PROCESFOLIO JOLIEN BRANDS
ABSURD HUMANITY BY JOLIEN BRANDS
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INTRODUCTION My name is Jolien Brands. I am a graphic designer currently inishing my education at the Sint Lucas University College of Art and Design. This is my procesfolio. In this book you can view all the projects I completed this year. My main inspiration this year was the human body. I always was intrigued by the absurd forms that can take over our bodies. I turned this fascination into several projects such as a photography series and a font. This year I also created my own personal identity and followed a bachelorclass involving silkscreen. You can ind all of this work in this publication.
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06 ABSURD HUMANITY 08 - BRAINSTORM 12 - RESEARCH 24 - E-PUBLICATION 32 - DATAVISUALISATION 34 - EXPERIMENTS 44 - PHOTOGRAPHY SERIES
66 TYPOGRAPHY 68 - AUDIO AND TYPE 78 - ABSURD FONT
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86 IDENTITY 88 - LOGO 90 - BUSINESS CARDS 92 - RESUME 94 - WEBSITE
98 EXPERIMENTAL PRINT 102 - GEOMETRY CARD 104 - SERENDIPITY 108 - TOTE BAGS 112 - EXPOSITION FLYER 116 - ABSURD RESEARCH
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ABSURD HUMANITY EXPLORATION OF THE HUMAN BODY
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BRAINSTORM We kicked the year off within a group. I worked together with Aaron Vergult, Junior Van De Poel, Silke Van Dyck and Sophie Thielemans. Together we came up with the theme “absurd�. Absurd means utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue; contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish or false. On your left we have our irst brainstorm that we made all together. After this brainstorm we divided this one into four themes : art, world, human and believes. It was a good way to start thinking about this subject.
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After our personal brainstorm I started to think about our “Absurd� concept on my own. I had lots of different interests and wanted to write them down, so I could have a clearer view of my different inspirations. It helped me a lot to get a perspective of what I wanted to do for the rest of this year. The themes that I was interested in were: surrealism, movies, diseases, disorders and literature. I was extremely interested in the human body. I always had an interest in how different and alike we can be. By doing further research I discovered a lot absurd things about the humans.
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RESEARCH At the beginning of this year I got interested in absurd movies. I researched different movies from different directors and also from different times. Last year I followed an extra course about the history of movies, so I automatically thought of movies like “Das Kabinett des Dr. Calligari” from Robert Wiene and “La Voyage de la Lune” from George Meliès. After a while I found myself more interested in the human body, so I changed my subject to that. I researched all possible diseases and became extremely interested in the human body and the absurd forms that can take over. I also did a lot of research after designers and artists that worked around the body and it’s deformations.
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Collaboration between Jenny Saville and Glen Luchford “Closed Contact”
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JENNY SAVILLE Jenny Saville (born 1970 in Cambridge, England) is a contemporary British painter and associated with the Young British Artists. She is known for her large-scale painted depictions of naked women. Saville works and lives in Oxford, England. Saville has dedicated her career to traditional igurative oil painting. Her painterly style has been compared to that of Lucian Freud and Rubens. Her paintings are usually much larger than life size. They are strongly pigmented and give a highly sensual impression of the surface of the skin as well as the mass of the body. She sometimes adds marks onto the body, such as white “target� rings.
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PHOTOGRAPHER HAL Japanese artist Photographer Hal has stuffed club kids into bathtubs and other cramped spaces in his work before, but this time he’s chosen to shrink-wrap them like living dolls squirming under plastic. With some nude, and some dressed in candy-colored attire, Hal covers his models with a plastic sheeting that he vacuums the air from in order to distort their features and bond them together. It only takes a few seconds for him to snap several images before releasing them, and the results are humorous and somewhat grotesque. More plastic-covered people await you past the break.
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ANDRE KERTESZ André Kertész (2 July 1894 – 28 September 1985), born Kertész Andor, was a Hungarian-born photographer known for his groundbreaking contributions to photographic composition and the photo essay. In the early years of his career, his then-unorthodox camera angles and style prevented his work from gaining wider recognition. Kertész never felt that he had gained the worldwide recognition he deserved. Today he is considered one of the seminal igures of photojournalism.
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HANS BELLMER Hans Bellmer (13 March 1902 – 23 February 1975) was a German artist, best known for the life-sized pubescent female dolls he produced in the mid-1930s. Historians of art and photography also consider him a Surrealist photographer. Bellmer was born in the city of Kattowitz, then part of the German Empire. Up until 1926, he’d been working as a draftsman for his own advertising company. He initiated his doll project to oppose the fascism of the Nazi Party by declaring that he would make no work that would support the new German state. Represented by mutated forms and unconventional poses, his dolls were directed speciically at the cult of the perfect body then prominent in Germany. Bellmer was inluenced in his choice of art form by reading the published letters of Oskar Kokoschka (Der Fetisch, 1925).
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BERLINDE DE BRUYCKERE Berlinde De Bruyckere (1964, Ghent, Belgium) is an artist based in Ghent. She specialises in sculptures in various media including wax, wood, wool, horse skin and hair, though she also works in watercolour, gouache, and since the early 1990s many of her major works have featured structures involving blankets. Their use is symbolic both of warmth and shelter, and of the vulnerable circumstances such as wars that make people seek such shelter.
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FRANCIS BACON Francis Bacon (28 October 1909 – 28 April 1992) was an Irish-born British igurative painter known for his bold, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. His painterly but abstracted igures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against lat, nondescript backgrounds. Bacon began painting during his early 20s and worked only sporadically until his mid-30s. Unsure of his ability as a painter, he drifted and earned his living as an interior decorator and designer of furniture and rugs. Later, he admitted that his career was delayed because he had spent too long looking for a subject that would sustain his interest. His breakthrough came with the 1944 triptych Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Cruciixion which sealed his reputation as a uniquely bleak chronicler of the human condition.
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ERNESTO NETO Ernesto Neto began exhibiting in scotland in 1988 and has had solo exhibitions abroad since 1995. He represented with Vik Muniz their country in 2001 Venice Biennale, his installations were featured in Brazil’s national pavilion and in the international group exhibition at the Arsenale. Neto’s work has been described as “beyond abstract minimalism”. His installations are large, soft, biomorphic sculptures that ill an exhibition space that viewers can touch, poke, and walk on or through. They are made of white, stretchy material -- amorphous forms stuffed with Styrofoam pellets or, on occasion, aromatic spices. In some installations, he has also used this material to create translucent scrims that transform the space’s walls and loor. His sculptures can be regarded as expression of traditional abstract form, but in their interaction with the viewer, they work on another level as well.
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ASGER CARLSEN Danish photographer Asger Carlsen began his career at 16 when he sold a photo he took of the police yelling at him and his friends for burning a picket fence to the local paper. For the next ten years Asger worked as a crime photographer before moving on to shooting ads for magazines. Then one day while messing around on his computer he created an image of a face with a bunch of eyes that led him to the distorted photographs he has become known for. His eerie and often humorous work makes you question what is human, and has been exhibited and published internationally.
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E-PUBLICATION Everybody started his own individual research around “Absurd�. After we were done with this, we published it into an E-publication. It was a fully interactive publication that you can view on the iPad. We made our e-publication absurd as well. We wanted to give the viewer a clear view of the research that we did, but we spiced it up with glitches and errors between the pages. On your left you have an example of a regular page and a deformed glitched page. We wanted the viewer to ask himself what was going on all of the sudden. On the next pages you can view some examples of the part that I made for our E-publication.
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Glitched 30
page about the Proteus Syndrome
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DATAVISUALISATION After we had our own research done, we put all of our research together and tried to put this into an absurd datavisualisation. We wanted to expose all of the research that we had done, because every single one of us researched a lot. Because our research was based on mostly pictures, we wanted that to be the main focus. We experimented a lot, and here you can see the results. We made 2 different posters. On one poster you can see the most important images that we researched all together. The next poster is a transparent poster with typography on. We put those two posters together, so when we made a picture of it, we had one cohesive end result. Next we added our most important themes at the bottom of our datavisualisation. You can ind all the different kinds of absurdity that we researched in this poster.
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DATAVISUALISATION OF THE ABSURD
Absurd - recreation
Censorschip
Inventions
Photography
Architecture
Food
Kitsch / camp
Religion & belief
Art Beauty
Human Humor
Movies Nature
Stories / poems Web
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EXPERIMENTS After doing so many research I decided to do something with the absurd forms of the human body that I got so inspired by. I wanted to see how far we can abstract these diseases and turn them into something beautiful. These are all 3D experiments made in Cinema4D. On the bottom of this page you can see all the different textures that I combined to get a skin texture in 3D. On your right you can see that I started to create some kind of mask that resambled the disease I was trying to portray.
Color
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Displacement
Normals
Specular
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Scanned images.
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After experimenting on the computer I thought it was time to print out all of the diseases that I wanted to reinterpretate. I taped them into my sketchbook and started sketching my interpretation of that speciic disease. In my opinion it’s better to start out manual, so you can sketch everything that comes to your mind. Here are some examples of my sketches.
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ELEPHANTIASIS
NEUROFIBROMATOSIS
BLASCHKO’S LINES
EPIDERMODYSPLASIA VERRUCIFORMIS
PROTEUS SYNDROME
HYPERTRICHOSIS
8-LIMB CHILDREN
HAEMOLACRIA
SMALLPOX
BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE - SYNDROME
MOEBIUS SYNDROME
SIAMESE TWINS
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ABSURD HUMANITY Photographs by Jolien Brands
“Absurd Humanity” is a photography series based
I sketched and sketched until I found a way to
on diseases and deformations of the human body.
abstract the illness in a way that you could still see the
During my research I got extremely inspired by all
resemblance and the main inspiration, but you didn’t
kinds of diseases that affect the form of our body.
immediately saw that it was based on something
Because I did so much research on the internet and
that looks so horrible to most of the people. Instead
in books, I started looking differently at these scary
of portraying the illnesses as something terrible
and gross diseases. Instead of being scared of it and
that you should be ashamed of, I portrayed these
being freaked out or being uncomfortable watching
diseases as something beautiful, that you could be
at the images, I became immune to these feelings
proud of. I didn’t want my models to hide in dark
and I started seeing the beauty of it. I didn’t only
places, I presented them full frontal, in your face.
researched the diseases itself, but I also read articles
My photographs are my graphic and abstracted
about how the people with these speciical illnesses
interpretation of these diseases. It’s very personal
feel about themselves and how their environment
work, because it’s my relection on a sensitive case
reacts on them. They are often bullied or banned to
for most of the people. I know that most of you don’t
another village because they are the freaks of the
want to be confronted with these terrible illnesses,
town and nobody wants something to do with them.
mostly because of fear, but try to see the beauty that
They can’t even ind a job, even though they are
I saw and you will all be amazed.
perfectly able to work and may be excellent at their job. I felt so sorry for them and I tried to think of a way to present these diseases as something beautiful instead of something horrible or scary. First I printed out all of the diseases that i wanted to recreate into something beautiful.
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Special thanks to Elisa Fernandez.
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TYPOGRAPHY EXPERIMENTING WITH TYPE
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AUDIO AND TYPE We were given the task to create a font with the theme “Audio and Type�. My irst idea was to do something with the frequencies of music. I thought it would be nice to portray the different frequencies on different levels into a font. My plan was to create this using coding software like Nodebox. On your right you can see a irst sketch of what the font would look like.
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Next I had the idea to do something with movement. I thought it would be interesting to paint a font onto a face, so when you would pronounce the letter or say a sentence the letter painted on the face would come to life with the movement of your face. Painting appeared to be really tricky, so I made some irst drafts where I projected a font on my own face. Here you can see some examples of these experiments.
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Experimenting with light and movements.
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Finally I ended up playing around with a basic form, a sphere. My intentions were to code the spheres so that they would react on sound. Below you can see an example of a row of spheres that are sensitive to music. I liked the idea of this so I decided to create a whole font out of this principle. Every letter reacts to music and the end result is a movie that showcases every letter of the alphabet.
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ABSURD TYPE Our second typography task was to do something with the theme that you chose with your group at the beginning of this year. My group had chosen absurd as our subject. I decided to make something with the theme that I was really interested in, the human body. After doing a lot of research I got inspired by not only the fysical part, but also the mental part of us humans. I started doing research on the Rorschach test. On your right you can see my irst attempts to make a font based on a Rorschach test.
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Next I started experimenting with the fysical aspect of the human body. I tried to create a font out of the different parts of our bodies, but in a way that they didn’t made sense anymore.
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INSPIRATION Lymphatic ilariasis also known as elephantiasis is caused by parasitic worms of the Filarioidea type. Many cases of the disease have no symptoms. Some however develop large amounts of swelling of the arms, legs, or genitals. The skin may also become thicker and pain may occur. The changes to the body can result in social and economic problems for the affected person. The worms are spread by the bites of infected mosquito. Infections usually begin when people are children. There are three types of worms that cause the disease: Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori. Wuchereria bancrofti is the most common. The worms damage the lymphatic system.The disease is diagnosed by looking, under a microscope, at blood collected during the night. The blood should be in the form of a thick smear and stained with Giemsa. Testing the blood for antibodies against the disease may also be used.
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IDENTITY PERSONAL BRANDING 87
PERSONAL BRANDING I also created my own personal branding this year, while looking for an internship. For my logo I wanted to use the initials of my name. It’s a bit inspired on modernism, which was my extra course this year. I also created name cards, a curriculum vitae and a website which I coded myself. My namecards are letterpressed on a 800gr cotton paper with a lovely texture. On your right you can see my logo. I experimented a lot with different fonts and symbols, but this suited me the most.
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Jolien Brands www.jolienbrands.com info@jolienbrands.com 0494/11.57.80
ABOUT ME Hello! My name is Jolien Brands. I am a graphic designer currently living in the lovely Antwerp, Belgium. I have been passionated about art since the age of 14. I have been studying graphic design specifically for 6 years. Currently I am finishing my bachelor degree at Sint Lucas University College of Art and Design in Antwerp. I am passionately curious about everything. Besides designing, I love to go to museums, to watch movies and to wander around in the city of Antwerp.
EDUCATION 2006 - 2010 : Applied visual arts at PIKOH Hasselt 2010 - 2014 : Graphic design at Sint Lucas University College of Art and Design Antwerp
SOFTWARE SKILLS Photoshop
InDesign
75%
90%
Illustrator
70%
Final Cut Pro
60%
Cinema 4D
40%
Bridge
70%
DESIGN SKILLS Silkscreen
Photography
90%
90%
Bookbinding
90%
Teamwork
90%
PUBLICATIONS My projection mapping font “Fragmental” will be published in Francesco Murano’s new book : “Lightworks : Experimental Mapping 2013” in January 2014.
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EXPERIMENTAL PRINTING EXPLORING NEW TECHNIQUES
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For my bachelor class this year I chose the course silkscreening. I love to experiment with materials and different techniques, so I was glad that I could learn different printing techniques. I designed all kinds of stuff, such as a geometric card as my irst test. Second I made a card that has a lovely thickness to it, because I coated in so much paint. Further I designed some tote bags, made an LP cover, printed a research booklet for my absurd theme and also a lyer for my exposition.
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Geometric card.
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Serendipity.
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Tote bags.
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Exposition lyer.
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Absurd research.
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Publisher
Printing Service
Paper
Font
Edition
Jolien Brands
Blurb NL
ProLine Uncoated
Aqua Regular
1st edition
www.jolienbrands.com
nl.burb.com
Eggshell texture
Helvetica Light
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