serial consign

Last summer, I became aware of the work of Frank Dresmé, a Netherlands based designer and illustrator. Dresmé's thesis, Project 360°, was a series of elaborate psychogeographic illustrations documenting specific routes through Amsterdam. These drawings were complex assemblages of architectural photography, illustrations of signage and street furniture and subjective annotation. Aside from their brilliant execution, what really struck me about the work was that Dresmé was reading the entire city as a unified construct. I've been staring at glamour-shot renderings and precious perspectives for several years now, and it is extremely refreshing to see this much energy poured into representing urban space on a whole rather than highlighting a specific structure as a "point of interest".

This morning Dresmé posted a preview of a project that he currently working on for the City of Rotterdam. He has been commissioned to create a series of illustrations to communicate and promote future development in Rotterdam's city centre. The dynamic images (two of which are pictured above) suggest a dense weave of architectural and infrastructural elements accented with typography and inhabitation. Where else but in Rotterdam could we see work like this being commissioned by a municipality?

This is one of the maps from the aforementioned Project 360°. Take some time to check out the portfolio of Frank Dresmé. Nestled away in his archives is an excellent PDF documenting his thesis work.