Motion Design Print Design Branding

Karel Martens: Design Hero

In his ever-evolving creative practice, Karel Martens remains an enigma. Through print and digital mediums, I explore Karel’s visual language, interdisciplinary career, and life story.

After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop

8 Weeks / Spring 2025

Sole Designer

01 / Karel Martens on Color and Curiosity

Honoring an icon through playful motion.

Animation Process Blog
Animatic

Expansive practice aside, Karel Martens is a printmaker at his core. It felt fitting to honor his identity with ink-and-paper visuals. To reflect his meticulous craftsmanship, I gave this animation a hand-drawn feel using constant jitter and scratchy linework. The voiceover, a synthesis of many Martens quotes, was read by my dad -- special thanks!

GIF Snapshots

My most ambitious motion project
to date.

It has always been a dream of mine to animate a short story with type and image, and finally, a school project gave me the opportunity to do so. I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone: kinetic type, human hands, gentle easy-ease. The GIFs seen above feature my most challenging scenes, all of which took days of trial and error to get right. The result was worth the struggle: an extremely fulfilling project, and a style of narrative motion design I’d love to revisit in future.

02 / Poster

A digital tribute to traditional
techniques.
Poster Process Blog

“Nederlands Grafisch Ontwerper Karel Martens - Dutch Graphic Designer Karel Martens.” This poster is a synthesis of Karel Martens’ signature visual motifs. To pay homage to a unique Martens line-printing style, I designed a custom typeface using layered lines. Since Karel is known to print on repurposed graphs, charts, and tables, I created a delicately marked-up backdrop, featuring small pencil notations and smudges.

03 / Booklet

An eight-decade story in 16 pages.
Booklet Process Blog

Full Booklet Essay

Through vibrant spreads, this booklet chronicles Karel Martens’ life story and multifaceted practice. Each page highlights a different side of Karel: artist, designer, collector, teacher, and luminary. I pay homage to his vibrant visual style through color blocked forms, more line printing, and a typeface he designed himself: JL Pirelli. An excellent learning experience in creating a consistent, yet playful, visual language.

Closing Thoughts

I think Karel Martens would be proud!

Compiling a palette of type, color, and image treatment that I could use consistently across mediums was difficult. Designing a book (something I was completely new to) was even tougher, but I am very proud of the final result. I feel I’ve succeeded in blending Karel Martens’ essence with my own visual style, which was a daunting task at the beginning of this design journey. This project helped me build branding skills I will use for the rest of my career, and I am grateful for all the trial and error that brought me here.