Call for entries: HOW Logo Design Awards
Designer of the Week Yoni Alter says that he constantly uses the city of London as a source of inspiration. This is evident in much of his vibrant work, like his ongoing Shapes of Cities series, and his debut London show at Kemistry Gallery.
Follow Alter on Instagram, and be sure to check out his shop at shop.yoniishappy.com.
Name: Yoni Alter
Website: http://yoni.london
Design school attended: Bezalel, Jerusalem and LCC, London
How would you describe your work?
Fun, graphic, playful, a result of me playing and experimenting.
Where do you find inspiration?
Mostly it’s working on something that makes me think “actually what if I do it this way,” and then I experiment with that idea, which leads me to work on other things, and it goes on forever.
Who are some of your favorite designers or artists?
I think the greatest artists of our times are film makers like Woody Allen, Francis Coppola, Scorsese.
I love watching “Hey Duggee” with my boy. The design is great but so is everything else there in this BBC animated series.
Do you have a favorite among all the projects you’ve worked on?
My favorite is always the one I’m currently working on. I can’t share projects I’m now working on so here’s a gif I made this week:
Two frames, only one dot changes position #gif #animation #minimal #graphic #dog #illustration
A post shared by Yoni Alter (@yonialter) on Sep 16, 2017 at 4:14am PDT
As with most of my gifs I wasn’t planning to make a gif. While I’m working on an image, I come up with an idea of a way to animate it.
This time while I [was] working on the Bearded Collie, I came up with an idea to give it a pink dot for a tongue. It looked good and gave me another idea to bring him to life by make him panting. All that was required was to add another frame with the pink dot in a different position and to add sound. This gives the viewer the feeling that the dog is alive using minimal effort and style.
Is there a project that stands out to you as having been the biggest challenge of your career so far?
Producing all my 3D objects is always very challenging. Unlike producing 2D graphics, you’re constrained by so many things such as physics. For example, cutting a strong material into intricate shapes in my NYC light sculpture or preventing parts of my sneaker puzzle from sliding. It’s always a long process with many iterations, but it’s always worth it eventually.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?
I’m hoping my work could reach as many people as possible.
I’m making work because I enjoy it, but also because I want people who view/interact with it [to] enjoy [it] too. That’s why may art is communicative and why I make many playful objects and games. Check out my games on the App Store and on Google Play.
I’m also working with a book publisher on a couple of playful books; they’ll be published Spring 2018.
Shapes of Cities posters
What’s your best advice for designers today?
Take advantage of fact that you can produce everything yourself these days. You can get prototypes made only using online services. Printing small quantities, laser cutting, 3D printing, etc. can be done just by uploading artwork to a website. Designers today don’t depend on others and don’t have to work for a company in order to get their designs made into products or reach large audiences.
Also I’d suggest to enjoy your craft and to experiment. The more you do, the more you’ll discover ideas, techniques and processes that you’ll find interesting.
#DesigneroftheWeek #YoniAlter