image: pancho tolchinsky

If you happen to be in Barcelona during the month of March, you might notice a number of billboards that aren’t selling you anything, and are more eye-catching than the average ad. ROJOOut is an exhibition that takes place all over the city, placing the works of 20 emerging artists on 44 backlit billboards in a strategic pattern throughout Barcelona. The pieces range from black and white collage work to tripped out M.C. Escher-esque depictions of color from artists around Europe. If you can’t make it out there for this, check out some of the work at ROJO’s site. More after the jump.
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For the most part Steven Harrington (National Forest Design) sees the same world we see — except with an altered color scheme that rivals our wildest imaginations. His artwork comes from a place where peacocks meet rainbows, and a colony of the love children in teepees pay homage to the Easter Island statues. He invites us into his world with his new traveling art exhibition Our Mountain. The first show will be in Paris at the Lazy Dog Gallery. From there it will go on across Europe, spreading Steven's ideas of redecorating. Not European? (specifically not Parisian, Berliner — the people and doughnut — Barcelonista or Milanese. What? No Londoners? Come on guys!?!) then be sure to pick up their 180 page book coinciding with the event. But you still want to travel around Europe don't you? Head over to their blog and follow them around for a significantly lower fee.

Some graphic designers have more flow than others — and I’m not talking about those who moonlight as rappers. Brazilian freelance art director Cristiano Trinidade is more whom I have in mind. His repertoire of drawings, graphic and motion design work stand out for their fluid lines and organic feel. It’s a perfect contrast to the concrete cityscape of Barcelona, where he recently mounted an outdoor billboard assigned to him by ROJO. I’m into the textures in his designs; a style that makes them more complex. With this type of flow, who needs rhymes?

The folks at Barcelona’s artist and designer consortium, ROJO, have been on our radar for quite some time now. Their wonderful design books, coupled with a multitude of other artistic endeavors, have more or less become staples of our design diet. Luckily for us we’re still hungry for more, because as our preferred purveyors of Spanish design perfection, they’ve got even more goodies for us to eat up. This time the group behind ROJO Magazine is going beyond print and product collaborations by expanding into the world of video art. Their new site, ROJO TV Online focuses on bringing art fans the best video talent around, completely ad free. Not only can you see astonishing work created by artists such as Robert Seidel, Antenna, and Javier Longobardo, but if you fancy yourself a master of the moving image, there’s an open call to submit your own pieces. So go ahead … show the art world you’re a creative force to be reckoned with.

ROJO, the Barcelona-based artist and designer consortium responsible for those lovable little design books, are at it again. They just launched their first ever International Outdoor Urban Art Exhibition. Ten artists were selected to create specific back-lit billboards across Barcelona streets– the results are fantastic. Be sure to check out the site where they show both the original artwork and the back-lit billboard. Also, if you find yourself in Istanbul, Berlin, Barcelona, Hamburg, London or a handful of other cities this next month, be sure to stop by a good party and raise a glass for ROJO’s 6th anniversary.