“Logos, Icons, Digital Illustration & Graphics, The Poster”
10/28/15
Where do you draw inspiration from? What excites you to create? This poster above is a work in progress, or maybe its complete? OK I may add 15 more graphics to it. Either way, Im really happy with where this is going. I love creating logos, icons, symbols, digital illustrations and graphics. The images in the poster are a mixture of digitized hand drawn illustrations and computer renderings using adobe photoshop and illustrator. Some are vector graphics, and some are raster graphics. Its a mixture of processes that assert my love for graphics and the various techniques used to create them. Living here in NY, it is impossible not to be unconsciously effected by advertising. Especially in NYC. Large billboards and flashing monitors blasting ads out all the time. This has played a great role in my awareness, and how unconsciously advertising in public spaces plays a role. I began looking at logos and branding imagery pretty early on in my life as an artist.
Most likely, unconsciously!
When you search for “logos” via google and select the “images” section, images like this one below come up in their immediate query. I fell in love with these kinds of examples, and there are tons and tons of them. So naturally I have spent some time letting my eyes absorb the candy and my mind process how it can be transcended into new works. These arrangements have become inspiration. Inspiration makes me take action, and lots of it.
Here above we can see many of the most recognizable logos from popular products and services. They are all arranged together into one horizontal rectangle. They have been economized and consolidated. I’m really inspired by this compositionally and I find a lot of connections to my installation work below. Although I have been creating these kinds of installation for many years, well before I saw the image above, there is a connection to how the pieces are arranged. There is both order and chaos present, recognizable imagery and displaced logic. The purpose of a logo is to make the company stand out and visually represent the brand, product or service, but when they are clustered as such, we must work harder to understand what is being communicated. There is an aesthetic to this.
I like the dichotomy of the discomfort the feeling creates.
I find order in the experience of observing visual chaos. My eye darts all over the place as my brain tells me what it recognizes and what seems displaced. Someone spent the time to gather all of the images in the example above, and then spent even more time arranging them. Most likely over and over again to attain this final outcome. Is it really done? Or is this just one potential outcome to what you would do if you had access to this illustrator file with all of its layers. What would you do? I took on this challenge but wanted to see what happen if I used my own design work. I ventured into the process of digging out the images, arranging them all together as layers and composing. It took well over 5 hours to get to the outcome above. I didn’t design any new graphics for this project, it has come out of completed work for clients. (Admittedly, some of it is concept work, but concept work that I really liked.)
Shortly after doing a year of these random inspiration searches for logo designs I discovered the work of designer Aaron Draplin. If you don’t know of him, oh man, you do now. He is by far one of my favorite graphic designers, speakers and sources of inspired energy. Check out this video when you can, no, check it it now as it will really get your motivation fueled. This image below began appearing in my random logo search queries and the rest is history, I was hooked. It lead me to making the posted above. I love how Draplin works in the circular form on this piece. His signature style of thick lines, smooth vector forms and the use of color pull it all together. Brilliant.
short-link to this post – https://www.ryanseslow.com/uO9r9
