HANSJORG MAYER
MAYER IS A TYPOGRAPHIC DESIGNER THAT CONSIDERS LETTERING AS FORM RATHER THAN AN ELEMENT OF COMMUNICATION. I FIND THE SUBVERSION OF LETTERS WITHIN HIS WORK APPROPRIATE TO MY IDEA OF SILENT COMMUNICATION AND I FEEL THERE IS A RELATION WITH MAYER'S WORK AND SOME OF MY OWN EXPERIMENTATION.
"Hansjörg Mayer, born 1943 in Stuttgart is a printer, artist, and publisher. His publishing house, edition hansjörg mayer, first concentrated on portfolios and series dedicated to concrete poetry, and later on artists' books by Mark Boyle, Richard Hamilton, Dieter Roth, André Thomkins and many, many more, as well as works on anthropology. Since 1966 he has taught at Bath Academy, among other places. Between 1966 and 1968 he ran his own gallery, galerie hansjörg mayer. He has lived in London since the late sixties" - ARTIST SPACES
MY ANALYSIS
MAYER FOCUSES ON THE PATTERNS AND VISUAL LANGUAGE THAT CAN BE CREATED THROUGH THE SHAPES/ SYMBOLS THAT ARE LETTERS. THIS ALLOWS A DIVERSE RANGE OF RESULTS DUE TO THE HIGHLY VARIED POTENTIAL OF EACH LETTER IN THE ALPHABET.
THE FACT THAT MAYER USES LETTERS FROM THE ENGLISH ALPHABET CREATES A FAMILIARITY BETWEEN THE VIEWER AND THE WORK.
THE USE OF A SIMPLE FONT ALLOWS THE FOCUS TO BE ON THE NEW FORMS CREATED WITHIN MAYER'S WORK RATHER THAN THE PRE-EXISTING FORMS. (FOR EXAMPLE, IF MAYER'S LETTERING CHOICES WERE FULL OF SERIFS AND SWIRLS THEN THE ATTENTION COULD BE DIVERTED).
THE USE OF FONT AS FORM IS SOMETHING THAT I HAVE EXPLORED IN MY UNIT 7 WORK TO AN EXTENT BUT COULD BE DEVELOPED. I CONSIDER HANSJORG MAYER'S WORK TO BE A VERY HELPFUL VISUAL REFERENCE DUE TO THE PLAYFULNESS APPARENT IN HIS WORK.
THE USE OF LIMITED COLOUR, I.E. PRIMARILY BLACK AND WHITE WITH A FEW COLOUR HIGHLIGHTS WORKS WELL AND IS SOMETHING I WOULD LIKE TO USE IN MY PROJECT.