Contextual Research

Olympia Zagnoli:

                      

Olympia Zagnoli's work uses bold colours and simple shapes, she uses this as means to observe what is going on around her in a very playful and exciting way. Originating from Italy, Zagnoli's work is often a graphic and semi surreal understanding of the world around her. She has a superb understanding of composition and space, which emanates from the work she produces. Often keeping to a very minimal set of shapes, complemented by an equally minimal yet bright colour palette. There's also an element of 70s psychedelia within her work although with a modern spin. Her simplification of imagery works to take an imager right down to its essence, capturing so much detail in something so basic is a real talent. Zagnoli's talents do not lie in 2D productions alone, as seen in the final slide above - she has been known to produce many different forms including working with character in ceramics - something I would love to try. Her work has taken her all over and her current clients include, The New York Times, New Yorker, The Guardian, The Guggenheim Museum and many others. 


Aaron Lowell Denton:

                     

Denton's primary area of practice lies within poster design and album artwork for musicians. This is thanks to his immense interest in music, which has allowed him to forge his two passions. Giving him the opportunity to create an incredible array of branding designs for a range of musicians. He works primarily on Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, starting with a blank slate and then playing around on the software until an idea begins to form. He keeps a digital folder of old books and papers which he uses for texturing his designs. However, most of his work comes from exhaustive trial and error with shape, colour and texts. There is a symbiosis between music and art which is evidenced in Denton's work, he manages to capture the essence of an artist through his use of imagery. Denton's designs again include quite a lot of simplification, the refinement that goes into producing his posters allows for an extremely eloquent final piece that says a great deal about whomever he may be working for. 


Fran Caballero: 

                     

Caballero's figurative body of work emphasises its use of colour. His often surreal abstractions of figures create a sense of magic for the viewer. Often he works on small sections of a bigger picture, paying attention to the details that one may often overlook. I really like the line quality in his work which is not quite black. It helps to lock in those, at times, overbearing colours and control the image. There's a constant application of noise to his images which gives a bit of a vintage feel, creating a sort of digital texturing. His character play is engaging as he often makes sequence images that cause the viewer to flick through a series of images in order to 'get the picture'... pardon the pun.