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Illustrations of Futuristic Mega-Cities by Atelier Olschinsky

When Yeats wrote that "love comes in at the eye,” he could have been thinking of the work of Vienna-based Atelier Olschinsky. It doesn't matter who the client is. It doesn't matter what the medium is. You walk away from this creative studio's work with a clear understanding of why we call the visual arts visual. You also realize how art has its own language. A language made up of nothing more than the arrangement of color, line, shape, space, and texture. We marvel at how Shakespeare worked with nothing more than 26 letters. In a similar vein, Atelier Olschinsky creates startling compositions with nothing more than muted color, dynamic, abutted shapes, and clashing lines. With great dexterity they blur the gap between art and design.

When Yeats wrote that “love comes in at the eye,” he could have been thinking of the work of Vienna-based Atelier Olschinsky. It doesn’t matter who the client is. It doesn’t matter what the medium is. You walk away from this creative studio’s work with a clear understanding of why we call the visual arts visual. You also realize how art has its own language. A language made up of nothing more than the arrangement of color, line, shape, space, and texture. We marvel at how Shakespeare worked with nothing more than 26 letters. In a similar vein, Atelier Olschinsky creates startling compositions with nothing more than muted color, dynamic, abutted shapes, and clashing lines. With great dexterity they blur the gap between art and design.

The Atelier is the brainchild of Peter Olschinsky and Verena Weiss. They met in 2002 while on a project for a mutual client. On the spot they decided they should work together. What began as an experiment became a groundswell of graphic innovation.

The Atelier specializes in art direction, graphic design, illustration, typography, product design, web sites, animation and photography. Its output includes work for clients as well as Olschinsky’s and Weiss’s own independent projects. It’s not just about technique. Olschinsky and Weiss have managed to pull off the impressive feat of branding their own branding. There’s Cartier, there’s Dior and there’s Atelier Olschinsky.

Olschinsky’s Cities series, for instance, consists of cityscapes shorn of any human element. There’s no focal point for pedestrians or office workers. Each piece offers panoplies of virtuosity. Each bristles with complexity and detail. The series resembles Russian Constructivism on steroids. It’s rife with formal movement. Line and pattern crisscross and overlay. It’s more a Platonic idea of a major metropolis, what sleepy villages dream of becoming when they grow up.

Detail

Installation at Tina Miyake Showroom in Dusseldorf, Germany

Topics

architecture, Atelier Olschinsky, digital art, illustration

architecture, Photography, Serge Najjar

May 7, 2015

Lebanese photographer Serge Najjar notices geometric patterns in his day-to-day surroundings. Based in Beirut, his photographs capture instances of minimalist architecture with an emphasis on symmetry and repetition. But despite its focus on clean designs, his work includes evidence of human inhabitants in these austere edifices. With people peaking out of their doors and windows, the buildings come alive. The people in his work add individuality and quirkiness to his otherwise highly stylized presentation of Beirut, where cultural context is stripped away to highlight the city's modern, architectural elements.

Rockwell Museum Connects U.S. Illustrators to History of Narrative Realism

illustration, narrative, Norman Rockwell Museum

May 12, 2018

Norman Rockwell Museum connects the work of American illustrators to the history of narrative realism in the upcoming exhibition “Keepers of the Flame: Parrish, Wyeth, Rockwell and the Narrative Tradition.” The exhibition, opening June 9 and running through Oct. 28, tethers Golden Age illustrators in the U.S. to 500 years of European painting, with artists like Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, and Norman Rockwell featured. It arrives at a time when the genre has received renewed interest, as the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open in Los Angeles in 2022.

Caleb Weintraub’s Dystopian Digital Artworks and Paintings

3D-rendering, Caleb Weintraub, digital art, painting

May 30, 2014

Caleb Weintraub confronts his audience with an alternative, morally-stripped and intense digital fantasy world where children hold guns on each other around misplaced, irresponsible adult figures. "I make paintings of a disintegrating world where humanity has gone awry," Weintraub said of his work in a previous interview. In a sense, he works in parallels to the present state of children's overstimulation and desensitization in a controlled atmosphere. The bright colors and video game-like renderings complicate the readings of his work, however. The viewer may find himself questioning the relationship between his techniques and conceptual leanings. Weintraub is choosing to create, at first glance, friendly cartoon narratives with dark content below the surface.

Sonya Fu’s Dreamy Paintings Inspired by Sleep Paralysis

Chinese Art, digital art, Digital Painting, Sleep Paralysis, Sonya Fu

February 22, 2015

Somewhere between the state from wakefulness to sleep, called "the Hypnagogic state", is where Hong Kong based digital artist Sonya Fu finds her inspiration. Her portraits of dreamy young girls, whose eyes almost always appear closed, are the ghosts of her visions during sleep paralysis. Although digital, they are painted with a sensitive touch to surprising details in their face and hair, and given a soft, eerie atmosphere. Check out more of her artwork after the jump.

Illustrations of Futuristic Mega-Cities by Atelier Olschinsky

Serge Najjar Captures Urban Geometry in his Photos of Lebanese Cities

Rockwell Museum Connects U.S. Illustrators to History of Narrative Realism

Caleb Weintraub’s Dystopian Digital Artworks and Paintings

Sonya Fu’s Dreamy Paintings Inspired by Sleep Paralysis

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