Calligram Designers

An interview with Ben Duarri-Screen Prince  Donna Summer Ben Duarri-Screen Prince, 2013 Ben, can you tell us about your "Donna Summer" calligram work? The project was sponsored by someone working for Southern Fried Records, Fatboy Slim's label. The song was a personal favorite and I had a very deep connection with this song when I was little. I knew I had to get Donna's elegance in there and as I had only been using the copperplate dip pen nibs for a year or so and the Pentel brush pen for a few months the pressure was quite enormous but that got me to a state of doing things with a lose immediacy that comes with calligraphy. The image I drew in pencil as my template was a mash-up of lots of images of Donna's record cover shots and also heavily inspired by her psychedelic video where she does that wave dance move with her arms.This drawing contains the arms and hands more of her waist and is pretty big.  Printing the background layer in a blend ...

March 6 is the European Day of the Righteous to commemorate those who have stood up against crimes, humanity and totalitarism with their own moral responsibility. Righteous, Hope, Solidarity, Freedom, Gratitude, Forgiveness are just a few of the meaningful words that form this "tree of life" calligram.

by Joni James I started my journey in calligraphy when I was in my early 20's and living in Alaska. Often asked to make name place cards or inspirational quotes for people, I began taking classes when I returned to the Seattle area in 1984. I was always fascinated with calligrams but never really made any until this year. One of my favorite artists is Picasso, so I was thrilled when I did some searching for calligram information and discovered that Guillaume Apollinaire was a friend of his! For me, more then any other art form, making these calligrams gives me a calm like nothing else . I can feel the rhythm of the words as I create and the white space tells me what to do next. I'm so thankful to find other calligram artists! It's a beautifully unique form of art and can be used in so many ways! 1932 Ford Coupe Calligram This was made especially for my uncle and I sent it to him as a surprise recently. He was thrilled! Motherhood and Pregnancy Calligram...

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince Joni Mitchell was the first portrait of a female I attempted, shortly after discovering the pointed pen nib used for copperplate and flourishing. Copperplate became the modern hand at the end of the 19th century and has since become a favorite for popular sign-writing and commercial graphics. A delicate and smooth flowing hand, it can be written quickly using one continuous line [unlike gothic script] and can be dressed down to a basic joined up writing or dressed up accentuating the loops and curves and because of the nature of the nib, when pressure is added, the line widens adding curve and sensuality to the words. These words, from A Case Of You on her hit album Blue , draws from the metaphor of her lover being like fine wine, “I could drink a case of you and I would still be on my feet”. However the song is not just a compliment, there is a sense of sadness, a splitting and ending of a relationship and the drinking in bars to numb the hurt...

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince The third calligram in The Royalty Series , Jimi Hendrix , is entirely hand drawn lettering using lyrics from "Are You Experienced?" , from his break-through album of the same title. I drew from the phsychedelic posters of the time such as Martin Sharp's Bob Dylan cover print of Oz magazine,“Blowing in the Mind” and the work of John Van Hamersveld, Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelly, among others. Here, Jimi is elevated to a sun-god status, a messiah of rock and roll, with little sun rises in his eyes and mouth refering to the line “ we'll hold hands and then we'll watch the sun rise from the bottom of the sea... ” that makes up his jaw and arched moustache and side burns. The overall impression I wanted to acheive was that of an apparition or hallucination in a cloud of purple smoke and golden sunlight passing through it. So far, one edition of 20 of the classic gold -lightly blended with green edges at the beginning of the run- and purple...

by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince This, the first of my The Royalty Series , a portrait of the mercurial artist known as Prince . Using the lyrics of his dacefloor classic b-side to Lets Go Crazy - Erotic City, Prince at the height of his Purple Rain era circa 1984. The song was hard to single out from such a vast opus, but the reference to bringing to life a whole dark erotic personality of a city, ”funking in2 the dawn” and ”creamy thighs“ swayed it. I set out to make an image that was truly erotic only using the lyrics, face and eye contact with the viewer. I looked at lace and lingere, decorative motifs and flourishing from baroque to art-nouveau and blended it with Shakespearian calligraphy. All the letters were constructed with pen and ink and correction pen then photocopied. So far, only one edition on A2 stock printed in a tinted gold blend and purple and magenta blend has been printed along with three small Artist proof editions of seven, on coloured papers and soft col...

With this post we'll start showing the calligram art work by Ben Duarri-Screen Prince . by Ben Duarri All my work is hand drawn, mostly using dip pens, written in ink and screenprinted as a 2 colour screenprint in gold and blue or purple and maybe more colours. Calligrams stimulate both sides of the brain simultaniously creating balance and the opening of the 3rd eye. I am starting The Cult of the Calligram and I want to bring calligrams and the making of them to a new generation reared on mind supresants and imagination killers. I want to find ancient middle eastern calligrams and 20th century european calligrams and contemporary calligrams and calligrams from all time and space that ever were are and will be and gather them together and give a whole generation the tools to communicate with joy and passionate poetry that can only be achieved by creating calligrams. I have spent the last four years making and printing, making and printing and now my first series of calligrams: The...