MACHAS

Designing Within Constrains: Jonathan Calugi for Herman Miller

Whether you’re happily walking out of Nike Town with the store bag firmly clutched in your hand or watching the new Apple Macbook Air TV ad, spotting Jonathan’s work is easier than saying “vector”.

However Jonathan is not one to rest on the laurels and he is constantly pushing himself to explore new expression of his style. The recent illustrations he has created to illustrate Herman Miller’s hospital furniture range Palisade on WHY magazine are seeing the talented Tuscan artist steering his doodle style towards a more minimal, one-line approach, moving away from the pattern inspired of his early works.

“I’ve been thinking about finding different ways for the lines to interact for a while now”, says Jonathan. “I wanted to move away from the cut & paste type of image and I also I was really intrigued by the possibilities of the GIF that I’ve created for this project— in this case the lines are creating the backdrops but that could be made of blocks or even photographs. Everything is in constant evolution and I’ve been extremely lucky to work with clients such has Herman Miller, who are not afraid of letting the artist explore new ways of expression”.

The designer who created the Palisade range referenced one of Eames’ most famous quotes as starting point to resolve the design problem ahead of him: “a designer must willingly and enthusiastically work within a series of constrains”. Anyone familiar with Jonathan’s work knows that is a key element of his artistic vision; “ We are all constantly working within constrains,  constrains created by ourselves or by the way we grew up, the society and so on.  I believe that is unrealistic to work with absolute freedom and that actually it’s the constrain that pushes the designer to achieve something new”

See more of Jonathan’s work here