Gestalten

Oded Ezer

Oded Ezer is a young Israeli typography designer. He creates brilliant Hebrew and Latin typography that make it hard for you to say whether he is still working in typography or already in the realm of art.

He is also active in crafting object-related installations and commercial designs. Ezer's work is emotional and powerful. The beauty and distinctiveness of his typographies with their stunning shapes are as exceptional in this field as they are outstanding, to say the least.

The recipient of numerous design awards, Ezer is not only multitalented and hardworking, but also has fun with what he is doing. Meditative fun.
We spoke to Mr. Ezer, who is also a classically trained musician, on a Sunday morning. Unsurprisingly, he turned out to be as humorous and light-hearted, yet as concentrated and effective as his work would indicate.

dgv: Some of your letters look like living creatures. Creatures that might start to crawl. Are you a scientist?

"I don't see myself as a scientist or an artist. Although there are people who try to convince me (laughs). I see myself just as a typographer who tries to explore some new fields. Maybe it's not mainstream now or it is considered as a bit crazy, but I think it will become mainstream. In the future.
About the living creatures: I see letters as an item if I can put it like that. Not only as a symbol. Not only as a representer of words but also as a representer of feelings."

dgv: Feelings? What do you mean by that?

"It is kind of an expansion of what we know as the nature of a font. For example: If you chose certain fonts for your clients because you think that their audience will respond to this precise typeface in the way you want, then this is kind of a basic activity for a typographer of course or any designer. But if we expand that, we understand that we can create extra feelings. We can create stronger reactions to the design. That is the starting point I work with. Sometimes I try to do it by turning the letters into creatures but it's not the only medium I work with."

dgv: What distinguishes letters/typography from images/signs? Is there a line to draw?

"As long as your starting point is letters, then you deal with typography. In a way the final result may be more than an image but as long as it comes out of a letter then I condsider it still typography."

dgv: When you say that what you are doing will become mainstream: Do you see any similarity to what happened to graffiti? Not as far as the look or style of graffiti is concerned but somehow in the same way that graffiti prioritized character and individuality rather than readability.

"I think this is a beautiful question. Maybe you are the first one to realize that what I am doing is in its nature - not in its product - very similar to what the first graffiti artists did.
I am not talking about the similarity of the process or similarity of the product but only about the similarity of the way of thinking about visual communication. Graffiti writers basically make their art as communicators and not as artists. I think this is a very good context to understand what I'm doing. I don't have a client in the limited meaning of the word but I have an audience. I hope the audience will be exposed to the ideas and to the philosophy of typography in a different way. This way of thinking has something in common with the pioneers of street art."

dgv: Is that the opposite of the implacableness of mathematical ruling codes? Codes like HTM: if you forget about a certain bracket, then the whole result collapses somehow. There are no "mistakes" allowed.

"Yes, once that you are inventing your playground, you not only invent the signs but also the context of your work. You are writing your own rules. That helps me because nobody wrote the rules before me. Maybe I am influenced by a few people in the 20th century. People who did pieces that I am referring to today but I understood that I had to write my own laws, my own system. So that I can build my own world to escape from banality or escape from Do's and Don't-do's."

dgv: Can you name some of these influences?

"Well, I might forget some, but I can say that Edward Ruscha (the American artist) was a very strong influence on my first steps a few years ago. Also the mid-eighties Studio Dumbar's posters, the work of Martin Venezky. And also a variety of contemporary fields, such as architecture, music, science and philosophy of our time. I have here books about fashion design, industrial and interior design and of course a lot of art books. But I don't tend to be influenced by graphic design. You can get a lot of inspiration by seeing a movie of course. For me, it is more inspiring than graphic design books."

dgv: That'd be like the cliché of a jazz musician sitting at home listening to jazz music all the time..

"Yes, that's ridiculous (laughs). I didn't play jazz but it seems to me like the best inspiration about jazz can come from the sea. My main influence comes from modern music like Israeli musicians who make electronic and experimental music."

dgv: There is a vital experimental music scene in Tel Aviv, isn't there? Or where are you located right now?

"Actually I moved to the very centre of Tel Aviv. Now I sit inside a complex that used to be really dodgy a year ago (laughs). They had whores here in the street and things like that. Now it's full of small workshops of fashion designers and we have a very good club downstairs (laughs) and it's really like a Soho place. Really alive."

dgv: How do you work technically? Is there anything like a working routine?

"It depends on the kind of activity. As you probably know I am doing commercial stuff which is basically a work as any other designer's/typographer's. I work on the computer on regular applications for fonts and logo design. So it's pretty much ordinary. But then I have my experimental activity where I use sketchbooks like a student. Every idea that I have - even if it's in the middle of a meeting - I just make a small sketch and go on. Sometimes half a year later I find it and then I think it's worth developing. Then I start a process of searching. I work a lot with my hands and I make small models and I take pictures of three-dimensional sketches. That's it."

dgv: Which one is the bigger challenge: Working within limitations or having the privilege of complete artistic freedom?

"I think it is difficult to compare. I enjoy each part. Sometimes for me to design commercial stuff is just to relax because you don't really have to think..."

dgv: (laughs)

"You just use your ability for the client's purpose. As for the experimental stuff, I cannot lie, I cannot cheat. So it's very demanding, a strong mental process. Sometimes I succeed and most of the time it doesn't work (laughs). Each part of the work has its own beauty."

dgv: What are your next plans?

"Within the last three months I had a lot of changes in my personal life because my first baby was born. Then I had to move from my studio in my house outside into this office. It took all of my energy. Also I went back to teaching so it was a very, very full time activity. Now I wait for the summer holiday and I got used to my new studio and I feel much more comfortable. So I will start a new exciting project and I feel that maybe I am going into chemistry design."

dgv: Chemistry?

"Yes, because I will put that biology thing aside and I will explore some chemistry aspects on typography."

dgv: Sounds interesting.

"I hope I will succeed (laughs)."