Experience How Four Digital Artists Reinterpreted Burberry's Bold New Pattern
In March this year, Riccardo Tisci took over as the Creative Director of Burberry. To many, the storied British luxury fashion house epitomizes quintessential British fashion, while Tisci’s work over the last 14-plus years has been widely credited as a founding pillar in the bridge spanning "high" fashion to the aesthetics of "streetwear" that now dominate the sartorial landscape.
"Tisci elevated graphic-driven sportswear to a level of runway desirability that had never been seen before," explains Jian DeLeon, Highsnobiety's North American editorial director in New York. "He predated logo mania — that’s never what he’s been about. His MO has always been more nuanced. He literally turned images and graphics from pure visuals into actual status symbols."
The first major creative turning point of Tisci’s tenure came, however, in August with the unveiling of a new monogram and logo designed by the famed Manchester art director and graphic designer, Peter Saville.
The new logo, in a clean and bold sans serif typeface, replaces the Burberry Equestrian Knight logo and its bespoke Bodoni font — a mark that has been in use by the brand since 1901. This was backed up with Tisci and Saville’s new monogram print that echoes the famed Burberry nova check but uses a tessellated T and B in reference to Thomas Burberry, the house’s founder.
To celebrate this moment and to elevate Burberry's new look even further, we worked with four different digital artists to create new digital art from the TB monogram. From moving typographer Xavier Monney to digital artist Ondrej Zunka who creates entire digital universes, to leading contemporary visual artists like Wang & Söderström and finally London's Rose Pilkington, each brought their own specific take to the mix.
Scroll down to experience them, and stay locked for each artist's forthcoming TAPS story for the full immersive experience.
The Copenhagen and Malmö-based art and design practice of Anny Wang and Tim Söderström focus on exploring the possibilities of the digital and the physical worlds. With a shared background in architecture and spatial design, their work is the epitome of contemporary digital art.
Wang & SöderströmRather than just wrapping the pattern as a texture around 3D objects we wanted to give the pattern a new life in 3D so we added an extended level of playful materiality, embodying the flat surface.
Digital artist and motion designer Rose Pilkington's fascination with nature and science is second only to her obsession with color. "I am fascinated and hugely inspired by organic colour and patterns that exist in the natural world," she explains. "I use 3D software to facilitate the way I visually express these ideas."
However for Burberry's new monogram pattern, she took it a step further. "I wanted to take the 2D pattern and place it into a 3D world. Each vignette plays on the idea of the outline of the pattern being adorned or revealed in a delicate way."
Rose PilkingtonI think collaborating with Peter Saville was very unexpected and unique, which surprised people. It was a monumental task but it was put in the hands of a very esteemed and experienced graphic designer and art director."
London-based digital artist Ondrej Zunka creates visually arresting, near-surreal universes through his work. With a vibrant aesthetic approach that is anything but delicate, his talents have been sourced, perhaps unsurprisingly, by high-profile clients like Apple, Nike, and MTV when they're looking to make an impactful visual statement. However, throughout everything, there's an underlying sense of humor to what he does, never taking itself too seriously.
"My art portrays a larger spectrum of feelings and ideas which evolve, with some eventually becoming completely irrelevant," he explains. "Creative work helps me thrive as a person. I've got a masters degree in economics and system engineering yet am infinitely happy I live this life instead."
Ondrej ZunkaBurberry is a major icon in the world of fashion which for me personally is a world unexplored. But given the fact Burberry gave me and others here the opportunity to explore and have fun, I really appreciate and admire them.
Young Swiss digital artist Xavier Monney prefers to stay anonymous, yet the guy has been catching people's attention with his dynamic and distinctive renderings, animations and manipulations of type. Played across three dimensions, his work often involves some form of optical illusion as well.
Xavier MonneyI'm trying to break boundaries in graphic design by embracing technology instead of fearing it. I like the idea of creating a bridge between digital crazy stuff and traditional graphic design.
Experience what Monney, Wang & Söderström, Ondrej Zunka, and Rose Pilkington created in full in the coming days with their forthcoming TAPS experiences on Highsobiety.
For more on Burberry, read our analysis of Riccardo Tisci's debut Burberry SS19 collection and show here or visit Burberry.com.
