Isidro Ferrer. About Nothing

Isidro Ferrer is a multi-award-winning graphic designer and illustrator whose work includes illustration books, theater posters, large-scale murals, animated shorts, sculptures, textiles, brand images and lamps. With a background in theater, he uses a variety of media, techniques and communication channels to transform his clients' ideas into powerful yet subtle images. In About Nothing, readers will find examples of his extensive work, both the most recognizable and also the most unknown, as the author explores the personality and creative processes of this multifaceted artist, sharing Ferrer's thinking, ideas and understanding of why design matters and what it means to be a designer and an illustrator. The book is structured around different concepts, such as farce, disorder, wandering and time, to name a few, that are pondered and reflected upon in descriptive texts that portray the artist's vision of his work as a creator, including musical proposals, visions of his studio, excerpts from his notebooks, autobiographical texts and a whole treasure trove of illustrations and designs that are largely unpublished or made especially for this book. Distilled into a series of brief, vivid texts, these concepts serve as a common thread through which the reader learns about different collaborations, commissions and personal projects in which, over the years, the artist has put his theories and beliefs about such notions as the nature of time, memory, language and 'otherness into practice. As a result of this wealth of text and images, we are introduced to the personal philosophy, techniques, experiences, aesthetics, poetics and influences that inform the work of Isidro Ferrer, with numerous examples of how the art of creative thinking is developed, cultivated, honed and, ultimately, transformed into beautiful objects. Isidro Ferrer began his career as a trained actor and set designer before devoting himself to graphic design and illustration. As a result, throughout his career theater posters have always played a central role in his creative work, in addition to puppets, illustrations of everyday objects and animated films. He has published dozens of picture books for children and adults and produced hundreds of posters, fragile objects, large facades, sculptures, textiles, brand images and lamps during an illustrious career in which he has used a variety of mediums, techniques and communication channels to express in images his passion for the theatre of life. He is regularly invited to teach design and illustration workshops all over the world. He is the winner of the 2002 Spanish National Design Award and the 2006 Spanish National Illustration Award, and is an avid traveller.