You may have noticed some background design elements and photographs on this site that aren’t directly related to the content. Most of these details or photographs are or are inspired by one of my design heroes. It is because underlying all the work I do, are thoughts, ideas and thinking inspired by my design heroes.
These design heroes of mine come from varying fields and span historical and contemporary figures. They cut across disciplines and centuries but all have interesting things to say in their art or research about the human mind and human responses to stimuli.
These include the likes of:
Antonin Gaudi – The Genius Spanish Architect and Designer whose famous works are prevalent in Barcelona and the surrounding area. Gaudi demonstrates an admirable commitment to the innate function of objects even as he contorts dimensions and angles to play with our senses. His works often bear the hallmarks of a languid, dripping biological fluidity.
Santiago Calatrava – the Contemporary Spanish Architect who has designed and delivered iconic buildings across the Globe. Like Gaudi there is an inherent biological underpinning to much of his designs. There is a sweeping elegance evident and a bold, futuristic and aspiring vision. I have seen his work both inside and out and am fascinated by the aqualine, skeletal structures that use light imaginatively.
Leonardo Da Vinci – The Renaissance Man. Da Vinci represents to me the epitome of the enquiring mind. An unquenchable desire to learn and comprehend. He was the archetype of the renaissance man whose passion was both playful and obsessive according to biographer Walter Isaacson. His ability to combine imagination with observation made him history’s consummate innovator.
