Portfolio 2013 by Guillaume de Ubéda

Guillaume de ubéda, 2013.

PORTFOLIO

04 INTRODUCTION 06 BOOKS AND EDITIONS 08 12 20 24

Métamorphoses - DNAP Tentative narrative # 1 & # 2 Respirer l’infini Poésie ouverte & Haï

28 COMMISSIONS 30 32 34

Maison Folie de Wazemmes The French Machine Soundscape London

40 46 48 54

Mémoire - DNSEP Project note Déambulation Poétique - DNSEP Diploma Installation - DNSEP

CONTENTS

38 DIPLOMA PROJECTS

This book presents a selection of work I did over the past few years. It’s not exhaustive and the point is only to show my personnal taste for graphic design and what I’m able to do. My name is Guillaume de Ubéda, I’m french and aged 24. I recently graduated with a Masters Degree in Graphic Design and Art Direction. I’m a freelance graphic designer and a junior art director. I specialize in books, prints, signage design, visual identity and branding conception. If you are interested in seeing more, you can visit my website at : www.guillaume-de-ubeda.com or contact me at g.de.ubeda@gmail.com Keep in touch !

I first studied graphic design in Prépar’t Paris for a year in 2007. I was tutored by artists and graphic designers such as Jean-Claude Chianale or Damien Valéro. I entered IAV d’Orléans ( Visual Art Institute ) ; now called ÉSAD d’Orléans ( Superior Art and Design School ) in 2008. I obtained my DNAP ( National Plastic Art Diploma ) with the congratulations of the jury in 2011 at the end of my 3rd year.

During my scholarship, I had the chance to work with several people and agencies during workshops and internships which taught me a lot. Like for example, Damien Valéro, Warmgrey, Malte Martin, Pierre Di Sciullo and Formes Vives.

INTRODUCTION

I was lucky to work with some great tutors for my final year diploma such as Anne-Marie Latrémolière, Jean-Gabriel Monnier ( known as Granjabiel ) and Pierre Di Sciullo ( as my external tutor ). I got my DNSEP ( Masters Degree ) in June 2013 with the congratulations of the jury.

I’m also part of Collectif 47, a collective of students and former students who have united based around the practice of screen printing. We created our own workshop and in 2011 we created a network of independant exhibitions in Orléans, Rennes and Montpellier called Riposte. I’m now living and working in Bristol.

BOOKS & EDITIONS

MÉTAMORPHOSES DNAP project 2011, ÉSAD d’Orléans

Based firstly on experiments on fragmentation, transparency and superimposition, and then on a series of images created with old scientific illustrations from the 17 th and 18th centuries, this project aims to illustrate extracts from The Metamorphosis by Ovide. This work set up a graphic vocabulary which is superimposed on the illustrations to tell different stories from the book. Inspired by patterns taken from alchimy and astrology, this vocabulary is composed of simple symbolic ornamental shapes created with fragments of the original illustrations. As a symbol the fragment’s aim is to tell the narrative, but when it’s placed with text, it becomes ornamental. The text is itself fragmented in paragraphs that superimpose on each other. I chose a light paper that allowed me to play around with superimposition from one page to another. It highly influenced the layout of the book.

20 x 26 cm Laser printed Japanese binding Text : Ovide Unique copy 144 pages

TENTATIVE NARRATIVE # 1 & # 2 Self initiated project, 2011. The idea for these two books was to create a kind of narration based on fragments of one single picture created almost randomly with a photocopier. Some geometrical shapes were added for intrigue and to enhance the idea of action. After it was finished, I made several people «read » the books and asked them to write the story they thought the books were about. All their stories were very similar. The point was to stimulate the imagination of the reader in using only pictures and graphic symbols.

Tentative Narrative #1, detail.

Tentative narrative # 1 & # 2 20 x 28 cm Photocopy and acrylic paint on 80g recycled paper Unique copy 24 pages

Tentative Narrative #2.

Tentative Narrative #2, detail.

20 x 25 cm Photocopy on rhodoid and 80g yellow paper Text : Paul Auster 10 copies

RESPIRER L’INFINI Self initiated project, 2012. This experimental book is inspired by a poem of Paul Auster from « Disappearance » ( 1975 ). It’s about light and infinity. My goal was to illustrate the poem in an abstract way by zooming into a picture to reveal its matter. Created with a photocopier and printed on rhodoids, the images consist of small particles of different sizes. Those particles are all that remain of the original picture’s frame. They let the light go through the rodhoid sheets to create lighting effects on the yellow paper underneath. The book is binded with a rubber band. It allows the reader to mix the pages to create his own new « reading » order everytime. This creates an almost infinite number of combinations.

Respirer lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Infini, detail of lighting effects.

POÉSIE OUVERTE & HAÏ Self initiated project, 2013. I had the willingness to share extracts I had read in reference books with students from my school. So I had to find a way to quickly and cheaply reproduce the text. I decided to create leaflets to distribute for free to the students ( and other people ) during exhibitions we were organizing. They are simple double sided A3 photocopies, folded and painted with red ink. They are composed of text on one side, then have a portrait of the author on the other. The extracts are taken from are « Codes » by J.C. Lambert and « Haï » by J.M.G. Le Clézio.

Poésie Ouverte 29,7 x 42 cm photocopy and red ink Text : JC Lambert 40 copies

Haï 29,7 x 42 cm photocopy and red ink Text : JMG Le Clézio 40 copies

COMMISSIONS

MAISON FOLIE DE WAZEMMES Visual identity, finalist project, 2012. This visual identity was made for a competition. The goal was to rebrand the Maison Folie in Lille. This is an old factory converted into a big space for concerts, theatre, and city associations. I designed this identity during an internship with the agency Warmgrey.

Two different proposals for flyers.

We chose to use the original logo as a base for our work to create several shapes that we could use as backgrounds for texts and pictures. We applied this identity to posters, flyers and to the monthly publication of the Maison Folie.

THE FRENCH MACHINE Posters, 2013.

Poster #2

The French Machine organises a lot of gigs in various clubs in Paris and elsewhere. Since spring 2013, I have been commissoned to create posters for the events.

Poster #3

Poster #3.

SOUNDSCAPE LONDON Visal identity & posters, 2013. Soundscape London organises techno and house parties at the Star of Bethnal Green in London every month. In April, I was commissioned to design a visual identity for their brand. I wanted to give this visual identity a strong appearance to make it quickly recognizable, this way it doesn’t need to have a logotype. Firstly it’s based on a unique and simple grid, then, on two different types of elements : A picture altered with the use of a photocopier and one or several handmade signs.These elements offer a lot of possibilities and offset the rigid nature of the grid.

Visual experiment.

This « poor » and monochrome design enabled the promoters to cheaply reproduce the posters themseleves using a photocopier. These posters are made to be used as flyers as well.

Poster #3 detail.

Poster #5 before photocopier treatment.

DIPLOMA PROJECT

MÉMOIRE Final year memoire, DNSEP, 2013. « I wanted this book to be an account of my research and of the texts that had inspired it. We will not find a discrsive discourse her, but a graphic and poetic evocation in movement consisting of quotes that create a kind of poetic flow. My goal is to propose an object that can be read in manys ways. The page layout evokes the work of poets like Mallarmé or JeanClarence Lambert, it plays with type ize and weight, and white space. We will be able to mix the pages to make our own reading order. Parts that were not supposed to meet will then be brought face to face in order to create new graphic compositions and new associations of ideas. The graphic elements situated at the back of the text can also be mixed with each other. Texts and texts, pictures and pictures, or texts and pictures can combine in inexhaustible ways. I wanted to suggest rather than to instruct. » ( Introduction )

Printed in January 2013 Laser printed, toner and china ink Handmade binding 12 copies Tutors - Didier Laroque & JeanGabriel Monnier (â&#x20AC;&#x2030;Granjabielâ&#x20AC;&#x2030;)

This book was composed with quotes from the following books : HENRIS MICHAUX - Émergences Résurgences ADRIAN FRUTIGER - L’homme et ses signes JEAN-FRANÇOIS CHEVRIER La trame et le hasard JACQUES PRÉVERT - Imaginaires

Once the cover has been taken off, the pages can be mixed to create a new reading order.

The book can be unfolded to more than 4 metres.

PROJECT NOTE Final year project note, DNSEP, 2013. « My aim is to design new ways of reading texts and pictures. To play with the established codes of communication, to hijack those codes, complicate them and try to create a bilateral communication that breaks up with mass communication. Giving words and images back their meaning and involving the reader to the fullest. This project consists of :

. A recuperation of advertising slogans which are extracted from their original marketing and manipulating context to transform them in a kind of ready-made poetry. I question the text and picture reading habits established by the consumer society by creating reading games that reinvent themselves permanently. »

« Rendre Unique » ( to make something unique ).

. A « détournement* » of advertising pictures that I make more poetic and freely interpretable. This is based on the use of photocopier, which is normally a reproduction tool but used here as a creation tool.

* The French word « détournement » means deflection, diversion, rerouting, distortion, misuse, misappropriation, hijacking, or otherwise turning something aside from its normal course or purpose. The concept of détournement was created by Guy Debord.

DÉAMBULATION POÉTIQUE Happening, DNSEP, 2013. The idea of this happening was to make people bearing signs with fragments of advertising slogans, march in the streets. During the stroll, the fragments mix and create new associations of words, ideas and unexpected situations. The meaning of these random associations goes from naivety to cynism and sometimes becomes unexpectedly poetic. This project is a criticism of mass communication and proposes an alternative to it directly involving the reader so he becomes an actor, author and not just a spectator. Basically, this happening is set up in the same system as my memoire, but at a different scale and involving people . In one hand those bearing the signs and on the other hand those in the streets that were looking, reading, wondering and asking us questions.

DIPLOMA INSTALLATION Scenography, DNSEP, 2013. I wanted to create a journey for the jury (people marking the work) to discover step by step, my work and how it led me to my latest project « Déambulation Poétique ». I didn’t want to use separation walls that would have broken up the space and interrupted the sight of the jury . That’s why I decided to play on the idea of several layers that would appear and disappear as we were walking through the installation. My work, suspended to the ceiling was creating a path through the room and was hiding and revealing projects situated behind them. Four « leitmotivs » written on banners were defining four different spaces for the four steps of the project, the jury had to walk under these to go through the room. My point was once again to intrigue the « spectator » and to intice him into seeing more.

« S’adonner à voir » ( to abandon oneself to see / to give / to have ).

The first space was dedicated to the « détournement » of advertising pictures. They are fragmented and enlarged with a photocopier to reveal their frame. The distorted frame becomes a kind of code composed of a multitude of symbols.

Close up on a distorted frame.

The second space was the transition between the picture reading and the text reading. It was composed of the translation of the « code » appearing in the frame in graphic symbols, and of the conversion of those symbols in script letters. There were also the first reading games set up with this script, they were the first step to the idea of a complexified reading that involve the reader to the full in the act of reading.

On the left : the script created with symbols inspired by the frame. On the right : « Apprendre » ( to learn / to take / to give back )

« A True Happiness », « Life is Beautiful » ect. After having set up the idea of reading games, I interested myself to advertising slogans. The third space was dedicated to several détournements of various slogans. Those détournements were either ironic, poetic or sometimes completly cynical.

The other part of this area was devoted to a series of posters about several french common expressions suggesting incredulity. I made these posters as a kind of answer to the advertising slogans and more generally mass communication.

Finally, the fourth space was dedicated to an installation with the signs used for the happening « Déambulation Poétique ».

THANKS FOR READING !