- VAUGHAN OLIVER
- PAUL SMITH
- VAUGHAN OLIVER
EPILOGUE
London is a hundred cities in one. A collage of styles, trends, and times. Modern and classical styles interweaving to create a strand of DNA for the city. London is design’s boneyard and design’s cathedral in the same place. These photographs were taken over the course of a week’s trip to London. After sifting through them all, I started to see connections between disparate things. Yet this is more than just finding similar photographs. Through our excursions, I found myself equally inspired by both the old and the new. By this idea of emerging styles and recycling past trends. We saw original works of William Morris, the designer who defined the Arts and Crafts Movement. The symmetry, structure, and botanical style spoke to my taste for orderly design and love of flowers. Morris’s ideals are also a significant inspiration: his insistence of the hand in design and his urge to simply make his world beautiful. I was also introduced to the work of Vaughan Oliver while there. His style is a contrast to the classical style of Morris. He has a messy process leading to postmodern collage-style design. And while these two artists are stylistically opposites, they share the same beliefs of technology in design. Oliver avoids the use of computers and technology, the same way Morris avoided the machine as it was popular in his time. The tactile process in both their designs is persistent This project is about finding connections, “looking closely” to see our surroundings in their entirety. It’s a metaphor of the city. The photographs highlight the visual critical tensions that we won’t see until we pull them out of context. It’s my attempt to connect the opposing inspirations I found while in the city. The attempt to find the common thread to tie the city together.