Signs mixed with Illustrations
I decided to post Noma Bar's work in my contextual portfolio because recently my theory teachers are teaching me about signs such as icons, index, symbols and much more. His work caight my attention because he uses these signs with illustration to depict something or a person.
Noma Bar
Saddam Hussein
Noma Bar was born in Israel, he studied typography and graphic design at the academy of art & design in Jerusalem. In 2001 he moved to London. 'It all began with Saddam Hussein's face. When i was a teenager in Israel, during the first Gulf war, his picture was everywhere. One day, i saw radiation symbols and realized it looked just like him,' says Noma Bar, explaining how his new dimensions of portrait started. He used the radiation symbol to represent an image of him, the three black wedges of the radiation warning sign is seen as two busy eyebrows and a mustache. This international warning sign has easily formed Saddam Hussein's face. My opinion is from my own experience, I remember seeing Hussein's face all over the news and the longer you stare at Bar's work, the resemblance appears out of nowhere, it's fascinating really, how something that was nothing became something in under than a minute. I also think that the international warning sign was used because of the fact that Hussein was a criminal known internationally.
Spock
Charlie Chapman
His work has a very illusory style and the reason being is that the visual communication in his work is carried out with minimum elements. These elements are known as icons, symbols or index. Others may stare at his illustration and become confused with the context because there is not many people that would consider their everyday traditional signs as facial features, whereas I and others would understand each signs new identity featuring his portraits.
Pointed Sense, Taxi Driver, Chicken & Egg.
These are some of Bar's negative space illustrations that i found interesting and also another good example for illusory style. Most artists or designers would rely on the negative space to support the main illustration, however Bar wanted to bring that kind of space to life. He used his negative spaces to tell a story or design something and i think its outstanding how two things are going on at once. His work called Point Sense on the first left is of dogs, sniffing each other, the green dog nose is behind the white dog. He builds his story with elements and as you can see, using space to create a second reading. If you look at the Taxi Driver work, you may see just a taxi or a taxi accompanied by a black gun which is also used as the taxi's negative space that also forms the outlines.
Reference:
Interview
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/nov/11/noma-bar-portrait-artist
Portfolio work
http://www.dutchuncle.co.uk/noma-bar
