Yep, that’s right! I’ve started on the second act of the story about everyone’s favorite space dad. I’m publishing the first episode here as a teaser.
Nano – act II
March 19th, 2010Vampires for Pegasus
March 8th, 2010Illustration for the magazine Pegasus, for an article about the evolution of the vampire, from the old myths to Nosferatu and the modern day bloodsuckers of Twilight and True Blood.
Junction stories #1
March 2nd, 2010This is my contribution to the Fumetto-competition in Luzern, Switzerland this year. It’s deals with a certain point in the lives of five people, and how they all affect each other in different ways. This is visualized by a labyrinth or web of storylines where the intersections are the junctions referred to in the title. The junctions occur when the different characters meet each other, and the story then takes a different turn. I’m planning to expand on this topic, hence the #1 in the title. (click on the image for full version)
Banners for Hyperion’s website
March 2nd, 2010I made four rotating banners for Hyperion’s new website www.n4f.no. The site is not published yet, however. The banners are all in greyscale, because of the strong color scheme of the site, and represents different areas of interests for members of Hyperion (e.g. scfi-fi, comics, fantasy, role-playing and computer games).
ARKIV – by Guttorm Guttormsgaard
March 1st, 2010ARKIV (“Archive” in english) is an artist’s book by the Norwegian artist Guttorm Guttormsgaard. The book is a result of the three-year long exhibition project at Guttormsgaard’s studio in Blaker Old Dairy, titled “Obs!m.fl.&m.m.m”. ARKIV is filled with items displayed during the 55 exhibitions, usually from G.G.’s own collection. This collection is the study material of the artist, serving as a continuing source of inspiration as well as representing the artist’s lifelong journey in understanding different materials, cultures, techniques and concepts, which ultimately comes through in the artist’s own work. ARKIV is, however, not a collection of random images, it’s a picture book with a subtle storyline, drawing parallels between materials, cultures and historical periods. It’s a work of art in it’s own right.
I assisted Guttormsgaard in making this book, with my knowledge as a graphic designer. I’ve also taken some of the photos in the book together with Guttormsgaard, but the bulk of the photos are taken by photographer Guri Dahl. The book is really a collection of different printed material held together by a cover with an embossed ARKIV-title, and an elastic band cut from inner tube butyl. Opening the cover reveals several items; two original prints by G.G. on heavy stock, a folded poster, a leporello with an African dream carpet, booklet with the lecture about the project given by Espen Søbye at Blaker Old Dairy, and of course 4 pocket books á 15,5×15,5cm representing the meat of the work. The title ARKIV is visible in the spines of the books when put together. All words, including the lecture, are in both Norwegian and English, all in all the work consists of 701 pages and is therefore priced at 701 kr (118$), 1 kr per page! The book is still available for purchase, through me and a few selected antiquarians in Oslo, however the edition is limited. If you are interested you can send me an e-mail at post (at) thomashansen.no or preferably arkiv (at) obs-osv.com. Click on the images for more, or go to http://www.obs-osv.com for much, much more.
Nano
March 1st, 2010Nano is a kind of sci-fi parody told entirely through images. It’s a story about a father searching for his son, who is kidnapped by aliens and taken into outer space. Admittedly, the story ends rather mysteriously, but I’m likely to continue this project… The pages you can see here won me the first price in the NoWords Comics-competition in Bolzano, Italy, November 2009. See more at http://www.bolzano-comics.it
Logo and layout for Magasinet Pegasus
March 1st, 2010Pegasus is a magazine quarterly published by Hyperion. It’s a non-profit publication and subscribing is free, editions range from 2500 to 8000 copies. Pegasus covers the so called fantastic interests; that is sci-fi, fantasy, comics, live role-playing, board games, computer games, miniatures, cards, films and much more. The magazine consists of around 48 pages, and is usually put together in the course of one hectic weekend by myself and a group of four/five editors. I’ve redesigned their logo, and made an entirely new layout. Click on the images for samples.
Logo and banner for Hyperion
March 1st, 2010I made this logo and a web banner for Hyperion’s general assembly of ’09. The unicorn is the symbol of Hyperion, and every year their logo is played around with and remade for their assembly. I chose to make it in to something out of a Marvel comic book. The logo was also silkscreen printed on blue sweaters.
My Master-thesis
February 28th, 2010Here you can see some of the results of me delving into the subject of visual representations of death, in my master-thesis at the National Academy of the Arts, Oslo (KHiO). I wanted to do something that seemed to be more meaningful, ask some bigger questions in illustration, rather than making yet another thesis about t-shirt-designs, or whatever. I decided not to spend two years on something that felt quite superficial to me, so in the end I chose this, admittedly, way too big topic, of how we visualize death. I knew that the Mexicans are known for their humorous take on this kind of usually depressing or frightening imagery, so I wanted to look into that as well. Comparing the Mexican culture to that of the Norwegians and Western Europeans.
I made two books, one representing the main part of my thesis, and one about my trip to Mexico and the festival Día de los muertos (the Day of the dead). There are many visual essays in these books, because my main take on the subject was to compare imagery and to analyze and categorize. I also made several illustrations inspired by the festive Mexican Death, but using Norwegian symbols, like the traditional matchstick box. I handmade several containers for my books and ephemera. If you are interested in reading my thesis, you can contact me at post (at) thomashansen.no, and I will send you a pdf.
These photos are from my final exhibition presenting my project. It was held at Doga, Oslo. I made four peeping-boxes for the exhibition. They’re cardboard boxes with peeping holes, revealing four installations. I used different effects to make the inside of the box seem larger, like mirrors and lighting. Box 1: Contains the Matchstick Reaper rising from his coffin with sinister illumination. Box 2: A tunnel with a light at the end. Box 3: A real looking skull lighted from the inside and mirrored from every angle. Box 4: A rotating hourglass hovering over a crowd of people.
