Dada Events

Darrel Rees is an illustrator who founded Heart Agency in London in 1994 and Heart USA Inc. New York in 2001. He is a member of the Society of Publication Designers in New York and D&AD in the UK. His long and very active career illustrating for magazines and newspapers has garnered him a lengthy list of clients that include: EMI Records, The London Stock Exchange, The New Yorker, Penguin, United Press, Business Week, The Washington Post, Random House, and many other corporate powerhouses. By no means is he a new artist in the commercial world, however his body of work is somewhat contemporary with an emphasis on social commentary and the news. But style wise, his imagery invokes a nostalgia for the past with dated images infused with current themes to produce wonderfully crafted compositions. What makes his handmade work so compelling is the fact that he was trained as a Graphic Designer and turned those skills into a lucrative illustration career.

According to his bio, he is "strongly influenced by the Dada Movement" and old greats such as John Heartfield and Raoul Hausmann which is very apparent in most of his work. Anyone who has studied the Dada movement that came out of Europe during the early to mid 1900's can see the influence in Darrel Rees's work. Hand rendered layouts of photos, typographic elements, and various scraps of magazines and newspaper clippings all beautifully constructed to suit whatever article or editorial assignment thrown his way. Even though it is sometimes difficult to determine what era his work comes from, he does use contemporary elements such as images of computers and various technical gadgetry. To say that his work is modern visually, in a way, would be a far cry from reality. They look as if they are straight out of the past, but it is contemporary in the sense that his work reflects current events in the news, science, and politics.

For more information: http://www.domeprojects.com/blog/heart-agencys-darrel-rees/