Discover Top Posts Tagged with #practice led research

14/10/2017 Wunderwerk Grafik - My practice is always very much research driven as I am a very systematic, logical and organised person. I like to have a clear overview of contexts and circumstances and want to go deep to the core of the proposed problem. Gathering these information drives my work and helps me decide over possible tactical steps to achieve the best and most effective visual outcome. For this self initiated project, however, I decided to go back to my roots as an artist, away from the highly analytical work I normally produce. At this, I was greatly inspired by Paul Minott’s series of mono prints, which have no other reasoning than to look visually appealing and explore the relationship of colour and shapes. I liked how he stated the three different types of primary and secondary research ”about, into and through graphic design”. He said sometimes the process itself becomes the theory, so I started to experiment, expressing inner feelings, unconscious thoughts and instinctive methods without the pressure of being contextually relevant and solve a problem. With my normal practice, I often get caught in overthinking, so these drawing really gave me an opportunity to have no restrictions and be free from any responsibilities. As a form of self-expression, I am actually very pleased with the colourful, lively and dynamic compositions, the great attention to detail and hand-drawn/screenprinted aesthetics.What I also like about them is how they encourage the imagination of the audience. Viewers try to decode the elements within the drawings to establish meaning. They are actively involved and want to make sense of what they see. I am really interested in the theory of semiotics and how it combines the impressions of our world, psychology, intelligence, personal experience and cultural beliefs in the formation of meaning. It fascinates me how these impressions and interpretations arise and differ from person to person. After all, it’s abstract art led by inner impulses without thinking too much about how it looks and what it stands for. Interestingly, however, by giving them titles such as ”Tennis Court“, ”Fishermen“, ”Malibu” and ”Beehive”, I was also able to direct meaning. Suddenly people were pointing out where they assumed to have detected the corresponding symbolism. Although this started as an experimental project with no real intention other than to free myself from conventional research, I decided to give it all a more commercial context again and create a series of artist edition notebooks to be sold by a brand called Wunderwerk. It’s a combination of the two German word ”wunder" meaning wonder and “werk” meaning production/studio. Together, ”wunderwerk” could also be translated as masterpiece which underlines the artistic and creative qualities. A notebook is a place where instinctive thoughts are collected together, from quick doodles to more sophisticated sketches, shopping lists or even love poems. I think my illustrations show the notion of gathering ideas and inspiration very well, so after all, practice led research, being creative and taking risks has surprisingly indeed created a design product. I will continue with producing these drawings as I really enjoyed the creative freedom. Design/Illustrations/Photograph by Merbecks, V. (2017)

#october #experimentation #my work #primary resaerch #practice led research #graphic design #illustrations