Sunday, June 29, 2014

ROTZKOPF // BAGS

A letter press print I made some time ago brought me to print a few bags.
The size is about 32 x 40 cm, handprinted with silkscreen.
Prize: 10EUR + delivery
You can order via emailing to emailadressevonchris@gmail.com.

NEW: for more info please go to www.rotzkopf.tumblr.com



Tuesday, June 24, 2014

111 STRATEGIES // LP

Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies came back in another assignment of a different course. Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt created the Oblique Strategies in 1975, a deck of cards designed to help them break creative blocks by encouraging lateral thinking. They then published the cards and made that system available to a wide audience.
My job was to find a new medium for the strategies and make it a personal project.
First of all, I sorted out the tips that are not relevant for graphic purpose (as the original strategies are made for both, graphic designers and musicians) and ended up with a rep digit of 111. Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt chose a deck of cards as a medium to keep the randomness of getting a tip.

I thought: Why not picking a vinyl record as a new medium? I recorded the strategies, spread them randomly over the 12 minutes of recording time with a pauze of 5 seconds in-between the sentences. I sent my file to Dr.Dub, a recording service in Austria, to press a vinyl of my file. By putting the needle on a random spot of the vinyl you get a random strategy.

The creative process in general could be comparable with a labyrinth. You walk in one direction and suddenly you notice that this might not be the good one, so you turn around and repeat this process until you got your way out. With all the boundaries of an assignment represented as walls.


























111 strategies offering an aphorism intended to help you as an artist or designer break creative blocks.  Put the needle on any random spot of the record and receive an advice that might loosen your thinking barrier. Keep the system running.

Friday, June 20, 2014

MARKIT

In connection to the project Data Place, where I focussed on the typography of Arnhems' weekly market. After analyzing the markets corporate identity I translated all given typefaces into one by writing with a marker, scanning it and vectorizing the letters. With a fontmaking program I adjusted the spacing between letters and words. Now, that I have a typeable font, it gives me more opportunities to bring the 'data' of the market into a different context.
The typeface only involves big letters in a regular and an italic version.


I lasercut all the letters and numbers in 3 different sizes and created a toolkit to make it possible for marktworkers to easily make signs on their own. A usual stencil has those lines in it to for example keep the middle piece of an O in place, which gives it an unnaturally stabile look. As I didn't want that effect I decided to make positive, single letter stencils meant to be traced with a standard 2mm marker.
The signs like + and /, are forming one stencil, 60 x 40cm, with three different pointsizes on.
The product should be called MARKIT.
The letters of one size come separately packed in cotton bags, handy for taking only parts with you. Besides the signs-stencil, the package includes some testing sheets and four MolotowOne4All markers in different colors. The ink of the makers grip on any material, if wood, metal, plastic, paper and dry within seconds.





















I enjoy the twisting fact that stencils have the common purpose of manually getting a letter on a surface as straight and 'clean' as possible, whereas my stencil kit does exactly the opposite; it's got the intension to make the sign look naturally hand painted, as if it would have been painted with single big markers.


As said before, I found it interesting to bring the typo in another context.
I have been working on a magazine article about Erosie, where I used the font in a page to page fading from handwritten typography to News Gothic. More details and the full project post above.

Sunday, June 15, 2014

squashface


digital collage using the grid of a squash racket

Sunday, June 8, 2014

EROSIE - Outside the Graffiti Circle

































I´m busy redesigning a magazine article about Jeroen Heeman, better known as 'EROSIE', a dutch street artist, illustrator and graphic designer. Reflecting his way of working, the article will develop itself from page to page. Starting with the first ones on the wall, the typography and the layout will finally become computerized.

"I think that's part of my concept - developing things through small steps" - Erosie


Friday, June 6, 2014

squash racket silkscreen


































In addition to the digital misuse of my squash racket, where I used the grid of the racket to create a typeface, I also ill-used it in an analogue way.
I turned it into a silk screen and exposed it while the strings where still on the racket to get a nice grid print on the paper.




















This gives me the possibility to create different shades of grey by turning the racket in a 45° angle and printing over the same paper a second time. This is basically the same principle the old masters like Rembrandt and Dürer used in their etchings and wood cuts. The more lines on one spot, the darker it gets. I tried this technique on a big paper sheet as my method is quite a rough one, not easy to control.
I decided to paint/print a portrait of Jahangir Khan, 'worlds best squash player' from the 70s.

































silk screen painting, 120 x 150 cm

Sunday, June 1, 2014

der schmierfink


































five cans, ten minutes, 270 x 350 cm