Lecture / Confrontations 3: Tatjana Quax
In this edition of the series ‘Confrontations’, lectures organized by St Lucas University College of Art and Design Antwerp, Tatjana Quax was the sole speaker. As creative styling director of ‘Studio Aandacht’ (Studio Attention in Dutch), she takes part in numerous impressive projects. Apart from that, she also teaches at the Design Academy Eindhoven, in the Netherlands.
She started her lecture, ‘Visual Identity’, with a film by Frank Pahl, explaining that creating a certain atmosphere does not have to be expensive nor extremely difficult. Then she really enticed the audience, by showing them several images, with the promise of a test later on.
To introduce herself and her work, she elaborated on 10 projects - highlighting the 10 years that Studio Aandacht exists. To make these projects accessible they have put up links for the majority of them on their website.
Tatjana Quax loves working with wonderful artists, designers, museums and magazines. To be able to do this well, she needs lots of inspiration. What inspires her most are visually interesting ideas, preferably executed with little means. Her lecture went on by summing up multiple examples of what appeals to her as a visual identity.
To introduce herself and her work, she elaborated on 10 projects - highlighting the 10 years that Studio Aandacht exists. To make these projects accessible they have put up links for the majority of them on their website.
Tatjana Quax loves working with wonderful artists, designers, museums and magazines. To be able to do this well, she needs lots of inspiration. What inspires her most are visually interesting ideas, preferably executed with little means. Her lecture went on by summing up multiple examples of what appeals to her as a visual identity.
She explained that her inspiration might come from artists, such as BNJMN VRDNCK, from Belgium. She showed part of his clip ’De pechvogel’ (The ‘bad luck’ bird), in which he staged a giant dead bird in the centre of Antwerp, and carefully watched the public respond in an emotional way. She also showed part of a video by Joshua Allen Harris, who makes street art in New York, using the subway exhaust to blow up his giant inflatable tape-and-garbage bag animals.
Other sources of inspiration, mentioned in her lecture, are displays at (interior) fairs, such as Maison et Object in Paris. The display for furniture designed by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Gallery Kreo made a slope to show the work.
To illustrate the diversity of her inspiration even more, Tatjana Quax showed a photograph of an exhibition at the Dutch National Graphic museum in Breda, which displayed a combination of text in different sizes, illustration, photographs and 3d objects. Even though there is a lot going on, she loves the fact that it is not overdone, by keeping the color scheme strictly to black and white.
Designer brands are a great source of visual inspiration in the world of Tatjana Quax. In particular the catwalks of fashion designers like Martin Margiela. He is famous for doing a lot with little means. And of course Viktor and Rolf, who invite other artists to work with them, for example Studio Job. Interior brands are inspiring to her as well, like Bless and their Berlin Concept Home. Even musicvideo’s can be inspirational to her in a visual way, like the simple and clean style of ‘Electrotechniek’ by Dutch rap group ‘De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig’.
Finally Tatjana Quax shared how nervous she was when she had to interview French design guru Phillipe Starck. Then she showed the first part of a video of the talk Phillipe Starck held when he was invited at TED (Technology Entertainment Design) in 2007. You see this very famous designer stumbling over his words and excusing himself for being there, in a funny way. Seeing this made her feel much more confidant interviewing him!
After this extensive lecture it was time for The Little Test. The students were asked to think deeply to see which of the ten images they still could remember. A simple description would do and the person remembering the most would win a prize. After thinking long and hard one student came up with 5 images and won a signed copy of the book ‘How they work’ by Studio Aandacht!
- Broes van Iterson -
www.broesvi.com
broesvitrine.blogspot.nl/
Other sources of inspiration, mentioned in her lecture, are displays at (interior) fairs, such as Maison et Object in Paris. The display for furniture designed by brothers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec. Gallery Kreo made a slope to show the work.
To illustrate the diversity of her inspiration even more, Tatjana Quax showed a photograph of an exhibition at the Dutch National Graphic museum in Breda, which displayed a combination of text in different sizes, illustration, photographs and 3d objects. Even though there is a lot going on, she loves the fact that it is not overdone, by keeping the color scheme strictly to black and white.
Designer brands are a great source of visual inspiration in the world of Tatjana Quax. In particular the catwalks of fashion designers like Martin Margiela. He is famous for doing a lot with little means. And of course Viktor and Rolf, who invite other artists to work with them, for example Studio Job. Interior brands are inspiring to her as well, like Bless and their Berlin Concept Home. Even musicvideo’s can be inspirational to her in a visual way, like the simple and clean style of ‘Electrotechniek’ by Dutch rap group ‘De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig’.
Finally Tatjana Quax shared how nervous she was when she had to interview French design guru Phillipe Starck. Then she showed the first part of a video of the talk Phillipe Starck held when he was invited at TED (Technology Entertainment Design) in 2007. You see this very famous designer stumbling over his words and excusing himself for being there, in a funny way. Seeing this made her feel much more confidant interviewing him!
After this extensive lecture it was time for The Little Test. The students were asked to think deeply to see which of the ten images they still could remember. A simple description would do and the person remembering the most would win a prize. After thinking long and hard one student came up with 5 images and won a signed copy of the book ‘How they work’ by Studio Aandacht!
- Broes van Iterson -
www.broesvi.com
broesvitrine.blogspot.nl/