OUGD502 - Studio brief 01 - Abstract : The art of design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYaq2sWTWAA

Of late I have been watching a new series on Netflix about the visionary designers who shape our world. Abstract is an eight episode documentary series about creativity, about visionary designers who shape the world around us from architecture to illustration, cars to typography. Ive watched a number of design documentaries but Abstract is different as its more fun and light hearted yet still has a strong message of design. Every episode stands as its own film in many ways, as it adapts to the design styles of the subjects. Also the series has very high production values as its shot beautifully, with the use of drones and 4K adding to the film aesthetic.

In the first episode it explores the life of Christoph Niemann who is an illustrator, artist, and author. His work has appeared on the covers of The New Yorker,  WIRED and The New York Times Magazine. I wasn't familiar with Christoph before this episode but during the episode I began to recognise his work and style, and it was interesting to see the process of an illustrator. The episode focuses on a upcoming deadline of his, in which he has two weeks to design a front cover for The New Yorker. It was great to see him working in his small Berlin based studio, it gave a real insight into freelance work and what he gets up to between 9am to 6pm. I noted down an interesting point of his which I can relate to in many ways, during time when he has no deadline he likes to have free creation. He finds this free creation impossible during deadlines but he believes he is creatively dependant on these sparks during time off. I can relate to this as sometimes when I'm creating something which is not deadline related, I can have more freedom which later inspires me more.


An animated response to Yosuke Ushigome’s “Commoditised Warfare”,  by Christoph Niemann.

The sixth episodes indulges you into the life and work of Paula Scher who was the first female partner of Pentagram. As a graphic design student this episode caught my attention the most as one scene shows Paula pitching to a client, it felt like being inside the New York Pentagram office itself. It was insightful but Paula stresses the reality of a meeting such as the one on the show, she talks about how the meeting always starts great but slowly declines as soon as niceties are exchanged. 'See, perceive and accept' is what she said to assure the client if whether or not the public will like the promotional artwork. Paula has had over 40 years worth of experience with dealing clients so it was great to see how she deals with situations of uncertainty in a meeting.

Seeing her dealing with clients was one inspiring part of the episode but also seeing her create was equally as good, she feels like she has to be in the 'state of play' to design. But stepping away from her more cooperate designs, her paintings of maps are coequally as impressive as her vast design portfolio. The paintings aim to ask questions and not answer them, so a complete contrast to her current Pentagram work. This episode is similar to the Christopher Niemann one, in the sense that it both shows the artists/designers stepping away from deadline work. Although deadline work pays the bills and not to say Christoph and Paula don't enjoy deadline work but they seem more creatively free and stress free creating personal work.