Picture taken by Ca Nguyen
PETER HO
I knew I wanted to be an artist growing up. My desire for design grew during sophomore year of college. I became interested in the visual world, curiosity, creativity and communication. My goal as a designer is to continue to learn and to come up fresh ideas. My passion as a designer is to make something meaningful, useful and change the way people see things. I like to dream big so I hope to someday work for DC, Bungie, 343, Blizzard or Naughty Dog.
“DESIGN HEROES�
Picture taken from http://collider.com/ saul-bass-google-doodle
designer best known for his motion picture title sequences, film posters and corporate logos. He is one of my design heroes because of his original movie posters, logos and title credits that is the test of time. His designs gives me strong feelings and it makes me think. He pave way to young designers and is a big influenced to a lot of my favorite designers like Kyle Cooper, Olly Moss and many others that work on minimalist posters and movie credit designs. He is responsible for iconic corporation logo that is lasting and it will live on in the design history book. Part of design is about communicating through symbols, and I think he created enough to what we see today as modern business and commercial world. This is why he is one of my design hero. He is Saul Bass.
SAUL BASS
This is my design hero. He is an American graphic
Picture taken from http://www.saulbassposterarchive.com
S
aul Bass might be the single most accomplished graphic designer in history. Working in the mid 20th century, when the importance of graphic design was just on the upswing, Bass branded a staggering array of major corporations with his iconic, minimal designs. Bell, Kleenex, AT&T? All Bass. For about 50 years, if you were looking for a clean, thoughtful design that was made to last, this was the man you called. Logo design is not all Bass is known for. In fact, logos form the lesser part of Bass’ artistic legacy. Bass was born in 1920 in New York City, to Jewish immigrants. A creative child, he drew constantly. For college, he attended night classes at the Art Students League where he had the fortune of studying under György Kepes, a master of the functional Bauhaus aesthetic. In the 1940s, Bass left New York
for California. He worked mostly for advertising until his first major break: a poster for the 1954 film, Carmen Jones. The filmmakers were so impressed by his poster work, they invited him to design the title credits as well. This turned out to be a game changing decision. Bass stepped up the sophistication of movie posters with his distinctive minimal style and he completely revolutionized the role of title credits in films. Traditionally, credits were static and drab. They were considered so unimportant, they would actually be projected onto the closed curtains which would only open for the first official scene of the movie. Bass, however, was committed to injecting life into these graphics, making them as much a part of the cinematic experience as anything else. Introducing his signature “kinetic type,” Bass’ letters dashed
“ The goal, and the ultimate achievement, is to make people feel as well as think.”
and moved across the screen and frequently incorporated images other than text. Bass went on to create dozens of iconic film posters and title credits. His final projects before his death in 1996 were credits for four Martin Scorsese films: Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993) and Casino (1995). The average lifespan of a Saul Bass logo is a whopping 34 years. Some of his work have yet to be replaced, like the absolutely brilliant designs for Kosé Cosmetics (1959), Kibun (1964), Warner Communications (1972), Girl Scouts (1978, with a slight modification made in 2010) and Geffen Records (1980). With designs as solid, thoughtful and timeless as these, they might never have to be. Words: Alex Bigman
Picture taken from https://www.flickr. com/photos/cshimala/5704156540/
designer and illustrator best known for his reimagining of movie posters. He is a student of the pop culture, and he created wonderful set of collections of silhouettes that are based off of our favorite pop culture icons. His work is crisp and clean, and often show some sense of humour. He is one of my design heroes because I am a huge fan of his minimalistic movie posters. I think his minimalist posters is genius because it makes us reimagine the images we’ve grown up to see millions of time. To me, I think these types of posters are cooler than regular movie posters because it forces me to get involve with what I am looking at. I admire his original minimalist designs of my favorite movies and shows like Lord of the Ring, Batman, Star Wars, Breaking Bad, Lost and more. When we look at his poster, we’re not just looking at it for the style but we are focusing more on the message behind his work. That is why he is one of my design hero. He is Olly Moss.
OLLY MOSS
This is my design hero. He is an English graphic
Picture taken from ollymoss.com
O
lly Moss is an English graphic designer born in Winchester, Hamshire. Moss Graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2008 with a degree in English literature, he didn’t have any traditional design training before experimenting with illustration. Starting his career creating T-shirt designs for Threadless, Moss quickly amassed a following of fans that cherished his minimal approach - an approach that was transferred to his movie poster reimagining. Moss was then approached by Gallery 1988 founder Jensen Karp to create a series of illustrations to be displayed and sold at the Los Angeles space. The content of the exhibition was kept secret for months, proving that Moss had already escalated to pop icon stature. Fans even lined the streets 24 hours before opening in hope that they would be able to get their hands on a Moss original.
The exhibition was a stark and refreshing reminder that pop culture art is still very much ‘art’ in its own right. ‘Paper Cuts’ featured 300 laser cut, black Victorian silhouettes of iconic characters from movies, television, music and games, making for an innovative approach to the idea of celebrity and pop culture. Due to the nature of his work, some have accused Moss of creating such well-known portraits and posters purely for profit. However, Moss has been quick to challenge this, stating that his love for these films and characters simply fuels the work – inspiring and influencing him whenever his pen touches paper. Both designer and fan have a huge passion for such themes, which could explain Moss’ growing popularity over the years. Poster-wise, it was Moss’ Saul Bass inspired creation for Locke’s Secret that got
the ball rolling. Simple, striking and full of Moss’ now infamous minimalism, he went on to create a Star Wars series that attracted a mass of attention. Creating his posters in an unconventional 16x24, Moss has also come under scrutiny for not producing the preferred 18x24 size. However, his favoured measurements are actually equal to that of a more traditional, theatrical sheet which perfectly ties in with Moss’ movie inspirations. Not only has Moss created posters, exhibitions and T-shirts, he has also gone on to create a cover for Sony’s Resistance 3 game. Blending his impressive use of negative space with his ability to brand, the design was a huge hit with game and design lovers alike. Words: Sammy Maine
“ The style is completely the least important part of it. It’s about the thought behind it, what are you trying to communicate.”
Picture taken from http://yesmachine.tumblr. com/post/6481401376/irmaboom
designer who specialist in book making. She is one of my design heroes because her books communicates ideas and it speaks to all human sense. She has produced more than 250 books, and 50 of her book is now in the modern art museum in New York. I think the images, typography, and structure of her book design is one of the best that I’ve ever seen.Her book design is beautiful, creative, and innovative. I am drawn by the layout and color of her books. I think it is really fun to look at all of her book designs, especially the small ones. Books don’t always have to be massive, her book involve a half dozen two inch mini prototype to give her ideas of the architectural structure of her book. Her small book design to me shows the creative freedom mentality all designer should have. It shows that our creative ideas should not be limit to the standard expectation. That is why she is one of my design hero. She is Irma Boom.
IRMA BOOM
This is my design hero. She is a Dutch graphic
Picture taken from http://www.irmaboom.nl/
B
orn in the Dutch town of Lochem in 1960, Irma Boom studied in Enschede and, after graduation, worked for five years as a designer in the Dutch government publishing office. Since opening Irma Boom Office in Amsterdam in 1991 she has designed scores of books, as well as teaching at Yale in the US and the Van Eyck Academy at Maastricht. Her most ambitious project to date was a book celebrating the centenary of the Dutch conglomerate SHV in 1996 to which she devoted five years of work. The first three and a half years were spent researching the subject – from scouring the company’s archives to observing shareholders’ meetings – only then did she embark on the design. She described the project as: “dream and nightmare. Dream
because of the conditions which were ideal – a very good client – but nightmare because of the very long, intense process.�� Originally Boom envisaged producing 4,000 page book. The end result ran to 2,136 pages and weighed several pounds but was devoid of page numbers or an index. “The book is a voyage,� she explained. “You find things you don’t want to find and discoveries happen by coincidence. The only clues are the dates. The book is made in anti-chronological order. It’s a book for the reader’s mind including doubts, mistakes and changes.�� Since the publication of the SHV book, Boom has adopted a prolific pattern of working, generally designing several books at once. She admits that the freedom given to her by SHV has made it difficult to
deal with less permissive clients and that, whenever possible, she avoids working to briefs. “I can’t even work for someone telling me what size of book to make.�� In recent projects such as an art book for Aernout Mik and a monograph of her own work Gutenberg Galaxie, she has refined her signature style. The defining characteristic of Irma Boom’s work is a raw beauty with bold juxtapositions of type, die-cut holes and text teetering off the edge of the page. “If there is something in common about my books it is the roughness,� she says. “They are all unrefined.� Words: Design Museum
“ Making the book models by hand is a design tool for me; it’s a necessity to make them as the book is in development.”
Body Text in Bembo, regular, 10/15. Artist basic info in futura book, 9/15 Title, 72/86