Month: April 2021

Douglas Coupland (1961-Present)

Douglas Coupland is a Vancouver-based novelist and artist who is known for his novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture and also for coining the term Gen X. He often explores themes of modern-day culture in North America, often through a pessimistic lens. He has writen 13 fiction and non-fiction books since 1991 and has won numerous awards for them.

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His accolades include: being a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, being an Officer of the Order of Canada, an Officer of the Order of British Columbia, a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and receiver of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

On the art side of his career, he attended the ECUAD and has continued on his visual artist journey throughout his life. He’s had shows across Canada and Europe and even retrospective shows on his work. He often uses bright solid colours and explores themes of what it means to be human in this increasingly digital world we all engage with on a daily basis.

On a more personal note, I get to see his work everyday. His 43 feet tall Golden Tree sculpture set in front of a 25-foot by 40-foot image of Stanley Park is situated right outside my building so I get to experience a bit of the artistic genius that is Douglas Coupland.

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Siegfried Odermatt (1926-2017)

Siegfried Odermatt was a Swiss designer based in Zurich who was mostly self-taught. His most successful part of his career was running a studio with Rosmarie Tissi since 1968 called Odermatt & Tissi. They are both considered pioneers of graphic design in their own rights.

He got his break into the design world while working as a delivery boy for Graphis Press where he became acquainted with the painter and graphic artist Hans Falk with whom he later collaborated on some freelance work in the mid 40s. He became an independent designer in 1950 before he joined forces with Rosmarie Tissi.

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The work done at Odermatt & Tissi fell right into the timeframe of postmodernism—from around 1968 to 1985. Odermatt has won many international distinctions and awards. Notably, the books he designed were among “The Most Beautiful Swiss Books” in 1986, 1987, and 2000. In 1992, he secured the first prize with his poster and visual identity of the “Kieler Woche” 1994.

Odermatt never studied typography so it’s only fitting for him to go off the grid in a lot of his work. He’s experimental with his placement of type and he always seems to find a creative design solution just using type and simple geometric shapes. Post-modernism saw designers move away from the rigid grids of the Swiss International Style and Odermatt did exactly that.

Morag Myerscough

Morag Mystercough is a British designer based in London who is known for her monumental bright and neon supergraphic designs. Her work ranges from prints, public art installations, children’s hospital interiors, to the exterior of parkades.

She is particularly taken with colour and pattern and how they interact with the urban environment and the people that move through it. She credits her city upbringing to her continued interest in the bustle of urban environments. Myerscough’s designs are loud and joyous and are unmistakeably meant to be noticed.

She’s been quite active during the pandemic creating pieces thanking frontline workings in Leeds and also creating outdoor pavilions to cheer people up during lockdown across London. She was also commissioned to do an installation in Paris that was meant to uplift the public. Her goal is to engage the public and create inviting spaces that appeal to everyone and her work certainly does just that. What is also interesting about her is that she often works with community groups in the area of the installations to ensure she’s accurately capturing and creating something that is meaningful to the locals.