“Collages make it possible for everything to be something else.”- Ivan Chermayeff
In my search for collage artists to feature in this month’s #coloricombo prompts, I was delighted to discover this week’s artist. Before I tell you about him, I’d like to invite you to join in and make some playful collages. I included three downloadable templates in my post yesterday, the theme of these are owls in a homage to Iris Apfel but you can use them in any way you like.
Ivan Chermayeff (1932–2017) was one of the world's most admired graphic designers, responsible for an incredible number of instantly recognisable logos that we see every day: think of the typefaces and colours of Mobil, Chase, NBC, National Geographic, PBS and more.
Chermayeff was born in London, the son of the influential Chechen-British architect Serge Chermayeff. As a child, Ivan played around Henry Moore's Recumbent Figure scuplture in their garden and after the family emigrated to America in 1940, spent holidays with well known artists of the Modernist movement through his father's friendships with visionaries like Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
Chermayeff didn’t want to follow his father into architecture, stating “I always felt that graphic design, if good, is always published, and architecture is dependent on funds being raised or not, and if not, often goes unbuilt.”
His studies started at the Phillips Academy in Massachusetts then Harvard and the Institute of Design (the New Bauhaus) until 1954. Chermayeff graduated from the Yale School of Arts and Architecture in 1955 and together with Tom Geismar, a fellow student, he founded the design firm Chermayeff & Geismar (now Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv) which grew to become one of the most influential design firms in the world.
Their design philosophy was to “find relationships” and “problem solving”, often defining their clients problems and rewriting design briefs in the process. The firm produced over six hundred marks including the still used and instantly recognisable logos for Chase Bank in 1960 and for Mobil in 1964.
Away from work, Chermayeff was an accomplished artist in various mediums including collage where he combined found objects like abandoned work gloves with pebbles, luggage tags and envelopes sourced from the post room. “Collages make it possible for everything to be something else.” he said.
His work as a fine artist, designer and illustrator has been exhibited around the world in a series of solo exhibitions. Books of his collages formed the basis of the exhibition Cut and Paste which was held in England at the De La Warr Pavilion, a public building designed by his father in the 1930s.
Read more about his 2016 collage and sculpture exhibition here, you can watch an interview here and read one with Designboom here.
“James Lege”, collage, Ivan Chermayeff, 1997
Colour Combination
The colours for this weeks prompt are Scarlet, Candy Pink, Blush Grey & Mocha. Use the #coloricombo colours along with any neutral light and dark colour to create an artwork in any medium and style.
Coloricombo prompts are released once a week on a Monday, and this year I also link each month with a theme. March’s theme is "Collage". If you like you can use this as topic, or create in any way as you wish, using the colours in any medium and style.
I'd love to see what you do with the coloricombo colours. If you'd like to share your work, please tag #coloricombo and #estemacleod on social media. You're also welcome to post in the private Facebook group Creative Prompts
Giveaway
I did a special International Women’s Day giveaway of a bandana scarf. The winner is Polish artist Aga Pachlewska, a regular participant in #coloricombo, you can see her lovely work on Instagram. Two bandanas will be coming your way soon.
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Colour Mixing Demo
Here’s a demo of a house-themed painting in watercolour, white gouache and additional textural marks in Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils to show off this week’s colours for paid subscribers.
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