Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Artist of the day, September 3: Colin Forbes, a British graphic designer (#788)

Colin Forbes (1928) is a British graphic designer. He is notable as a former head of the graphic design program at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, and as one of the founders of the Pentagram design studio.

Colin Forbes studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London and worked briefly under graphic designer and journalist Herbert Spencer. After graduating, Forbes returned to become Head of Graphic Design at the Central School at the age of 28. By 1960 Forbes had left teaching for private practice and in 1962 formed Fletcher/Forbes/Gill with Alan Fletcher and Bob Gill. (Gill left the partnership in 1965 and was replaced by Theo Crosby and the firm became Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes). In 1972 Forbes and Fletcher were two of the five founders of Pentagram design studio, a leading studio in the world of design. He worked with Alan Kitching at this time.

With his partners at Fletcher/Forbes/Gill and with partners at Pentagram, Forbes is the co-author of several books on design. He has also written under his sole name. Forbes was a 1991 recipient of the AIGA medal

© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Colin Forbes and/or Pentagram. 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


Mr. Colin Forbes

Mr. Colin Forbes

Pentagram office

Pre cut Asbestos products


DandAD

Designer's Saturday poster

Visual Comparisons cover

Pirelli campaign

Plastics magazine covers


PMS calendar


1966, Zinc Die Casting Conference

1974, New Alphabets A-Z

D&ad mark

Eastman Machine Co.

Eastman Machine Co.

F1, Formula racing

Identity program for Hotel Hankyu in Osaka, Japan

Kubota identity



Toray identity



Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover

Book cover


Monday, September 2, 2019

Artist of the day, September 2: Gaganendranath Tagore, an Indian painter (#787)

Gaganendranath Tagore (1867-1938), one of the brilliant artists and cultural activists of his time was unabashedly open to various kinds of artistic influences and sources throughout his life. Following the chronological sequence it is evident that Tagore moved with great élan from one mode of pictorial style to another in different phases of his career eschewing any singular stylistic consistency but exploring a range of variables cutting across culture and time.

The specific contexts of his art at various points of time also provided him with the necessary logic for each stylistic framework. Despite a certain kind of continuity in the early phase when he was producing the portraits and figure sketches with commendable accuracy or the Puri landscapes, or even the Chaitanya series  and illustrations for Jeevansmriti, he was clearly responding to diverse stylistic sources like Japanese brush techniques, wash paintings, sumi-e (black ink method) and possibly Chinese ink paintings as well. The variations in brushwork attempted by him in his political cartoons at the cost of contrived elegance are also a testimony to his penchant for sourcing and consequently appropriating techniques in spite of highly empirical and local subject matters.

Similarly, the so-called Cubist phase is one such group of paintings done during the period from 1921 to 1925 leading to a highly complex and personal imageries of the late paintings before he was unfortunately debilitated by cerebral paralysis.

© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Gaganendranath Tagore 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



Mr Gaganendranath Tagore

Artist Studio at Jorasanko House

1907, Fairy in the Moon Light

1910, Untitled

1912 The crow

1915 Pratima Visarjan

1917, Cubist study: a crowded street scene

1920 city in the night

1920 Island of Birds

1920 Sunrise from Tiger Hill

1920, Movement

1920, Resurrection

1920, Untitled

1921, Untitled

1922 bed of arrows

1922 Composition

1922 Demonstrating new apparatus

1924, Interior with Figures

1925 Dwarkapuri

1925 Magician

1925 Meeting at the Staircase

1925 Swarnapuri Dwarka

1925, City in the night

1925, Resurrection

1925, Untitled

Christ in the Church (Unknown date)

Gaganendra (Unknown date)

Himalayan Bride (Unknown date)
Madane Theatre by Night (Unknown date)

O Master (Unknown date)

Pilgrims in front of Puri temple (Unknown date)

Portrait of William Rothenstein (Unknown date)

Puri Temples (Unknown date)

Story Teller (Unknown date)

Summer Night (Unknown date)

The Blue Mountain (Unknown date)