Daniel Catt

For my third Alba series, I've continued my love of graphic design and print. Taking inspiration from the clean, functional grid systems of Swiss Style and the abstract nature, forms, and strong colour principles of Late Modernism, (while pushing away from the more minimalistic aspects 😅). These movements, known for revolutionising design and typography in the mid-20th century, inspire my generative art process.

I'm paying homage to design greats like Rudolph de Harak and Josef Müller-Brockmann, whose work set the standards for much of today's graphic design. At the same time, I draw inspiration from contemporary artists like Stig Møller Hansen, who continue to push the boundaries of these designs in new and interesting ways.

Here I wanted to play with layers and a slow animation loop. Where the strong geometric form of the circle acts not only as a design element but also reveals the layers underneath. The design is created from three or four layers, and the circles are really holes, portals to the layer underneath, showing the changes in positions and perspectives of the multiple hidden grids.

These multiple layers are disguised by having the square elements along the bottom and the circles along the edge duplicated across each layer, but with a palette taken from the layer above or below.

It is a flat plane with a foreground, mid-ground, and background. 

The aim is to create something that works as a static piece, rather like a print, but with the added opportunity that working in the digital space allows, in the form of movement. Making it ideal for both print and screen, if screens were, you know, 3:4 ratio, maybe one day!

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## **Interaction.**

Left to its own devices, the circle/holes will move around the artwork.

Moving the mouse over the artwork allows you to reposition the circles/holes, to a degree. On a phone, you can do this by tapping the screen (very much depending on the mobile).

When viewed in its own window, pressing 's' will download a .png version.

Adding ?forceWidth=1920 will force the width of the output, giving you access to higher resolutions, changing the number for the size you want.

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Code is written in vanilla js and uses 2d canvas for rendering.
By @revdancatt, February, 2024

## **References.**

* Swiss Style: https://www.printmag.com/featured/swiss-style-principles-typefaces-designers/
* Late Modernism: https://www.onlinedesignteacher.com/2016/05/graphic-design-styles.html#late-modern
* Rudolph de Harak: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/rational-simplicity-rudolph-de-harak-richard-poulin-volume-graphic-design-060421
* Josef Müller-Brockmann: https://www.grapheine.com/en/graphic-design-en/graphic-designer-muller-brockmann-swiss-style
* Stig Møller Hansen: https://www.instagram.com/stigmollerhansen/

Swiss Design's asymmetrical layouts and an exploration of form, colour, and space.  Dan Catt's third release on Alba looks at blending structured grids & strong colour palettes with layered geometric forms in shifting portals, for a generative art take on modern Late Modernism.

Trance Atlantic Glide

Pinball, but totally not. Glitch, deleting, rotating and shifts interrupt a flow-field. Pulling on aspects of print, zen, hacking the Gibson and pen plotting.

This started as a combined pen plotter and print artwork, which would output the results to both. (I've stripped the outputting to SVG out on this version to save space, a full version on my website [https://revdancatt.com/art](https://revdancatt.com/art) will allow that). Then I started to treat those lines as raster graphics that could be shifted across the canvas and deleted to produce breaks and negative space, while still holding firm to an internal compositional rule.

Also an attempt to not overcomplicate already complex things.

This collection is my own take on Flow-Fields, having not used them before but always admired them. I wanted to taken them in the direction of glitch combined with the lines I'm used to using on the pen plotter.

(81-82-83-84)

Inspired by [Fallingwater](https://fallingwater.org/), the iconic house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1935, The Designers Republic incorporated its unique design elements into the album artwork for Autechre's 'Chiastic Slide'.

Just as an artist distills scenes into abstract images, a designer reduces function to abstract graphical forms. The Flatlands show presented an opportunity to merge this deconstructive approach to graphic design with the spontaneity of generative art. It's a nod to the moment when rudimentary software propelled experimental typography from zines to glossy publications like The Face, but with a twist of coding magic.

This synthesis reflects the project's overarching goal: to reinterpret the futurism of the past through the lens of the present, creating a nostalgic yet forward-looking exploration of design and technology.

**PRINTS**

Prints will be available from the ALBA site when that functionality gets added. A limited number of "Out of Band" artist's proofs may be available from Daniel's shop: [**shop.revdancatt.com/collections/fallingwater**](https://shop.revdancatt.com/collections/fallingwater)

**MORE INFORMATION**

Daniel Catt, a pen plotter artist, fuses mathematics, technology, and design to generate captivating abstract art through code-driven algorithms and organic experimentation, challenging the boundaries of traditional artistic creation and contemporary print. You can find more information about FALLiNGWATER and other projects in the following places:

🔗 [**revdancatt.com**](https://revdancatt.com)  
🍿 [**YouTube**](https://youtube.com/revdancatt)  
📙 [**Newsletter**](https://newsletter.revdancatt.com)  
🐦 [**Twitter**](https://twitter.com/revdancatt)  
📸 [**Instagram**](https://instagram.com/revdancatt)  

Take the futurism of mid-1990s graphic design, merged with the fake-nostalgia vaporwave of a reimagining of Win95, channeled through the lens of modern generative art and you get FALLiNGWATER. Swapping Jolt Cola for Green Tea, Coral Draw and Photoshop 2.5 for code and a single poster design for an infinite number of variations, Daniel digs back into what made him love graphic design in the first place for his entry to the Flatlands group show.