Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis is a New York based artist, designer, and technologist. He produces both public and private work for companies, collectors, and institutions.
Since 1995, Davis has been using technology and computers as a medium to create infinitely interesting projects, and he also utilized Chaos Theory () to establish a new, unique perspective on visual communication and creative expression which had been an otherwise unexplored area in graphic design.

Davis was strongly influenced by abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, and incorporated Pollock's random technique of splattering paint and other items across large canvases into his coding. He was also influenced by his love of classic video games, such as Space Invaders.

In 1995 at the Pratt Institute David began to delve into HTML, working under Thomas Noller, and afterwards began to experiment with Macromedia Flash and ActionScript programming. Davis' work became influential in graphic and web design in the Y2K era.

In January 2001, Davis posted an autobiography in K10k.net which revealed subjects on his personal life in the NYC art/club scene in the early 90's, his drug addiction and how he overcame it to pursue his goal of being a full time artist. He aspired to be a writer and illustrator of children's books.

From 1998-2001, Davis worked with the web production company Kioken. When the company folded, he became an independent web designer and artist.

In 2002 Joshua Davis teamed up with developer Brandon Hall to form a media development studio, The Department of Notations Studios. It was disbanded in 2006, but despite this Davis and Hall continue to collaborate on various projects.

In 2003, Adam Jones from Tool asked him to take over their website. He designed an intro page, but the site has since been changed.

As of 2007, Davis resides in NY with his wife and daughter. He is a professor at the NY School of Arts, runs his own design studio, and continues to lecture and lead design workshops.

Joshua Davis STYLE is well known for his computational, generative-art known as Dynamic Abstraction. “ Most of his designs are generated with mediums like Flash and Illustrator. His unique style has a flavor of randomness. “Working this way allows me to generate an infinite number of compositions. I set the boundaries and the rules, but whatever comes out at the end is a surprise. It could look cool. It could fail. It could be life-changing.” (-Joshua Davis, 2007, Apple.com interview).

Operates -Joshua’s designs have taken him around the world as well as speaking at conferences and workshops, creating his own projects and as a professor at the School of visual Arts in New York City.

Davis has become a best selling author to “Flash to the core: An interactive Sketchbook”. One of Joshua’s more conceptual projects is “once-a-forest.com” this website show cases the works in a unity way, The art work moulds itself together with every piece added as you scroll through the pages.

MY OPINION

If you have a love of illustrative art Joshua Davis is definitely an artist to look up to. His art has a unique randomness that is very appealing. You can see a lot of his work on Brands such as TOOL, BMW, Canon, Universal Records and many more.

Jules.ang


Style
Joshua Davis has a very distinct abstract vector based style using geometric shapes along with the more commonly seen vector swirls and swishes. Joshua's artwork has that strong vector look using blends of colours to achieve extra dimensions to his work.
His design work appears on home decorating items such as bed linen, cushions, dinnerware and personal items such as backpacks and notebooks.
  • Joshua describes his work as being "dynamic abstraction".
  • Joshua sometimes calls his work a "beautiful accident waiting to happen".
His style may not appeal to everyone as it is a very abstract style, with colours not necessarily harmonious with one another.

Opinions
I personally don't mind some of his work, but I think that you would have to use it and view sparingly as it is very strong. On the other hand his work has obviously been emulated often so there is a flood of similar style art on offer around the world.
I enjoy the blends of colours and the combinations of colours that he uses. He really shows what you can do with colour when you don't restrict yourself to any rules.

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