MIDDLE: 2006 | ET MOVIE POSTER REDESIGN | STUDENT WORK 2006; RIGHT: 2006 | ROBOCOP MOVIE POSTER REDESIGN | STUDENT WORK

Beau Johnson uses the internet as his medium to explore quirky concepts and personal artistic expression. “Most of my work con­sists of a quick thought that doesn’t necessarily have much value or relevance to anything, but I complete and present it as if it does,” he says. “Afterwards, the work becomes complete gold! I like to make a lot of internet-related concepts and imagery, too ... that’s what I ‘grew up’ on. I’m more comfortable with that now.” John­son’s work expresses a kind of “post-ironic” consciousness, in that he uses ironic and self-conscious experimentation as a means towards sincere and almost sentimental ends.

“His work is poetic and provocative in the gentlest, sly, dis­orienting and best way imaginable,” says his former CalArts pro­fessor Gail Swanlund. “He [illuminates] something that seems at once quite familiar, but appears to be turned inside-out or upside-down. [You’re] not entirely certain whether you saw correctly. All the same, it’s very friendly. And you find the world is slightly tilted toward a new kind of loveliness from that day forward.”

“All of my websites are sketches, really,” says Johnson. “I’m just trying to get the ideas across. The ideas don’t manifest themselves as a larger piece or presentation. No one needs to go to these sites; they aren’t selling things. They are just abstractions.” Johnson typ­ically comes up with a concept, purchases the URL and then cre­ates content to fulfill the idea the URL name suggests. “Beau’s websites float around in the world, and that’s all they do,” says Peter Kaplan, who was the teaching assistant in one of Johnson’s CalArts classes. “I enjoy them. They are funny, personal and inter­esting—everything good that I admire.”

Johnson favors line drawings with a cartoon-like quality. He says he works in this manner, “so I can have more pieces of work, and I can get my ideas out there faster. It’s not so much about hav­ing volume as holding my own interest.” He’s also concerned with image-to-type relationships. However, Johnson admits, “Even by CalArts standards, I’m not a traditional graphic designer.”

In addition to his personal work, Johnson has a successful free­lance practice doing complex Flash websites for clients like the creative collective The Directors Bureau, fashion apparel compa­nies Nom de Guerre, Freshjive and GONZ! and internet search and online advertising giant Google.

He also recently completed a series of illustrations for the new CalArts graphic design student publication that’s called, simply, pub. Johnson’s series is a wry commentary on “LARPing” (an acro­nym for Live Action Role-Playing; when physically acting out characters in role-playing games, enthusiasts are said to be larp­ing). These illustrations are indicative of the point of view he brings to all his work. Is Johnson revealing something we don’t usually see? Or is he just kidding us all?

www.calrats.com | www.theultimatethrill.com | www.applekomputers.com | pub: http://design.calarts.edu/pub/information.html