PRE. – Before Everything.

I utilized everyday recyclable waste material such as plastic bottles and straws to create a 25’ x 3’ sculpture resembling the form and shape of a caterpillar. We are living in a world of excess waste and need to come together to reThink how we buy, how we reuse and how we help — in an effort to renew our planet. Use less and achieve more, and “one day I will be beautiful like you!”

The green ad campaign that I designed, consisted of a 15 set of FSC compliant postcards, poster and a 1.14 second promo reel. Each set has 15 postcards with clever messages on various ways that one can make a difference. With the use of snail mail and hi-tech pod casts to spread the word, I continue to support their efforts in making the world a better place. In addition to the artistic side of being creative, a humanistic approach of doing projects that are more than commercial oriented is my philosophy in life.

At that time, the UN was organizing a fund-raiser in Europe to collect enough money to restore Angkor Wat. The poster’s goal was to target the most difficult to please, the European elite. It was an enormous challenge since they were influenced by the great Swiss grid design, moved by European modern architecture, and appreciated the classical works of typography. The sunset at Angkor Wat served in part as the inspiration, along with Angkor Wat’s three major towers that are most prominent, in which the tallest one was also incorporated into the logotype.

Today Angkor Wat is in the process of being restored. The message of the poster reached countries all over the world. A greater awareness and understanding was conveyed in this project. Henceforth, many countries were moved and immediately asked to join in the effort to restore this significant symbol of Cambodia. With this prize-winning poster, a piece of history will be able to stand once again.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. —Marcel Proust

Maps of every variety possess a certain mystical allure to inspire wanderlust in the map-reader—unfolding expanses of unexplored territory and holding forth the promise of limitless possibility. The visitor who attempts the venture into the myriad realms depicted in Tom Tor’s captivating collection, however, will travel beyond city walls and national boundaries and into historical ideologies, the evolution of cultural consciousness, and the global degeneration of social utopian visions.

Tor applies advanced mathematics and computational mapping methodologies to generate scores of schematic diagrams and gridding lattices, which all converge to manifest as organic lines of our living planet. These global lines extend beyond geographic thresholds to simultaneously trace the intimate topographical contours of a profoundly symbolic figure—John Lennon, in one instance, Ghandi in another—powerfully evocative visionaries that have become potent emblems of distinct cultural and political values, revolutionary convictions and progressive agendas.  An ambitious experiment in conceptual cartography, Tor’s traversal of world geographies evolves multi-dimensional allegorical landscapes.  With each successive layering, the maps and the portraits they piece together tell very different tales in the end.

By_ Felicia McCrossin _Editorial Director at SOMA Magazine