Designer and illustrator Tomas Ekström‘s new project, Emoticons, tries to unearth and explain the emotional valence of the fundamental elements and principles that constitute the media of form, shape and music.
The properties that make up each media is methodically and thoroughly investigated and different ways of manipulating them so as to purposefully communicate a specific emotional message is described in detail in the book Emoticons – The emotional meaning of form, shape & music.
Rapture
Despondence
Repose
Dread
Elaborate designs, illustrations and music that evoke specific emotions were then created by the artist to showcase how these theories can be utilized in practice. The resulting pieces become emotional icons in their respective media for each of the areas of human emotion. These emoticons are all fully realized works of art in their own right, but to fully appreciate them one needs to see, feel and listen to them together, which can be done here.
Images and text courtesy of Tomas Ekström/Kallbrand.
