Paul Madonna

“Paul Madonna has not only pressed graphic fiction way beyond its present boundaries, he has created a new and stunning art form where the stand-alone brilliant visuals and the hauntingly human words synthesize into a pure and irreducible aesthetic vision. This book taught me something fundamental and true and beautiful about the ineffable thereness and thingness of life.Everything is its Own Reward is a work of genius.” 
    – Robert Olen Butler
author of A Small Hotel, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

coffee_041011_948x682 coffee_442_021509_800x530 120708-coffee 489.03.489Paul Madonna is a San-Francisco based illustrator/Artist. His illustrations are interactive on the iPad.

Things that I have noticed about his work:

  1. He never depicts people in his version of San-Francisco – this is interesting because San-Francisco is a really crowded city and depicting it without people makes it seem very different. This relates to the idea of the flâneur i.e. someone who observes the cityscape from a distance
  2. His buildings seem to talk to each other – the space speaks out to the viewer and the text augments this experience.
  3. There is a sense of storytelling that is unique to every person who views his work. As the work interacts with the viewer in a very personal way.
  4. He appeals to human emotions even though he doesn’t show any humans in his work.

 

Zeroxwalla Zine

This is a zine made by Bombay Duck Designs, it is a good reference for showing images that capture a place. It is very clean and iconic in terms of the colour usage. Interesting use of collage and posterized images along with illustration.

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I would like to create a site-specific zine, inspired by this kind of work.