We are really excited about Andy’s up and coming exhibition: “Public Perception”… that’s why we have been a little slow in updating our blog. Below is the official poster and the write up by Ricardo Fornoni our good friend and curator of the Resolution Gallery.
We will be posting more on the exhibition itself as well as our thoughts on the poster art medium. Watch this space!

PUBLIC PERCEPTION
(03.08.10 / 23.10.10)

“Art is man’s creation, yet words and pictures are also the form of his language.”
John Barnicoat (Posters – A Concise History)

We live in a world controlled by the media. Public figures manage themselves as brands. They play up to the images and react to the labels imposed upon them by the media.

Posters have always been one of the best ways to explore the status-quo in the political and social arena, even though advertising and propaganda were initially their main function.

We already have subconscious images in our minds of these public figures based on preconceived ideas and perception. In this exhibition the artist, Andy Robertson, has taken the essence of these perceptions and defined his graphic style and the look of each poster. The artist has portrayed recognisable figures in various ways. Some of his posters will provide an obvious angle, others will oppose the commonly held opinion, but most importantly, he is offering the viewer to see with a fresh, open minded perspective, with an added humourous twist.

This in turn, gains us an insight into who we think that we see and what they have come to represent.

Resolution Gallery

For the full article click here.

A sneak peek of a label design we’ve created for a sports endurance supplement.

Glyph recently completed new corporate brochures for UMT Consulting SA, a multi-faceted client who has been a pleasure to work with.

The design of the brochures has been derived from the Brand Integrated Corporate Artwork “The Architects of Change”, which we created for UMT Consulting SA some months ago. You can view the final artwork, as well as the artwork’s progression here.

It’s always difficult to work with an already established identity However, UMT Consulting SA were completely open to our creativity and new ideas, so we were able to develop an artwork and further design collateral which did justice to their brand, but still took their visual communications to a whole new level.

Here are images of a few of the artistic elements which were used on the brochures. As the artwork we crafted for this client displayed a burgeoning cityscape, we have utilised city visuals in both illustrations. The brochure header is simply an imaginative execution of the UMT Consulting SA logo. The ‘spherical’ cityscape is a timeline of UMT Consulting SA’s company history, showing how this company progressed from a state of modest development to an awe-inspiring sprawl of progressive expansion and skyscrapers.

This art piece was commissioned by UMT Consulting South Africa, a project management portfolio specialists company based in Irene, Johannesburg. UMT Consulting SA is a values focused business, and as such, they needed an artwork which would convey the principles and proudly upheld ideals which UMT SA carry into all their business endeavours.

The artwork positions UMT Consulting SA as architects, the visionaries who plan, manage, and control the building of the city. They are responsible for the creation of potential and opportunity where nothing stood before, and ensure that the new world which they have conceived will always promote sustainable growth and prosperity.

The city which comprises the majority of the piece is a well organized sprawl of interconnectivity, of shared ideas, mutual understanding and common benefit. UMT Consulting SA, as the creators of this prosperous city, have ensured that there will always be more room for conscientious growth, and the city will always be capable of expanding to accommodate an ever increasing population of individuals with innovative ideas and the desire to succeed, who seek to share in the prosperity which the city has made tangible.

Finally, UMT Consulting SA always strives to leave a unique and distinctive mark on the work which they do. This characteristic UMT Consulting SA signature comes through in the artwork as a subtle fingerprint texture, which appears throughout the entire canvas.

‘Aquilo’ is a brand integrated corporate art piece which was developed for the financial advisory division of Momentum, a large corporate who deal primarily in financial advise, based in Pretoria, South Africa. ‘Aquilo’ was inspired by Aquilo, the Roman deity of the wind, as well as the Aquilofers, the administrators of the Roman army.

As a manifestation of the wind, Aquilo was able to bring life-giving rain, full sails, and remind humankind of something greater than themselves. Aquilo is also symbolic of both direction and change. Aquilofirs were the financial planners of the Roman army. They carried winged standards, and ensured that all administrative and economic issues were dealt with effectively and competently. By marrying these two closely related concepts, we have been able to develop a corporate art piece which communicates the Momentum Financial Planner ideals of excellence, competence, leadership and movement, all housed within a financial theme.

‘Aquilo’ is a superb example of how more abstract concepts, corporate subtleties, and cultural idiosyncrasies can be effectively and comprehensibly communicated through artwork. The result is a bold, inspirational, and evocative art piece which has become iconic of the individuals who belong to the Momentum Financial Planning division. Similarly, each individual instance of derived brand collateral stands as a mark of excellence for the division.

We began the process of developing this corporate art piece with pen and ink. Contrary to our usual approach, we progressed very quickly into detail, as we wished to attain a richness and fineness in the appearance of the artwork.

On our initial canvas, we worked in some rock texturing and washed out colours to prime the artwork for the contrasting ink, which would be heavily layered. Up close, the ink would look as though it had been set in stone.

This is the finished artwork. Many layers of mixed media have been worked onto the canvas, with the intention of more traditional media and techniques forming the base of the artwork, enhanced by numerous affects applied to each individual element. The finished artwork will ultimately serve as an award for top Momentum financial advisors.

During every step of developing this piece, we have been careful to record everything we have done, and we also maintained a digital schematic version of the artwork. This has enabled us to translate the wing structure into a 3D CAD model, which was then digitally sculpted into a floating trophy. It has also allowed us to have the entire painting animated as an AV sequence for the official Aquilo launch.

The Aquilo Seal signifies the seriousness, confidentiality, and sophistication with which all of the Momentum Financial Planners conduct business. In true Glyph style, the dynamic nature of our approach to visual communication allowed us to surprise our clients with a signet stamp of their own, which Momentum’s own Aquilofirs could use on certain documents. The iconic nature of the seal also lent itself to the creation of a simple graphic icon for the Momentum Sales Division.

One of the most beneficial aspects of our balance between traditional and digital art is that we were able to keep a record of every layer and every colour we utilised to establish the hierarchy of this brand division. Only certain individuals will be exposed to the full detail of the finished product, but we have been able to alter colours for Gold, Silver, and Diamond certificates. We have also developed a very simple line work version for further brand collateral.