Documentary: Henry Matisse (Modern Masters)

The documentary we watched was supposed to inspire us for our FMPs and end of year show plans, because Matisse's work is known to be very influential.. which after watching the hour long documentary I would agree with.

Matisse's work in 10 words: Simple, bold, intricate still life, colourful, Exploration of shape and colour, shocking, rule breaking, emotional, vibrant, distorted yet harmonious, visionary,

expressive, scruffy/messy and intense. Now I know that was more than 10 words, but his work was just so beautiful, 10 words just aren't enough. We saw the progression from fine art paintings to rough, expressive mark making experimental paintings, which was such an experience. I specially like the colours in Matisse's work, the colours made his work look so optimistic that it has its unique beauty, even if the shapes very illogical, the colours made sense on the canvases!

Matisse used various techniques in his work, ranging from impressionism to accurate still life in his early years as an artist. Later he used bold materials like charcoal to make rough expressive and crude marks on paper and walls! and then his last few years, his work became very abstract as he used paper cuttings for his work and in his last project - light. In the show, we saw that Matisse got his inspiration from his own passion of art the way he immersed himself in art as if his life depended on it, that's why he did what he did till his dying day! His other main inspiration for his bold striking colours was his experience in textile factories, all those bold colours flowing down like colourful waterfalls really changed the way Matisse looked at colours!

Many artists have been inspired by Matisse's work, from the bright colours to being able to put emotion in their work. Artist's like Rothko, Paul Smith (who makes clothing and accessories inspired by Matisse's work, whether that be snaps from his paintings, or his bold contrasting colours, and also fashion designers like Trisha Gill! But one of my favourite artist(or illustrator) who is inspired by Matisse's simplistic work with shape and colours is a guy called Dick Bruna, the creator of Miffy.

The simplistic shapes and colours are a clear indicator that Matisse had a great part in Bruna's work, and it's amazing to see a character who is so famously known by people to have been born through Matisse's magical talent of inspiring people with his work. Matisse's influence can be easily spotted today in commercial works, like the iPod adverts or the 2012 logo, as the same principal applies to them (Simplicity and bold colours).

Matisse's artwork was a response to all he went through in his life. You see that with the gradual evolution in his work from complexity to simplistic exploration in shapes and colours. It certainly was a moving piece of video, though I wouldn't have really liked to see the man sob on the screen... it was just so...fake *shrug*.

Looking for inspiration

Since I have to get a move on with making the blackletter font, as that is the priority in my FMP right now, I thought I'd start to look at some blackletter fonts for inspiration to design my own font. I understand I looked at a few blackletter fonts before but this time I wanted to gather some fonts through primary research.

Movie Review: Gattaca

We watched this movie 'Gattaca' for research on our final major project, as its major focus was DNA/genetics. It helped me understand what a world, that took GM babies seriously, would be like. It showed how discrimination was a big part of this other world, because of genetic differences. Gattaca was all about being genetically different... being genetically superior. It shows a constant comparison with a genetically selective child and a child born of natures will and how one was able to achieve his dreams despite how the people around him judged because of his 'not so perfect' genetic traits.

Hans Hofmann | Abstractly Inspiring

Now I know this doesn't entirely relate to my typographic approach to the project, but since I have looked at the artist Anish Kapoors work, I just had to put in my research some of Hans Hofmann's INCREDIBLE paintings. Similar to what I loved about Anish Kapoors work(the colour), I adore the colours used in Hofmann's work! The expressive strokes, abstract shapes and just the mixture of those warm colours, makes his art a pleasant and inspiring experience.

Ambitious Times...

Seven Ages of Britain

"The Age of Ambition"

It's just that time, in my research, to look up artists and movements that changed the whole face of modern art as we know it now. I watched this documentary, that followed David Dimbleby, to look through the mystical window to the past and also to look at modern day art/artists and ask the question, 'What art tells us about ourselves and our past?'. I was really hooked at the last 19 minutes of the one hour documentary, as it discussed modernist art, and how artists from that era thought how art should be shown to ordinary people, which changes the way how people see and feel about art now.

First were the unusual but very inspiring couple, Gilbert and George, or as they like to call themselves, 'Living Sculpture'. Their dance at the end was certainly entertaining!

I couldn't find the more explicit work by the living sculptures, which I honestly found more inspiring, but these examples sure do give a sense of how these two guys find themselves as living, breathing art, and want to show that to people. But the reason I like their explicit work much more interesting and definitely inspiring because what George and Gilbert want to show in their pictures is their interpretation of the question, 'what do I want to say to the world today?'. Their work certainly is confrontational, and that's what I love about it and also the fact about modern art, how(compared to art in the past) it is all about shock and outrage from the audience, since art in the past was all about beauty and craftsmanship. I guess that was just another goal for modernists, to think different, and be different.

Another thing about the living sculpture's work, is that it is very open, and it comes to terms with what people would think is disgusting and damn right shocking, and making them think that its completely normal to be open about yourself like that, which is definitely a point worth thinking about. The documentary goes on to expand this point and introduces Tracy Emin, who also does artwork that gets some serious heads turning.

But what seriously reached to me was the artist Anish Kapoor's wax work. The total size and vibrance of the work was what made it totally attractive, even though it was rather disgusting at first to look at.

The work reminds you of blood, guts and gore, with all the gooey red wax, falling down the wall and edges of door frames but it has a certain beauty to it, when looked at from a distance, I personally find it weird, yes, as it is unusual, but that is what makes it special, the highlight for me being the colour and just the scale of the whole art piece(the motorized wax block).

This documentary definitely showed me a whole new face of modern art, and it taught me how you should be free with your work, and to take risks, and do what you think is right, or for a change, do what is wrong, I mean, either way, you could end up with interesting and unexpected results!!

Thijs Verbeek | Typography with a Pinch

I came across this dutch designer, who used his skin to create the alphabet, honestly it is kind of disturbing to look at but interesting too, purely because of how experimental it is. It reminds me a bit of Stefan Sagmeister AIGA poster and Oded Ezer's typoplastic surgeries...

The rest of the alphabet can be viewed at Verbeek

Font Design | Blog

http://blog.hackberry-fonts.com/

I found this great blog about Font design and Typography where it gives you tips, explanations and DIT how-tos on font design, typography and clear communication with type. The tools of choice are InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and FontLab.' This will help me a lot when designing my font!

Alan Fletcher...

Alan Fletcher is a British graphic designer who has influenced thousands of other designers. HE presents simple typography on a plain background in a witty and thought-provoking manner, to show that good art didn't have to be over complicated but if it can be delivered simply and effectively without being bored, then it is a success.

Alex Trochut...

A graphic designer from barcelona, he is one of my typography/illustration idols, his work is just so mesmerizing, as his work doesn't really focus a on 1 style, its much more experimental, expressive and the exploration in each of his projects makes his work very unique and different. His lettering work is just amazing.

You can see more of Alex Trochuts work at http://www.alextrochut.com/

Frank | The Font

I was researching the net for typographic artists, but instead I found this font, that sort of shows what I wanted to achieve for my FMP. It is the closest thing I have found that matches my thoughts for my FMP.

'What would you get if a blackletter font and a sans serif font made a little baby bastard font? Frank is what you'd get!'. Frank is a grotesque blackletter font from Gestalten. It's the weird kid in class but it has character.

Designer | Anton Studer and released in December 2008.

More about Frank