I love connecting patterns through Circles. Don’t get me wrong – I love other shapes too, but the Circle is my BFF. I spend a lot of time seeking how the mood of today’s culture gets interpreted in this form. Maybe someday I will show you some of my own work, but in the meantime, whoa— this stuff is just dope. Another Mandala Mash-Up for you.
First up: DAVIES AND STARR from NYC play to my consumerist chord with masterful, high-fidelity advertising patterns. Colorful wheels of computers, shoes, games, bicycles…Stuff. Beware of meditating on these for too long.
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Next up: AUTOTROPHS. An autotroph from the Greek autos = self and trophe = nutrition, is an organism that produces complex organic compounds from simple inorganic molecules using energy from light or inorganic chemical reactions. These pulsating orbs are constructed using simulated video feedback.Now, I don’t really understand this, but like crop circles, I don’t need to. Mr. Prudence blows my mind. These images feed my soul. Self-nutrition indeed.
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Now, while we are on the topic of orbs, can you handle it: Masakatsu Sahsie’s ORB PAINTINGS depict yet another vision of consumerist life in a dystopian future. Video games, pachinko parlors, fast food, TV’s, and old Showa-period buildings meld together in floating balls of visceral vestige above faceless surroundings. Funny, this description fits closely to where I grew up in Northern Indiana…all that’s missing is the smell of burning tires. Below is “Slingshot”.
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Finally, while we are floating above Japan, the designer-symbologist in me is most pleased with the discovery of TYPOGRAPHIC TOWN LOGOS. These are official graphic identities for municipalities, based on the Japanese hiragana and katakana characters. In a brilliant coupling of meaning with clean, decisive form, these symbols sum up the essence of place in a blink.
Abiko’s logo uses a stylized katakana ア (a) that symbolizes Lake Tega.
Click a “round” for more on all this:
