Tear open a stick of gum and you’ll rip right through typography. Tilt your head up on a busy street and you’ll see architecture and an interior before a glance back down reveals a sleek car, a vendor selling magazines and a great pair of shoes.
In each instance, what you’re experiencing is design.
The artful way things come together to follow function, beguile the eye and please the person. Though design is no less ubiquitous than air, we rarely think about the people who create these visual spectaculars and everyday comforts.
Es Devlin conceptualising the stage and lights behind Beyoncé, Imogen Heap and Kanye West, Tinker Hatfield revolutionising the Air Jordan and Paula Scher of Windows 8, MoMa and Tiffany & Co who says “typography is painting with words” so went ahead and designed album covers for Billy Joel, The Rolling Stones, John Coltrane and Muddy Waters.
In Netflix’s ‘Abstract: The Art of Design,’ we meet them all.
Introducing some of the world greatest designers, ‘Abstract’ delves into the lives and minds of illustrator Christoph Niemann designing an augmented reality cover for The New Yorker, architect Bjarke Ingels reimagining the Serpentine Pavilion, Ralph Gilles revitalising Chrysler and interior designer Ilse Crawford expounding on the allure of Cathay Pacific airport lounges.
A walk through their lives, work spaces and creative processes, ‘Abstract’ is a series of frank documentaries humanising the captains of various design industries.
Presenting eight episodes on illustration, architecture, photography, interior, footwear, stage, automotive and graphic design, the series unpacks the modern day artist’s struggle in a collection of funky documentaries unabashed about revealing the mundanity, practice and sheer luck inherent in being the best of the best.
“Inspiration is for amateurs. Us professionals, we just go to work in the morning,” says Niemann who has designed 22 New Yorker covers, habitually sits at his desk from 09h00 to 18h00 and admits there is no perfect formula for creating art.
“It’s not about waiting for hours till the moment inspiration strikes,” he says. “It’s about showing up and getting started and then something amazing happens or doesn’t. All that matters is you enable the chance by sitting at your desk, drawing and doing and hope for the best.”
With some episodes as angst ridden and practical as Niemann’s and others as awe-inspiring as the episode on Platon, ‘Abstract’ drops knowledge and some highly relatable gems on the unglamourous and often underestimated reality of bringing ideas to life.
To Platon, whose iconic photographs of world leaders have graced numerous covers of TIME, the question to ask when photographing people is “What can I learn from this person?”
Captured amidst a shoot of former United States secretary of state Colin Powell, the photographer speaks of earning a subject’s openness and building connections before explaining why he still shoots in film and what music he plays when photographing Putin.
Honest, inspiring and about the humble people behind the big ideas, ‘Abstract’ is a must for creatives interested in putting “the human experience at the beginning of the design process” and how the greats grapple with the grind.
‘Abstract: The Art of Design’ is now streaming on Netflix.
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