COS: Minimalism meets impressionism

Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities, ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. (Wikipedia, 2016) As someone who's attended art lessons for most of my life, I found this art movement very intriguing as I've always loved painting tree leaves which brush strokes are similar to impressionism.

Paul Signac is a French painter and a creator of this piece titled Les Andelys (The Riverbank). He developed the technique called pointillism with Georges Seurat and became a convert to the colouristic principles of Impressionism after giving up the study for architecture at age 18. (Wikipedia, 2016)

As a social media manager, often I may be required to create and curate with ideas on how to market a certain campaign in which an art vision is required to bring it to life. So this is why I decided to create an art direction moodboard inspired by Paul Signac's Les Andelys. This piece caught my eye the most because I absolutely fell in love with the pastel hues and it was a nice scenery to look at as it's a far cry from the city.

Photo credits: www.goscandinavian.com/tag/cos-stores/

COS (Collection of Style) is one of my favourite clothing brands simply because I really love their modern minimalistic clothing which goes well with everyday styling. Their looks are timeless and of high quality, which you can never go wrong when wearing COS.

Photo credits: Pinterest

Eventhough COS is a modern, minimal brand, I wanted to spice things up by merging impressionism into minimalism. I was inspired by the brush strokes from the impressionism art movement and took inspiration from the main colours of Paul Signac's Les Andelys. I wanted to use these brush strokes to bring out the garment without overpowering it.

Photo credits: COS

I noticed how COS lookbook photos are often very simple, with just a plain white backdrop, which sometimes make white garments stand out less. Somehow I always felt like COS clothing had very clear cut lines and simple textures which reminded me of paper and origami.

I made the backdrop like a canvas texture with brush strokes of the main colours from Paul Signac's Les Andelys. I added some blank canvases to tone down the brush strokes while staying true to COS' modern minimal image.