Emzin seminar on visual communication

Emzin seminar on visual communication, 17th and 18th November 2009

LECTURERS
Art Chantry (USA, www.artchantry.com)
Finn Nygaard (Denmark, www.finnnygaard.com)
Declan Stone (The Stone Twins, The Netherlands, www.stonetwins.com)
István Orosz (Hungary, www.utisz.net)

HIGHLIGHTS
- the first Emzin seminar hosted in Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture (www.kinosiska.si)!
- an upgraded concept of seminars on visual communication!
- a larger number of internationally renowned lecturers!


On the first day of the seminar, Tuesday 17th November 2009, lectures will be held by the U. S. graphic designer Art Chantry and the Danish graphic designer Finn Nygaard. Art Chantry will talk about his work and his ideas and contrarian theories about graphic design and culture. Many of his ideas about these fields seem to fly in the face of accepted academic thought, labelling him an 'iconoclast' thinker. In spite of this epithet or because of it he managed to create a body of work that has had a deep influence on American graphic design. In a way, his work is about "culture branding", i.e. giving a visual language form to cultural movement and thought. In his lecture »Visual Voice«, Finn Nygaard will start by explaining how it is to be a Danish designer and artist working in the international 'arena'. He will introduce his world, with posters and with graphic design related to jazz, books, stamps, magazines, trains, planes, furniture, porcelain, ceramics, murals. The interaction of this world with his other interest fields, such as painting, calligraphy, photography and travelling, brings up a number of questions. How does one manage to maintain and refine the artistic and original approach? How do you balance the life 'inside' your MAC and the one outside? How do you manage to work and travel at the same time?

The second day of the seminar, Wednesday 18th November 2009, will be devoted to lectures of the Irish and Hungarian graphic designers Declan Stone and István Orosz. In the lecture with the headline Passion / Expression / Simplicity / Surprise / Engage / Question / Learn / Love, Declan Stone will talk about his work in the creative agency The Stone Twins, which he established with his twin-brother Garech. The duo works at the intersection of advertising and design. Recent Stone Twin' projects include directing the Dutch Army to shoot bullets through the ADCN Annual, the wrapping of a client with duct tape (UsualSuspects), the production of a huge beach towel in Cannes (Indie) and the creation of a huge interactive jigsaw puzzle in the Zeeuws Museum. Declan Stone will discuss his work - his inspiration and influences - and explain why his other half, Garech, will not be there. István Orosz will give some insight into the creative process behind his work as a poster designer, book illustrator and animation filmmaker, in which he can easily reach the world of visual paradoxes, absurd perspectives, illusionism of fine arts. Posters are special because they can mean different things if you look at them close or from a distance; illustrations have to translate the written text to a completely different medium – the language of vision; the characters of an animated film contradicting their drawn two-dimensional features come alive and get moving. István Orosz will accompany his lecture with a rich collection of his pictures.

LECTURERS

Art Chantry (Arthur S. W. Chantry II) received a bachelor's degree from Western Washington University in 1978. He started his career in Seattle, producing a series of posters that were simultaneously chaotic and clear, with big type and startling pictures. In 1984 he became the art director of an alternative newsweekly named The Rocket, turning toward Seattle’s music and culture scene. He worked for record labels, theatre companies and political benefits. He is often associated with album covers he did for bands from the Pacific Northwest, such as Nirvana, Hole and The Sonics. He advocates a low-tech and unorthodox approach to design. His work has been exhibited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian and the Louvre; and discussed in the book Some People Can't Surf: The Graphic Design of Art Chantry. He has won many awards, including a bronze lion in Cannes. His hard-edge scrappy look can be seen everywhere from punk rock record covers to corporate annual reports. Web site: www.artchantry.com.

Finn Nygaard established Finn Nygaard Inc. in 1979, creating posters, illustrations, graphic design and corporate identity programmes for Danish and international companies. From 1990 to 1995 he was partner of the Danish design group Eleven Danes. His work has been featured worldwide. His one-man exhibitions have been shown in Modern Art Gallery, St. Petersburg, IdcN in Nagoya, Japan, National Museum in Poznan, Poland, The Museum of Printing History in Houston, Texas, The Danish Museum of Art & Design and elsewhere. Several of his posters have found their way into permanent collections of the institutions mentioned, as well as into collections of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Musée de la Publicité, Paris, The Merrill C. Berman Collection, New York. Nygaard’s work has been the subject of numerous publications, including Idea, Graphis, Print Magazine, Novum and First Choice. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and Danish Designers. He is a frequent guest lecturer and jury member, and has received numerous awards for his work. He lives and works in Fredensborg outside Copenhagen, and has another studio and atelier at the Island of Mors. Web site: www.finnnygaard.com.

Declan Stone is a member of the creative Irish duo The Stone Twins he established with his twin-brother Garech in Amsterdam in 1999. The bureau has a reputation for concept-driven, witty and engaging solutions that work across the full breadth of the media landscape. The designers worked separately at two of advertising’s hottest agencies, BBH New York and 180 Amsterdam. Recently, The Stone Twins were awarded a prestigious Dutch Design Award in the category of Corporate Identity. This is in addition to regular recognition by the D&AD. In 2004 they published the award-winning and critically acclaimed book 'Logo R.I.P.'. Their critical writings have featured in a range of international design publications. In November 2008, the duo were appointed as the Head of the department 'Man and Communication' at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Web site: www.stonetwins.com.

István Orosz was trained as a graphic designer at the University of Arts and Design in Budapest. After graduation in 1975 he began to deal with theatre as a stage designer and animated film as an animator and film director. Later when poster came to the centre of his interest he mainly made theatre, movie, exhibition and political posters. He is also known as an illustrator, using visual paradox and illusionist approaches while following traditional printing techniques such as woodcutting and etching. He is a regular participant at major international biennales of posters and graphic art. His works have been shown in many individual and group exhibitions in Hungary and abroad, and have received numerous awards. Orosz regularly participates in international designer and artist congresses and workshops. He is a film director at the Pannonia Film Studio, professor at the University of West Hungary in Sopron, co-founder of D.O.P.P. poster design society, member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and co-founder of Utisz Graphic Design Studio. Web site: www.utisz.net.

The two-day seminar will take place in Komuna hall. Lectures will be held in English and will have no simultaneous translation. The fee for the seminar is 200 EUR (VAT excluded), and 50 EUR (VAT excluded) for students. Info and applications: EMZIN, Metelkova ulica 6, 1000 Ljubljana, telephone: 386 1 430 35 44, mobile: 386 31 685 067, fax: 386 1 430 35 40, e-mail: emzin@guest.arnes.si.

Organised in cooperation with: Kino Šiška Centre for Urban Culture
Special thanks go to: the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, the Culture Department of the City of Ljubljana.