When Yeats wrote that “love comes in at the eye,” he could have been thinking of the work of Vienna-based
Atelier Olschinsky. It doesn’t matter who the client is. It doesn’t matter what the
medium
is. You walk away from this creative studio’s work with a clear
understanding of why we call the visual arts visual. You also realize
how art has its own language. A language made up of nothing more than
the arrangement of color, line, shape, space, and texture. We marvel at
how Shakespeare worked with nothing more than 26 letters. In a similar
vein, Atelier Olschinsky creates startling compositions with nothing
more than muted color, dynamic, abutted shapes, and clashing lines. With
great dexterity they blur the gap between art and design.
The Atelier is the brainchild of Peter Olschinsky and Verena Weiss.
They met in 2002 while on a project for a mutual client. On the spot
they decided they should work together. What began as an experiment
became a groundswell of graphic innovation.
The Atelier specializes in art direction,
graphic design, illustration, typography,
product
design, web sites, animation and photography. Its output includes work
for clients as well as Olschinsky’s and Weiss’s own independent
projects. It’s not just about technique. Olschinsky and Weiss have
managed to pull off the impressive feat of branding their own branding.
There’s Cartier, there’s Dior and there’s Atelier Olschinsky.
Olschinsky’s Cities series, for instance, consists of cityscapes
shorn of any human element. There’s no focal point for pedestrians or
office workers. Each piece
offers
panoplies of virtuosity. Each bristles with complexity and detail. The
series resembles Russian Constructivism on steroids. It’s rife with
formal movement. Line and pattern crisscross and overlay. It’s more a
Platonic idea of a major metropolis, what sleepy villages dream of
becoming when they grow up....
by James Scarborough
Detail
Installation at Tina Miyake Showroom in Dusseldorf, Germany
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