Studio Brief 1: Artist Research

Eric Hu

The work he produces is heavily influences by the research into the nature of graphic design, exploring the standardised production to which designers use today. He experiments with digital technologies within a print-based context. The book he has produced called ‘a thousand characters’ shows how a symbol can be visually displayed in many variations, completely changing the way in which it appears to the audience.

I like the style of his work and it could influence how I use lines and the fluidity of them within my final signage system. I will also make sure that allow research into the production of sign systems heavily influence how I design my own one.

Hassam Rahim

Hassam is an artist and art director originally from Los Angeles, now working out of New York. His work ‘Distillations’ is a collage of overlays images to connect disparate contexts and temporal zones. The associated images share a frame, but also exist in isolation to one another. I find his attempts to visually show the iconicity as constructions of the personal and universal subconscious very engaging, something that can be applied to signage systems as they have to tap into people’s subconscious’ and figure out what will make them follow the instructions.

Julien Priez

Julien was born in Montreuil, France in 1986 and studied Graphic Design and Type Design. Julien specialises in typography and calligraphy. His work is very bold and colourful, a style that I think would work effectively for a signage system as it needs to be noticed and consistent. I like his use of symbols and interesting layouts as it engages the audience and can provoke very specific reactions. The geometrical design style creates posters very visually bold and powerful, something a sign need to be. It needs to stand out from a distance and hold a consistent visual appearance throughout all of the signage. 

Vincent De Boer

I like how each character has the same visual appearance but they are also very different to each other. When designing a system, the common feature needs to be decided upon and stuck to throughout all of the visual production. This will give the signage system that I create more chance of being associated to the particular subject then if there was not a common feature throughout.

The black and white image shows that the colour scheme is not the most vital part of the design as it is still very obvious that these are the same project. The various shades of colour in the pattern is still visible when black and white. It might be important to consider the use of colour when designing my signs, as to whether or not it is actually a vital element or not.

Åbäke

Åbäke is a design studio based in London, founded by a group of people who attended Royal College of Art. A lot of the work focuses on the success that collaborating can bring to a final concept. They are recently famous for their ‘Slow Alphabet’, a font in which each character is released via a different publication over a number of years. This is an engaging way to publish new work and keep people interested in it for a long time. Their tangible work includes posters, cd and record sleeve designs, furniture and installations in art galleries and public spaces. The ‘Limb typography’ project is interesting as once again it focuses on the creations that can come from collaboration. The exhibit invites the visitors to create letters or words by poking their arms through the holes on a black vertically suspended piece of material. The words can only be seen by the passing visitors allowing for a subjective interpretation.