hi everyone it's Paola so I am back doing another artists series episode- are
we calling them episodes? I'm not sure but I did one before and I was like I'm
making a series, and then I got a lot of good responses and you guys really
seemed to like it and it was fun for me to do so I'm
doing another one and this one is about a graphic designer the last one is about
Barbara Kruger who is a collage artist, feminist artist if you want to watch
that the link is below and it's in the card in whatever so you can watch that
one first or whatever it doesn't really matter the order but I am doing another
episode and this one is about Alan Fletcher who is a graphic designer!
That was very long-winded but we are talking about Alan Fletcher today and
for some reason my eye is twitching I'm not sure what that's about
maybe I'm dying maybe I'm not, we'll find out.
And Alan Fletcher was a graphic designer and you know I'm a graphic designer so
obviously I love him and he was such a famous important figure in graphic
design, such a prolific artist if you're into graphic design in any capacity you
definitely need to know who he is and today I'm going to be talking a little bit about him.
So I don't want to get into like a big long history of every single
thing he ever did and every single University he went to cause he went to a
lot and like every person he collaborated with or whatever I just
want to give you like the feeling about who he is a little inside look and then
we can talk about his art and just how I interpret it and what it
means to me personally I guess? But from a frame of reference as a designer like
what he was doing why he is so famous and yeah we're just gonna talk about it!
so he was a British designer so he wasn't American but he did live in America
for a while because there's a lot of things like have
to do with the United States too that he like started so yeah he's British, he
was actually born in Kenya cause we're talking about like this is like way back
in the day and so yeah he was British and he was just all over the place
growing up you know going to a million different schools like I said
and then he also married a woman named Paola which I was like, me? What?
I love anyone named Paola seriously I'm like a weirdo I'm like, your name is Paola I'll follow you
on Instagram. Your name's Paola? Let's be best friends.
So whatever [laugh] he married and I thought that was interesting
an interesting fact, but that's just for my own personal interests but ya know!
So then after moving around quite a bit with his wife - Paola - uh he was in
America and then he didn't wanna go back to England but his wife wanted to
be in Europe and it was all this stuff, but then eventually he was working
collaboratively with his peers, they were in classes with him they were
students with him and then they decided to work together so they started a
design firm, and originally it was just their names and so it was
the group of their of their names and then eventually like things happened
people left, and they brought in an architect and it was a very interesting
like collaborative space that they had together creating at this design firm,
but then they decided to make Pentagram: which Pentagram is a design
firm that is still so so big and I'll probably talk about it in the future
when I talk about other designers so get excited about that [laugh] but yeah
Pentagram was just like was - it is still this huge design firm that is so
so famous all over the world. Pentagram was originally started by
Alan Fletcher essentially so he was a founder and he is a founder of Pentagram.
And Pentagram is so cool because it's stuck around for such a long time
especially because of the way they named it: they named it because of
the star- the pentagram star which at first they were like is this cool that
we're talking about witchcraft? And it just kind of worked for them
because it kind of separated their name from - their names from the design firm
and it helped the entire thing become a long-lasting entity away from who they
were as people, and they could still work and be the founders and it didn't matter.
So Alan Fletcher worked at Pentagram for about 20 years, he worked there until the
90s and then he was found - it was founded in the 70s when he founded it so he
worked there for a long time and then after that he just decided to do
freelance basically for the rest of his life.
So while he was at Pentagram he worked on a lot of things that are still
being used today, a lot of like timeless work and I just think he was so so smart
in doing this kind of work because he created a brand's identity, one that I
I want to mention is the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
So he created the brand's identity basically created the logo and you know
this museum's identity. He created something that was so timeless in this
time of being trendy, by doing the Victoria and Albert Museum
he did a traditional typeface: Bodoni, and he created this logo and traditional
typefaces were not really being used at this time he did something that was so
classic and you know you look at it now, and it still is great it still looks
like it could fit into any year so it really is amazing and that's why it's
still being used so 100% love that guy he was a genius!
So when learning about Alan Fletcher you can kind of think maybe he was very
serious he had like a serious life, he went to all
these great universities he started all these great design firms it's like
he seemed kind of like he would have it all put together you know?
He seemed like a really like perfect kind of person, but his art is so interesting
because it's so fun and playful and colorful, and he was really known for
typography so a lot of his typography is what you
find when you search his work, because that's basically what he focused on,
but there's so much color and there's so much personality in the type
that it's just amazing because you're like wow- you are like, you know
you think of people who are very successful and you think maybe they're
very serious and that's why they are successful because they're
very committed and stern and blah blah blah
but like he just seems like he had so much fun in what he
was doing and I really respect that and I really really love the typography that
he does - er, that he did because it's just relatable you know you look at it
and you're like, "oh yeah I get this- I see this and I get it." Does that make
sense? That's how I feel when I look at his work. It's just so bright and cool
and just pops and you know it proves that that was his
personality, that it was the style because we've seen that he can do other things!
Like the Victoria and Albert Museum was so pristine and it looks great
for the brand because that's what that museum is: it's nice, it's fancy
it's prestigious, but then you see his personal work and you're just like,
"I get you." You know? So it's just this interesting dichotomy that that exists
in his life and his work and honestly I love Alan Fletcher, I respect his work
100% and I feel like I just wanted to share it with you! And now we are going
to create a little something that is inspired by him and you can
create something too now that you've seen some of his work and learned a bit
about him, I would recommend going on his website there is so much info on him and
yeah just Google Alan Fletcher you'll find all the stuff about him...
And yeah, let's make something!
[upbeat music]
So that is what I have created and that is all the info I have for you today!
Hopefully you liked this video if you did give it a thumbs up and let me know
if you want to see another artist let me know in the comments what kind of artist
you want to see also follow me on my Instagram, a kind of resolution for
the new year is that I want to be posting more of my art so go ahead and
follow me on there, and also check out my blog and my website
I will see you in my next video! Bye!
Ugh, my hair is like,
[sing-song] sticking to my face!
sticking to my lip gloss!
glossy glossy