The Krasnopolski Grid
Is there any better symbol for MacGyver than a bent paperclip? …the entire collection is worth a look…
I find Albert Exergian’s film posters an inspiring collection, I love their bold simplicity and the way they seem to distil the film to its essence. Reflecting on my response to them I am conscious that they work on the basis of shared cultural references. You need to know the film or show (or at least have heard about it) for the symbols to work effectively. I must admit there are a couple I don’t get because I don’t know the work they refer to. Adding lots of information would probably make little difference as I still wouldn’t know the references.
That said I like the fact that I have to work at these as viewer. It also makes me think about what I might do as a similar exercise. I think it is significant that this was a self-initiated project but that it generally seems to be referred to as an ‘iconic’ set of designs. In researching Exergian I came across two other designers whose work is also minimalist in approach. – Outmane Amahau and Michal Krasnopolski.
Krasnopolski developed his film posters based on using the constraint of a grid system; I am really taken by the creativity that imposing these restrictions has engendered. The target audience is the movie enthusiast so again they work based on the view that the viewer is likely to know the cultural references.
Amahau’s posters take different art movements as their subject matter.
The series was born from my observation… When I imagine an art movement, in my mind I see a minimalist form taken from a famous work. For example, when I think of Surrealism, the first image that comes to my mind is a melting clock. Huffington Post, 2012
Of the three I think Amahau includes more detail, which is perhaps due to the complexity of the subject matter and trying to sum up an entire artistic movement in a single image. I think I might have pulled back some of his images further – perhaps just the eyes and mouth for ‘The Scream’ for example.
What is engaging my interest in all of this work is how you take the essence of something – an object or a movement – and communicate it. Not dissimilar to the earlier ‘more or less information’ exercise for GD1. I am interested in how imposing constraints and forcing yourself to pare something right back to the essentials requires problem solving skills and inspires creativity.
