Eleanor Klink: 143

Artist statement

I have always loved Times Square in New York City. The sheer amount of color, moving parts, and flashing lights make for an overwhelming and fascinating atmosphere. I always thought it was so interesting how hundreds of different brightly colored advertisements could come together to make such a visually pleasing and iconic space. Utilizing an overwhelming and chaotic cohesion that is rarely seen in today's design world, especially with the rise in popularity of minimalism.

As a person, I also love humor and possessing the ability to make others laugh. When we are young we live in the moment, enjoying life for what it is in the now. Blissfully unaware of reality. As we all grow older that optimism and joy towards living life in the moment tends to dim. We get caught up in the future and the past and distance ourselves from the now. I have always seen humor to be a common way to lift spirits and bring back that childish optimism—a way to rejuvenate that youthful happiness. Personally, I think it is quite tricky to fret over all of life's problems in a moment when someone is making you laugh and smile.

So as an artist, working primarily with vector art, I love the fact that I can combine both of these parts of life that I love so dearly together to create "Marketing Happiness." A project that I made to challenge myself as a designer and inquire on the trends of art in today's world. For my project I sought out and collected as many pictures and screengrabs of different design styles as possible, the more opposite from each other the better. And viewed the process of creating a cohesive collection and layout of my assorted inspiration as a challenge. A challenge to mix all the different fonts, chaotic colors, and styles together to make an overwhelming yet visually appealing and cohesive group of posters, much similar to that of Time Square.

And when it came to the content of the posters, I also saw that as a challenge. It could just be the pessimism of today's world, but it feels as if everything is so dark and serious, especially with the rise in minimalism. People have become accustomed to sleek, bare, and refined graphics. And while I must admit, minimalism is very visually pleasing, it is still so boring. So adult. I saw this gap in the design world as my chance to mix my love for humor and my skills as a designer to make uplifting and positive posters to contrast that doom and gloom of the adult world. A chance to inspire a moment of optimism to my viewers. And an opportunity to encourage laughter and that childish spirit of living in the moment. Absorbing happiness.