We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Miriam Trilety about their original and creative Poster design work. Miriam Trilety is an award-winning communication designer, that makes our world a better place with their original poster works.
Miriam Trilety ("MT") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work The Thinker Poster. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
MT : This project is a provocative reflection on Rodins’ “The Thinker”, challenging the white supreme masculine vision of artistic perfection and intellectual grandiosity. It shows the face of a woman of colour with a double chin and an unconventional nose. Her head is held by the hand of a white man and used as a flowerpot. It is a still life in which her existence seems to be arranged and rearranged by other people’s ideas. At first sight the image appears to be very pleasant and beautiful but once one understands the context it becomes irritating and disturbing.
MT : To me it was important to challenge the viewer in the traditional perception of The Thinker.
MT : I would love to see the illustration being published in different media outlets and through this start a conversation about gender in art.
MT : The poster was created in Summer 2018.
MT : I decided to pursuit an inspiration that evolved from arthouse film and the realization that women of color are hardly represented in the fielt of visual arts.
MT : I do not have any plans yet to sell or lease the production rights. As of right now I intend to produce the work by myself.
MT : The project is supposed to make people think at a second glance as it represents societal discrimination based on race, sex, gender, disabilities. This was most important to me.
MT : Well, if you count Rodin as a designer then, yes!
MT : The Poster may be used as an art work in a private surrounding as well as poster for events that target a critical perception of sociopolitical circumstances. This project was developed for print products. The advantage of the digital production is the versatile applicability in different print areas. As the selection of mockups shows, the project is suitable for outdoor use, as an indoor poster, but also for publication in magazines, or as a book cover. Therein I see the goal of my work, the far-reaching visibility of the illustration in different media spaces.
MT : The Thinker is a very critical and political work. It deals with history and present at the same time.
MT : The Thinker refers to Rodins famous bronze sculptures The Thinker. The sculpture is often used as an image to represent philosophy. However this mainly targets a masculine philosophy from a male perspective.
MT : This Poster was entirely created digitally with Procreate on iPad Pro.
MT : The most unique aspect of my design is that it is a very political work. At first sight the image appears to be very pleasant and beautiful but once one understands the context it becomes irritating and disturbing.
MT : The research in this particular case has begun with a cinematic exploration of racism in film. My great interest in arthouse film productions often becomes an important inspiration. I realized that black women are hardly represented in the visual arts. The allusion to the thinker of Rodin in connection with the motive of a severed head in the hand of a white man, is to show the brutality and self-evidentness of the male-cantered thinking in science and art.
MT : It was a challenge to put the playfulness of the motive in context with the theme of racism. As a privileged white woman it is difficult to address the issue of racism without being maternalistic or even tasteless.
MT : I wanted to submit a work, that challenges the viewer and contains social criticism. The project is supposed to make people think at a second glance as it represents societal discrimination based on race, sex, gender, disabilities.
