Apr 05
My encounter with the artistic world
2005 at 11.42 pm posted by Veerle
Some designers see themselves as artists but that’s something that I never pretend to be. Art in general is something that fascinates me, although I must say not in a way that it takes a special place in my life nor in my professional life. So I’m not a frequent museum guest. But art and I had a brief encounter years ago. In 1996 I was asked to design the layout of a book for Paul Rouge, a Belgian surrealist artist.
If you watch his work you’ll see he was influenced by the Belgian René Magritte. You probably know him form the famous “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. If you’re not familiar with the work of Ren� Magritte then I recommend visiting this gallery. It so happened that they are both born in the same Belgian city, Lessines. As far as I know Paul met him a few times when was he was young.
Surrealism is one of the art movements I like because of the fantasy and mystery that lies within. These paintings are often full of paradoxes, illusions which plays on our common sense and visual perception of reality. Furthermore I like the clean and polished look and the precise technique used to paint things as real and as detailed as possible. So it was a happy coincident that the artist was part of one of my favorite art movements.
This book was created in Quark Express and I remember using the feature faux shadow on some of my titles. On screen it was ok but in print it was not such a good idea since every shadow turned out dotted (same effect you get from an old laserwriter printer). If only I had InDesign and its possibilities back then! I’m sure the outcome would have been totally different.
Here is my gallery page where you can view some paintings that are used in the book (which is titled “… Le tiroir aux rêves...”, Drawer of dreams).
8served
1
I can’t agree with your first sentence. For me, designers (especially good ones ;-)) can really been considered as artists. Well, it maybe depends on how you define art. Anyway, personally, I think that creating a great logo or a great object is an art. Don’t you consider Jonathan Ive or Philippe Starck as artists? ;-)
2
Don’t you consider Jonathan Ive or Philippe Starck as artists?
No. I cosider them to be extremely talented craftsmen. For me that’s not the same as an artist. Obviously there’s a rather large grey area where the two worlds collide, but I don’t think that either Ive or Starck reside there.
3
while I know this entry is really about the book, I must ask… what did you use to do the slideshow? I mean I now it is Flash, but is it something you developed? a commercial product? that is an absolutely beautiful slideshow!
4
@Pat, I can find myself in Peter’s explanation. I see myself more as a designer. For me the difference between the 2 is that designers have their feet on the ground, in the real world, while artists often don’t… But like Peter says there is a grey area. So maybe some designers can be considered as artists. But like I said in my article, I’m talking about myself, not in the general sense, I just don’t consider myself an artist.
@Will, I knew someone would ask ;-) I’ve used the excellent SlidoShowPro developed by Tod Dominey. It works as a Flash component and as a result it’s very easy and flexible to implement. Only $20, so it’s a bargain. You can’t create it yourself for that price :-)
5
Nice blog!
Magritte’s concepts are sharp as a marble ball. Rouge’s work is so much weaker than Magritte’s.
6
Maybe he isn’t as good as Magritte, I still like his paintings. Great post!
7
Veerle, firstly I must proudly admit that am a regular visitor to your site and learnt some valuable lessons from your tutorials on CSS.
I would agree with the comments in as far as saying that there is a grey area between the two however, there are instances where both can meet in the same work of art, design, object or whatever you want to call it. Examples of this are furniture and home accessories that combine the two seamlessly.
If you visit my website Style Chaos @ www.fhusseini.com you will see plenty of such examples.
Veerle, hope you like my website, have used WORDPRESS and applied alot of my own input to produce a simple and clean layout. Although would appreciate your assistance with the header or anyone else’s for a good replacement :(
Thanks.
8
Indulge me, will you Veerle? René Magritte and I were born on the same day: october 27th. Which makes him a scorpio, does it not? We were also born in the same year according to the Chinese zodiac: the year of the Dog. Fetch! Magritte and I go way back. All the way to my days as a student at the Arts Academy, Arnhem Holland. I made a book then titled: ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’. Five big red pages with a real pipe imbedded in them, as an hommage to this great Belgian artist who later in live became somewhat peopleshy. As a matter of fact, he rarely left his appartement anymore and lived the live of a recluse. Much later, when I was deep in de Don Juan-series of Carlos Castaneda (a must for scorpio’s born in the year of the Dog, so they say) I saw this excellent bookcover. The artist is not mentioned anywhere in the book, but it could have been Magritte. A Californian Magritte so to speak. And one with a very fine grasp of the elemental silence in the world among us. Hush! And so I shut up.