Marco Goran Romano is an Italian illustrator/graphic designer who uses highly stylised, cartoon inspired vector designs to create editorial work with subtle hints at social and political themes. His work doesn't feel aggressive or politically charged, but more of a humorous look upon and deconstruction of the value we place in certain silly things as a society. As I'm starting to get very much involved with politically loaded material in Context of Practice, I want to keep things lighter in my work for this module or I might slip into madness. Shakespeare has a lot of very dark material in his plays, but I want to try to deconstruct it all a bit and poke some fun at the man himself, as his work is so ridiculously famous, the human element of him writing it often feels very far removed from the fame to me.
This thematic approach to my own editorials is what lead me to Marco's illustrations. They appear smooth and light, with perfect edges and flat colours, but connote a spark of attitude and comedy about them. Especially in the above editorial produced for Variety Magazine, the imagery of the snow globe makes me feel a suggestion that he as the author of the piece, is subtly mocking the drama of this year so far, by miniaturising it and containing it with this visual metaphor of a quaint little desk toy. While addressing relevant issues and social events, I feel Marco is simultaneously sort of saying "okay, this is what happened, but it's over now, put it all up on the shelf and shut up about it". This strong sense of authorship is present throughout his work, and is inspiring in relation to editorial work, as so much of it can be indistinguishable in its attempt to be edgy and thought provoking. Marco's simple approach with that bit of a smirk behind it goes much farther, I think, into making us step back from whatever it is we are reading and take a minute to laugh at ourselves. Which is always good.
Creative Process
Digital alteration of my work has been really important for the development of my editorials, as we've been forced to work digitally for the requirements of the brief. It's been good practice in regards to how we'll need to be able to shift and adapt when we're working, depending on the presets of a brief or a client, and I feel a lot more confident working digitally than I ever have. I think the main contributor has been to stop telling myself to avoid it because I was bad at it, but telling myself to get better at it because I was bad at it.
Marco's work thrives in the digital medium, as it is so connected to the millennial mindset in its sharp visuals and block colours. This visual immediacy works great for editorial work, as it's eye catching whilst not being a massive overpowering painting about oil spillage. It hits the middle ground of being engaging without being abrasive, when placed in the context of an article/website.
The illustration above featured in GQ Magazine in Germany, and I think it perfectly captures the tone of that magazine, with a dash of comedy to bring it back to earth. The tools immediately relate to the manly man totally masculine dude man tone of GQ, and the iPhone immediately works as bathos to that, and feels like a little nod to the metrosexual generation. I mean, I'm a grown boy and I don't have a spirit level OR a spanner in my house, but I have an app that plays little bits of Daft Punk songs when you tap a green keyboard. THE FUTURE IS NOW!
And Marco Goran Romano is embracing it with open arms.
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