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Minimalistic graphic design for an imaginary poster, flyer or cover.

You're invited for a visit to Sevensheaven.nl for more imagery.

Minimalistic design of a cover for an imaginary book.

I'd love to get invited for Ffffound.com and share my artwork there as well. If you can invite me or know someone who can, I'd be very thankful.

2009 International Year of Astronomy Poster designed by Simon C Page

Simon Page is a self-taught graphic design whiz with a mathematics background. He takes shapes and morphs them into cerebral abstractions. His style shifts around futuristic digital designs and 1960s minimalism, trotting the delicate line between simplicity and detail.  His International Year of Astronomy 2009 poster designs caught the eyes of discerning design writers, including the New York Times and Creative Review. It may be the year for Astronomy but its equally a big year for Page, his posters got a boost in sales from all the acknowledgment he’s been getting in print and on the web.

Where are you from originally?
From the UK - born and breed.

When and how did you come to be interested in graphic design?
I’ve been interested in it since I was a kid. I think the first experience of really being blown away by graphic design was when I first saw some record covers from Yes albums - which I still love to this day. I have only really got involved in promoting myself and creating my own self-initiated design pieces this year - having got into to it through designing corporate presentations as part of my full-time job.

Tell me what you were doing before doing graphic design.
I left university with a degree in applied mathematics and this landed me in a good job working in the City. I then got quite involved in programming and database development which then progressed to having to create corporate presentations which is where I first got involved in graphic design, just over a year ago now.

How does your math background influence your designs?
I think maths has inspired me hugely and influenced more geometric designs than I probably would of created otherwise. I also think a lot of artists, like myself, subliminally use mathematics in their creations - such as the golden ratio for creating eye candy layout designs.

I find it very satisfying getting mathematically correct proportions when designing something like a logo, for example. But for me the main connection between math and design is pure and simple, it’s geometry. The golden ratio is probably one of the most popular examples of math and design coming together but look back at the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, for instance, he used mathematics all the time in his art. I also believe some of the best designers work with math, in a number of aspects, even though they probably do it completely subconsciously.

Alternative X-Mas card featuring an imaginary movie production.

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Minimalistic graphic design for a poster or cover.

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Exercise in minimalistic graphic design.

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Strongly stylized graphic design for an imaginary Spiderman poster or album cover.

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Minimalistic graphic design for an imaginary Tintin poster or album cover.

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Finger exercise in graphic design.

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Illustration and graphic poster design.

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Illustration and design of an alternative poster for the Disney-Pixar animation film Monsters, Inc.

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Alternative box cover design for the Hoi Amiga game from 1992, executed in a minimalistic 1960s style.

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Hi! I'm so glad I've just join SFG! Here are some samples of my work as a way to introduce myself to this creative community. Also you can check out some other samples here in my portfolio: sandravargas.carbonmade.com
Please visit my art blog: sandygrafik.blogspot.com

All my illos are on sale as postcards, ATC prints, 8" x 11" prints and much more! Just convo me if you are interested.
Thanks!
~ Sandra Vargas

This is one in a series of 6 posters I recently finished for Cape Farewell and the Eden Project.
The other 5 can be viewed on my blog.

The life and work of Milton Glaser is the subject of a lengthy profile in Chronogram. Reporter Lynn Woods talked to the "graphic guru/design god" last month in New York. Milton's latest book is the highly provocative Drawing is Thinking, and the documentary "To Inform and Delight" is currently in theaters across the country. Make no mistake about it: We ♥ Milton Glaser!

Overlook author and graphic design legend Milton Glaser has launched a brand new website, MiltonGlaserWorks.com. An e-commerce-enabled companion to the designer's online home base, MiltonGlaser.com, the new site offers signed editions of Glaser's books and other works, including posters and a new range of giclée prints of assorted musicians and William Shakespeare. . . . Glaser fans should also be on the lookout for the release of the documentary Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight. Directed by Wendy Keys and featuring Overlook Publisher Peter Mayer in a supporting role, the film has been making the festival rounds and premieres on May 22 at New York's Cinema Village.

Times and medicine have changed since the 1800's. Small vials of medicine have been replaced with plastic tamper proof containers that come in all sizes-including jumbo size. Thankfully, our medicines and perscriptions now come with ingredients, directions on how much to take, and when to take it, and warnings of possible side effects, etc. I am SO thankful for modern medicine and the new age in which we live in!

Drawing is Thinking by Milton Glaser is reviewed in the new issue of the Sacramento Book Review: "If you don’t recognize the name of Milton Glaser, you defi itely would recognize some of his commercial work—probably the most widely known one is the I love NY logo. Drawing is Thinking is a collection of his art, none captioned or explained, just there to be experienced. The introductory interview between Glaser and Peter Mayer explores some of Glaser’s thought process and his belief that “art is aform of meditation for both maker and witness.” For the viewers of Drawing is Thinking, there are many hours of reflection ahead. The art ranges from black-and-white pencil and ink work to full color completed designs. There are several pieces that are shown in stages, from sketch to fi ished work. Usually, when you have a collection of an artist’s work, there is extensive commentary about each piece; here, you are left to ponder the what Glaser was thinking as he drew them. And, that is the point. Interesting, thoughtful, and, as he says, meditative."

Milton Glaser's provocative new book Drawing is Thinking is reviewed by Creative Contact: "Twenty-five years after the publication of Milton Glaser: Graphic Design, the longest-selling design book in publishing history, Glaser took a stance with Art Is Work, a collection of his design work that shunned the conceptional and steered toward the process; brilliantly displayed in sequences showing the path a design takes from infancy to completion. In Drawing is Thinking, the follow up to Art is Work, the focus is, somewhat, back on the process, linking the physical act of drawing to the unconscious of the artist, akin to the act of automatic drawing the Surrealist artists practiced at their epoch. Glaser sees it, in the introduction stuffed into the beginning of this “meditation,” as an approach to “looking at the world without judgment and allowing what is in front of us to become understandable. Art, in fact, may be the best way we have to experience truth or what is real.” He seeks truth not only through drawing, but narrative as well. While most retrospective works focus on a chronological or stylistic time-line, Glaser would rather organize his work here rather randomly; letting narrative, or rather, multiple narratives, form and branch off in directions toward the unknown. And it works. In his apparent scrap-book method he denies giving us a narrative to follow, because he would be foolish to pretend he knew what said narrative was. Following his theory of meditation through assemblage of work, there is no reason why his narrative needs to be the same as ours. If art can be interpreted in any number of ways, why should the artist bother laying down the official set of blueprints for us to track when we can draft our own? Well, if the last sentence seems a tad bit naive, don’t be nervous. I don’t fully believe it myself. Much of conceptional art is built on this kind of foundation, and I agree that it can be helpful, even essential at times. And in a way, if Glaser did not let us know in the beginning that he wanted us to forge our own path through the terrain that followed, who’s to say we would have gone along and done it ourselves? He gives us a formula to follow, and it so happens to be that the formula is open ended. But these qualms, in hindsight, seem unnecessary: I found the path I followed a rather enjoyable one, unexpectedly. As a fan of Glaser’s design work, I was not ready for what seemed at first sight a glorified sketchbook, and what became, at the finish line, a deep exploration into the mind of one of our greatest artistic minds."

Milton Glaser's Drawing is Thinking is featured in "The Reading Room" column in the February issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. The full-page is illustrated with Glaser's pen and ink drawing from 2000, "Portrait Study." The images in Drawing is Thinking represent a sweeping range of subject matter taken from the full range of Milton Glaser's legendary career. They represent the author's commitment to the fundamental idea that drawing is not simply a way to represent reality, but, as the title suggests, a way to understand and experience the world.

I am posting another flyer design for Mountain District Christian School. This design was aimed at the different age groups rather than the previous designs that where designed to attract the preps. I still incorporated colour to catch the eye as I find this an appealing aspect for designs related to children.

The school wanted some attention to the preschooler’s “Scamps” club so I made this dominate the back of the flyer.

I love these patterns from Telegramme, a London based design and illustration super duo. They have a nice way of mixing old, worn illustration and imagery into their work. Besides patterns and posters they also specialize in web, identity, print, and redesigning playing cards.

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You may have seen these colorful blocks and the accompanying video where they move, running around on the web lately. It’s the work of Evan Geltosky, a recent Long Beach State graduate. On his site he has some nice typographic work, and a sweet poster/illustration of Mike Tyson!

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OK, here is another entry. This is for a band for which I did a few designs. There are two different designs with completely different directions: Political and Whimsical.

Philippe Apeloig runs his own studio, Apeloig, in Paris, France. Not only does Philippe have a lot of work his site, but it’s very well documented and photographed. You can get a sense of the amount of experimentation and playing that goes on in his work.

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