wave of ‘tactile’ thinking. Designers, artists and photographers have rediscovered it as a material and redefined it’s place in our toolkit of possibilities. Last year i made a book using rolls of coloured paper to illustrate the whole book and give it a unique look. For me some of the other materials which i have ‘re’discovered are:

string: In the past year alone one project using ‘kite’ string to make typography for a magazine illustration, led me into using string to build three dimensional sound waves as a set for a photo and then on to using string typography as the starting point in a motion-design project i am currently working on, the material itself was fun to play around with and see what possibilities it offers but was also even an inspiration in my choice of which projects i wanted to do and how to approach them… The choice of materials therefore isn’t necessarily just the medium you use to construct your idea, it can also be a part of the idea.

Other materials have been sugar cubes, i used these for an identity project and they are great fun to play with, they lend themselves well to the metaphor of a pixel for example and i have created several illustrations and even a whole font using this principle. Also ‘found’ objects (monodot identity) plastic letter templates, icing sugar letters that go on cakes, cheese letters, advertising billboards cut up into letters, letters made from melted ice, writing on human skin, cutting up playing cards, using shadows, projection on walls, and creating images using woven paper and photos, the list just goes on and on, the more i look… the more stuff there is waiting to be abused, distorted and ‘played’ with….

IdN: In terms of art directing, what would be the major differences you found from working on craft illustration than any other graphic design work?

Well i think that my answers above partly explain that.

In terms of how it affects my work, ‘tactile’ design is by it’s very nature more time-consuming: for example if you ‘build’ a word by hand using sugar cubes compared to typing that same word into the computer. It requires more time and energy to get a result, but the extra effort has in my experience so far, always been worthwhile. Sure it means a lot more work for the money you earn and so on but it also means more fun and learning new things too which i luckily find more important than being able to work quickly or save time.

The second way it affects my work has been the obvious shift to a more autonomous and personal relationship with what i make. If you rely more on your hands and the way the materials ‘direct’ you to work it becomes a much more emotional and human experience. I wonder ‘whether this will work or not?’, it allows things to become more uncertain and reminds you to use intuition and your childishness in a constructive way, have fun. I love my computer and what it allows me to do but it musn’t start to become the boss and force me to fit into it’s own digital dogma, i’m still in charge hopefully….

two years later we returned with an all-american edition featuring (the then relatively unknown) ‘stefan sagmeister’, ‘gary koepke’, the under-rated ‘martin venezsky’, ‘alexei tylevich’ and ‘robert wong’

then in 1999 we turned our attention to the world of film-making and specifically ‘found footage’ with an eclectic line-up of directors and vj’s including ‘wim van der aar’, artist ‘gerald van der kaap’, ‘jay rosenblatt’ and underground US duo ‘stefan avalos’ & ‘lance weiler’

the fourth edition (was it 2001?) attempted to tackle the (often troubled) relationship between designers and architects, with ‘maarten roos’, ‘hani rashid’, ‘marc & nicole maurer’, ‘ole scheeren’ and ‘kas oosterhuis’ and finally in 2005 we invited an old hero of ours ‘pierre bernard’ who had just been awarded the prestigious ‘erasmus prize’, plus his own guests from berlin ‘anschlaege’, another old hero ‘gerard hadders’, young artist ‘jonas stal’ and mister ‘anton beeke’ who kindly acted as moderator for the day

anyway that’s enough nostalgia for now, the good news is that we’re reuniting! after fifteen years, the original team is back together and we have some really exciting plans for a new event, possibly in late 2011 and maybe not just in amsterdam… it’s too early to say anything more yet but if you are interested, we’ve started a twitter feed, so why not follow us and keep posted on the news as it unfolds during the coming months… the most important figures we hoped to invite have already said ‘yes’ and we’re all really looking forward to seeing the plan come together, the previous five events were all completely sold-out in no time… more news soon, maybe…

incidentally the original ‘mind the gap’ team is as follows:
former partners jacques koeweiden and paul postma, art director/designer kim mannes abbott, online creative and writer marcel vosse and finally me, after fifteen years we are all (amazingly) still friends…

oddly there is very little information to be found online (or offline) about ‘mind the gap’ except a terrible website which i am not going to share, we really need to get a decent website made, if anybody would like to offer their help let me know…

IdN: What is your view towards Tactile Illustration?

The term ‘tactile illustration’ has become something of a trend in the past few years and a quick look around on the web shows that many people have started playing with ‘tactility’ in their work. Trends in graphic design tend to be a bit ‘transient’, especially now that the internet provides easy access for everyone, on the other hand the move towards ‘tactile’ design is, I believe, more than just a quick trend that will pass… precisely because of the technology you mention in your next question.

Tactile illustration is not a new phenomenon of course, if you look at the Bauhaus, Russian constructivism or people like ‘Piet Zwart’ in the 30′s for example it’s always been around. The field of graphic design has always been subject to fashion and the times we live in.

Some of the people who have inspired me personally in this type of work are Piet Zwart, UK designer Vaughn Oliver (in the late 80′s), Stefan Sagmeister, Marian Bantjes, Julien Valée, Studio Dumbar, Isidro Ferrer and UK photographer Dominic Davies.

IdN: Do you think somewhat the growth of technology increases peoples’ appreciation towards tactile / crafted design? How do you see the effect these two have towards each other?

Yes i do, technology is a great thing, computers and the web have helped propel graphic design & communication forward at an amazing speed, the number of people making high quality work all over the planet, right now just surprises me sometimes. But at the same time, the computer has also become our worst enemy…

………………………..

the full interview can read in the january-february issue (v18n1) of idn magazine released early next year, keep an eye on the website for more details…

a tough gig this one, the identity (designed by agency ‘koeweiden postma’ last year) with it’s outspoken custom typeface was a ‘given’, and the brief was to redesign the posters… my main starting point is the fact that HMA only does approx. four productions a year and therefore doesn’t have much ‘exposure on the streets’, with so little ‘air’ time it is very important that the posters create a coherent look and help to establish the identity in the public’s mind… the solution was to create a strong and highly recognisable format (the red border & black band) as a means of binding the various productions (ballet and opera) together in a harmonious way…

the two image areas above and below can be used to mix images or use various crops and details from the same image to create a dynamic form and to give a ‘flavour’ of the show… i further chose to ‘tone down’ the custom typography which i felt was perhaps a bit too ‘loud’ in it’s expressiveness, plus using a narrower palette of fonts and tidying up the layout by placing the information all within the black band and dropping the amount of information shown, the average viewer will usually grant a poster on the streets less than 3 seconds viewing time… so too much in-depth information is pointless…

i felt that the identity’s own colour scheme (black & red) needed to be used more explicitly in the posters and it aims to reflect the dark ‘theatrical feeling’ of other channels such as the recently designed website by ‘fabrique’, i will be developing several other projects for them in the coming year as well as continuing to roll out the posters for the upcoming productions, shown here are also a number of the sketches made in the initial stages of the design

the red border in the final design has even been made slightly larger than i first intended, as it is a very important element in the whole ‘look & feel’, it is perhaps even the principle housestyle element, at least for the posters, the imagery is usually provided by the production companies themselves and it is therefore very ‘tricky’ to rely on good quality pictures as a main focus for the design, hence the dominant red border…

the second noteworthy fact is that products (or services) where designers have been given a relatively large amount of freedom during the design process, tend to be much more effective and perform better than those where the client keeps a tight rein on development, again not a real surprise to me and my colleagues… clients please read this report, keeping complete overall control doesn’t lead to a better result… honest

it’s time that somebody wrote a paper on the intangible effects and benefit of good design not just the financial one… i mean, just look where accruing more money has got the world in the last few years

the english version can be downloaded here

for those who didn’t already know: ‘me studio’ started out as a duo (that’s where the name comes from martin & erik) the office has since changed location four times (and is due to move once again in october this year probably) we’ve worked for some fascinating clients and won numerous awards in the past few years, we’ve also had equally as much fun making all of the other less celebrated projects too… we’ve seen some amazing work from fellow designers & creative minds all over the world, which we like to share on a daily basis with everyone… graphic design is still the best job i could ever think of…

the ‘me blog’ recently underwent a pretty structural face-lift at the back-end (and will have another one in the coming months), the number of ‘unique page views’ is growing daily, we’ve received visitors here at the office from tokyo, denmark, london, italy, france and many many more from such faraway places as vietnam, chili, poland, china, kazachstan everyday via the blog… (thank you) i am also now blogging for ‘fontanel’ on a regular basis, sharing some inspiration in dutch too and the number of people who contact me with interesting stuff and invites to get my work published in books etc. is amazing

the point of all of this rambling is that we’ve got a birthday to celebrate, the time stamp on this post (8-8-8) marks our fifth anniversary as a company, i say ‘we’ because although i am the only person who sits in the office everyday ‘me studio’ is the result of a large network of fine people around me and talented artists i get to work with everyday, thank you all very much, if you feel like leaving a comment or even criticism here below, be my guest, here’s to the next five… cheers!

for the non-dutch speakers there’s a rough translation below:

her face isn’t visible but i would guess she’s roughly 22? in my fantasy she is pretty and good-natured? her thighs must have been painful afterwards, the majority of her weight is resting on the front legs of the chair but even so? it all had to stay upright?

so squeeze the knees together tightly and push the feet upwards to preserve the balance; a sterile, white backdrop behind and her head facing down, her breasts primly covered, then suddenly, click… it’s over

a magician’s trick, a charming observation, tongue-in-cheek, artful, elegant, clever, amusing and somehow ‘unfinished’, i noticed it straight away and it made me grin? an inner smile of recognition, that moment when you come up with an idea like this, go looking for the appropriate chair and then make it all happen? to take the idea out of your head and freeze it in an image?

the longer you look, the more you think about what you are observing… the lack of facial features, her pose, the attempts at establishing the right balance that must have been played out in that empty studio space, the relationship between form and function, beauty and so on… and i suddenly remember that anecdote about the obsessive chastity of Victorian England when even chair legs like these were covered with a tablecloth due to a fear of their inducing indecent thoughts… funny what an image can do to you sometimes… then yet another thought pops up: is it perhaps for sale?

you can see more of krista’s work here

update: it turns out it is for sale, but not in my price range… and i checked with the photographer afterwards: the model was 23, so not a bad guess from me…

the invitation (above) for a crowdsource project (you know the ones: lots of fun, no money) arrived in my mailbox a few weeks back and stayed there until last week when i decided to give it a (quick) shot, this is basically the (first) idea i came up with…

the ‘stars’ that have somehow contributed to the city and made it what it is today…

it’s a nice, simple idea this project but, to be honest, a little disappointing to see now the site has gone live, that there aren’t many entries which could really seriously be called logos or identities in my opinion…

still i would be curious to hear from anyone who has an opinion about my own entry… just to be clear this is a presentation of the central idea (using the stars i.e. local people to represent the city’s identity and the star symbol to replace the letters ‘ster’) and not really a finished logo design… doing that seriously would take a lot of time (and money), which this ‘for fun’ project doesn’t really justify in my mind…

the complete set of variations i made can be seen below or on the project site (just look for the one with the big red star, or click here)…

by the way, i have already found one mistake i made before someone else spots it: anne frank actually died at ‘bergen belsen’ not ‘auschwitz’… and the hotel chet baker fell to his death from wasn’t 3 star, it just sounded better in the text (okay that’s two things)

a double page spread made for a one-off magazine entitled ‘made you think’ i chose to make a typographical piece using a quote once made by designer ‘milton glaser’ to ‘steven heller’:

‘every generation has to make it’s own discoveries,
even if they are old discoveries’

(taken from the 1994 publication ‘looking closer, critical writings on graphic design’)

i found this quote very liberating as a designer when i first read it and decided to apply that principle to the way i made this design, i would do it differently for example, if i were to start again, which i do not intend to do…

the piece was made entirely by hand using thousands of steel pins and one continuous piece of 100 meter long kite string, one side is negative using black type and white string, the other side is positive using black wool…

it took ages to make (more than a week in total) and i decided to show the whole process, so there are lots of images to see here, at the end is one of the sketch ideas i had using a pun on the title of the magazine (made you think), but later rejected…

i have also uploaded this piece to my behance and got a few positive reactions there and also from ‘steven heller’… but as yet no reaction from the man who originally said it: ‘milton glaser’ to both of whom i also sent it…

…I will give $1 billion cold hard cash to anyone who has the original image…

the idea being (i have to assume) that someone felt they had spotted a serious mistake and that we, the makers had actually not realised that the female dancer had been modified to have more than the average number of limbs… after all the whole premise of the site seems to be catching people out who do ‘bad’ photoshop work, take note of who is doing the judging here people… for example: a typical comment that followed:

This has to be a record – three right arms on one person. Is there a PsD award contest?

i actually posted myself aiming to point out that it was intentional and luckily several other visitors did so too:

I don’t think this belongs here. I’d say it’s more or less a statement on image/body manipulation just as this blog is. And it’s obviously very extreme but nontheless well done. Rather typical for Dutch poster art.

and this (my favourite) one:

And another artistic image falls to rabid literalism. "Hey! Those clocks aren’t REALLY melting!"

we needn’t have bothered however, because the tactic then only changed and the comments suddenly switched to claiming it was ugly and badly done… fine if you don’t like it that’s a different story, i made the mistake of trying to argue with a whole bunch of bored teenagers not really looking for a rational or serious discussion, i quote:

Good Lord… every time I look at this image, it looks more disturbing. I can’t believe there are actually any bones in her neck either.

the comments kept pouring in swaying one way, then the other:

I actually think it’s quite beautiful and literalism is certainly not the stance with which to approach this piece. It’s a beautifully surreal image, and doesn’t belong on PSD. Way to go guys. *clap clap*

then a dutch photography website/news blog ‘photoq’ picked up on the story and tried to explain that they were missing the point too, the comments continued for several days and i suppose the lesson that i learnt from it all, was the futility of actually trying to have a worthwhile discussion in this way on a blog forum, it was also one of the reasons that i chose not to allow comments on my own blog, you have something intelligent to say, mail me… you want to bitch and be negative, go flame people anonymously on other blogs, thank you…

the epitath to the whole story came from an unexpected source, when a designer living in tokyo ‘andrew pothecary’ wrote the following piece on his blog:

Then a couple of days ago, a good quality ballet brochure cover from designers at me studio was featured. Oh, the comments ? despite the imagery being an intentional expression of movement and dance. I couldn’t fault the cover, but if someone else doesn’t like it, fine. However, the determined appearance of those who think that there is only one correct way to represent things seems almost worrying. Many people commenting would shiver at Picasso ("wow, that’s not where an nose should go! Didn’t he have time to finish the job?") and while I’m not comparing the illustrator of the ballet cover with Picasso, it does seem to me that too much of comment ? on the web generally, in fact ? is meaningless and creating some kind of new grouping of you might call the dictatorially normal. Good that someone from me studio replied and then posted his own news about democracy disasters (the April 16 entry).

Or perhaps I shouldn’t write that on a blog.

you can see his original article here on his ‘move your teeth’ blog, thanks andrew i couldn’t sum it up any better…