So, after only a few months of existence EOE will be moving and merging with my personal blog found here: journal.ed-brandt.com. It seemed as soon as I launched the site I realized I was spread thin enough and really didn’t need to be taking on another responsibility. Entries on minimalism will continue and there will be an RSS feed for those wishing to follow new posts, but more than likely there will be fewer and they’ll be added to my other interests, news and updates. The domain will stay and redirect to my blog and I do have plans for it in the future. Thanks for visiting…
Happy Birthday Mies
I’m a little late with the Google Doodle news but apparently yesterday was Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s birthday…happy belated birthday Mies. In honor of “less is more” I thought I’d highlight one of my Mies favorites, the Farnsworth House.
Photography sourced from: Roam & Home.
Industrial Park Photos
A few weeks back a friend and I headed to a nearby industrial park to shoot some photos. Going out that morning I knew I wanted to try something a bit different than my norm. I was looking to create some minimal compositions then flatten and stylize them a bit in post processing. Above are some of the results.
I love industrial parks for some reason, especially on weekends when they’re lifeless and easy to explore. They’re kind of peaceful even, allowing time to take in all the visuals without distraction. My work has always been influenced by industry and manufacturing, from office structures to discarded cardboard, especially when nature has had time to work them over in some way leaving its mark.
Apple iPod Shuffle Third Generation
One of my favorite industrial designs is the third generation iPod Shuffle. Despite the criticism it receives for not having a touch control I love it. (What people don’t quite get is that the same controls found on the face of every other Shuffle exists inline on the headphone wire, really the best place when using the device as intended…even not.) Jonny and Steve reduced the design down to the absolute bare minimum in both exterior function and in it’s size. A simple aluminum stick with a clip, switch and headphone jack. Looking at it from the front all you see is an aluminum surface with two beveled edges, that’s it, nothing else. Others may question it but I find it to be the best mix of minimal design and function. I think it’s aesthetically pleasing. Dieter Rams would have liked it.
Above is an illustration I created of the third generation iPod Shuffle when it first was released. As with most Apple products, the design is so simple that product photos look like illustrations and illustration look like photos (and in some cases, a bit of both to be sure).
Geometry Daily
Happened across a pretty cool Tumblr blog the other day (there’s got to be a trillion of them, right?) called Geometry Daily. It’s new as of January and dedicated to posting “A new minimal geometric composition each day”. For being only a few months old there’s a pretty sizable amount of images. The author doesn’t explain where they originated but they all look very similar in style. Though they have a traditional screen printed look to them I think they might be digitally created (look closely at the paper). Digital renderings with a traditional, warm quality is all the rage these days. From web design to Instagram…I like it.
John Fraser
It wasn’t until after I had moved from Chicago to Albuquerque that I discovered John Fraser. So when I found out that he was having a showing at the same time I was going to be back in town for a visit I had to check him out.
The first things that struck me when I discovered his work was the color and geometry and once I had a chance to see his work in person texture and construction became very apparent as well. (Back then web images weren’t the greatest). John Fraser’s choice in material does well at uniting these elements. Created from dismantled books and found objects with a light use of graphite and acrylic, his work has a soft, warm feel with great geometric structure.
I’ve seen artwork created with books before but never abstracted in this way. By breaking down the seemingly perminant structure of a bound book and examining the parts for elements that can be used to create a two-dimensional composition he does something I really enjoy. Art created with found objects is nothing new but you have to look pretty close before you start to identify these elements, that I like.
I haven’t appreciated found object work as much as I should but I get too distracted by the objects themselves and the complex structures that are usually create with them. On the other hand, I find a great deal of esthetic value in man-made or manufactured items that have been removed from their original context and still possess unique visual qualities. Some of the coolest looking stuff I see are designed by man, created by machine and worked over by nature. And if it can fall into some sort of minimalistic description, all the better. John’s use of book parts appeals to me in that way.
At the time of my visit home I was fortunate to be able to purchase one of his pieces, it’s the work highlighted in the photo above. You can see more of his collection and read a bit about what he does in his own words by visiting the Roy Boyd Gallery website.
Pictured: John Fraser, Composition in Black and Tan, 2008, 8.5 inches x 8.5 inches.
Steel Door
I have another minimal Polaroid for this post…truth be told I’ve have lots of minimal Polaroids. For a while I was on quite a Polaroid kick that started about a year or so before Polaroid announced the discontinuation of their integral film products (have no fear, the craft lives on). While browsing through Flickr one day I happened past a group for Polaroid users and was struck by the types of photos that were being taken with the old instant film technology. There’s an inherent property in these cameras that tend to bring out the creativity in people and they seem to lend themselves well to minimalism. Grant Hamilton’s work will attest to that.
This particular photo is a cropped section of a steel door taken sideways. I tend to gravitate toward compositions that have a horizontal split and really wanted to run the hinge across the bottom of the image. Framing it this way allowed for the majority of the photo to be a clean open space with all the streaky, blotchy Polaroid film goodness showing through.
Three Stripes
This being my first entry I spent some time thinking of an image that would be a good pick for an initial post. Of course I couldn’t come up with anything so I just picked one at random, I really didn’t want to over process the whole thing anyway.
This is a photo of stripes on the side of a delivery truck taken with a Polaroid SX-70 camera. Working with the impurities of a Polaroid camera and film really did a number on the color and texture and it was no easy task getting the stripes to line up parallel with the frame.
A set of lines, texture from the film and truck, overall warm tone, some horizontal asymmetry…it added up nicely. It also struck a chord with the things I like in art; complex elements coming together in a simple composition, a mesh of clean shapes and organic texture, and taking something out of context. In one way or another these three things are the foundation of most of my artwork.