Pawel Kuczynski

I stumbled across this guy randomly on this internet article:  http://sobadsogood.com/2013/11/19/art-designed-to-make-think-deeply-about-the-world-by-pawel-kuczynski/   I recommend taking a gander at it as Pawel Kuczynski may have just became one of my favorite satirical illustrators.  Not only does he do a very good job of instigating discussion in each piece but his illustrations are beautifully done and simple enough to understand for anyone's viewing pleasure.  He also touches on many, and I mean, many different topics all around the world.  He's covered many different situations and in many different forms.  War, hunger, politics, slavery, social media, water crisis, religion, medical issues, death, life, or just plain art.  The artist does a very good job of using very little elements in his work.  There may be two contrasting points simplified to two objects, it could be more relative to the works.  He also usually places the images on a subtle background with nothing to distract you from the topic at hand.  Most of the images from the internet article above are done in this way.  I will post a couple here and give a short analysis of each.  The first image is of a man waiting with the door open to a limousine.  Out of the limousine comes the red carpet that leads to the pigs at the feeding trough making a mess.  Now, this image can relate to multiple contexts.  It can be an image relative to the wealthy who can afford such eloquence and luxury and how they are greedy people.  Gluttony is also a topic at hand that relates well to greed.  If the option is viable to eat so much why not do it.  If that was the case it could be contrasting to world hunger in other places.  In another case it could represent politics.  The pigs would represent politicians who worry only about themselves while the rest of us waits on them to make up their mind.  The limo driver, who is doing his job, waits patiently for them to finish before his job can be deployed.  These are only instances that I could draw from the image but it is represented visually as a stimulant to our minds to bring those issues about to ourselves.  What is it that we see? Also, in relation to what I stated above about visual analysis, notice the minimal elements and background.  Pigs and Trough, Limo Driver and Limo, Red Carpet.  5 elements, but the curiosity that it stimulates is still present.  Another one I liked was the one at the bottom, which was  a man in a suit talking into a plethora of microphones atop a podium.  The wires of the mics eventually become a pipe and the pipe leaks out into a drain.  My guess is that the man is a politician based on his attire and the multiple mics represented.  Usually a man of that importance would have many news stations, radio stations, and other journalist branches wanting to hear him.  However, everything the man is saying is being fed through the wires into the pipe that leaks into the drain.  A reference towards the idea that politicians say a lot of things that are never fulfilled or are all just lies.  Waste is basically the main concept I get from it.  We waste a lot of time putting our hopes into politicians who never fulfill their promises.  Again, the image is laid over a simple background and foreground with few elements at play but the visual stimulus is still as strong.  Pawel does these things very well and there are many across the internet if you find yourself interested in more.  I will be blogging soon comparing one of his works to another work with a similar topic.  Until next time.

Transformative Grid: The Future

As an avid movie goer, science fiction nerd, video game player, and as an architect, I've been noticing a recurring use of the hexagon in relation to the future.  This post is going to be a different type of visual analysis that relates many different media mediums together to display the use of the hexagon in future situations.  The reason I've titled it transformative grid is because in most instances the hexagon is replacing the standard square grid.  It's as if in the future simple squares are no longer fitting and hexagons fix the more complex needs of the future.  Or it's some new style or phase in which conceptual artists are going through that uses the simplicity of the hexagon to achieve a more complex aesthetic.  When Modernism started to find its place in the world in art, architecture, and design, the square was a very easily manipulated and generative form.  Futuristic renditions must be avoiding the idea of reliving modernism and establishing a characteristic of its own.  I do not know however if it is something that people altogether are noticing or catching on to, if one saw that someone did something with it and decided to go with it, if its all the same person, or what.  But it is out there.  Keep your eyes open.  I'll dive into some examples that I've seen it take place in and then throw some images at you to let you see for yourself.  I'll start off with movies since they might be something you as a viewer might relate easier too.  I couldn't find an image of this, seeing that it was a specific moment in the movie, but in JJ Abrams' new Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness, the hexagon is prominent in the HUD (Heads Up Display) of the bridge's main screen and piloting window.  When the bridge screen first comes on live there are multiple hexagons that target and move throughout the screen.  There are also multiple instances of it used in the interior aesthetic.  There are small clips here and there that show lit up interior walls with a skeletal hexagon grid laid over it.  In the movie 'Tron Legacy,' and the video game, the grid is this new idea of a digital world that the main character's father has envisioned and created.  It is constantly referenced throughout the movie and you see hints of the actually rectangular grid with little points of light that represent intersections.  However, floor tiles, clothes, building form, and again, screens all have hexagonal patterns.  Even at the end of the movie when he holds his disk up in the air to transport him back to the regular world the pulses of digital light that surround him are hexagons.  While in the older 80's movie of Tron, the gateway and the grid were all made up of squares.  Pictured below is an image from the video game that shows the ground floor hexagon pattern.  In the video game Halo 4, the hexagon also became prominent in the HUD of the main character.  As you play the game the HUD uses hexagons to display information to the character, specifically when you are getting shot at or shot.  When hit, a red hexagon grid appears based on the direction you are getting shot from.  Also, from the outside of his helmet the glass has the patterning as well.  Pictured below is a poster for the game near its time of release. In another video game, 'Mass Effect,' the hexagon is primarily used as an aesthetic in armor.  It may be hard to notice in the image below but it's one of the only ones I could find.  Describing the many instances in pictures rather than actually experiencing it during gameplay or while watching a movie is hard.  By this time you may be getting the gist of my perplexed curiosity to why the hexagon has replaced the simple square or circle, and maybe it is a merger of the two, but I will wrap up my argument with a few more images and be speedy.  The new avengers/spiderman movies that released both used hexagonal facades on their design of the OSCORP tower, also pictured below.  And lastly, real world application of the hexagon, slightly skewed, but could've easily been squares or circles, can be seen in Nike Combat Armor.  Pictured below.  That is my rant on the overused hexagon aesthetic in future renditions of design and its application in real world uses.

Halo 4 Poster

Tron: Legacy

Mass Effect Suit

OSCORP Tower

Nike Combat Armor