The challenge for this series, as a school project, was to create a series of boards that focused on three different philosophers, their cultures, and a quote by each one.
I ended up choosing the following philosophers because they all lived relatively within the same time period, they where (and are still) hugely respected and admired and yet they lived in completely different environments and cultures.
The first board in this series is about Plato and the theme of Culture.
For each philosopher I drew their portrait, a landmark from their hometown, and a quote from them in their native language. (Attempted, anyway. I know Google Translate isn't always 100% accurate... :) Above is the Parthenon in Athens, Greece.
Each board started as a sketch. I vectored out the portraits from those sketches but decided to go with photo references for the landmarks. I also used blue as the main color for this board as blue is such a special color when it comes to Greece. I used a Wacom Intuos tablet, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop for this project.
The second board in this series is about Kong Fuzi (more widely known as Confucius) and the theme of Economics.
For Kong Fuzi's landmark I vectored out the Kong Miao (The Temple Of Confucius), in his hometown of Qufu, China. The temple was built long after Kong Fuzi died, but it only seemed right. I also put his quote in Chinese characters, but if I'm being completely honest, I'm not sure if I did it in the right order, or if it translates the right way.
I, by no means, want to offend anyone, so If you have the correct translation and wan't to help me by sending it to me, I'd greatly appreciate it!
The process for creating this board was the same as my Plato board. I used the color red for this board though, as red means good luck in China.
The third and final board in this series is about Al-Farabi and the themes of Beauty and Philosophy
For Al-Farabi's landmark I found a really cool pic of some ancient ruins (that more than likely weren't ruins when he was alive, lol). Again, I tried to Google translate his quote. Hopefully it translated well!
And that's a wrap! I hope you all enjoyed the Philosopher Series! It was really fun learning about these brilliant men an their cultures.
Below are the boards next to their portraits and English quotes similar to the way they appear on my Instagram: @jzammdesigns
