"Fragment", posted by Dan Hill on March 05, 2006 on cityofsound.com with the following note:
"The 'email magazine' Artkrush featured a glimpse one of my old 'fragments' images in their latest Architecture and Design issue, in the blogs section. Thanks! This image contains elements of Barcelona, New York and London (Brick Lane and Stoke Newington)."
First of all, I really like how this has a very "sketchbook" feel to it; it feels like a personal scrapbook collection of photos, clipped together, and I'm looking at memories -- not just photographs of distant places. The way that this is put together makes these places feel very familiar somehow, even though, with exception of New York, I've never been. One might think that this looks sloppy, but to me, it looks personal.
The tinting very much helps with making this graphic seem 'personal', as well -- it creates a mood, perhaps of how the person was feeling while making these observations firsthand. It makes words unnecessary. It feels almost like I’m invading on a private moment, somehow -- as if I were looking through the eyes of another person, and I’m catching a stolen glimpse of what the world must look like through this person’s eyes. One might say, this is what a diary entry looks like before it hits the page.
The two basic design elements that I see are squares and triangles -- these two shapes are, very clearly, the backbone for the entire design. I can spot them right away, and this is what keeps the 'collection' of images looking organized. It gives this graphic a 'flow', if you will.
But there is so much more than just the basic 'pulling' element of the squares and the triangles -- there is design in the details. The bricks [or is that tiles?] on the bottom of the image; the signs; the windows on the skyscraper -- there is so much design in just this one graphic, and yet, I don't feel I'm overconsuming to the point of combustion -- it's not too much. It is simply intricate, and it has just enough elements; just enough spacing; just enough sizing; and, ultimately, just enough mood, to make this graphic work.
This is the sort of artwork that I can find myself staring at, wondering what the artist meant by the piece or was trying to say. It feels like nostalgia; bittersweet nostalgia. Perhaps this is aided by the old man in the top right corner, as your eyes begin to view the image, and the two little children at the bottom left, as you finish. It feels like you're looking back in time.
It is both warm, and sad.
Perhaps, this is all simply my own interpretation and imagination, and I’m putting more thought into this work than even the artist and the photographers did [assuming they were separate people] – but, this is certainly the way that the graphic captures me.
It makes me think. It makes me feel.
Everything about this image -- everything about the design, everything about the tinting, everything about the arrangement -- everything about the way that it was put together, was just excellent. Terrific use of Photoshop; great photo selection; this artist definitely knew what he was doing when he sat down and made this graphic.
Mr. Dan Hill, graphic designer, I tip my invisible hat.
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