Tomáš Celizna: The Collaborative Aspect

(jiří macek) Do you think you haven’t heard from Tomáš Celizna, the man who implemented the great website for the exhibition about Ladislav Sutnar in conjunction with Petr Knobloch under the dgú label? You are right. Celizna has been working in the USA for a while – he has just graduated from Yale University where he studied graphic design. One should not forget to look at his final work.

The final work is a complex overview that is comprised of everything he made during his time at school. The scope is surprisingly broad with classical prints prevailing over works on the Internet.

“Before I started my studies, I primarily worked on web-based projects. For this reason, I focused on print during my studies and tried to verify whether my approach was applicable to traditional media,” explains Celizna, who cooperated with his classmates on many projects.

After all, that cooperation is the most essential motive of his work.

Celizna continues, “I have been influenced by modern technologies, in particular, by computer networks. As for graphic design, I am interested in its collaborative aspect – especially when the output results in tools that are subsequently utilized and formed by their users. I have aimed not only for the acceptance of this approach, but also for its conscious and deliberate application. Thus, although the designer does not form the final product directly, it leads to a system with a somewhat open ending and defined qualities that influence the manner of its utilization. A big part of my school works includes the aspect of a tool that is used further (e.g. Art School Salons, Matthew Carter, Making Do 2) and/or is intentionally designed with an open ending that invites people to participate (e.g. Gisela Noack). I started using this method when I was creating websites such as e-a-t: Experiment a Typografie (www.e-a-t.org), Uměleckoprůmyslové museum v Praze (Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague, www.upm.cz), and Moravská galerie v Brně (Moravian Gallery in Brno, (www.moravska-galerie.cz). These websites contain a part that allows the administration of their content. Thus, an “empty” system is created and programmed, whose content is gradually filled by the administrators. The individual features of this system have an impact on the result (for several years in advance).”

Tomáš Celizna designed and programmed, to a large degree, the above-mentioned websites in collaboration with Petr Knobloch while he was actively participating under the dgú label from 2001 to 2005. After that, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked in the Method studio (www.method.com) and collaborated on projects for Adobe, Autodesk, CNN, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, he started studying at Yale University; you already know the end of the story. I think the images below speak for themselves and illustrate everything Tomáš Celizna has said. The website in which the weather forecast is illustrated draws in unpredictable elements in several different ways. They are great graphic designers – especially the wind.

www.tomasc.net/selected

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