Collage as messenger
I’ve always been attracted to collage and assemblage. The more found & reused objects, the better. It’s the way things are repurposed that I find most exciting. Scale is also a powerful feature. early twenteith century artists like Hannah Hoch, Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters have helped us to see things in very different ways. These and other artists have been working with assembling found elements in compositions with extraordinary results for over a century.
Serving the client project
I would like to talk extensively about inspiration from the many artists who have contributed to this form. To get to the point of this post however, I want to make a leap and talk about how this works with the tools of current day media.
When time allows, I love to settle into these explorations. In addition to creating profound imagery and ideas, collage also works very well as illustration and as a commercial marketing tool.
When a project calls for it, I like to suggest collage as a direction. These images can create remarkable impact when used with typography. This is also an approcahable and often a low cost way to drive a message or as a way to get get a readers attention, especially when integrated with typography. Another nice aspect is that I can respond to client suggestions and client input regarding image references. Sometimes the images can almost be treated like words. While the collage is ultimately a visual powerhouse, it also has great verbal skills.
This particular set of samples come from ideas that I have suggested to clients over the past year. Some of these have made it into web site content and others were developed but not quite the right fit for the project. I should mention that this is hopefully the beginning of a new collection and a new direction. Check back soon!
Above: Collage illustration series presented to the client for a lab site for Computational Social Sciences at UPenn: css.seas.upenn.edu
Above: Initial sketches for a collage illustration series presented to the Baker Retail Center at Wharton/UPenn. Never used.
Above: Header art for Dr Ketchup, a quartet from West Philadelphia that plays jazz with a backbeat. This is artwork used in the website header.
Above: Header art to illustrate the College of Neurology at UPenn on the landing page of their website: neuro.wharton.upenn.edu