Viktor Koen / Award of Excellence / Communication Arts
Velocity Man takes the Cake
Exhibition poster for Bike Art Thessaloniki in Greece, featuring work by 60 artists, with limited edition prints available for sale. The proceeds went to fund much needed local school painting projects.
"Falling back in love with my gas mask collection is but a healthy kind of thing for a man going through his middle age crisis (getting a new fast car is not an option as I never had a driver’s license) and using one for this image came naturally, as natural as the air we breath in urban environments, especially when riding bikes and often stuck behind a blooming car muffler. Even though the original name for this character was “Bike Rider from Hell”, I optioned for a fin instead of bat wings as this was a piece about cycling and not demonics. After torturing myself for a good poster title through endless showers and dish washing, “velocity” came to me as a perfect double entendre solution while on a bus, enviously watching Manhattan bike messengers wheezing past me.
A few months later, Velocity poster received the Communication Arts magazine Excellence Award. Yes, I called my mother immediately and tried to explain the magnitude in having one of the 168 images to make it in the CA 2014 Illustration Annual issue, out of 4.362 submissions, but she was not impressed."
For more on Viktor Koen, and to see this portfolio click here
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