A grumpy piranha and other wonderful Pictograms by Jan Filek
I found these pictograms via TrendsNow earlier today. They’re a lovely collection of line drawings of animals by Dusseldorf-based designer, Jan Filek.
A friend described them as modern hieroglyphics which I liked as a concept.
The grumpy-looking piranha (above) was a favourite with most people and I have a real fondness for how the cat transforms so fluidly into a fox with the alteration of a couple of lines.
They’re fantastic both individually and as a set but I’ll confess to being a little bothered by the openness of a lot of the designs – by which I mean the internal space of the animal isn’t bordered on all sides by a line. You can see an example in the elephant below:
I have a half-joking reputation amongst the friends I regularly attend exhibitions with as having a kind of aesthetic OCD especially when geometry or balance are involved and have been plagued by recollections of unbalanced Mondrians and top heavy Rothkos long after gallery visits have passed.
As such I find myself disproportionately bothered by the pictograms with open lines. To me they seem to create a sense of danger – as if the essence of the animal might escape, like a balloon with a slow puncture.
Is that something that you find or am I making things too complicated?
