art shows & news

With his work in magazines like GQ, CMYK, and dozens of others, Dongyun Lee is an illustrator who really knows how to promote his own works. He’s sent us handfuls of postcards through the years, and it’s about time we feature his work on our blog. Whether it be in his brightly-colored, well-composed illustrations or his delicate black and white drawings, Lee’s style incorporates a fine balance of graphic design elements with classic illustration techniques. His pieces are full and ornamental without ever being too busy, which is a balance that is a difficult to achieve. The piece above is a fine example, as it is brimming with whimsy, imagination, composition, and a surrealistic background that seems to push on infinitely into the background.

Lee also has a new website, so be sure to check it out.

www.dongyunlee.com

Rise and shine, suckers.

Morning Breath is ’bout to knock you out with some effortless design. I’ve been checking out Morning Breath’s goods purely for their quirky typographic compositions, but I have to say, their illustration mixes are a sight for sore eyes too. The show should be off the hook, especially since they’re doing it with veteran bomber and graphic artist, Cycle. Best go and checkitout, checkitout.

Opening Reception ends in a few hours, so all you Brooklyn folks reading this blog right now should run out and catch the party before it’s too late.

www.adhocart.org
www.morningbreathinc.com

Two graphic design-related posts in a row is kind of silly, but I just stumbled across these inventive two-part business cards designed by Austin’s Creative Suitcase for Impact Salon. Enjoy, enjoying.

www.creativesuitcase.com
www.impactsalon.biz

Craft museums are always interesting places, even if you don’t care much for crafts yourself. Crafty folks just have an innate ability to create displays and installations that make good use of three-dimensional space without feeling cluttered. From now until almost the end of April 2009, the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design will have an exhibit featuring works from over a dozen successful San Francisco-area graphic designers, and the exhibit’s designers craftily utilize objects and space to display the designs. Like an issue of Print magazine, the exhibit will showcase graphic design of all kinds, from websites to exhibit designs and print advertisements. The work represented will be just as diverse as the designers themselves.

Designers included are: Philippe Becker (Philippe Becker Design), Jennifer Bostic (Paper Plane Studio), Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman (Volume Inc.), Josh Chen (Chen Design Associates), Tom Ingalls (Ingalls Design), Jennifer Jerde (Elixir Design), Mitchell Mauk (Mitchell Mauk Design), Sara Schneider (Chronicle Books), Michael Schwab (Michael Schwab Studio), Christopher Simmons (MINE), Barbara Vick (Barbara Vick Design), and Cinthia Wen (NOON). The show is curated by Michael Osborne (Michael Osborne Design).

www.sfmcd.com

Based in Berlin, we first found out about Melissa Murillo on MySpace. Her drawings make it quite obvious that Murillo is an absolute stickler for details, and that lack of color doesn’t take anything away from her images. The drawing above is a world in itself, and although the size makes it different to see all the details, birds, vines, eyes, totems, flowers, and creatures of all kinds are pouring out of the amorphous mass. Growing up in a family with a violent father, Murillo took solace in worlds of fantasy and dreams, and her inventive multi-layered drawings make that seem relationship come to life.

www.myspace.com/meyoko

By now, it’s hard to create completely original art that hasn’t been seen by just about everyone and their mom’s, but Yulia Brodskaya manages to. Brodskaya, a Russian-born artist who currently lives in London, does all sorts of art, from illustration to graphic design. But what really stands out are her highly stylized 3-dimensional paperscapes, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. They are simultaneously graphical and graceful, and the added depth due to their 3-dimensionality are difficult to replicate in a 2-dimensional setting. It’s clear to see that Brodskaya is an artist that likes to constantly experiment and push the limits, and she’s definitely one to keep an eye on.

Calling all female designers!! Want to get your design printed on a t-shirt and receive a bunch of free schwag from Snowboard Connection? Now’s your chance. Check out the details above.

Hey!

(First and foremost a little introduction) My names Luu, I am an art student studying Illustration and Graphic design in the sunny seaside town of Bournemouth in the UK. I can usually be found writing over at Eyemaylisten music blog… but tonight, I just HAD to share with you an exhibition that can be found right now in the heart of London.. ^_^ So for all those travellers out there, get over here!

China Design Now
V&A London
Now - 13th July ‘08

China Design Now - (c) V&A Images

What can I say? Amazing. I have been meaning to check out this exhibition ever since March but just haven’t had the excuse to get into London before now.. and I wasn’t disappointed when I finally got there.

The exhibition is split into three main parts; starting in Shenzhen, the birthplace of contemporary Chinese graphic design. The exhibition shows off Chinas energetic style, the development of that style and the creatives that pushed it. It also highlights the complexities of graphic design and typography, displaying the forms that were touched on by Wang Xu through poster design for Taiwan Image exhibition in 1995. The two posters; ‘Fork of a tree’ and ‘birds foot’ are just that, a branch of a tree resembling a Y shape and a birds foot, both of which I am told resemble Chinese letter forms. To push this further, a Chinese typewriter is on display.. it has thousands of characters and in no way works as a standard typewriter, but more like a letter press whereby the typer must individually place each character because of the complexity of the written language. Among this part of the exhibition, my personal favorites were two huge pandas affectionately designed by Ji Ji to be both cute and mischievous. They are also joined by smaller model editions:

Ji Ji, Hi Panda, Toy Figures, 2006, (c) V&A Images

Ji Ji’s other works are also on display in the next room; Where the exhibition then moves on to Shanghai, a city which has recently exploded where shopping, dining and building development are concerned.. and this is very evident. The room is bursting with advertising and consumer design, from clothes to magazines.. This is where Ji Ji’s ever popular t-shirts in China by the design studio; Shirtflag are on display. The designs on the t-shirts combine many of the recognizable propaganda images with smooth contemporary design making for very desirable clothing. Another notable part of this section of the exhibition are the Nike trainers on display, something I wouldn’t have expected despite the consumer theme.

Nike Air Max NL1 ‘Kiss Of Death’ premium trainers

The final part of the exhibition is Beijing, a room which boasts the sudden push in recent years of china’s architectural design. Playing host to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing has grown at lightening speed and this is very apparent. There are models on display of recent developments within the city including the current development of Beijings National Swimming Center that somewhat reminds me of the Eden project with its bubble like appearance. There is also a walk in installation consisting of three screens which create a very realistic feel when watching the animation on show. Before you is a depiction of the future city with its new developments.. it looks really impressive I must say.

Herzog & de Meuron, National Stadium – the Main Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China, completion 2008. (Photograph by Iwan Baan, May 2007)

As a summary this exhibition was a real eye opener. After only a few years China has developed at an unstoppable speed in the way of new and interesting innervating design. This was an exhibition well worth seeing… I would say any exhibition that captures something so amazing as the recent developments in a whole country is well worth seeing! So if you can… get on over. It’s beautiful.

So there you have it.. Hopefully this has been an insightful post!
And with any luck I will be back again!

- Luu ^_^

This post is sponsored by EYEMAYLISTEN MUSIC BLOG