The saying “Leaf in the Wind” can mean something different to everyone; the title of a Legend of Korra episode, an inspirational message about life, a super sad scene in Serenity (Joss Whedon’s character killing spree must be stopped!)
Whatever the four-word sentence may mean to you, one thing’s for certain: it’s super fitting for the winner of our Japanese Art challenge, in more ways than one.
“botnet” created a beautiful, simple design that looks both like calligraphy while also looking like a person literally made out of a leaf floating on the wind. We talked to botnet about this design, about buffalos, and about more buffalos (you’ll see).
Check out what he had to say below! (spoiler alert: it’s mainly “buffalo”)
. . .
Tell us a little about yourself!
Oh, me? I’m just a regular icosahedron with 20 faces and 12 vertices, flowing through the six dimensions of time and space in the trifold duality of a fancy man suit. I’m literally a metaphor.
How did you create this design? It has such a unique, calligraphy look to it!
Well, I modeled it after the work of Adolph Gottlieb – an American abstract painter that I always admired – whose work always had a very strong similarity to classic Japanese calligraphy. I combined the two concepts with the photograph of a leaf discovered on the ground, and there you go. It was all handled in Photoshop though.
“Leaf on the Wind”…have you seen Serenity?
Is that the show where the third guy from Two Guys, a Girl and Pizza Place plays Han Solo, and Steve the Pirate plays his Chewbacca? I think I may have caught a few episodes.
You have an Artist Shop too! What inspired you to open up an artist shop?
The buffalo that buffalo from Buffalo buffalo.
Yes, fair.Why did you choose “BuffaloBuffaloBuffalo?” as your brand name?
Well, its about these buffalo from Buffalo that buffalo these other buffalo from Buffalo. Now, these buffalo from Buffalo that were buffaloed by these other buffalo from Buffalo, well, they go on to buffalo some totally unrelated buffalo from Buffalo. And, well, you can guess what happens next. Also, the plurals of buffalo are buffalo, buffalos, and buffaloes.
I think I know what’s coming, but what inspires you?
Buffalo.
How has your style developed since the first two designs you had printed at Threadless?
That was like a lifetime ago, in terms of the development of my design skills and expertise. I’ve expanded into a number of different disciplines since, and keep taking on new challenging projects. Currently, I’m overseeing the design & development of a new automobile line and its Visual Integration System, which is a whole lot of fun … but I don’t think I should be talking too much about that yet.
You’ve been printed with us twice before, but this is your first win! How does it feel?
It’s great! Last time I was active in the Threadless community was back in its early days with ‘Damn Scientists,’ and that was over a decade ago. So, its really great to see it still thriving and full of great young artists and designers turning out beautiful, funny, and cool work.
