Vis Lang: Project 2 research

For the next project we were asked to pick a famous piece out of our Meggs History of Graphic design book and i chose Jean Benoit Levy poster that he designed for AIGA in 2002! This advertisment poster has ethos, because it was designed by a designer for designers, and also pathos simply because of the strong connotations of the black and white image alluding to an emotional feel.

This poster announces the opening of nine design studios from local aiga members. The word seam is the suggested theme, and he thought the imagery implied mining..? The diamonds go along with that theme and hold a number for each of the 9 studios. photography done by another swiss local artist and is giving another layer of meaning to the image that can be taken differently by each viewer. I chose this piece because i feel that the concept behind it is a little far stretched. I would not have gotten the meaning behind it without the subtitles underneath it in the book explaining it to me. I would like to try to find a more widely understood way of advertising for these 9 new studios using the same style of Levy but just in a clearer less far fetched way.

I really like his use of a strong black and white image mixed with the digital colorful graphic elements placed on top and dont fit the feel of the image. The text is very very minimalist and quite against the other strong elements.

Jean is Swiss. Originally from the Lake of Geneva, Jean-Benoit is a visual communicator who has been active since 1983 after his studies at the Basel Kunstgewerbeschule / Basel School of Designwith teachers such as Peter von Arx for Animation, André Gurtler for Typeface Design, Wolfgang Weingart for Typography, Max Schmidt for 3-D Graphics and Armin Hofmann for Graphic Design.

After his first position as Art Director for the Swiss Trade Show Company in Basel and a position as Editorial Designer for Ringier, the Swiss Press Group, Jean-Benoit founds in 1988

his own studio "AND" in Basel. There he directs a flexible team, the size of which adapt itself
according the extreme variety of assignments and size of diverse clients.
In 1998 Jean-Benoit becomes member of the elective AGI–Alliance Graphique Internationale.
His goal is to stay creative while collaborating on challenging projects with inventive entrepreneurs and open minded clients. Jean-Benoit's work has been awarded in various international competitions and published in many books and magazines which you can discover in the chapter"publications". Jean-Benoit lives now in San Francisco and is a partner and founder for studio A.N.D.

Levy tends to combine figurative elements, fequently faces with typography and natural or geometrical forms. His posters invite reflections and contemplations. His designs witness the rigor of his swiss training blended with a conceptual vision. He likes to layer image in a characteristic of his style an vision.

These are a few of his other pieces....