This is a poster of Jimi Hendrix that was created by Waldemar Swierzy in 1974. Swierzy was initially a fine artist and approached graphic design from the point of view of a painter. He often incorporated crayon, chalk, acrylics, and watercolor into his design. This is one of his many (and possibly most famous) works. I initially saw an image of this poster in Megg's History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs and Alston Purvis. This image is taken from http://www.polishposter.com/. The image is still sold today through numerous websites to Hendrix fans and art lovers alike. The price for a 26.5" x 38" poster is around $400 and is waitlisted on many sites.
The piece reflects the design principles of unity, emphasis, balance, and rhythm. The monochromatic color scheme, repetition of the lines and grouping promote unity and balance. As stated in the text, the human face draws our attention thus creating emphasis. There is a rhythm to the piece - the soft flowing lines create a smooth, legato feel while the brightness of some of the lines creates accent and energy.
Waldemar Swierzy definitely used a lot of cool colors in his poster. The use of blue,gray,black,and purple/violet around the image makes feel the blues already. Violet is a combination of blue and red. Its seems that it is either violet or purple covering Hendrix face. But even if its purple or violet they are both consider cool colors. I like the green involved at the bottom of Hendrix hair, which green is also consider a cool color in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think that everything is very creative,the uses of color all goes really good with the poster and the idea behind it. Even thought the art work has colors that really grab your attention, i still wouldn't want someone to paint my face this way. Color really expresses mood and feelings and also emotion, So if Hendrix played the blues then purple,violet and and gray would definitely make me think of blues because blues are calm and sad (not energized at all.) I don't know much about music but,...i think i have heard the blues once and it sounds sad and definitely make me think of darker colors,....cool colors. On the other hand, Mariachi music makes me feel energized, happy, and makes me feel like cleaning the house. Mariachi music very early in the mornings means CLEANING TIME!! That's how my beautiful mother wakes me up. Well, i think that color plays an important role in our life's and it expresses too much. For example, if you go to a funeral everybody wears dark colors,....kind of to represent the mood in there. The news on TV definitely express the weather with numbers but also with colors as well. In short words, color is the best way to get someones attention and Hendrix got my attention but scared me a little at the same time. I don't think i want meet him anymore...but this was a great and interesting image. I believe that Waldemar Swierzy created 2,500 posters so i still got 2,499 to go. In 1980, he had one of his major exhibitions in Mexico City.
This is a very emotive piece. The darker tones that make up the majority of the image certainly speak to the soulfulness of Hendrix's music. I like how the designer tampered the emotional depth and gravity of the piece with the brighter whites and greens and the energetic quality of the hair.
ReplyDeleteThis is a hard stark graphic piece with moody over tones. It fits my mood right now. But I'm not going into the why's. I like the treatment of the hair and collar. It creates unity and excitement in the piece. This person does not look happy to me. He looks weary of life. I like the addition of green. It keeps the squiggly lines that are unifying from being boring and the same.
ReplyDeleteI like this piece.I love that the artist used different tones and shades of purple to act as shading. The green and white in the piece are also a nice distraction from all the purple.
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