First Shots at Photography: Still Lives

I'm no photographer. But now that I got my own still shot camera, I just thought it was time I started experimenting with it.
The camera is an old 5 megapx SONY of the bridge category, it was my brother's camera that I got as a Christmas present, now that he bought himself a new Nikon D90. The LCD screen is broken but I can still use the viewfinder. Also, when I shoot indoors, without flash, the outcome is very noisy.
Still, I'm really happy about my new little toy.
I also made a few self portraits. Later on I'll definitely post some.
As for the still lives, I intentionally overdid Photoshop work so that the pictures would look somewhat like paintings. I also wanted them to be studies on color.

Freedom of Speech

So, this is the other poster I submitted for the Poster4Tomorrow campaign.
As for the copy, I actually wanted to put there a few lines from Tracy Chapman's Why. But then I reworded if so as not to risk any infringement on copyrights. The copy would have been this:
"...the time is coming soon, when the blind remove their blinders and the speechless speak the truth..."
I guess this poster was to a large degree inspired by all the dotty images that I've recently saved in my Stuff I Like library. :)
Process is so funny. I actually wanted to make my posters much more "hand-made". That would still be me. I love collaged paper. I was also planning on making some embroidery that would be part of a poster. But during the process, and of course also because I tend to postpone everything up till the last minutes, my posters somehow got to be very simple. And I don't mind.
I'm starting to believe that process is more important than the outcome.

The Playful Search for Beauty

Freedom of Speech

One of the posters that I submitted for Poster4Tomorrow's campaign for Freedom of Speech.
The idea behind this was that people that are not granted the Freedom of Speech, might try to communicate in other ways, i.e. through their works. I'm not sure whether the illustration is clear or not. These are supposed to be mouth-blown glass objects, inspired by a video I saw on YouTube about a Chinese glass factory.

Inspiration: Dot Dot Dot

Beautiful! Dots are so simple and so perfect. I'm kind of in love with dots. I might say I like dots even more than stripes. ;-)
I guess I found theese on ffffound.com.

Almost Famous

Well, far from it, but this poster of mine got displayed at the Museum of Applied Arts. I'm really proud now. :)

Coffeescapes

It's sooo good to look at what I would call "coffeescapes". They're always different.
These ones are made with cold milk and instant coffee.

Inspiration: Paul Cézanne

I cannot say that Cézanne is my favourite painter. Frankly, I don't even think he was a very good draughtsman. I think he simply could not draw. But what he could, was paint!
What I feel for him, is some deep respect. I think his approach to painting is really what a painter's approach to painting should be. He was thinking in terms of specks of color. In my opinion, that's what a painting is all about. Specks of color.

I WANNA PAINT :)

I've been considering taking up painting for quite a while. Really.
What keeps me from really doing it, is some fear from mediocrity and amateurism.
But, I gotta start somewhere, so I decided to get over this debilitating fear. I kind of have to understand that at the outset, I, most possibly, won't be as good as I want to be, but that this fact simply should not make me stop or even worse, not start at all.
The reason I'm putting this out, is that I hope this would put some responsibilty on me, to really start. This post is like a promise to be kept. Well, I'm not very good at keeping promises, but nevertheless... The promise is there, and I have to keep it sometime.
I post some still lives from Paul Cézanne, that I find inspiring.

Inspiration: A Gem from Whistler

Taken from Mr Whistler's Ten O'Clock Lecture held in 1885, February 20th. Whistler is among my favourite painters. His approach to Art is really close to me.

The painting that kinda illustrates the quote is his Nocturne in Black and Gold.

You can click on the quote to enlarge it.

Logo and sketches

This was an assignment at the University. I quite like this... :)
The purpose of the Bologna Process it to standardize higher education in Europe, thereby making it possible for students to migrate between European Universities and Colleges.
The main idea here was to convey the freedom that is gained by students thanks to the Bologna Process.

Book: Making and Breaking the Grid (Rockport Publishers)

Among my favourites is this book by Tim Samara.
It gives really good examples on grid construction as well as grid deconstruction.
Some typical spreads:Picked it up at amazon.com.

A Study on Lines in Space

Made for Anatomy Class (Human Anatomy and Studies in Space or something like that) about a year and a half ago.

Some More Business Cards

This identity was made for the Hungarian Chapter of Union International de la Marionette; a school assingment as usual.
I took the hard way with this, as instead of simply using a Wacom, I painted the logotype with watercolor then scanned it and then vectorized it in Adobe Illustrator.

Inspiration: A Quote from Eva Zeisel

A favourite of mine from Eva Zeisel's On Design: The Magic Language of Things.

A Poster

A poster that I made for an old movie, Andrzej Wajda's Landscape After the Battle, and some sketches for the same.
This again was a school assignment.

Identity

So, these are some items from my own identity. Well actually these are all the items from my identity, but the cards are all one of a kind, and I made quite a few of them.
Once again, this was a school assignment from last year.
I'll leave you with a quote from Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type.

"A graphic designer can set out to change the world one business card at a time - as l ong as it is the business card of a really interesting person."

LOL.

Inspiration: Drawings and Sketches by Degas

Full of restatements... and I think that's what makes them so beautiful.

Young Degas once met Old Dominique Ingres. Old Ingres told him he should draw and draw and draw. So, he would draw and draw and draw. To my greatest joy.

Bottle Design

Another school assignment from last semester, but this time it was for real, only, it was not my work that got chosen for the real deal. But never mind.
We had to design bottle and labels for three kinds of spirits. This was a new territory, going 3D, but I enjoyed it. I'd love to learn studiomax but this time I still depended on my brother with it.

Some Croquis from our 2007 School Camp

These gesture drawings were made at our school's summer camp site back in 2007. The site is located in Tihany (Hungary) at a lake up on a hill. The little donkey was not part of the wildlife but the ducks were.
It's too bad we only went to this camp just once, at the beginning of our second year at university.

Inspiration: Degas

Just look at the rhythm. Needless to say, I love Edgar Degas.

It can be clearly seen, that the first painting is an earlier one.

In my opinion, this is a tendence that we see with great painters: as they grow older and more experienced, they don't bother to say more with more, instead, they manage to say more with less. And I think that is why the lower two are so fabulous. I just can't get enough of them.

I'm sure that sooner or later I'll take up painting.

Inspiration: Sutnar

I don't know much about Vladimir Sutnar, pioneer of what we now call information design, but I certainly like these pieces from his oeuvre. Diagonals make these works move. Also, I like the idea of combining photography with simple shapes. And I like that he uses color sparingly (regardless of whether this is due to contemporary printing technology or not).

Poster

A poster for the 30th anniversary of the National Industrial Design Awards in Hungary. This was a school assignment. This last semester, among other things, we had to make a few potsers, mostly for films.

Croquis, Again and Again

Some older ones from a year or so ago.
The upper one is made with charcoal, and the lower one is made with a graphite stick.

Some old sketches for bridal gowns

These are some designs for my mother's bridal company (www.izabell.hu), but these are ones that never got executed.
They look very funny scanned and superimposed.