Elaboration 4: eBoy

The fourth and final artist(s) I have decided to delve deeper and look further into is the world-famous digital collection eBoy. A group that have interested me for a long, long time and who, after further research, have made me gain a greater interest in precision, accuracy and extensive detail which are all main factors and elements of their unmistakable cityscape compositions.

One of eBoy's intricate compositions - so much to see!

In each of their compositions it can easily take at least fifteen minutes or more to really investigate the image and pick out everything that is included in it, including characters, signs, logos, building detail and accessories. Each piece is bulging with colour, interest and precision and are truly, in my opinion, masterpieces. I have trouble with patience at times and could never imaging myself setting myself such a mammoth task as eBoy set themselves.

Their surreal and 'fun' pieces really strike me as being literally something like I've never, ever seen before. I just think their work is fantastic even though it's something that I myself could never, ever do.

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Alan Fletcher

The late, great Alan Fletcher is perhaps well-remembered as one of Britain's most recognised designers, especially thanks to his creations of now world-famous logos.

Fletcher's instantly recognisable logo for the Victoria & Albert
Museum, London. 

Having quite a childhood where he was moved around the world (from Kenya where he was born to England and then moved around there) Fletcher finally found his feet in 1949 when he began his art studies which eventually lead him on to study at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art where he studied alongside and befriended many now well-known designers including Ken Garland, Peter Blake and Len Deighton. In the 1950's Fletcher also accepted a scholarship to study at Yale University under prolific designers such like Paul Rand and Josef Albers at their School of Architecture and Design.

After his what seems like many years of studying and tutoring, Alan went on to design for brands including Pirelli, Cunard and Penguin Books with "Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes" alongside his collaborative partners Colin Forbes and Theo Forbes (who later went on to, along with the introduction of a few more designers, establish themselves as "Pentagram", a collective who I have discussed in a previous blog entry).

As well as his design work and having his work exhibited globally, Fletcher is also a well-established author who released multiple books under the theme of design.

Fletcher's work will remain as some of Britain's best in the design field, in my opinion.  His V&A logo for the London Museum is instantly recognisable and still as heavily used now in the field of British Art & Design as it was back when it was first designed and used over 20 years ago. A huge inspiration to me, Fletcher's simplistic yet bold style of working really has an effect on some of my work and I'm sure will do for other artists/designers for many, many years to come.

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Chris Ware

Chris Ware is a notable American comic book artist who is perhaps well know for his affiliation with the ACME Novelty Library cartoon company as well as his own series of graphic novels. Interestingly, Ware is not your typical cartoonist in the sense that his subject matter is quite dark and covers matters including mental health and negative elements within today's society.

An example of Ware's precise work, which
graced the cover of The New Yorker.

Resembling work that would have been popular and 'current' at the start of the 20th Century, Ware's designs comprise of meticulous detail (for both typography and general illustration) and influential components from the 'Rag Time era' such as classic cut out toy designs, music sheet designs and classic newspaper cartoonist-style illustrations.

All of Ware's precise and immaculately drafted work is done by hand with ink, although sometimes appearing to be at first glance digitally created. Using a range of geometric tools such as T-squares and rulers, Chris only uses digital elements into his work for the purpose of adding colour, nothing else whatsoever.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Ware's work, finding his attention to detail and meticulousness absolutely out of this world. The way in which he crafts an image or design is an art form in itself, with an unimaginable amount of time consuming geometric-based formatting involved. I myself can never see myself working in such a close-knit way due to being quite an "urgent" person, however I have total respect for artists and designers, like Ware, who do.

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Jonathan Barnbrook

Again, heavily influenced by digital design and technology, Jonathan Barnbrook has made a name for himself around the world especially in Japan (where he is one of our most well-known designers) a country which Barnbrook has completed many designs for corporate identities.

A major factor and inspiration in Barnbrook's work is political issues and social factors. Barnbrook responds to these through his artwork, using it as a creative medium to get is thoughts and feelings across to his audience.

David Bowie - Heathen (2002).

A notable piece of work created by Barnbrook is the album cover for musician David Bowie's iconic album "Heathen". Barnbrook describes his creation as a descriptive play on the word "heathen", in which he famously turned the word upside down to emphasise the meaning (i.e. upside down cross symbols signifying the anti-religious and sometimes Satanic).

As a general rule, Barnbrook's work wouldn't usually interest me although I do like his use of "current affairs" in his work and also his fearlessness within his work (e.g. Bowie's album art could have and most probably would have terribly offended religious people).

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Yugo Nakamura

Yugo Nakamura is considered one of the world's greatest and most innovative web designers who has received acclaim for his unique and groundbreaking complex interface creations.

Back in 1999 Nakamura caused sensation when he unveiled an update to his MONOcrafts website (a site filled with over a decades worth of experimentation with web inteface and layouts which in their own right were deemed as "revolutionary") as it was the landmark event that kick started the use of the then newly-released Flash 4 computer software. The reveal saw his audience greeted with a totally new web experience with the aspect of the ability to create your own fluid interfaces.

An example of Nakamura's heavily digital
work.

Nakamura considers John Maeda to be a massive influence of his (who I have dedicated a previous blog post to) and it is easy to see some comparisons in their working style as both enjoy abstract and overtly creative digital aspect of design.

As much as I enjoy viewing work by designers like Nakamura and Maeda and appreciate their concepts and general design processes, I just could not see myself ever working in this way. I prefer images that rely on simplicity to get a message across rather than using a heavy influence on technology and manipulation.

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Susan Kare

Susan Kare is considered one of the innovators of computer design due to her creation of many of the digital interfaces during the 1980's for the Apple Macintosh and kept a close working relationship with Apple CEO Steve Jobs for many years to come.

Ph.D. Art graduate Kare, a native New Yorker, got a job with Apple through a friend from high school who worked for the company and recommended her to his colleagues. This is where Kare would really start to shine by designing typefaces, interfaces and her now trademark "cute" icons and logos with which she found a way to be very simplistic whilst still managing to keep said icons memorable.

A selection of Kare's classic Apple Macintosh logos.

Karen has since gone on to design for more well known companies including Facebook and has still kept her close ties with Apple by designing for their latest iPhones (the app "Karma Jar").

As her official biography states on her official site:

...good icons should be like road signs than illustrations, easily comprehensible, and not cluttered with extraneous detail. 

I adore Kare's icons and general style of work. The way she allows so much simplicity in her work is very brave and shows that she is a confident designer who has found her own signature and "what works well for her".

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Hi-Res

Founded back in 1999 by German designers Alexandra Jugovic and Florian Schmitt in London, Hi-Res combine the seperate mediums of music, graphic design, product design, film and fine art into one monstrous design juggernaut, creating edgy, post-modern pieces.

A campaign by Hi-Res for sports brand Adidas

Since their arrival, Hi-Res have reached critical acclaim and won numerous awards including the D&AD Silver Award and BAFTAs and have cemented good professional relationships with clients such as fashion houses Dolce & Gabana and Chanel as well as alcohol producers Jagermeister, broadcasters Channel 4 and 20th Century Fox amongst a lot of others.

Even though they have reached such success, Hi-Res are still adament to stay close-knit and remain a somewhat "small" establishment whilst having bases in major cities around the world including London and New York City.

Hi-Res are very appealing to me. Their edgy and current design allow them to broadcast their talents through their almost endless list of highly notable clients.

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Neville Brody

Once a student at the London College of Printing, British designer and art director Neville Brody is well known for his work in publications especially in the entertainment industry and primarily within music. Not only has he worked for high-profile magazines such as "Arena" and "The Face", Brody has also designed album covers for very successful musicians and bands, notable the legendary Depeche Mode.

One of Brody's eye-catching  typographical pieces
featuring Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke.

Aside from publication designs, Neville Brody is also well respected for his own work and has been known to attract considerable amounts of fans to his exhibition shows, most notably in 1988 where his work displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London attracted over 40,000 viewers before embarking on an international tour off the back of this positive public reaction.

Another area of which Brody is established is typography as a founding member of the London organisation FontWorks before then going on to collaborate with legendary typographer Erik Spiekermann to create the FontFont library.

From looking at a range of Neville Brody's work it is clear that he is a designer who likes to push boundaries and I adore his use of bright colours and creation of shape and form through the use of type.

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Tomato

Another multi-disciplinary artistic collective that are very prevalent are Tomato, who interestingly not only employ designers and craftspeople but also musicians and writers, making them very, very diverse.

Founded in 1991 by eight up and coming creative minds (who some went on to form the legendary electronic music group "Underworld"), Tomato have gone from strength to strength and are nowadays considered to be one of the top creative agencies in the United Kingdom, working (which ranges in design, architecture, performance, public speaking etc) with clients such as globally popular sports brands Reebok, Adidas and denim manufacturer Levi's.

Their first project titled "Ipso Facto Yeah Yeah" was released in their founding year, is a sort-of music video which incorporates the production of film, sound as well as design (the film depicts graffiti street art on the London Underground juxtaposed with the hustle and bustle of city life). The video can be viewed below (courtesy of YouTube):

Even as a huge fan of Underworld and the prominent dance/electronic era of the 80's and 90's, I still didn't know that they were associated to heavily with Tomato and am glad of what my research has helped me discover. An interest of mine is performance and video art which is something that Tomato do very well and has garnered interest in me to delve further into the organisation.

Pentagram

Based in five major cities around the globe and sporting the largest creative multi-disciplinary design consultancy, Pentagram are leaders in collective deign. From installations to websites to architecture to books, Pentagram cover a wide area in the design field with each member of the team having expertise in their own "area" of design.

The revamped "visual identity" of the Saks Fifth
Avenue department store.

Founded in London in 1972 by a small group of five designers (including the brilliant Alan Fletcher), Pentagram has gone from strength to strength and has built up a reputation of professionalism and great production which has landed them high-profile jobs for clientele including Tesco, Boots, Tiffany & Co. and Nike.

Again touching upon their wide field of expertise and clientele, Pentagram have been employed for some very high-profile design jobs, recently being given the opportunity to re-design the entire visual identity of Saks Fifth Avenue, an upscale American department store chain which houses some of the most luxurious shopping brands in the world.

I find Pentagram very appealing. Their work covers such a diverse range of areas that they are a great source of reference and research for most areas of my course and indeed future career path.

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The Chase

The Chase are a design collective based in Manchester, Preston and London who describe themselves as:

"We describe ourselves as creative consultants. Not designers, or writers, or advertisers, or brand strategists but all of these and more. In the last year we have been both playwriters and drinks mixers. Yes, there is the usual list opposite but who knows what may be the best solution for you."

"Freedom"

Clients of The Chase range all over the world but include well know British establishments and organisations such as BBC, B&Q, Royal Mail, NHS, National Trust and also Disney. The Chase currently have 29 people in their design team ranging from both illustration and graphic design.

Due to the wide range of skill and field of expertise within the group, their work as a whole is quite diverse from simple graphic/digital iconography to photography and typography and even product design.

From an illustrative point of view this work is hit and miss with me. Although I do like most of the work, it seems that it is predominantly digital based and quite 'simple' which is fair enough, but for me I would like to see perhaps some more evidence of "traditional" media.

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Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer from Surrey who is perhaps most known for his affiliations with both the design studios "v23" and "23 Envelope" as well as with record label 4AD who employed them in order for them to create distinct design identities for their signed musicians who ranged from The Breeders to Pixies, somewhat large names in the 1980s music scene.

Cover of Pixies' album "Doolittle", created by Oliver

Oliver is celebrated not just for his design innovation but also his collaborative projects, working with other designers such as Marc Atkins, Simon Larbalestier etc, and his brilliant imagination when it comes to projects. To many, Vaughan is credited as "setting the stage" for a graphic revolution which came about in the 1980's and 1990's and is often considered a master in the design and music industry post-punk era.

From viewing Vaughan's work it is apparent he is a very diverse designer who enjoys "pushing the envelope" so to speak. I find both his creativity and great imagination extremely appealing

Kyle Cooper

Being a graduate of the acclaimed Yale University and studying under a master of graphic design like Paul Rand, it would seem  that there would be a lot of expectation and "hype" to live up to. Kyle Cooper has definitely lived up to this.

Working in the field of motion picture title sequences, Cooper first reached critical acclaim whilst working in New York and created the title sequence for the 1995 "Seven" (often stylized as "Se7en"), a gritty crime drama starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman.

Screen-grabs of the title sequence that Kyle Cooper created for "Se7en"

Cooper's use of hard-hitting imagery and loose, almost "scribble-like" font fulfilled his initial intentions of "pushing the bar creatively" and conveyed the main theme of the film, the Seven Deadly Sins.

Although not a fan nor an enthusiast of video-based design, I do appreciate the power that it has and how, like illustration, it can be used in many effective ways to convey an idea to a particular audience. I do feel that  Cooper's work for "Seven" really does set the scene of the film and I do like the gritty and tense atmosphere that this particular title sequence alludes.

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eBoy

Known as "The Godfather's of Pixel", eBoy are a trio of designers who create very complex and interesting images for the purpose of advertising. Consisting of Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital, the collective use influences from gaming organisations like Nintendo, toys and general pop culture to create their fascinating pieces. Their intricate cityscapes are mind blowing and incredibly detailed to the point where you could literally sit and stare at them for hours and keep discovering more and more new elements to the image.

Groove Armada - Soundboy Rock (2007)

I first came across eBoy when they designed the sleeve for a CD I own by the band Groove Armada. "Soundboy Rock. Show right (Image Source) the album cover, sleeve and every future released single from this album features eBoy's trademark intricate city design compiling of various situation, characters (some abnormal, for example as you can see underneath the "Soundboy Rock" sign there is a blue human-like mouse).

I absolutely love eBoy's work! The way that they can feature so many elements into an image simply yet effectively and how your eyes wander around the designs picking out different situations fascinates me. Coulourful, bright and interesting.

Saul Bass

Considered to be one of the greatest graphic designers of the 20th Century, Saul Bass is one of my favourite designers of all time. I originally came across his work when I first became a fan of Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychological horror movies and saw his poster for the classic "The Birds" (1963) which still remains one of my favourites.

Saul Bass poster for "The Birds" (1963)

The poster (shown right) struck me with it's drastic use of negative silhouette of the feather against the harsh and striking fire engine red background. I feel this is a brilliant way of understating the work of Hitchcock by not giving too much away in terms of what the film is about as Bass could have gone the classic route of showcasing everything the film had to offer on the poster. Bass' way adds mystery and "suspense", which I'm sure Alfred himself loved.

From researching more into Bass I have discovered that he has also done advertisement designs for another legendary director Martin Scorcese as well as being an extremely successful freelance graphic designer.

I'm really drawn to the silhouette style of Bass' work and feel that this technique really creates a very eye catching and impactive piece of design. I am a huge, huge fan.

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John Maeda

John Maeda is an American designer whose work focuses heavily on creating a connection between design, science, technology and literature (all fields in which Maeda is accomplished in). In terms of his artistic work, Maeda is sometimes credited as planting the seeds in creating creative motion graphics (which are used heavily today) by combining "classic" and traditional techniques of art and design with computer programming and technology.

To the left is an example of Maeda's work (Image Source), combining the use of typography and design to create this rather abstract image of a key (for a publication "Key" released in 2006). The typography used is a collection of street names and addresses, supposedly referencing and utilising the connection of a key
and "home"/where you call "home". Maeda is well recognised for this style of abstract and heavily computer/technology
based imagery which usually have a great emphasis on typography and symbolism.

Maeda's work is not something which I would usually stop and analyse as it's not a "style" which I would call myself a fan of. However, from doing so I have gained much understanding and  consideration for the work he does (and designers similar to him).

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