Modern communication is fragmented with sound bites, acronyms, and simple phrases replacing prose, and the way we digest a message has become layered and multi-dimensional. When simple words, each with a specific meaning but perhaps a different meaning when combined, are mixed with imagery loaded with its own meaning, the results are often a visual/verbal communication mash-up that is more than the sum of its parts.

Words in art often infer something literal or commercial, but my influences began with the early 20th century Dada and Constructivist artists who celebrated modern letterforms. The midcentury pop art of Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Gran Fury, and others, skillfully combined words and images, often referencing the power of advertising to deliver a message.

For this series, Tom Dolle uses the basic concepts of composition from his graphic designer toolbox — scale, balance, context, typography, color, positive/negative, texture, meaning. The font is Cindie Mono (by Lewis McGuffie), a quirky monospaced typeface inspired by optometrist eye-test charts. His structured program incorporates that same font, in the same format, with only two words, plus vintage imagery, simple graphic textures and patterns, and transparency.

Dolle's explorations juxtapose words, commercial imagery, humor and irony (often with a naughty undertone of innuendo and slang), held together within the visual language of modern graphic design. Although the compositions may celebrate the random imagery of midcentury advertising, they also speak to the fragmentation, hidden meanings, and complex layering of modern visual communication.