Oded Ezer

I was massively inspired by Oded Ezer in last nights lecture. I've had a look online and found some of his work. The pieces that I found the most beautiful were the cut-out type projects. The open poster is just amazing. I love that your brain tries to read what word it is, is it still legible? Or are we just trying to make sense of the parts of the forms we recognise? Is this then similar to gestalt?? (Just trying to get my head around all this newly acquired Graphic Design vocab!!)

It was also interesting to hear his philosophy and how he manages to fund his extremely uncommercial projects. He said he has to be two people, he works in the day as a commercial designer (he didn't present any of this work so it obviously does not excite him as much) then he sleeps for one hour and then works on his own projects afterwards!! He works from home so he doesn't have many expenses and he charges massive fees for the commercial work he does do!!

How can someone survive on so little sleep and where do his family fit into this??

Also, the fact that he can "charge massive fees for commercial work" is only possible as he has established a reputation for himself. As young designers starting out this will not be possible for us! How can we manage our lives and strive for this balance between soul-less (or soul destroying) commercial work and the lovely personal work that makes us happy and keeps us in love with Graphic Design?? Is there a universal answer or will we have to chose to sacrifice something else – such as sleep, family, friends??

How can you be a Graphic Designer without loosing your soul? I think my quest this year will be searching for this answer! (Perhaps I should start by reading the book!)