“from haunted, bewildering dream pop, in and out of densely layered sound collages to more beat led electronic productions”
black marker drawings, illustrations, T-Shirts Design, Experimental Design, Art Objects, and VISUAL DANCE
BIG. BIGGER. BETTER. Three words which are also descriptive of freelance graphic designer/artist/carbonated drink drinker Evan Melnyk.
“This is a book about one month working without computer, cutting and pasting, sleeping less, enjoying the process, going to Berlin and having a good time.”
“I don’t think we’ll be shedding our clothes for space suits anytime soon. Even if we did we’d still wear T-shirts I guess?”
Kjell Hahn is an American painter and ceramic artist who has built a studio from an abandoned building in a small town 2 hours north of Tokyo.
by Jean Jullien. Music by Niwouinwouin! Video commissioned by Draw Like a Monkey (drawlikeamonkey.com)
Videoclip made by Niwouinwouin and graniph collaborator Jean Jullien for the latest niwouinwouin 7inch “Catastrophe!”
The SNOW Magazine Cafe — a celebration of art, design, and culture magazines from around the world — has now launched at Cafe Pause in Tokyo.
“I have too many ideas… Enough to last a lifetime. This may sound egotistical… But please note that I did not say all the ideas are good ones.”
“When in need of an idea, pulling out that imaginary drawer, tipping it over and rummaging through the contents is a fine method
to get started.”
“We’ve set over consumption as the default over the past 15-20 years and I think that the outcome of that will define the future more than all the graphic designers in the world combined.”
“A jumbo marker pen or a bucket of paint? – A bucket of paint, it’s more gooey. Though you have got the fumes with the marker…..”
“My currently addiction is climbing, so when I’m stuck, I just go for a climb and feed my brain with high altitude oxygen.”
…A street art documentary that focuses on walls as a painting, and the way they create themselves as such, and evolve between urban micro-interventions and the exchange between artists.
“Who’s in Charge”- a ‘coalition of 52 emerging and established graphic artists and their response to some of the biggest social issues of our times’
What are the main obstacles you face to working creatively? The sugar of course! I keep forgetting it.
What I also like about illustration is that to me it feels more poetic and personal than graphic design.
Kenneth Andersson is an illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden, and a member of the illustration collective STOCKHOLM ILLUSTRATION.
“It was the reign of the idiosyncratic, not the revolutionary. If this was modernism, it was a modernism devoid of master narratives, though inflected with a way of working that are humanist and craft-centered…”
“I put my full heart into everything I work on. I enjoy the struggle in scraping through life, living on cash payments to random freelance checks. Out there looking in every creative corner to expand on.”
“..go out, chill out and don’t really worry about it. It nice having time off! Things will come when they have to!”
“…..an ornamental decoration with extra info on the one hand side, and an imperfect utopia for ‘foreign language speakers’ on the other.”
graniph collaborators 44 Flavours have just completed a giant cardboard dog sculpture in Hamburg – BOLD!
“…an exercise in spontaneous creativity and originality, and a response to the growing accessibility and control provided by digital media in the designer’s practice.”
A lovely composition from the designer Hunn – check out his new creative collaboration Lanzavecchia-Wai – “being designers means being researchers, engineers, craftsmen and story-tellers all at the same time”
Just as their last release sold out, the next in the 44 Flavours series rolls in – a BOLD bicycle drawn with a cubist’s eye!
graniph collaborator Rose Stallard has a new Tee out this month – another rockin’ design, one for guitar + illustration nerds.
“It’s about looking inside – not just outside – for inspiration. Feel the truth in your body, not your head.”
There is definately a future for t shirt design – hopefully it will evolve with the creatives around it as they keep using it as a blank canvas for their work.
Revealing the world of a strange small man, who spends his days away from the world. While divulging in strange pleasures he is suddenly thrown into a fantastical journey.
The future of the tshirt is to have the main design on the back, not in the front anymore, back to as it was !
“…with experience comes trust. Trust in yourself that at the end of the day you can solve a problem without using methods you just feel comfortable with. that’s how i keep surprising myself.”
“I like obstacles. Obstacles make you think and work harder, keeps you from getting lazy. If there weren’t any obstacles i wouldn’t want to do this work.”
Letter forms pouring over the cityscape, dirty, rusty, deformed, worn out by the ever shifting weather patterns, playful, at times ironic, saturated with color, splashed on with paint running – a nose bleeding, sprayed over, cut out, painted on, type set, plugged in & glued together.
“..my mind runs free and I follow it. The ideas constantly torture me, I wouldn’t change a thing but have to make sure I get them out.”
graniph collaborators 44 Flavours from Berlin and KLUB7 are holding their HOLZ51 exhibition (which graniph part-sponsored) through to the 2nd of May. Here are a few shots from the show.
Last august we held a fine exhibition of our 2009 design award winners in the KK Outlet space in London – here’s a hanger from there….
“I think that T-shirts are the best piece of clothing. I want to get together a massive collection of T-shirts and be able to look through them in a massive book.”
I grow vegetables on an allotment, I find the gentle work (surrounded by birds) relaxes my tiny brain enough for problem-solving.
I have done enough mindless, laborious jobs in the past to always appreciate getting paid to illustrate, no matter how frustrating the client or how corporate the project. Look Ma, I am drawing for a living!
It’s usually based off a single idea or phrase like “yakuza surfer” or “robot schoolgirl” and it takes off from there. Once I’m on the computer, I take the basic lines I drew and add on from there.
“Everything that is not meant to be designed should seek shelter, if the 44flavours announce their arrival” (Artists Unlimited Gallery, Bielefeld, 2008)
Dripping with dubstep, wonky hip hop, analog synths and death star droid soul claps. Something for your body and your mind.
“It´s a greenhouse, postmodern, all over the place, handcrafted and contemporary. Dada, surrealism, pop art and fluxus and what-the-hell-do-I-know live hand in hand” (Prof. Jochen Geilen, 2008)
Part of a new breed of young artists strongly expressing their generation’s view on life without the focus on self–awareness often used by the street art and graffiti movement.
“I dream on having complete control of chaos, but it´s not always possible and chaos overtakes my work. Bang, boom, crash… and then is when have fun -again.”
“The beaten path does not lead to creativity. Good thing there are people out there ready to rock your routine.”
Great typographic animation to Chemical Calisthenics by Blackalicious (30 Sec. Excerpt) by Paul Hoppe.
“…they captivate the audience with their brilliant mixture of painting, digital productions and integration of street-, as well as conventional art. Their works tell a tale of unbound creativity and curiosity” (Westfalen-Blatt, 2008)
A music video by Overture with music by Eltern by Hauschka from his album Ferdorf released by FatCat Records, 2008
“….the story of an old man who confronts his fears, traveling across a personal landscape to accept his path of growth”
A lovely photo courtesy of Law Lun – Originally from Hong Kong, now studying in Guangzhou. Check out more of his ‘interesting moment photos’ on his Flickr stream.
“School inspector walks in my sister copying the answers for senior year tests/exams on her calculator.”
I just want to travel and take pictures, direct a beautiful mess of a film and make field recordings/loops of every place i manage to discover and visit.
How to Screenprint by Print Club London Print Club London was co-founded by the London-based illustrator and graniph collaborator Rose Stallard. Get some knowledge about screenprinting here.
“My illustrations are comprised of ink and pen because I can set up anywhere and it doesn’t take much effort to tidy up… so through sheer laziness and efficiency I have chosen this medium.”
“In the 21st century, it takes quite a bit to make a living. I can’t imagine a better way to go about it–if you are going to be an artist, why not spend the rest of your time doing something creative as well?”
At the end of my street there’s a nice Japanese restaurant. That’s where, as far as my memory goes, I have most of my dinners
Whimsical hand-drawn and darkly repetitive characters duel for co-existence across the surfaces of these multi-dimensional canvases
Impressive shot of our Hong Kong Causeway Bay store opening by Evan Tsai. Superb! Check out his Flickr stream here and an interview with him on graniph-labs here.
A lovely photo courtesy of Law Lun – Originally from Hong Kong, now studying in Guangzhou. Check out more of his ‘interesting moment photos’ on his Flickr stream.
