Editorial MUSE is part of a greater work named BCD – BEAUTIFUL COMMUNICATION DESIGN which I created for my bachelor thesis in 2015. It illustrates different fields of communication design connecting them to fashion photography.
The Story behind editorial MUSE
By the time anyone is dealing with design he must have busied himself with the figure itself. – Prof. Thomas Duttenhoefer
Nude drawings and fashion photography equally address the human figure and its shapes that get formed solid by light. They are snapshots of short instants, a documentation of the current condition, that will pass soon. With fashion photography, it’s moreover the current zeitgeist to be captured by photo.
Especially today drawings are located between art and design. Old printing techniques like etching or letterpress can be stylistic devices at the designer’s work, but in these digital ages they are not a necessary part anymore, so they may be classified as art. Still, we love handmade things. It’s individual, unique, precious, and made with love for detail. For the designer of handmade things, as for the photographer producing pictures in a photo lab, it means more creative freedom and a greater, but also more obvious effort. We all identify with hand creature better because we ourselves feel special and unique, as well as we feel transient.
Plants and blossoms are symbols for life and its transience. Orchids do stand for love and beauty. In the editorial MUSE, they create a short-period Garden of Eden, where the models are getting captured by both drawings and photography. The wardrobe repeats the subject of life and beauty by tender fabrics, embroiderings, and prints of flora and fauna. The makeup is natural and low-key, smoothly shimmering when combined with daylight. The couple further symbolises love and the interaction of illustrators, the photographer, and models. In the process, all parties are getting eternalised and merged into one complete work. The atelier and the printing lab are being the background as well as the place where the illustrations are getting processed further. By the different styles of the artists drawing and the photographer, the pictures in the series represent a complex view of the figures.
There is a chaos of polarities in this world. Finding a shape in this chaos, that’s the essence of design. – Prof. Thomas Duttenhoefer
Read more on editorial MUSE on Atlas Magazine
Epilogue
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