nihansomay

‘Zachariah Johnsen is a young artist concentrating in watercolor, pen & ink,
and mixed media works on paper. His medium of choice is the micron pen and he uses them exhaustively to describe a world of ghouls, monsters, and misfits – the shady characters in everyday life, but just hidden from normal view.’ Illustrations of Johnsen depicting a mixture of fantasy and ordinary life, put forward young and creative imagination of the artist/alice-like ambiances with flowing freely creatures and globular colorful monsters within an atmosphere adorned with liveliness.

one of the best short animated films i’ve ever seen. quite simple and intense both from a perspective towards the technique and the content.

lately i’ve been in search of this kind of works/short animations basicly, since they offer several attractive features. for instance there’s almost no need to establish long and complex dialogues between the characters involved in the story. the visual language and elements are quite effective while conveying the narration. it also offers a great deal of alternatives in terms of visual representation and expression, of course it requires a great deal of imagination and creativity as well. in short, i’m really into this kind of aesthetic brought about by short animations. especially the ones with a nice choice of music.

well, these are roughly my thoughts about the genre. and the doll face. this is a short animated film by andy huang(2007). the setting is quite simple, a machine with a doll face and a television, in a whole grey environment. i like the story and how the director dealt with it through several technological elements. i think that the relation between the doll face and the television is quite remarkable and meaningful. and also how it craves for having a satisfactory visage.

saul bass is an american graphic designer. in 1950′s he began to work with great directors such as alfred hitchcock, otto preminger… and he designed title sequences and posters for their films. in these graphic works saul bass tried to attract the viewer’s attention through several visual methods that are not very usual in previous generations. he uses quite geometric, even primitive figures like the crooked arm in the poster of “the man with the golden arm” with flat, live colors. to create a catchy image of the movie, saul bass also uses kinetic typography. on the other hand one of the biggest achievements of saul bass is doubtlessly his contributions to the formation of title sequences. he perceives a film as a whole entitiy beginning with posters and title sequences, so he designs the opening and ending processes of movies. such integration puts his name on a quite remarkable level. here are some examples from his work:

Jenny Holzer is an american conceptual artist from Ohio, born in 1950. After graduating from Rhode Island School of Design she headed for painting and print making. however in 1977 (NYC), she began to focus on working with text as the basic artistic material.
her works are produced via a series of varying mediums such as projection, electronic components like led, prints on t-shirts etc. she creates deeply powerful truisms that appear in the middle of city centers, on the buildings, on the streets. i find it quite interesting the way how she deals with using the words as a means of visual self-expression. the texts (whether written by her or the aphorisms) seem highly striking that i think it must be really dramatic to see all these giant/projected words that talk about violence, egos, personal issues, consuming societies… among the piles of advertisements, huge billboards. the fact that the works are displayed in public space gives me a kind of sense of a public confession which makes her works even more attractive for me. and she proves the power of words with these strangely appealingtext compositions.
her works are practically all around the streets of the world. hope to run across with one someday. and hope to get thrilled.

http://www.jennyholzer.com/

armin hofmann, born in 1920, basel-switzerland is one of the most important names while considering the evolution of modern typography and design. in 1947 he began to lecture in basel school of design where with emil ruder he tried to found the graphic style known as swiss style which was a revolutionary approach within the field and was characterized by “a rigid grid system, structured layout, and unjustified type”. hofmann created his own style within this new system due to his emphasis on dynamic balance, modern aesthetic. his works reflect a quite settled taste based on function, simplicity, and severity. the visual interpretation of hofmann which leads the viewer to a cleaner and more geometrical environment is also important on account of usage of colors. with expanding technologies and varying mediums of visual communication such as television, videos, movies, ads etc. hofmann underlines “trivialization of color” which corresponds approximately to a sort of visual corruption. hence there is a coherent tendency in hofmann’s works where he mainly uses black and white. he and his colleagues forming the swiss style are in search of an “absolute and universal graphic expression” that is distinguishable within his works developing on a strict structure with minimum use of colors and sans-serif typefaces. he also wrote a book, “Graphic Design Manual” in 1965 that is regarded as a “fundamental work in the field of modern graphic design and art”.
some examples from hofmann’s posters that have a huge influence on contemporary design: