equisgarcia

Marian Bantjes' response

2011-04-13T03:06:00.003+01:00

The always wonderful Marian Bantjes responded to my works at Fortnight with this piece:

I was somewhat familiar with Xavi's work before being approached by Fortnight to respond to him, and I was very happy to do so as I was impressed with what I had seen.

Xavi has a number of similar interests to me in my work: historical references, craft, a variety of media, and the injection of the personal, and working by hand. My response to him picks up from his initial in sealing wax, in that I was reminded I've been meaning to do something for myself which references complex historical monograms.

As always, I have no desire to simply copy or reproduce, so I have made an intertwining of the letters of my first name, MARIAN. But the form is strangely organic in an animal-vegetable way, with folds and twists that look strangely like rubber or skin. Because of Xavi's work in pencil also, I decided to create this piece in pencil. I noticed that as well we have similar ways of working in the way we draw a simple grid structure to start and build from there. That this is unfinished (as yet) shows a bit of that process.

Marian Bantjes

You can read the entire post at Fortnight Journal.

Infinite Variety

2011-04-01T21:05:00.000+01:00

One of the most inspiring exhibitions I've been in a very long time.

Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts

They aren't just amazing from the distance. The closer you get, the more details you can appreciate.

Visual joy.

Please see the rest of the pictures in my Flickr.

Harper´s Bazaar Twitter

2011-04-01T13:00:00.000+01:00

Made this Twitter Bird for Harper's Bazaar Spain, using pages from the magazine itself.

Elephant Parade

2011-03-31T03:33:00.003+01:00

Last year me and some other fellow Central Saint Martins students were invited by Kenn Munk to help decorate the elephant Hasbro sponsored for the Elephant Parade 2010 in London. The Elephant Parade is an open air art exhibition of decorated elephant statues. Famous and upcoming artists contribute to the conservation of Asian elephants and the public awareness of their life threatening situation.

Hasbro decided to turn its elephant into a Monopoly board, and asked artists and schools to fill in spaces according to a theme and a colour.

We were allocated "London at night", and after much thinking (and a few pints) we concluded that what most Londoners do at night is ... sleeping. And probably, quite a few would be snoring while doing so.

From the distance, the area looks like an innocent Islamic pattern made out of stars (resembling stories from the One Thousand and One Nights), but a closer inspection reveals a funny pattern depicting the classic image of the saw and the log used to represent snoring.

Happy New Year

2011-02-20T16:00:00.000Z

Chinese New Year was some weeks ago, and to celebrate it I made this little thing, using a wall scroll calendar given at a Chinese restaurant.

Unity

2011-02-13T16:16:00.002Z

All my 6 contributions for Fortnight Journal are now available in my website.

The last one, Unity, compiles all 5 previous entries, and has recently been featured in It's Nice That, in their regular section "Things":

I still have some copies left, so please get in touch if you want to receive one.

Keyring

2011-01-26T20:36:00.002Z

(sic)

Merry Christmas

2011-01-26T20:34:00.003Z

1848, Épreuves de Caractères. Fonderie de Chevillon, Lyon (modified).

IKEA chair

2011-01-26T20:31:00.004Z

Took ages to assemble -as usual.

Seville

2010-11-04T10:00:00.000Z

On our way to Huelva, we spent a day in Seville.

It was a very warm afternoon of summer, so we didn't have much time to walk around the city. However, I was able to spot some interesting lettering and patterns:

They just need a few tiles to create beautiful stuff:

Islamic influence is clearly visible in some parts of the city:

You can see the entire set on my Flickr page.

El taller de Horacio

2010-11-01T14:13:00.003Z

Few weeks ago I went to my grandparents'. My grandfather used to be a carpenter and still has his old workshop at home.

Being there reminded me of my childhood, when I used to spend hours playing with wood, making my own toys, having fun.

This inspired me to create one of the pieces I made for Fortnight Journal, which will be available to see in a few weeks time.

You can see the rest of the pictures on my Flickr page.

Cinegramas

2010-10-25T13:01:00.004+01:00

Last weekend I went to a second-hand and antique book fair in my hometown, Salamanca.

They had gorgeous old books, magazines and prints, and among them I found this magazine from the 1930s:

The cover caught my eye -a colored still from a movie, but the inside pages were even better, with interesting custom-made type.

And rather lovely drop-caps:

You can see more pictures on my Flickr page.

Intricate beauty by design

2010-08-10T09:04:00.001+01:00

Inspiring, moving talk by Marian Bantjes.

Hello again

2010-07-28T21:38:00.002+01:00

Wow. Haven't updated the blog in ages. Sorry about that if someone is actually following it. Been quite busy recently -degree show, some interviews, new projects... But I'll try to write more often in here. I promise.

I've spent the last 4-5 weeks interning at Roundel. It's a small design agency producing tasty printed stuff. Being in a small studio made me learn a lot, and I certainly had a great time there.

Time flew and I had to leave, so I just wanted to say thanks to everyone and came up with this little present in a form of poster.

It says "thanks" in Spanish, and is written using the thing an intern uses the most -tea. As a final touch I set it in Helvetica, which is the font used by the studio.

And this is how I handed it:

Busy doing nothing

2010-07-04T08:58:00.002+01:00

Great, witty video by my great Central Saint Martins friend Saskia.

A conversation with her DOES look like this sometimes.

Busy Doing Nothing from Saskia Vranken on Vimeo.

Tu eres ¡¡¡formidable!!!

2010-06-13T10:03:00.004+01:00

Collage using 1960s Spanish magazine "Dígame".

It reads: You are terrific!!!

I own you

2010-05-24T13:18:00.000+01:00

Lovely video by French studio SoLab. Who needs complicated computer programs to make great videos?

Wax Tailor feat. Charlie Winston " I Own You" from SoLab on Vimeo.

50$ of capitalism

2010-05-22T00:22:00.002+01:00

Just finished a project on money (again), so I've spent the last weeks looking at books, shops and websites on banknotes, forgery and so on.

Today I came across this project by a Spanish designer which I think is brilliant. The brief was to create a zine on the capitalism.

I love the fact that you need to burn the zine in order to read it.

It contains sentences like "bills won't make you feel less lonely", "you are more valuable that what's inside your wallet" or "best things in life are priceless".

Happy Birthday Iciar

2010-04-18T21:47:00.001+01:00

Quick birthday card for a friend.

Yes, quite a lot influenced by Rob Ryan.

Fanzine

2010-03-25T00:04:00.000Z

Zine about my dad. Typographic (numeric) journey through his life. Edition of 5

Walk

2010-03-24T23:22:00.000Z

Street intervention

Truth

2010-03-24T23:15:00.003Z

Sojourner Truth (1979 - 1883)

M+X

2010-03-24T23:10:00.001Z

Experimental and collaborative project with friend Magnus.

We agreed in produced individually a series of prints, using only one element, without telling each other what it was. Then we swapped the sheets and completed the poster.

Manifesto

2010-03-22T23:12:00.001Z

A2 Screenprint on black card.

Mexican Prints

2010-03-18T23:53:00.002Z

Woodcut posters based on the mayan numerals and Mexico 86 graphics.

¡Guapa!

2010-03-18T23:18:00.002Z

Brief: Create a poster to compliment someone

Response: ¡Guapa! (Gorgeous, in Spanish) is spraypainted to represent the spontaneity of such a compliment. Using Paquita typeface and the typical flamenco pattern to reinforce the Spanish look.

Coming soon

2010-03-16T00:37:00.000Z

Xhibit 2010

2010-03-13T09:07:00.009Z

Xhibit is a uniquely diverse exhibition of the very best emerging talent from Europe’s leading Arts university, University of the Arts London, showcasing the next big things in art, sculpture, photography, film, fashion and design.

The exhibition opened last tuesday and it's going to be at the Gallery at London College of Communication untill the 25th of March.

I had the chance, together with Christopher Lacy, to produce all the publicity for the event.

We started off with an image for the web (www.suarts.org/xhibit) and the flyers.

By that stage we wanted to keep the concept a bit abstract, and tried to surprise the students.

They were distributed in different colleges and featured a different image. Once put them all together they form a small version (A4) of the poster. The idea was the same as the exhibition, bring students from different colleges (and therefore different disciplines) together. Therefore the only way of getting the 4 flyers would be by meeting other students attending other colleges.

The next stage was the poster. The poster features a star map in the center, and it's, like the rest of the publicity, clearly influenced by 16th century astronomy.

The star map is in fact a map of London, showing the location of all the different colleges of the University (big stars) and the Gallery. The rest of the stars are (almost) all the results shown by Google Maps when typing "art gallery"

By last we worked out a nice concept for the catalogue of the exhibition. We didn't want the catalogue to end up in the (recycling) bin or lost among other papers, we wanted the people to keep it.

So we thought it would be nice that, once you use the catalogue, you can transform it into a souvenir of the exhibition, and what else can be more appropriate than a celestial globe?

This origami figure can be build following the instructions, which can be easily detached thanks to the perforation in the page.

Xhibit 2010

8^th-25^th March

Open 10am-6pm, Monday-Friday

The Gallery @ London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6SB

Free Entry

Doors are closing

2010-03-11T23:59:00.002Z

A2 monoprint based on the London Underground lines

The most beautiful things in the world

2010-03-10T00:26:00.005Z

...are not seen. The are felt

(Using a quote by Helen Keller)

Embossed letters and monoprint ampersand, all of them cut by hand.

Some images of the process

Whatever

2010-03-01T20:58:00.011Z

Asked to do whatever I wanted for one day, I went to the local charity shop and bought a book on Partial Derivatives and another about Capricorn, and decided to make some collages out of that.

This is the result.

The revolution will not be televised

2010-02-24T22:10:00.002Z

Greeks

2010-02-23T11:44:00.000Z

Black and gold markers

Spray-painting the sketchbook

2010-02-23T09:43:00.001Z

Sketchbook

2010-02-23T09:33:00.000Z

Leftovers are little gems sometimes

2010-02-19T08:43:00.003Z

Finding Nemo

2010-02-11T22:55:00.002Z

One-day project in which we had to find a lost cat/wallet/dog poster and re-design them. Since we're nice people, we had to go back to the place where we find it and replace it with the new version, hoping to help that person find their lost things.

Verde viento. Verdes ramas

2010-02-02T22:25:00.003Z

Verde que te quiero verde.
Verde viento. Verdes ramas.
El barco sobre la mar
y el caballo en la montaña.
Con la sombra en la cintura
ella sueña en su baranda,
verde carne, pelo verde,
con ojos de fría plata.
Verde que te quiero verde.
Bajo la luna gitana,
las cosas le están mirando
y ella no puede mirarlas.

- Poem by Federico García Lorca

Looking back

2010-01-31T23:38:00.003Z

Browsing through my old stuff in order to select some work for my portfolio advice tomorrow I bumped into this work that I almost had forgotten.

It's a pattern I submitted for a contest ages ago -obviously without much success. It takes as inspiration one of the reliefs located in the corridor that leads to the Library in the University of Salamanca, Spain, where I used to study.

A Latin inscription in the middle says something like "and this way, years are passing by, one after another".

I thought it would make sense to use an allegory of infinite to create a pattern, which is basically one little (or not) image repeated all and over again.

Get your hands dirty

2010-01-26T22:44:00.004Z

I like the fact that nowadays you can still find places like this, working with traditional techniques and achieving wonderful results.

I'm becoming more and more interested in hand-made material. I think it adds some humanity to the design, sometimes lost with computers, and connects in a very different level with the viewer / reader / consumer. I believe it's worth getting your hands dirty, spending hours doing something you could have done in 5 minutes in front of your computer, cutting yourself or starting again because you made a mistake you can't undo with a key shortcut, in order to get that personal piece of design.

Sorry I need to turn off my computer, I've got some work to do.

(Work in progress)

Los tres reyes magos

2010-01-21T23:04:00.001Z

(The Three Wise Men)

Attached

2010-01-20T17:08:00.002Z

(Staples on paper)

Life is a means to an end

2010-01-20T09:42:00.002Z

(Home)

Sketchbook

2010-01-20T09:35:00.000Z

(Work)

Fantasy Zoo

2010-01-04T23:54:00.004Z

"Garudio Studiage have selected some of their favourite artists to receive an imaginary budget of 10,000 pounds to "buy" animals anywhere they can find them, including the Internet, "Loot" and local papers, and create the zoo of their dreams. The rules are strict but the outcome is open, all created with a careful budget in mind"

We got the same brief and were given a few hours to come up with something. We even had the chance to hung our work in the walls of the exhibition space (St Pancras's Crypt).

I simply took the brief literally and made a zoo out of 10,000 pounds -in banknotes of 10.

3D Type

2010-01-04T22:53:00.002Z

One day project at school. We were asked to create some letters in 3D that would fit in a 10x10 cm square.

I was given the letters C, L, K and A and decided to put them all together. Depending on your position you can only see one or other letter.

Mapping Project

2009-11-22T22:01:00.012Z

This was one of my first individual projects during the course. The theme was mapping, and I basically learnt that there are no limits to what can be mapped -personal, impossible, imaginary, dreamed and absurd worlds can all be mapped.

It was very useful to take a look to books like Mapping. An Illustrated Guide to Graphic Navigational Systems or

You are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination which I highly recommend because of their inspiring images.

Being a fan of info-graphics since I can recall, this project lead me to a deeper research on the topic. I suggest taking a look to La Mosca, Spanish Graphic Design Agency whose work (specially their info-graphics) follow from long time ago, and Information is Beautiful, blog in which I bumped into recently and I'm a follower ever since.

I believe people nowadays is more and more worried about health, and specially when it comes to food. We care about choosing organic products (or not) when we do our groceries, we carefully read the ingredients list and nutritional components on the packaging, and so on. But is that information really clear? Do we know what we are really eating? I thought it could be interesting to go deeper into this topic and chose Food as my mapping project.

So I began to do some research and to do so I went to a supermarket and started to look at the nutritional information of some pre-cooked meals. The main reason to do this was that this allowed me to get all the data from one dish -otherwise I would have had to gather information first of every ingredient and then sum them all, which would have been time-consuming, considering we had one week to complete the project. I gathered information of some starters, main courses and desserts, in order to form a menu. Here are some pictures of my data research.

Once I got all the information I had to decide how to represent it. Here are some examples from my sketchbook.

I finally decided to use different shapes for each category in the menu. I would use circles for the starters (Tomato & basil soup, and potato salad), squares for the main courses (shepherd's pie and sausage & mash) and triangles for the desserts (raspberry ice and chocolate profiteroles). I also coded every nutritional component (proteins, carbohydrates, fat, fibre and salt) with a different colour.

The next step would be to calculate the exact area of every shape, according to the data I collected. To do so, I took the average quantity of a certain nutritional component per 100 gr of product as the area of the shape. Say in the tomato an basil soup there are 0.9 gr of proteins per 200 gr of soup. 0.9 (mm, cm, x) would be the area. Then I calculated the radius or side of the circle, triangle and square, so I could draw it on the computer. I kept the same scale so they all would be easy to compare.

Once I got all the shapes in its correct size I started to work in the layout of the menu.

I wanted to keep the layout neat and simple, so nothing would distract the attention from the images of the meals. This, in turn, gave the menu a futuristic appearance, which I think works great with the topic of the project. Can you imagine something like this in the future, where we could choose our food according to the amount of fat, carbohydrates, etc we would like to consume?

By last, I decided that the price of every meal would be its contents in calories. Fair enough I believe.

Manos Unidas

2009-07-26T11:28:00.004+01:00

Poster chosen to be the image of the 2010 annual campaign of the Spanish NGO Manos Unidas.

The claim stands: "Protect the Earth to fight the hunger" and it promotes environmental-friendly farming to eliminate the hunger in underdeveloped countries where the NGO works.

Below: Some pictures of the presentation of the campaign.

2009-05-25T10:01:00.001+01:00

Logotypes

2009-05-21T13:52:00.005+01:00

Proposal of logo for a production company based in the Canary Islands (Spain).

Note: "una hora menos" means "one hour less" and refers to the different time zone in which the Islands are situated compared with the rest of Spain.

Some proposals for the logotype for Alegas Social, a Spanish association that gives free legal advice to other associations.

2009-03-19T15:52:00.001Z

2009-02-08T22:37:00.000Z

Vila-real

2009-01-29T09:11:00.004Z

Brochure for the audioguide of the city of Vila-real, Castellón (Spain)

2009-01-17T16:57:00.004Z

2008-12-25T14:12:00.004Z

2008-12-25T14:06:00.003Z

Universitat d'Estiu

2008-12-25T14:00:00.004Z

Proposal of poster for the summer courses of the University of Lleida

2008-12-25T13:42:00.005Z

2008-11-03T22:56:00.004Z

Jóvenes Creadores 2009

2008-11-03T22:34:00.010Z

Proposal of poster for the Young Creatives Competition 2009 in Salamanca, Spain

2008-10-29T12:54:00.007Z

Gender Violence

2008-10-29T12:45:00.004Z

Proposal of poster for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in Spain

2008-10-04T09:46:00.002+01:00

2008-09-23T22:00:00.003+01:00

Videos

2008-09-23T18:37:00.002+01:00

Ciento seis
"One hundred and six steps in Salamanca, Spain"
Video made for the oneminutesjr video competition
More info in: www.theoneminutesjr.org

This is the remix
"A different view to the world we live in"
Video made for Stranger Festival
More info in: www.strangerfestival.com

Also you can watch: Nightmares before midday

More videos and other stuff: http://es.youtube.com/equisgarcia

Ozone

2008-09-21T21:40:00.004+01:00

Design of posters, brochure, t-shirts and canvas for Ozone, a car-wash center.

Antonio Machado brochure

2008-09-21T21:34:00.002+01:00

Brochure for the guide in mp3 "Antonio Machado, vida de un poeta en Soria".

More info:

www.antoniomachado.info

Lazarillos Magazine

2008-09-21T21:30:00.002+01:00

Design and layout of magazine with tourist information, restaurants, cafes, shops and more in Salamanca

Posters (2)

2008-09-21T21:21:00.003+01:00

2007 Summer Courses, University of Salamanca

Young Creatives Competition

20th University Congress of Criminal Law

Misc

2008-09-17T21:16:00.002+01:00

Tatoo design

www.rhiz.eu background design

Hysterical Monkey - Custom Paper Toy Context

Selfportrait (spray on cardboard)

Textura Pattern Context

Posters

2008-09-15T20:30:00.001+01:00

2008-09-15T20:05:00.002+01:00