'La Vie Parisienne' and its artistic designs

'La Vie Parisienne' was among one of the great, visual communication, Parisienne magazines. Apparently it was originally supposed to be a guide to the Society and artistic life in Paris, but it soon evolved into a venue for artistic design. However it is said that General Pershing had forbidden American servicemen buying the magazine. The magazine was also banned in Belgium and some other conservative countries. Some of the art was by artists such as Leonnec, Herourard and Fabiano.

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Marta Granados, a Colombian graphic designer

Born in Duitama, Colombia in 1943. Marta Granados studied at the Javeriana University and at the University of Los Andes, in Bogota; subsequently at the National Superior School of Decorative Arts, in Paris, and the Saint Martin’s School of Art in London. Presently, she works for Colcultura, Museum of Modern Art, Patrimonio Fílmico Foundation, Santillana Foundation, The National Theatre and the Economic Cultures Found.

Her work has been shown individually in the Modern Art Museum of Bogota in 1983 and 1992, in Santillana del Mar in 1985, in the Grand Palais of Paris in 1986, and in the Book Fair of Guadalajara, in 1993. She has also participated in the Poster Biennials in Warsaw, Lathi, Colorado, Helsinki, Tehran and Mexico, where she obtained the 2nd prize in the cultural poster cathegory, in 1992. Her designs have been published in Graphis Poster, Who is Who in Graphic Art, World Graphic Design Now and Comunication Arts.

Josef Albers' Homage to the Square

I' was told; the object is the heart of the matter -- and I wondered is it? Most museums collect and display "serious art" in the form of objects. It is said that, the role of the artist is to give a meaning to an object, and the role of observer, or the "art connoisseur", is to decipher or to interpret that meaning. Are there any meanings hidden in the juxtaposed squares of Albers? Various minds, depending on how sophisticated they are, may attribute different levels of meaning to these works, and there are those brave souls that ask, why to search for a meaning? why not to look at their aesthetics and stop right there. May be their aesthetic quality is their meaning. I wonder what Kazimir Malevich, Frank Stella, Ad Reinhardt or Ellsworth Kelly, among other simple square lovers think of Albers' experiments. I think they are nice and decorative -- you know!


Josef Albers (March 19, 1888 – March 25, 1976) a student of the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany was a graphic designer and a painter whose work, both in Europe and in the United States, formed the basis of some of the most influential and far-reaching art education programs of the 20th century. His most influential work was created in the field of abstract painting and it showed an influence of both the Bauhaus and the Constructivists with its simplified geometric shapes. In his extensive series titled Homage to the Square, Albers, working in a laboratory-like studio, experimented with color and spatial relationships, in which the square formats, solid colors, and precise geometry, were the main compositional elements. Albers was able to achieve a seemingly endless range of visual effects. He also worked on typography, photography, and printmaking.

His technique in the Homage to the Square paintings consisted of applying the colour pigments directly from the tube onto squares of Masonite, a wood fiberboard, and spreading them evenly with a palette knife, and blended them on the board when necessary. Each painting was marked on the reverse with careful notations on the types and shades of color that he had used, in a record of the work's specific formal experiment. Albers also proved to be very influential to many other graphic designers and artists as a teacher at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1933-49 and at Yale University in Connecticut from 1950-58.

Ragnar Freyr; a grapphic designer from Iceland

Ragnar Freyr;  a grapphic designer from Iceland, by Guity Novin, 2011

Ragnar Freyr is a graphic designer, web designer, illustrator, educator, creator and maker from Reykjavík, Iceland. Ragnar was born on the 26th of July, 1980 and has been making websites, graphics and publications since 1995. He officially started his own design studio in 2001 and still runs it to this day at Klapparstígur 28 in Reykjavík downtown.

Ragnar graduated from the Icelandic Academy of Arts in 2005 and again in 2009 from the department of pedagogy. He believes in simplicity and the principles of minimalism in both life and design. Work featured in Randscharf - on the Cutting Edge - Design in Island by Gestalten — I Love Type Series (vol.3): I Love Bodoni by Victionary — For a Good Cause by Cactus Design, Index Book — Creative Grab Bag by Ethan Bodnar, HOW Publishing — ADC*E 18th Awards Annual, 2009.

Fastakvöld Breakbeat

Skýjum Ofar 15th Anniversaryو ۱۹۹۶

... And some of Rangar's logo designs

 

The wonderful “Typographic Ballet” of Ebon Heath

Ebon Heath, an artist from Brooklyn, New York, has a striking obsession with words, typography and language. His project, Stereo.type (1994 - now) explores the compositional potentiality of typography in a three dimensional space, representing a ‘visual poetry’, that he dubs it “Typographic Ballet”. Ebon's arrangements with all its mystical power and beauty appear as the inner work of subconscious dealing with various words of wisdom, proverbs and mottoes. Ebon's hanging mobiles, dancing like a ballerina, provide various juxtapositions of these words, creating a Derridean trace of scattered hermeneutic margins. His rhythmical typography, like a double helix of a DNA structure contain in itself a powerful creative force that bursts like a Super Nova with energy.

 

 

 

See a video of  Ebon's work here

Jianping He; A Graphic Designer from China

Jianping He was born in China in 1973 and now lives in Berlin, where he works as graphic designer, lecturer and publisher. He studied graphic design at the China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin), before teaching at the Berlin University of the Arts.  He was visiting professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the China Academy of Art Hangzhou.

Jianping has received international contest awards for his works, such as at the 2nd Ningbo International Poster Biennial in China, the International Poster Biennial in Warsaw, the Lahti International Poster Biennial in Finland, the International Poster Triennial in Hong Kong, the Golden Bee Awards in Russia and the Type Directors Club New York. Jianping He is, amongst others, member of the Professional Examination Association and the Alliance Graphique Internationale. He is the author of a book All men are brothers/ Graphic designers, published by Tectum Publishers in 2008.