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Guess Who?

Digital, Graphic Design

Posted by Mark Sinclair, 11 December 2007, 19:22    Permalink    Comments (26)

Soprano
Tony Soprano as drawn by illustrator Noma Bar

Israeli illustrator Noma Bar depicts the faces of the famous using only a few lines, colours and drawn objects. But the key to the success of the London-based artist’s work is how the objects he assembles to create each face immediately relate to the particular person in question: evoking their personality, reputation or, even, their ideology.

Kim Jong-il

Hence two twisting missiles imply the familiar specs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (above) and the merest of red lines with the Tory logo bring out the über-stern profile of Margaret Thatcher (below).

Thatcher

A selection of Bar’s greatest hits have been collected together in Guess Who? The Many Faces of Noma Bar (out this month) and what’s particularly revealing is just how hard-hitting his simple arrangements can be. No stranger to a controversial image, Bar’s Michael Jackson has the outline of a small child for his eyes and nose, while the unmistakable face of George W Bush is made wholly from a stylised version of an infamous photograph of a tortured Abu Ghraib prisoner.

Just as you’re remarking how cleverly he’s summed up Nick Hornby’s visage (using a record player), Bar throws in a Vladimir Putin, made solely from a test-tube pouring chemicals into an opened hand.

Putin

Bar’s understanding of pictograms, as well as his wickedly satirical eye, mark him out as one of this century’s most exciting charicaturists.

Guess Who? is published by Mark Batty Publishers, £12.95

26 Comments

They're not exactly subtle are they?
Ryan
2007-12-12 12:03:01

Don't really like these, they don't really work!
CraigS
2007-12-12 13:19:24

Genius!
James Stone
2007-12-12 15:18:18

I think they're great! I bet these will soon be transformed into adverts.
André Breda
2007-12-12 15:55:50

Kim Jong-il works, tony soprano is probably the weakest one to use on the home page.
james mason
2007-12-12 16:17:19

I think Tony Soprano is the best one, the trigger for the eye, and the shape of the mouth are exactly him
James Stone
2007-12-12 19:06:03

http://www.markbattypublisher.com/images/GWSample2.jpg is a good example also
James Stone
2007-12-12 19:07:07

Amazingly, I even recognized a couple of them without having to read the captions.
jane
2007-12-12 23:20:33

I paint simplistically and representationally: this work is KEWL! any common gossip can take a pic: me included

B
BUFU
2007-12-12 23:59:52

WTF? Never would have guessed any of these without the clues. Like great art, great cartoons do not require explanatory text. These cartoons are lame.
thibaud
2007-12-13 01:02:43

Not true, thibaud -- both Thatcher and Kim I figured out immediately before seeing the text, for example. Didn't figure out Soprano (because I don't watch it I guess) or Putin before I saw the text, but I don't think it would have been very hard if I had paused a sec for them either.
Aris Katsaris
2007-12-13 10:09:14

They're great! Anyone who couldn't recognise Maggie or Kim really needs to clean their monitor... or at least read a newspaper once in a while.
Ed Wright
2007-12-13 11:07:13

your all cnuts. (aprt from those who like him). anyone who didnt guess all of those from above are either stupid, ignorant or american, in which case you're probably both the other ones anway. whooaaa! bit of political/cross cultural commentary.. although it should be said that noma bar does loads of stuff for the nytimes, so youre not all that bad...

this guy is good too, in the same vein

http://www.pivenworld.com/pivenWorldNew.html
Rich
2007-12-13 11:34:53

These are so clever ,Genius!!!!
mark
2007-12-13 12:18:00

I really like this guy's work. so elegant.
eddie
2007-12-13 12:25:26

Don't blame yourself :)
James Stone
2007-12-13 12:27:23

Wow! These are great!!!!! love it!
Zane
2007-12-13 20:45:53

One of the most brilliant peaces of work I've ever seen!
Makes me proud to have known Avinoam (Noma) Bar!
Shira Habot Zamir
2007-12-24 16:15:40

Wow, truly brilliant pieces of work
rholiday
2008-01-02 00:03:07

Superb - to my mind as good as more realistic designers such as Bryan Christie and Ivan Torres (spelt correctly?)

G

http://www.geee.net
Guy Abbott
2008-02-05 02:39:59

I haven’t seen something quite unique in a while. Great!
adam
2008-02-26 01:58:42

Noma is the best
totah
2008-10-10 21:05:28

Excellent!! Thats the best art design I have seen in a long time!!!
Richard Knight
2009-12-20 21:27:19

Just real effective designs and artwork. Great!!!
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Wow! It´s amazing! I like it very much
Zauberer NRW
2011-04-03 23:20:46

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