What does Duotone mean to you?

FOR US, DUOTONE IS ASSOCIATED WITH PERFORMANCE, PASSION, STOKE, NATURE AND AUTHENTICITY. BUT DUOTONE AS OUR BRAND NAME ALSO GIVES A LOT OF ROOM TO INTERPRET ITS MEANING FOR YOURSELF.

WE ASKED A GRAPHIC DESIGNER, AN ARTIST, A TEXTILE AND AN INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER COUPLE TO GIVE US THEIR INTERPRETATION OF DUOTONE AND WORK OUT SOMETHING IN THEIR ART DISCIPLINE.

Duotone Kiteboarding TRUE Magazine Ariel Davis

THE CAPSULE EXCHANGE
by Ariel Davis

Ariel Davis is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes illustration, graphic design, and animation. She moved to NYC in 2012 to attend Pratt Institute and has been working as a freelance designer as of late out of her studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Her aesthetic is shape based and her digital processes are inspired by paintings she does in her free time. Her work deals heavily with color theory, often trying new color schemes inspired by nature, and pairing hues that wouldn't normally work with each other.
Her clients include the New York Times, The New Yorker, Wired, Pitchfork, and MIT Tech Review, amongst others. Her work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators and American Illustration.

Photo: Matthew James-Wilson

Duotone Kiteboarding TRUE Magazine Lisa Muehleisen

I HAVE TOUCHED THENIGHT & TOWEL WITH EMBROIDERY
by Lisa Mühleisen

Lisa Mühleisen lives and works in Stuttgart. She studied at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart under Discoteca Flaming Star and Birgit Brenner, as well as at the École nationale supérieure d ‘art de la Villa Arson in Nice.

Lisa Mühleisen’s work is categorical in its procedure of isolating forms, colors, language and affects, thereby constructing new aesthetic claims. In this interface the artist presents her archive ‘The Shape Of Things To Come’ of which twelve issues have been published since 2012.

Photo: Dominique Brewing

Duotone Kiteboarding TRUE Magazine Ana Relvao Gerhardt Kellermann

TONETONE
by RELVÃOKELLERMANN

Munich based Design studio Relvaokellermann develops and creates new products and objects together with its clients by constantly analysing, researching and solving problems, by discovering new usages and scenarios with an eye for new materials / technologies and changes in the current society.

Portuguese born Ana Relvao, graduated in 2009 in Industrial Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon. Since 2011, she's established in Munich. German designer Gerhardt Kellermann got his diploma in Industrial Design at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart in 2010. Over the years Kellermann has been invited to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Saarbrücken and Braunschweig. In 2018, he became Guest Professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart, together with Ana Relvao.

Photo: Martina Borsche

THE CAPSULE E XCHANGE
by Ariel Davis

I interpreted the Duotone prompt as a situation where something organic and something manmade are existing in the same space as each other. I imagine these scenes take place a couple million years ago. Earth is still in the Paleolithic era and someone with technology eons ahead of ours has come to study our planet. To learn about our ecosystem earth plants are being kept alive on their base in an artificial way. Back on earth, they have left a piece of their machines behind to gather data, but their pod isn't doing so well under the stress of a constantly changing environment. The duality of far away future technology and a primitive past is something I find really interesting.

I HAVE TOUCHED THE NIGHT & TOWEL WITH EMBROIDERY
by Lisa Mühleisen

The image and the title are two equal components in my work. When I say: ‘I paint’, I mean both, as the language of the title brings as much color into the work as the actual pigment does, creating a duotonality of language and colour.
The painting on the wooden plate is titled: I have touched the Night! and the pink towel with black embroidery is a multiple to my book Titles which I have done together with Edition Taube from Munich and which contains all the titles to my paintings, but without the painting.
acrylic paint on wood
62 × 50 × 1 cm
towel with embroidery

TONETONE
by RELVÃOKELLERMANN

Part of our jobs as industrial designers at RELVÃOKELLERMANN is to find the materials that better serve a function or better communicate an idea. Thinking about "duotone" a material jumped into our minds due to its visual characteristics: Dichroic Glass. Dichroic Glass is a type of glass that displays two different colours depending on the way light reflects on it. We wanted to transport the visual qualities of this material into a product and created a signage that changes the way we perceive objects. Once the signage is placed over something, everything becomes Duotone.

Photos: Gerhardt Kellermann