This poster was created in response to an invitation only Masters of Graphic Design Exhibition series. Invited by The Escola Universitaria ERAM  http://international.eram.cat/workplay/exposition the China Europe International Design Culture Association, CEIDA and Prof. Chang Kim (San Jose State University) for my “exceptional achievements in the field of graphic design and illustration”.

 

As part of the ‘Temps de Flors’ Flower festival in the city of Girona, Spain. This commissioned work was simultaneously exhibited in 5 venues 7-15th May 2022

 

• The University of Girona, Claustre de Sant Domenec

• The Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, China

• The Zhengzhou University of Light Industry in China

• Brussel, Belgium

• Seoul, Korea

 

Other participating Master of Design include:

• Prof Diego Vainesman of SVA, USA. first Latin president of the Type Directors Club

• Rikke Hansen, Designer and Lecturer Design School Hoejer / South Danish University

• Senior Professor Kobi Franco, Head of the Graphic Design Studies Shenkar College, Israel

• Prof Ryan Slone University of Arkansas, USA

​

As designers and design educators the pandemic has ensured that our working practices have had to be rethought, re-evaluated, and reinterpreted in a myriad of ways. Work from home became the new normal, consequently blurring the boundaries of what a healthy work/life balance resembles, and in turn, affecting how we perceive our personal spaces and the work and play interactions that occur within them. This piece, Work & Play | Play & Work, aims to highlight the struggles we have collectively faced in adjusting to these transitions. Raising the questions of, how can we find a balance? How can we adapt our spaces to optimally serve us for work and for play? And how can we humanise design practices to better integrate into our bi-fold spaces? This poster typographically depicts the antithesis that we face whilst navigating through our daily lives, the polarities of work and play, alertness and rest that have, and continue to, challenge us and it is from this place of duality that design education can metamorphosize into its post pandemic incarnation with the hope of finding balance.

 

The poster composition was created using the Golden Ratio as a starting point for the layout and the graphic elements were developed in both geometric and organic forms, representing the more rigid lines of work and fun and fluid elements of play respectively. The eye graphic represents the human aspect and the different perspectives we can view these interlacing elements of our lives. Typographically, classic typeface choices have been applied in unconventional ways to, once again, represent the balance of work and play. The colour palette is intentionally bold and bright and here the element of play wins out, with the black typography anchoring the piece for contrast and balance.