Artist of the day

Tuesday, June 16, 2026

Artist of the Day, June 16, 2026 : Juan Carlos Pagan, an American artist, designer, typographer, and creative director (#2554)

Juan Carlos Pagan is a New York–based multi-disciplinary artist, designer, typographer, and creative director whose work examines the intersection of design, systems thinking, and cultural storytelling. His practice moves fluidly between art and design, spanning brand systems, visual identity, image-making, and experimental typography, with a particular focus on how visual language shapes contemporary culture. For Pagan, design is a process of building meaning through form, where visual systems and expression are inseparable.

His work has been commissioned by organizations including NPR, Pinterest, Cîroc, Under Armour, Nike, Google, Apple, Disney, Curry, HOKA, and YouTube, and includes original editorial artwork created for the covers of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and Variety. Alongside his independent practice, Pagan has held creative leadership roles at DDB, Deutsch, MTV, and 72andSunny, contributing to brand-defining campaigns while advancing the role of design as a cultural and expressive medium within contemporary visual language.

Pagan’s work has been widely recognized by The Type Directors Club, The Art Directors Club, The One Show, Communication Arts, Graphis, Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, AICP, 4A’s, AdColor, and Print Magazine, among others. In 2013, he received the Art Directors Club Young Guns Award, was nominated for Print Magazine’s New Visual Artist “20 Under 30,” and was named #1 on Adweek’s Talent 100 list. In 2018, he was honored with the Type Directors Club Ascenders Award, recognizing designers under 35 for significant contributions to design and typography. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Type Directors Club and regularly lectures at design conferences and universities.

In 2017, Pagan co-founded Sunday Afternoon, a hybrid design studio and artist management agency. Under his leadership, the studio was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing companies in America in 2020 and recognized by Print Magazine as Design Agency of the Year in 2022.

Pagan holds a BFA from Parsons School of Design and completed postgraduate studies in typeface design at The Cooper Union.

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Juan Carlos Pagan or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only

Juan Carlos Pagan

91st ADC Annual Book Custom Typography, 2012

Pinterest Branding & Visual Identity, 2012

Nike Home Run King Bat Trophy, 2015

Ages of Aberlour • OOH Typographic Campaign, 2016

Ampersand, 2016

Variety Magazine 30 Execs, 2016

2016

JOAN Creative Branding & Visual Identity, 2019

NPR By The Numbers Brand Campaign, 2019

The New York Times Special Section Cover- 50 Years of Pride, 2019

Today at Apple Custom Typography, 2019

ADC 99th Annual Book, 2020

The New York Times DealBook Cover: How to Fix America, 2020

The New York Times Learning Cover: Educating Generation, 2020

24th TDC Typeface Design Competition Branding, 2021

Sippin', Never Slippin' Poster, 2021

The New York Times Arts & Leisure Cover: Best of 2022

Magnetic Field Brand Identity, 2023

SuperRare Rebrand, 2023

SuperRare Rebrand Logotype, 2023

No Estás Solo, 2024

Monday, June 15, 2026

Artist of the Day, June 15, 2026 : Jacob van Ruisdael, a Dutch painter (#2553)

Jacob van Ruisdael (1628 - 1682) was a Baroque artist often regarded as one of the greatest Dutch landscape painters. His subjects and style varied throughout his career, leading to a dynamic oeuvre that comprises around 700 paintings, 100 drawings, and several etchings.

Ruisdael was probably the pupil of his father, the frame maker and artist Isaak de Goyer, who later called himself Ruysdael. None of Isaak’s paintings have been identified with certainty, and it is impossible to determine the nature and extent of his influence on his son’s art. Ruisdael’s earliest works are dated 1646, and the influence of Cornelis Vroom, another Haarlem landscapist, is often noticeable. Two years later Ruisdael became a member of the Guild of St. Luke in Haarlem. From 1650 to 1653 he traveled extensively in the Netherlands and the neighbouring parts of western Germany. About 1655 he settled in Amsterdam, of which he became a free citizen in 1659. Meindert Hobbema was his most famous pupil and follower.

Ruisdael’s early work, such as Peasant Cottage in a Landscape reflects his obsession with trees. Earlier Dutch artists used trees merely as decorative compositional devices, but Ruisdael made them the subject of his paintings and imbued them with forceful personalities. His draftsmanship was meticulously precise and enriched by thick impasto, which adds depth and character to the foliage and trunks of his trees.

After 1650 the monumentality of his landscapes increases. In his view of Waterfall with Bentheim Castle Beyond, the forms become more massive, the colours more vibrant, and the composition more concentrated. The latter quality is even more evident in his famous Jewish Cemetery, which is one of his most masterly compositions. All motifs of secondary importance serve as accessories to the main motif, three ruined tombs. Some scholars have suggested that the painting symbolizes the transience of temporal things.

After 1656 Ruisdael’s compositions become more spacious and his palette brighter. His paintings of waterfalls and his Marsh recall his earlier interest in forest scenes. But more often his late works—such as the The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede, Wheat Fields, and his numerous views of Haarlem—display panoramas of the flat Dutch countryside. The horizon is invariably low and distant and dominated by a vast, clouded sky. Sometimes the small figures in his pictures were added by other artists, such as Adriaen van de Velde, Johannes Lingelbach, Philips Wouwerman, and Claes Berchem. Ruisdael also produced several delicately finished etchings, one of the most famous of which is The Wheat Field.

© 2026. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by VisualDiplomacy or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only