Agideas

"Trends and Designers"


It was hard to get a real perspective on trends that each of the designers were using, having only seen one or two speeches from start to finish, my experience of the event will be completely different to anyone else's.



One trend that I noticed a lot of the designers utilising was to poke fun at themselves and the industry's trends. The trend of hating trends in a way, Christopher Doyle gave me a newsletter print that basically utilised this trend to highlight the use of other trends around us, titled "This year I will try not to" the book then follows through a bunch of trends in a pretty humorous ways, some of the best include:
– "Create collages of galaxies, triangles and wistful looking European looking women."
– "Convince my clients they need 27 iterations of a logo, when in reality they only need one (if they need one at all)
– "Publish a cynical, over the top commentary on design trends in a fashionable, yet ultimately redundant format, when a simple blog would suffice."
Ending the blog even pokes fun at the newsletter itself with "This year I will try to be new" "we may fail, but we will try" 

=Adam Hunt was also one of the speakers who really gave this anti-trends/anti-advertising feel, as someone who had been at the peak of advertising market, he discussed his detest for the industry with me and how his design was in a way an attack on boring, day to day advertisements. He wanted his designs to break all trends, all the rules to become the advertisement you would remember at the end of the day, which is something he did successfully.



The most prominent design trend that I was able to get a real insight into was Stuart McLachlan's paper illustrations, he was in a way the founding father of this style and when talking to him he would always mention his desire to create this new style and way of illustrating, never without following that he had only tipped the iceberg and that he biggest challenge now, was to get some funding and really take the style to its next level (which i found hard to believe that he could take it further). The pieces he created were at times hard to believe that they were made from paper, his final piece of the presentation blew me away when he created a modelling set completely from paper, in this mixture of craft and surrealism that was just magic.


Fanette Mellier also had this running theme or trend throughout her presentation, that was simply a love for her craft, I remember at one point she said to me "I do not consider myself a typographic artist, i am more concerned with the application, the finished product and its relationship with its environment and the people who see it" something that really stuck with me and was in a way a concurrent trend that each of the designers posessed in their own way.



 Concept Evaluation
I have chosen to evaluate a piece of Claudio Kirac's artwork, he was such a major factor and inspiration to the entire event and in particular the committee that i feel as though i owe it to him.


This piece titled "Lux Aeterna - 2004" is conceptually very spontanious and surrealist in nature, much like the artist himself, the mixture of paint splatters and drips brings forward a sense of street art and fun, the idea of spontaneity and impulse is made really strong. The addition of astronauts and the moon really reinforces the surrealist nature of the artwork as well as involving the viewer through humor and interest.


I really like this art piece is was my favorite of Claudio's works on his website, i think that seeing these artworks shows a side of the artist that we didn't get to see in the Agideas conference, even being in the committee i developed a friendship with Claudio and it amazes me that he produces such beautiful works and makes me want to get to know him more! All of his works are really symbolic of himself, a really spontanious and crazy dude that just came at us with such vibrant energy that he was almost adopted as one of the committee ( hence the self-intro).
I remember him producing some similar surrealist works for his two hosts during his workshop and it was really suprising to me that the guy could produce such hands on artworks.
Overall i think that this peice is successful because of its contrast between its crazy coloured background and the black and white imagery, these two areas also highlight a contrast in texture. The combination of these elements draws a viewer to the two pieces of imagery and allows us to capture a glimpse of  the humour inside of the artist mind.
http://www.fanettemellier.com/
http://cargocollective.com/christopherdoyle
http://www.goatboy.com.au/
http://www.stuart-mclachlan.com/
http://claudiokirac.com/