http://www.theghostlystore.com/collections/andy-gilmore
Thoughts
I first came across Andy
Gilmore when I was thinking about ways of getting my own illustrations onto
various products in certain design circles. Andy's work has featured on a
number of electronic casings and vinyl decals for phones, tablets, laptops and watches
and I admittedly ended up buying a case for my phone featuring his work
(above). Thus began the love affair.
What I like most about
Andy's work is his choice and use of colour as well as the geometric,
fragmented high amounts of detail. His work takes our current idea of
"pattern" and pushes this to its limits, helping I think to create
pieces of extremely high quality which guide and absorb our attention and can
be admired for hours. At a large scale, I feel the work helps to influence atmosphere,
it appears to be aesthetically pleasing, artistically "free" design
in looks (colour placement, palette &random pattern)) but within controlled
boundaries (digital media, mathematical). The work to me resembles various nature based environments heavily influenced by light and colour, as if viewed through
a kaleidoscope or broken mirrors, or that the
work itself could be 3D and you need 3D glasses to view the
hidden message. As with many pattern designs, this work is
universally appealing and used in a very versatile way suggesting how
successful it is. Not only device packaging, but Andy's work is used for
various digital backgrounds, bought as physical prints, used for installations
and projection based work, as well as much much more.
I would love to create work
similar to this, with a heavy focus on light, opacity, pattern, detail and most
of all colour. Investigating pattern in a similar way to Andy could be the
building blocks of work for many modules running right now such as my OUIL501
COP2 psychedelic art 'publication', my OUIL503 Responsive 'Secret 7' brief or
OUIL505. With 505 I am really heading towards 'object & environment' as my
specialism and can't help but think of BIG ideas. Interactive projection
patterns that I have illustrated or large pattern based murals
created using masks/stencils and spray paint/airbrush...The use of colour
and trying to master it seems completely daunting, however it seems to also be
my main enthusiasm currently and something I feel could be really
important in my own practise.
Notes/Ideas going forward (regarding my own personal practice):
- Layered card/paper/painted wood in subtle variations of colour. Builds up pattern.
- Image which merges into pattern/fragments
- Projection based digital artwork/illustration
- Kaleidoscope experience? How would you create this as an installation/exhibition/wall piece?
- (interaction)
- Stencil based mural/graffiti work using spray paints, paint, air brush
- Screen print? (multiple tones/colour variations could be created using screen print and layered colours
- colour by numbers interactive experience. (audience adds to a colour by numbers pattern piece)
- 3D glasses visual pieces-do these images work with a variation of colours? (not just blue for right eye and red for left etc)