"every athlete and musician practices every day. why should art be any different?"
A new series on netflix called Abstract: the art of design discussed minimal design and semiotics.
Christoph Niemann is a New York designer who talks about the beauty of minimal design. The idea of taking an object and removing as much from it as possible without losing any of the information. "for me the style is based on culture and sheer experiences." - on the topic of minimalist shapes. This semiotic approach is what made some of his ideas and work flourish.He talks about an Abstract-o-meter in the visual language and how sometimes there can be too much or two little information and it is only the middle ground of the two that symbolism can harmonize.
He makes use of our social understanding that an american taxi is black and yellow and through using minimal shapes conveys that message in the most simple way possible.
This work is a contemporary reference to
one of the early covers of The New Yorker magazine. It is only through
understanding of the original work and image that you get an icon of an
icon. The blue butterfly is symbolised by a small blue square which
would make no sense to a viewer unless previously familiar with the
original making it a cultural homage.
This work shows the impact of cultural semiotics in his work and the ability to remove uneeded data to get the same conclusion.
This is some more of his work:
I particularly like this work for the front and back cover of The New
Yorker magazine. It shows the interior and exterior of a New York subway
train. It gives two perspectives on the same scene using clever colour negatives.
