Design of an invitation card for the abstract art show ‘Merged’ was inspired by the most iconic, kinetic artwork in the series. It was also economical to print.
Background and Requirement
As sustained hard work on his extensive and varied series of abstract paintings neared completion, Mr. Deepak Tandon, New Delhi, India based contemporary artist required an invite for his upcoming show. Titled ‘Merged’, the show was held at Lalit Kala Academy, New Delhi, in August and September 2003.
Deepak’s paintings appeared to be natural landscapes or representations of hillsides, some even looked like topographical maps. The most iconic artwork in the series was a round painting mounted on a rotor which moved slowly and continuously in a circular direction. It was decided to feature this work on the invite.
Design Rationale
The artist and the designer agreed that the invite should not reveal much and instead create curiosity about the artworks / the show, prompting invitees to visit the venue and see the paintings for themselves.
A digital photograph of the round artwork was simplified into line art by the designer in an image editing software. In the layout, text was wrapped around the circumference of the artwork, such that the invite had to be rotated by hand to be read fully. This involved the viewer or the invitee in the process, created intrigue and provided a hint of the kinetic aspect of some of the paintings displayed at the show.
Look and Feel
Overall, the invite looked serious, dignified and intriguing. Its monochromatic colour scheme helped to convey a strong feeling of abstraction / abstract art and aided the (screen) printing process.
Technical Notes
Upon finalisation of the layout, the artist and the designer, in consultation with the printer, visited a paper shop and selected a reddish-grey tinted sheet. The sheets were handed over to the printer and cut into 5.5 x 5.5 inches square sizes. The text and the graphic were manually screen printed in two colours: dark grey and white, grey background of the paper acted as the third colour. The cards were quite economical to print.
Print Production Credits
- Mr. Sridhar Arvamuthachari (print production consultant)
- Mr. Pramod Chauhan (screen printing)
