Channeling modern art master Josef Albers and his Homage to the Square
Sometimes we find ourselves rounding corners, in order to ease the way. Steal a spinet of time. Shorten the journey.
Sometimes we square things off instead — in order to establish cleaner, clearer and more defined borders. Enter the perfect square.
The basis for these icons of geometry is the right-angle. And for good reason. Right angles are among the essential units in the building blocks of life — as well as time — and they tend to sooth the soul. They serve to calm and settle us.
Josef Albers spent decades working on spatial studies and the effect of color — all the while attempting to bring space and color into perfect alignment. And so he did. Eventually coming to the realization that color only truly exists within the context of other colors.
And so it is with the combination of individual colors that I have chosen for my CMYKG collection in which the rich and vibrant benchmark colors of Cyan, Magenta, and Process Yellow are showcased amid a bold and sensual relationship with crisp Black and White — plus the addition of a special fifth element: Warm Gray No 5 — a rich and vibrant color in and of itself.
Josef Albers once stated, “Color is the most relative medium in art”, and it should be added that it is the viewer’s gaze that sets the composition of color in motion. Albers chose the unvarying square format for its compact frontality, thereby allowing us to concentrate
on the countless variations in the discourse of colors.
In an effort to move this principle even further into the future, I have chosen to capitalize on the use of prime numbers, particularly on the number 7. When multiplied by itself, the resulting square root creates a foundational grid of 49 perfect squares. And when centered inside a 9x9 grid of 81 squares, the configuration provides the perfect setting for the celebration of a multitude of right angles. And when juxtaposed with a very short list of remarkable colors, a captivating artistic combination prevails — and a hard working creative staging ground endures.
For me, the focus on the magic of primes — two, three, five, and seven — has created a hypnotic designer’s dream world.
