Hardformat

The person responsible was Manuel Sepulveda aka Optigram. Each subsequent design has struck me as consistent, distinctive and exploratory in its approach. Each design does what it needs to do elegantly and with a remarkable economy of means. It’s a long overdue pleasure to feature his work here on Hard Format. The work is clearly informed by the aforementioned camouflage and digital noise, Op Art (as acknowledged by his working alias), Italian Futurism and the most dystopian elements of J.G. Ballard and William Burroughs.

Sepulveda a remarkably modern designer, one that engages with and articulates the spirit of his time. He has the potential to be a digital Reid Miles for the new millenium. There’s often something subtly unsettling about the refusal of Sepulveda’s forms to resolve easily into recognisable patterns. At times they suggest a disruption of vision along the lines of Predator’s alien distortion field – indeed, perhaps they’re presentiments of shapes necessary to hide in extra-planetary ecosystems. Sepulveda also acknowledges the influence of David Pelham‘s designs for Ballard paperbacks, eighties science magazine Omni, Vorticism and Hindu art.