Internationally acclaimed graphic art designers, French Rudy Baur and Australian Ken Cato, hosted their exhibition recently at the Graphic Design Week in Tehran.
The exhibition of the two guest designers opened on April 28 at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and was attended by museum head, Majid Molla-Nowruzi and a huge number of young designers, Honaronline reported.
Directed by Sa’ed Meshki, the exhibition was inaugurated by Rudy Baur who said: “I decided to use travel tents as the theme of my designs. I did research on ‘migration’ tents in Iran and found there are many types. I asked one of my Iranian friends to send me a Turkic tent.” The tent maquette was showcased in the exhibition.
Baur said: “For me, designing is not merely a personal statement but it is global and social,” adding that he has always moved “beyond a simple layout to make a connection with the meaning behind it.”
He cited different scripts as an example that can be put together to create a sort of collocation. “This is easier said than done, because each script carries a cultural meaning.”
The renowned French designer believes that design art enjoys high potentials to alter the mood of a society from gloomy to cheerful. “We can turn an already functional design of an airport to an artistic place by only changing some delicate details.”
Baur named his previous projects in Paris and Vienna subways and Cologne airport in Bonn as examples of his artistic works and displayed some images.
Art of Life
Ken Cato, explaining his project for BenQ, a multi-national company that sells and markets consumer electronics, computing and communications devices, said: “Graphic is the art of life, not just a profession.”
He also added that companies are afraid to take risks in graphic designs of logos despite spending “billions to look attractive,” and “prefer to imitate other top companies.” But they return to a functional design when they run out of money.
“BenQ asked me to change everything with no change,” he said adding: “This was a challenging situation.” The previous design of BenQ had three main elements: violet color, a butterfly and an ordinary top-face. It was a good opportunity to make some changes in the butterfly, “so I added a pattern to its color and combined the design, pattern and color to create a new look.” The new butterfly is known as the logo for BenQ, he said.
In 2006, Cato was awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for Design Leadership and in 2009 was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Executive Board of ICOGRADA. In 2013, he received an Officer of the Order of Australia award on the Queen’s birthday honors. He is also a member of the Victorian government’s Design Expert Reference Group and chair of the judging panel for the Victorian Premier’s Design Awards.
The exhibition including over 600 images from around 90 projects will run until May 29.
