Fantastic collaboration with the artist & designer Anna Stylianou, who have already “style” in her name and she won the First Prize of the competition by Mei Avivim to design the coolest sewer cover in the city of Tel Aviv in Israel!
#GOLDTLV #tlv_manhole @tlv_manhole
Few Words from the artist Anna Stylanou and her process:
Anna Stylianou, UX/UI Designer. Works at intuition Robotics, design for greater and meaningful user experiences, human-computer and human-robots interaction.
https://www.behance.net/annastyle
When I first saw this Mei Avivim competition, it seemed funny.
Such a strange and unusual thing to design, but in a good way. It challenged me. So I thought, “Why not? It can be really special and cool!”
As a designer, I immediately tried to think of a deeper and meaningful statement for this sewer to represent and of course, I had to apply a perfect and unique concept. But as the deadline approached, I realized that just the doing, was a satisfying statement.
I went with my intuitive vision of lots of different graphic elements which tell the story of TLV, the culture, habits, history, the people, the architecture and all that makes her so special.
It was important for me to convey all the diversity that TLV has and all the fun and love.
During the design process, I also thought of it as kind of a game!
We were limited to create only one design and not to make it as a series, so this idea mixing different icons of the city was interesting and I was thinking that it will be fun each time someone comes across a sewer cap that they will discover another element that they missed before.
It can also be fun and appeal curiosity for children. It can be a start of a good story, or even a great memory game!
“I fell in love with Tel Aviv and as the years passed by, she became a significant part of me. Now, I am so proud to be also a part of her.”
Pirates Printing by IMKMKZ & Anna Stylanou:
Immediately when I saw about her post in Facebook, I have contacted Anna to propose her for a collaboration to create some astonishing street printmaking experimental project of her cool work.
IMKMKZ is my artist name for different art collaborations and experimental street art projects and lifestyle doodles that I’m working on.
Please follow https://www.instagram.com/IMKMKZ/ for more projects.
it’s all started in Berlin in 2016 in a project around a cool book project by raubdruckerin team & Emma-France Raff and different artists who were inspired all around the world from NYC to London, Paris to Tokyo and it was always my dream to make it happen in Tel Aviv.
The challenge
In general, simply by using Chinese Ink or any Mesh Colors or Acrylic based Colors for Textile, so you will easily be able to create a transfer of the graphic from the sewer cap to your t-shirts.
The challenge here, when I came to do a location check up before the operation, was that the creation of Anna was paint in Gold spray and that it will be destroyed if we apply on it black or white colors. So I needed to find a mat gold color that I can mix with fluid textile colors to transfer properly all the graphics and still keeping the gold foil art of the sewer cap and the interesting raw texture.
Anna was more worry of the texture itself of the sewer cap that was not perfect and I have challenged her to go over it and that these imperfections will make actually the interesting part of the experiment.
“Me not being perfect??? That’s a biiiig challenge lol”
Challenge accepted!
Let’s buy some art tools and let’s rock’n’roll!
Gold Street Print Technique
The first test to find the right mixture was done at home with a simple wood frame that I’ve placed on the floor and painting on top of it with the Gold secret sauce to see how it will work.
I’ve noticed that the more liquid it is and more the textile will swallow the color and create this interesting raw texture.
Time for Shopping!
Special thanks to Bershka super sales, so it was not a bankruptcy for this fun part and it was the opportunity to go out a bit during this Corona Virus challenging period.
After getting different colors of t-shirts, short and even a cap, so this part of the mission was done and it will allow us to test and experiments without stress to mess up.
Aspire to Inspire
All the idea of this article is to invite you to express yourself creatively and find your right collaboration projects!
That’s all the philosophy of Fusion Experience.
The Location
Just in front of the stairs to The Wonderful Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv that is located in 19 Sderot Sha’Ul Hamelekh, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Anna was waiting on the stairs and it was nice to see her again. We started to apply together the gold color all over the sewer cap since it was drying too fast to do it alone. Perfect collaboration work to experiment and discuss about what is the best way to transfer the colors in the t-shirts. Our first try was not a success, but more we’ve tried, smarter we were and we started to really like it ;) it was real fun and interesting process.
After we applied the colors, we had less than one minute to fold a t-shirt and place it in a way that the graphic will be on the side to make it much more interesting. We needed to apply a certain amount of pressure to make sure that the color transfer will be successful.
The best part is the collaboration itself and to be able to fuse between artists to create something new, endless experience, that will inspire others and invite them to come up with their own techniques.
With acrylic based colors for textile, so it does not take so much time to dry and to experiment different techniques.
We will be able also to retouch these print transfers with a gold marker for textile that will allow us to be more precise and brings more details.
This video give you a nice complicity moment of our collaboration :)
Anna Stylianou nicely autographed these limited samples and we promise you to come up soon with more surprises!
Et Voila!
Thanks again Anna, IMKMKZ.
Article in Hebrew about the competition
Follow Anna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annastyl/
Visit Anna Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-stylianou/
Follow IMKMKZ on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/IMKMKZ/
Aspire to inspire,
Ilan
