2 Inspiring Designers

Ok, the first thing you have to know about me, is that I would never give positive comments about a person just because he/she comes from a culture that is similar to mine :) So, that is not the reason why I will be talking about Tariq Yosef...

The reason is simple, our class consists of international students, and thus I thought it would be interesting to give you information about this designer, whom you may have never heard anything about.

Tariq Yosef is a Jordanian Independent Art Director and a Graphic Designer. The thing that startled me about this designer is his ability to produce eye-satisfying designs using both Arabic and English letters. Moreover, his typographic designs are somewhat dark. They are enigmatic. You will see that he creates letters that explode from a portrait. There is orderly chaos in his work. The second thing that I appreciate is his flexibility in working with various design programs. For example, he sometimes creates a cluster of letters and numbers flowing amongst each other using Cinema 4D, then he would import this product onto Photoshop, and this is where he starts completing the artwork and adding manipulations and figures.

It doesn't end here!

One of my favorite designs of Tariq is the one he created for the "Annual Report - Wesaya". The link is here:

http://tariqdesign.com/filter/design/Annual-Report-Wesaya

Notice his fluent means of combining a hand with text in 3 dimensionality.

Since this is an international group, I though it would be nice to share his works, as he may inspire you to think of your own ways of creating designs (typographic) that combine both the English letters and those of your own language. :)

Hope you like it.

The second designer is Anton Semenov!

He is a Russian creative illustrator. Unfortunately, I could only find his work in general on networks such as Deviant art and Facebook, but could not find a website that is specifically his. However, it won't hurt.

Anton Semenov primarily works with Photoshop, and his artworks are cited as extremely dark, despite his recurring usage of pale color pallets. Here is a link that explains some of his work.

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/inspiration/the-artwork-of-anton-semenov/

I believe that what makes him outstanding is his capacity to create illustrations that can take the viewer in another world very unknown. The themes he uses are eclectic; some of his artworks are about society. Others are about children and their emotions, fear, and interest in fairytales. These may seem mundane, common and easy to express, he none the less portrays them in such unusual manners.

For example, his painting "Noon"; it suggests the fact that children can sometimes face fear of having some kind of monster lurking in their bedroom. He uses light colors, his illustrations may not be photorealistic, but together with all of the elements aggregated in his composition, it takes the viewer in a world that seems dark, scary and unpleasant....and yes it does some how feel real.

As I said, his topics are eclectic; another artwork called "Society" is a creation of a screaming face that is made-up of arms. It points out his belief in that society is made up of individuals that together create stress and it becomes mainstream, and the society as a whole functions in a negative way. A person who disapproves this functionality is put under stress and emotion discomfort. Again, portrayed with creativity and depth :)

:)