Janne Koivistoinen: "I enjoy life as a Graphic Designer"

The Web designer I am researching is Janne Koivistoinen. He has a aesthetic somewhere between snapshot photography and minimalist. He was born in a little factory city called Varkaus in Finland. He first started working with computers when he was very young but had no Internet; instead Koivistoinen explored Windows 95 “to see if there was anything I might have missed”. As a teen he became very interested in Graffiti, an influence seen in may of his commercial works with bold colors and a more urban feel.  He started publicly posting graffiti inspired art on Deviant Art.

He started using Photoshop when he was 14 and by the time he was 16 he launched his first website. In 2006 he had his first commission, a website and rebranding for a Finnish rock festival. The site was very successful and well liked.

He starts work by brainstorming descriptions and words he wants to have in the site and then begins a sketch or starts directly in Illustrator or Photoshop. He completes the layout, and sometimes the entire design, in only a few hours.

He usually doesn’t have a plain background, even when he does he uses lighting to attract attention to target links and subtly add interest. 

He likes to use the Fibonacci sequence, subtle gradients, and the careful use of empty space.  His biggest recommendation for site designers who want to make money is simply “Put Yourself in the buyer’s shoes”. He comments that organization of files is necessary and that great commercial sites create emotion.

Sources

Douglass, Drew. "Inside the Minds of 7 Great ThemeForest Designers: kuimu." Janne Koivistoinen (kuimu). http://blog.themeforest.net/general/inside-the-minds-of-7-great-themeforest-designers-kuimu/ (accessed November 22, 2013).

Koivistoinen, Janne. "I enjoy life as a Graphic Designer." Janne Koivistoinen Portfolio RSS. http://janne.me/ (accessed November 22, 2013).

Update Post Lab Monitor Session 1

Work list for http://students.smcm.edu/enrader/ 
Art
- Make main page image (Start sketches, inspiration print development? Or just fade text? Hover image?)
- fill out gallery (Partly Done)
- scan work and make thumbnails
Text
- Write Statements (So very much cluelessness)
-Bio/Info/CV/Resume  part (so clueless about this)
Technical and etc…
- check hyperlinks 
- make site live 
- check on multiple browsers (Don't forget those non-mac users!)
- make layout 
- change blog to be similar to site 
- replace broken links 
- rename site

Awesome! -> http://students.smcm.edu/enrader/Shadow1.html 

Progress

misread the email and thought this was due next thursday. 
Apologies, 
-E

Here's what I have so far, I have a lot more to put on thew site as you can tell. I am making a personal portfolio. Most of it's partly done but not ready to be made live yet. 

Work list for http://students.smcm.edu/enrader/ 
Art
- Make main page image (Start sketches, inspiration print development? Or just fade text? Hover image?)
- fill out gallery (Partly Done)
- scan work and make thumbnails
Text
- Write Statements (ugh, but a third of the way done)
-Bio/Info/CV/Resume  part (so clueless about this part but I think its a third of the way done too)
Technical and etc…
- check hyperlinks (shouldn't take too long)
- make site live (Continual through project)
- check on multiple browsers (Don't forget those non-mac users!)
- make layout (done but I want to try "lighting")
- change blog to be similar to site (just need to fix the format)
- replace broken links 
- rename site (finished)

Final Project in Vector

Public Veil

This section, “The Public Veil” is about the differences and, more importantly, the similarities between IRL (In Real Life) and the “veil” of interacting with others online. The theme that a better name for IRL is AFK (Away from Keyboard) is commented on earlier in the reading because the online world is as real as the physical world, and this is further emphasized in this section. The author starts her discussion with the difference in meeting new people online, as opposed to AFK. It’s less intimidating and she has met many of her friends in this manner like her friends from a group called “The Computers Club” who works with identity manipulation.

The author tells a story of how a friend in the group, MOM, or maman’s, funeral. She had very real friends in this group, but at the funeral this way of meeting was considered to have cheapened their relationship. However, the author believes the Internet is the world without a physical body. They are the same people online as in AFK, but this lack of physicality in a relationship appeared to others shallower, despite the true depth in a relationship coming from memories and conversations. The author also discusses how, like in the physical world, he has only the shell of the online record, his legacy, without the “physical” presence. This is no different from the world of “reality” where only the memories remain after a person is gone.

I can honestly say I very much agree with the author’s ideas: emotional closeness is not about physicality, but memories, and spending time with them no matter whether online or AFK. It’s shallow to think that a physical body makes a friendship more real.

Jerry Truong: Many Meanings

Artist Talk with Jerry Troung, October 2^nd

 4:45 pm at Boyden Gallery

If I was a curator I might not want to get one his works, at least not If I expect it to be temporary. This artist has a sometimes mischievous sense of humor.  He has works like “Flaccid” and “Manifest Destiny/Reveal the World” that have (and it would appear were meant to) left their mark on their former residences. Flaccid, a massive sugar sculpture intended to comment on the lack of a soul and so many pieces pandering to a professor at the school, melted and left a sticky spot on the gallery floor. The later was a sharpie installation, a material that is more than a little difficult to cover up. Of course this permanence is an aspect of the art, an interesting concept to all those who are not the gallery assistant who has to scrape sugar off the floor or find the budget for enough paint to cover up sharpie. Unless he cleaned up the sugar himself, in which case I applaud his dedication to making a statement and do not envy him the task.

Untitled (Bien Girl)  (Good/Sea/Change)

In this piece, we see both the artist’s love of polysemy and the way he draws inspiration from history. It is inspired by immigration of Vietnamese boat people and what happened to the stolen women when the Thai pirates attacked their boats. The polysemy of the word “Bien” means good, sea and transformation.

This is piece itself, is comprised of 5 paintings and a destroyed mannequin. The five paintings are divided as thus, 4 square paintings arranged 2x2 painted with bands of red of varying widths and edge quality, two of them appear to be almost completely red, while the other two have three alternating bands of red and white running vertically through the canvas. The fifth painting is a portrait rectangle and much larger than any of the square paintings. It faces them on the opposite wall and has three thin red bands running the vertical width of the painting. These paintings symbolize the flags of Vietnam and the United States.  In the middle of the room is a mannequin in two parts. One part is a slender and nude female torso, the other is a pair of legs, one unnaturally stiff and up right, the other almost sliced off and centered on the main piece. The mannequin pieces are a roughed white with a red line dividing each part in half. This mannequin symbolizes the Vietnamese girls who were stolen and sold into the sex trade. They lie abandoned between two sides.

Lớp/Vỏ (Layer/Shell or Crust)

This is another piece with many meanings and many inspirations, a common theme in Truong’s work. This piece was first inspired when the artist saw stories of bodies washed up after a Japanese tsunami. It then evolved to include being a remembrance of his uncle who died on the boat to America.  He talks about it on the sight discussing the many ways the past somehow “refuses” to stay buried. The piece is made of mud, wood and an outfit consisting of a Lacoste polo, Levis and a pair of converse. It is made to resemble an excavation.

See Also

December 14, 2012, Carving and Graphite on a Wooden desk, Jerry Truong 2013

In Waves, graphite on bristol paper, 2010

To Cryptics and Cynics, A Modest Proposal For a New Kind of Revolution, Vinyl on Polyester film, 2013

Logo Remix

I wonder what the artist was trying to say........ 

-E. Rader

Nearly finished I think

Nearly finished, I'm just going to add an arm shadow, re add the cord thats in the bottom of the original image and redo the right eye. I might also add highlights to the hair.

The apple isn't doing so well though, think I might stick with the original text

Update on Portrait Trace

Here's my work on Ilse Bing's Portrait with mirrors, just have the main figure and some mid-tones on the background left to do I think. Also I want to see if I can crop the image. If you want to see the original image, please check out this link
-> http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=44571    

Joseph McDermott: Of Deception and Desire

Joseph McDermott is USA based Digital media illustrator with an art history background. He works mainly in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. He is one of my favorite groups of artists, those inspired and paying their respects to art history. His work is inspired by pop artists like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Alex Katz (whose work is very vectory) and Jasper Johns. McDermott’s is a commercial artist whose work is often commissioned for advertisements and holiday cards in addition to his work for Be magazine.

Like Lichtenstein, McDermott uses a comic book style and often he uses Benday dots in his work. McDermott also has Lichtenstein’s sense of the absurdity and yet of deep meaning in dramatic moments taken out of context. In these paired images (McDermott on the left, Lichtenstein on the right) we see a similarity between both artistic techniques and source material. Both artists challenge the gender norms of their era but, where Lichtenstein parodies the gender expectations, McDermott directly challenges them as we see in the next two images. The one on the left is from a series of Valentines Day cards and the one on the right is from his portfolio on illustration.com. In the image on the left he challenges the very idea of a heteronormative relationship, showing two men in a romantic relationship together in a serious relationship. The image on the right is contrary to the idea of men being the only ones who cheat, and also adds depth to both relationships. I like the artist’s sense of humor, which you can see in his works like “Kickbackman” and the linked poster at the end of his post.

  
These following two images are Perrier advertisements; the left is the more contemporary McDermott commission for the Perrier , while the right is Warhol’s advertisement. I included these images to show the combination of McDermott’s influences and how another artist approached the same commission.

Lichtenstien image courtesy of MutualArt.com, Andy Warhol image courtesy of Design Party, Other images courtesy of Illustrator

Also by Joeseph McDermott

Viral Velocity (https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/quarterly/speed/viral-velocity-youtube-babies.html)

“Kickbackman”

Download a poster of one of his works at -> http://www.illustrationweb.com/PortfolioScrapbook.aspx?artist_id=3484

Benday dots: a printing technique in which many small primary color dots were used to create secondary colors and shading in a cheaper manner

Sources

"Joe Mcdermott ." LUMAS. http://www.lumas.com/artist/joe_mcdermott/ (accessed October 10, 2013).




"Joseph McDermott." Illustrator Artists, Illustration Agency, Art Illustrators and Agents. http://www.illustrationweb.com/artists/JosephMcDermott/view (accessed October 12, 2013).

Dubrow, Marsha. "Pop's Roy Lichtenstein parodied but adored women, widow says at National Gallery." Examiner.com. http://www.examiner.com/article/pop-artist-roy-lichtenstein-parodied-women-but-put-them-on-a-pedestal (accessed October 14, 2013).

McDermott, Joe. "Joe McDermott Illustration." Joe McDermott Illustration. http://www.joemcdermottillo.com (accessed October 15, 2013).