Show Me Your Monsters and I’ll Show You Mine
by Rebecca S. Rea
Psychoanalysts should give this a try: Create a Rorschach test, then have the patient consider deeply the meaning hidden within its forms…and doodle the bejeebers out of it!
Stephan G. Bucher of 344 Design, uses a similar technique to exorcise his own inner monsters. He starts with a few drops of ink or a toothbrush smear and uses a straw to blow the pigment into an initial “splotch.” Then he fills in the rest of the drawing with pens and Sharpie markers.
Bucher began filming his drawing sessions after a dreadful design competition, where his friend, Ze Frank, told him “I just wanted to watch you draw.” So the artist set up a webcam and gave himself the task of drawing one monster a day for 100 days. He posted the videos in fast-motion so each one takes just a couple of minutes to watch, and every careful pen stroke seems to jump onto the page.
The video blog soon sprouted an enthusiastic audience and he kept up the pace, knowing they looked forward to a new monster every morning — monsters in disco shoes, monsters with symbiotic relationships, monsters who look like my insurance agent. Every day another entirely unique and completely wacky creature sprang into being.
Bucher took his project a step further by encouraging visitors to create the stories-behind-the-monster. These range from simple sketches to page long, soap-opera epics. The audience participation inspired Bucher to put his zany creatures into hard copy with the book 100 Days of Monsters “as a time capsule of [that] creative community.” The book, released in March 2008, includes all 100 of the original daily monsters plus 257 of his favorite audience-generated stories. Bucher also tossed in a DVD titled “Monsters in Motion,” which includes the videos of him drawing the ink-blot wonders and 700 more stories along with some other extras.
After the original 100-day stint, he slowed the pace, but Bucher continues posting new creations. He’s up to 200 now.
Having cut his teeth through commissioned work at advertising agencies like Modernista! and Saatchi and Saatchi, Bucher is no slouch when it comes to design and potent artistry. (Oh, and did I mention that the man can write perfectly upside down?) But what I appreciate most about his creations and work ethic is the light-hearted friendliness of it all, since a workaholic with a sense of humor is quite a rare beast.
Also, Bucher’s notion of collaborative creativity bears repeating. Having seen the success of his first project, the artist launched a follow-up project called The World’s Tallest Monster. He drew a monster head whose neck ran off the bottom of the digital page. He then invited viewers to submit body sections to be stacked below the neck, each one making the monster a little taller. After that he started posting inkblots as PDF files so the audience could make their own monsters based on his source material. Recently dailymonster.com launched a beta version of a new posting tool that will allow users to upload their original creations directly to the site.
Everything at Bucher’s site maintains an air of warm, anti-cynical fun and sharing. His oft-quoted motto says simply 344 LOVES YOU. If only more artists were this generous with their craft, the world of creativity could be a very different place.
Bucher’s design site: 344lovesyou.com
Bucher’s Monsters: dailymonster.com
“100 Days of Monsters” can be purchased from Amazon.com for $13.59.
