5 pieces of Inspiration

Alexandre Farto A.K.A Vhils is a prolific street artist originally from portugal. His distinctive pieces have been popping up all over the world. The desire he has to get his work out there is something that I really admire. Vhils creates detailed portraits by drilling away plaster and brickwork to show different areas of tone. This unusual method is something that i find really interesting and is one of the reasons I like his work so much. He also produces work off the streets which utilises collage, stencils and various experimental processes which I have taken inspiration from in the past, for art and for Graphic Design.

Above is the work of Notting Hill based design agency Two Times Elliott. Two Times Elliott work across many disciplines but their identity design and design for print is the area of their work that I like the most. The work is always to a really high standard, a lot of the time quite minimal but never boring. The agency always seem to have a concept behind their work and I think the fact that they focus on ideas means that they don't produce shallow design. The work is always visually interesting and I think this is down to them being precise during every aspect of the design. Their composition is always eye catching yet legible, the design never seems unbalanced and they always ensure their print work is done to a high quality. I have taken lots of inspiration from Two Times Elliott since I came across their work last year and look forward to seeing their next project.

Mother is an Advertising agency based in London. Although I understand that Mother are an advertising agency, not artists or designers I wanted to show some of their work as I really like the personality that comes across. There is tongue in cheek humour which is done really cleverly a lot of the time. Obviously they also produce advertisements with a more serious tone but the work I have shown here is light hearted. The top two images display what Mother called, the uncarriable carrier bag. Its intention was to make people think about the overuse of plastic bags and how much they actually need to use them. The way they have approached this is intelligent and funny which i feel is really effective across all forms of visual communication. I have also shown an advert for 'Talk to Frank' which uses a play on words to get the intended message across. The attitude Mother have and how they approach many of their projects is the main selling point of this agency for me.

Josef Muller-Brockmann was a lead practitioner and theorist of the Swiss Style, also known as the Typographic Style. His ideas on design influence designers to this day and his grid system is still recognised as extremely effective and often still adhered to. I love looking at Brockmann's work, the way it is so effective whilst being so minimal is something I would love to emulate. His use of photography with simple type is something that he does incredibly well and I have taken inspiration from this in the past. Not only do I admire Brockmann for the influence he has had on design but I find it amazing that his work doesn't look dated. Considering much of it was designed in the 50's I think thats quite a feat and shows that he had a brilliant understanding of design.

Sam Chivers, an Illustrator from Brighton produces some of my favourite pieces. He uses CMYK screen printing for all his prints which is a highly skilled process. However the processes he uses are not the reason I like his work so much. The pieces are always vibrant with well thought out colour schemes and excellent composition. I am never quite sure what his work depicts, it is always quite open ended and up to you to use your imagination. This is one of the things that I like most about his work. Chivers must have an incredible imagination himself to come up with such strange ideas and images.