A DESIGN RELATED BLOG & PERSONAL DESIGN RESOURCE PORTAL OF A VISUAL ARTIST, GRAPHIC DESIGNER & WEB STRATEGIST

Scribbler and My Earths

September 22nd, 2008 by Samit

Scribbler Art by Samit

Few months back while flipping through the pages on Flickr, I bumped upon a series of nice line drawings, said to be drawn by The Scribbler. I explored more and found this small but lots-of-fun-to-do tool, The Scribbler - an on-line application that allows user to draw freehand simple line drawings, and create a complex and interesting line drawing, automatically, from that.

The Scribbler, created by ZeFrank, takes simple vector based input and creates its own drawing on top of it based on a number of simple rules. When a new scribble line is created it chooses a few numbers at random that eventually determine what sort of line it will draw. As it begins to draw it fine tunes those values to the type of drawing that you’ve made. Because there is randomness built into the program, each scribble is unique.

In the on-line version, user can adjust some of the values that Scribbler would normally choose at random, such as line thickness, line color, and the maximum length of a scribble line.

Once drawing is reached at the desired stage, the user needs to ‘Pause’ Scribbler and take a screen shot. Well, it seems, that this is the only way to save your Scribbler art. Take a look at Scribbler gallery to check Scribbler art created by people at the Scribbler gallery. Some images are really impressive.

I could not resist myself to try my hands on fun toy and found that this small tool can create amazing results, if one can collaborate with the application. If you follow the logic that the application is using to create the complex lines and eventually form a complex texture from those lines, it will be easy for you to draw the right curves, that might create a nice output, once Scribbled.

Following are a series called Scribbler Earth, that I have created using images generated through The Scribbler. I was trying to doodle on the application, and thinking about earth. These are what came out, after I manipulated those scribble screen shots and added some color on them. Of course, being a first-timer my scribble skills are not so well, but I think I will improve and come up with more Scribbler arts.

Scribbler Earth 01

Scribbler Art by Samit
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Scribbler Earth 02

Scribbler Art by Samit
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Scribbler Earth 03

Scribbler Art by Samit
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Scribbler Earth 04

Scribbler Art by Samit
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Scribbler Earth 05

Scribbler Art by Samit
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20 Best Art Groups on Flickr

September 22nd, 2008 by Samit

Flickr is one of the most popular on-line platform to showcase and share your images with millions of users from various corners of the world. Though, primarily Flickr is meant for sharing Photographs (and now video, too), however many artists, painters, calligraphists, print makers, and designers share their artworks, illustrations, paintings and other non-photographic images on Flickr. If you visit specific groups dedicated to non-photographic visual art, like paintings, graphics, digital art, illustrations, you will find thousands of artists showcasing their artworks and providing an amazing spectrum of visual culture, across the globe.

Here is a list of 20 Flickr groups dedicated mainly to non-photographic art, which I find very interesting:

  1. Art and Artist »
  2. Art is Art »
  3. Art Directory »
  4. Art District »
  5. Art - Drawing and Painting »
  6. Art Now »
  7. Art Vision »
  8. Artists Without Borders »
  9. contemporary fine A R T S + Culture »
  10. Digital Art »
  11. Global Urban Art »
  12. Graphic Design »
  13. Illustration »
  14. Illstration Now »
  15. Obsessive Drawing »
  16. Painting »
  17. Paintings from you… THE ARTIST »
  18. Sketches »
  19. Urban Artist Collective »
  20. Your Art - Not Photography »

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Book Covers

May 13th, 2008 by Samit

When a group of scholars and academics involved with a publishing initiative that seeks to bring out significant works on political theory, approached me to design covers for their upcoming publications, I was genuinely very excited. Their approach demonstrated a disregard for the cover and visual identity of the publications. Portraits of writers independently done by recognized illustrators were used, with a conventional serious color scheme of gray-blue, irrespective of the subject of that particular publication. They needed covers for two of their next publications emphasizing the content.

Book Cover - The Paradox of Freedom
The Paradox of Freedom
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For the first book, “The Paradox of Freedom” my challenge was, how do I express the idea of “paradox” in the context of India’s freedom from British rule, and its emergence as a nation? How do I assemble these ideas with the writer’s strong Marxist viewpoint? I decided to use solid bold text to form a puzzle-like complex structure with flipped and interlinked letters, randomly filled in with the familiar saffron, green and white of the Indian flag. Approximating the look and texture to that of the Soviet propaganda posters, I used the communist red for the background to suggest a Marxist reading. The result was quite effective.

Book Cover - Revolution by Consent
Revolution by Consent
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Designing acover for the second book - “Revolution by Consent” was more challenging for me. How to communicate an abstract idea like ‘consent of the people’? How to represent revolution graphically? I started working with the idea of the mass and abstracted it through a set of hands raised as if in protest signifying a revolution. A closer look at the gesture of the hands in silhouette demonstrates that instead of protest, the hands represent consent or agreement to a cause. The cause is the backdrop - the first few words of the Preamble to the Indian constitution. The red color seeping into the Preamble represents the Marxist framework used to read these historical events.

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My Favorite Designs - Logo

April 25th, 2008 by Samit

My Favorite Logos

These 4 logos shown in the above image, are my favorites among all the logos I have designed in recent past. I guess, the main reason for these logos being my favorites, is the fact that I have enough creative freedom while designing them.

Details below: [Clockwise from top-left]

Logo for Altered Black:

My Favorite Logos: Altered Black Green My Favorite Logos: Altered Black Orange My Favorite Logos: Altered Black Blue

Altered Black is a Bangalore-based creative design house, providing Business-intelligent Creative Design Solution for corporates. The idea behind this unusual name of the company, is very simple, as they explain it on their website, “Black altered and altered to black - a double-edged idea that plays on the possibility and impossibility of change. Black cannot be altered. What is impossible is what makes a quest possible. Design, for us, is a journey, a quest to make the impossible possible, and the possible perfect. With dynamism as a core value, to alter and itself be altered, Altered Black is a company that evolves and changes as it alters the world of Design.” I was really excited when I came up with idea of ‘altering’ the ‘black’ by hiding the ‘c’ of the ‘black’, behind the black ink splat. Also, here I have tried to go beyond the conventional idea of standardized corporate color scheme and designed the same logo with the ‘BLACK’ written in 7 different colors, each representing a basic hue. All of them are being used in various materials. Even the employees of Altered Black are allowed to choose the color of the logo on their business card, from these 7 pre-defined corporate hues. The strong message and recognizable visual of the logo, make all logos look consistent and related, in spite of having different colors. The attached image shows the logo in Green, Orange and Blue. You can view few other colors here.

Visit Altered Black Site here

Logo for High Resolution:

My Favorite Logos: High Resolution

It was actually fun to create a logo for a closed group of digital and new media artists, called ‘High Resolution’. The group is primarily aimed to organize online and offline exhibitions of digital art and new media art. All they wanted to have a symbol that is very simplistic, informal and loose, yet represents the technical as well as conceptual meaning of this term ‘high resolution’, a highly popular and often used term in the industry. I put a question before them and before myself as well. What represents ‘the highest resolution’ in our known real world? The answer was obvious - the Sun. And I got my symbol! Now, what could be a simplistic, informal and loose way to represent the visual of Sun and the name - ‘High Resolution’ as text? Who is simple and informal enough to do this? Again the answer came very promptly! Our friend’s 4 year old son, who was hopping and running around us through out the entire session. With little effort, patience and few candies, we got 2 suns and all letters of ‘high resolution’ on 6 different sheets of paper, in various sizes, by him. After that, only scanning and little retouching was needed to get the final logo ready.

Logo for South Asia Center, UPENN:

My Favorite Logos: SAC, UPENN My Favorite Logos: SAC, UPENN

The logo for South Asia Center of University of Pennsylvania is probably the simplest of this lot, again the most challenging, too. It was really tough to identify one single graphical motif with pan S. Asia feel, considering the vastly diverse culture of South Asia and combining multi-cultural characteristics South Asia in one single alpha-glyph symbol. I realized that it would be easier, if I can go beyond the present time and look into the historical past of S. Asia, for the desired motif. I started looking for graphical symbols in ancient architectural remains of S. Asia, as I beileve, ‘architecture’ is the area, where lots of cross-cultural interactions happened, in recent and distant past, in this region. And, soon I came up with this symbol, simulating and combining the visual charactersitics of various graphical motifs, from the mosaics of Taj Mahal (India, 17th Century), murals of Wat Long Khoun (Laos, 18th Century) and the age-old ‘Gold Leaf Stencil” art form (a popular and religious art form seen on Buddhist temple walls through out South Asia).

Visit UPENN’s South Asia Center website here

Logo for Boipara.Com:

My Favorite Logos: BOIPARA.COM

Since, we started Boipara.com, our primary goal is to archive alternative and marginalized Bengali Literature, books, magazines and other published/unpublished material, digitally, on Internet. Boipara.com is a totally non-commercial, non-profit and co-operative initiative that is voluntarily run by a closed group of Bengali Literature enthusiasts, who has a keen interest on alternative and marginal literary forms of Bengali language and literature. When we needed a logo for this initiative, I happily agreed to volunteer. While designing the logo, my first challenge was to express the idea of the co-operative initiative and establish the concept of a ‘group’ behind this whole initiative. I decided to go for a ‘figurative’ logo, a logo with multiple human figures connected to each other visually forming a group, that would represent the closed group of people behind this entire initiative. The next challenge was to express the semi-urban socio-cultural features of this specific group, working within a particular demographical arena. I combined modern stick figures with traditional figurines as seen in tribal paintings in rural Eastern India and added a strong hint towards the informal approach of this group by simulating hand-drawn lines. Once I had the form ready, I tried to illustrate various activities with this figures that could be associated with alternative literature movements in Bengali language and literature and soon came up with a series of hand-drawn tribal stick figures, standing, walking, painting, reading, writing, carrying side bags on their shoulders and so on. I selected four of them to form the graphical part of the logo, based on the activities they are representing, as well as their interrelated visual rhythm. Once the graphical symbol is ready, it was easy to add the textual part. I used a thick marker to draw all required letters, separately, and later combined them to form the name “Boipara Dot Com”, written in Bengali script. Everyone liked the outcome, including me! :)

Visit Boipara.com here

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Park Street Jn., 2004

April 23rd, 2008 by Samit

Digital Art and Photography by Samit Roy

Park Street Jn., 2004
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Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta, always amuses me, with her vibrancies, colors, lives, ever-changing moods and of course with her warmth. I was born and brought up there; felt her presence around me through my childhood, adolescence and my youth. Each node of the city has multiple images stored for me, multiple stories; each one reflecting various ages, various times of my life. Park Street was a place crowded with yellow taxis and traffic polices with white uniforms, as I used to see it when I was a kid. A kid from suburb, who came to visit a fair or an event near Park Street, and stumbled upon the busy policemen, busy traffic of busy Park Street.

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Exodus

January 28th, 2008 by Samit

Exodus: Digital Art By Samit Roy

Exodus
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Since I was a kid, I have often witnessed hundreds and thousands of homeless, uprooted people, coming out of the dark caves of poverty and hunger, crossing the borders & the fences and walking towards a darker future, with their face glowing with meaningless hope. They know that they might not reach anywhere; still they wish to continue their journey, their Exodus, for a better home, a better world. In this image, I have tried to capture, the endless, meaningless journey of homeless people, crossing borders and checkposts, hiding in the darkness of cloudy nights, and being threatened by their own transitory existence, for years.

Later, this image has been used as a supporting illustration, by Canadian Institute of International Affair (CIIA, Toronto), currently known as Canadian International Council (CIC), for the Autumn 2007 issue of their International Journal, along with few other works of mine. They have also featured my work ‘Rampage’ on the cover of this issue. Thanks to CIC and IJ.

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My MacShots

December 13th, 2007 by Samit

My MacShots: A Personal Photographics Project by Samit Roy

Insomnia in red and white / Saturday 25th August 2007 6.22 AM
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My MacShot Project is a series of low-resolution unedited (except few basic built-in features in Mac Photobooth) photos of myself and other objects surrounding me and my MacBook, taken by the tiny inbuilt Web cam and PhotoBooth. In the beginning, the primary intention of My MacShot project was to capture few selected moments and feelings, involving me and my context, through the built-in web cam of my MacBook. They were visual expressions of few specific moments, sometimes accompanied by few lines of text and a date/time tag. Initially it was more focused towards the physicality of the webcam, the laptop and the operator (that is me), and their interactions and negotiations with their time - both physical and mental. It was more like a personal, as well as very much context-dependant photo-journal or something similar. But later, I got more interested to figure out how one can go beyond the physical limitations of in-built webcam of a MacBook.

As I started taking more and more snaps, often abstract, I started realizing the innumerable possibilities of this tiny in-built webcam and this simple photo-capture software called PhotoBooth. With simple features and functionalities, it allows you to turn usual objects, into amazing pieces of compositions!

My MacShots: A Personal Photographics Project by Samit Roy

I saw him .. the Green Monster .. with a bleeding heart! / Thursday 5 July 2007 20.54 PM
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The second image (The Green Monster) is a close-up of my mobile screen, as captured by in-built Web Cam of MacBook

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Visual Poetry: Comics

December 10th, 2007 by Samit

Digital Art / Bengali Visual Poetry: Comics by Samit Roy

Comics
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Since my childhood, I have always been mesmerized by the magical world of images and text of comic books and the bikini-clad girlfriends of the super heroes with their funny speech baloons, crossing the boundaries of those small boxy frames and rigid panels. I have always wanted to create a comic strip, but it did not get done. The only thing that I could do is to bring together one of my unfinished poems about a weekend trip with a rejected photograph from the same trip, and make a conscious effort to simulate the eerie ambience of the first cell of a dark, action comics strip - still without a story, waiting for a hostile moment to begin its journey through the pages of our childhood fears.

The text on the image can be roughly translated as,

There are trucks and trucks and trucks, and more trucks, more and more trucks, truck after truck, standing still beside the yellow seat, before us, and the dark sleeves of their t-shirts wipe off from the dark, gloomy, night, the vaporized sodium of Highway no. 7!

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Reconstruction: Level 1-3

December 10th, 2007 by Samit

Reconstruction: Level 1 Reconstruction: Level 2 Reconstruction: Level 3

Reconstruction:
I believe, every time viewer sees a painting or any other visual art, he tries to construct/reconstruct his own painting, using the elements available within physical and/or psychological frame of the ‘original’ painting being seen, within his mind. He creates his own image that emerges from the original image; and then starts interacting with this new image within his mindscape. The ‘original’ image becomes secondary here, at this pint, and works only as inspiration; and sometimes as reference. The more he interacts with this newly constructed image, it changes and the visual characteristics of the viewer’s gaze become more and more prominent, replacing the same of the ‘original’ artist.

In this series “Reconstruction: Level 1-3”, I have tried to capture various phases of this mental reconstruction by the viewer. My effort was to depict, how viewer’s perspective can replace, the perspective of the ‘original’ painter.

The so called, ‘original’ work is done by Suman Kalyan Ghosh, an artist and painter from Kolkata. Suman, being my friend for years, keeps sending me letters, photographs and also samples of his recent works. The one I have chosen, is an untitled abstract in pastel that Suman painted in 2005.

Reconstruction: Level 1

Reconstruction: Level 1
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The painting is not framed and pinned up on the soft board beside my table in my cabin. I took a snap of a very small part of the image from an unusual angle. I have consciously included the signature of Suman, at strategic position within the frame, so that it can add value the entire composition as a visual element, too. I have also included the yellow board pin that has been used to put the original painting on the board. I have introduced external elements, shapes and colors and the image already looks like a separate composition.

Reconstruction: Level 2

Reconstruction: Level 2
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This is Level 2 of the “Reconstruction” series. The board pin is now playing more vital role in the composition. The signature of ‘original’ artist became more visually integrated with the entire image and repetition of visual elements has started changing the persona of the image, gradually.

Reconstruction: Level 3

Reconstruction: Level 3
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As the reconstruction goes on, the personality of the image keeps changing. A faint hint of my urban complication starts sipping in into Suman’s subconscious innocence.

[To Be Continued]

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The Season of Watermelons

December 10th, 2007 by Samit

Digital Art by Samit Roy
The Season of Watermelons
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I see the dead watermelons, in this season, red and sliced. This season of watermelons gonna be hard, ruthless, I think. The chopper, steel and cold, slits and slices deep in this season, quite often. And someone writes a big ‘3′ on our adultarated blood, with red ink, in this season.

Honestly, in this season of watermelons, in this April, it’s all red, and sliced inside our mind.*

Read the original text in Bengali here
————
* I often create images that are directly related to a piece of text. The text contributes to the visual expressions of the image and the image loses its relevance, without the text. The attached image is one of those text-dependant images. The original text is in Bengali (mentioned above in Bengali Unicode) and later I tried to translate the same in English. I do not think the English version is effective enough to bring out the essence of the Bengali text. But that was my best try!

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