Adam Goldberg’s “messymod” series came out of a deep love of geometry, pattern, and white space. Influenced by Bauhaus and Miró, his “Messy Modernism” art started with a minimalist exploration of the plant, animal, and plankton worlds using simple shapes and limited color.
But although the thought process is messy and loose, the style is anything but. Goldberg’s graphic art is organized and balanced, even if a bit weird. “Great design is about what you DON’T do,” explained Goldberg in an interview with The Design Kids. “With so many tools, choices and techniques available to everyone all the time, it’s easy for designers to over-accessorize and get bogged down in techniques rather than ideas. Techniques aren’t ideas!” he stressed.
Goldberg day job is studio TRÜF’s creative director. Based in Santa Monica, California, studio TRÜF has worked with clients like Adidas, Indiegogo, and DreamWorks. “We’ve been creating brand identities for clients for many years and finally decided to design some stuff for ourselves,” reads TRÜF’s website. “We had no idea that our little design experiment would blow up in the press and social media.”
Indeed, the internet seemed to fall in love with Goldberg’s side project, and his minimal illustrations of animals have become somewhat of a viral sensation. Take a look for yourself.
