During shelter-in-place mandates, the Texan prickly pear cacti became a familiar friend to Jeanette Abbink as she took daily strolls through her newly adopted neighborhood in Austin, TX. It was the desert flora and fauna that ultimately inspired the Rational Beauty studio founder’s collaboration with Mojave Art, the Los Angeles-based online shop promoting women artists and designers. The collection, out today, features a series of six limited edition giclée prints featuring that familiar prickly pear, as well as the jackrabbit, desert owl, and the midnight desert landscape.
Renee Torres, founder of Mojave Art, first met Abbink when they were both living in New York City. Years later Torres reached out to Abbink regarding her design for the book, Super Design: Italian Radical Design, and they have been in touch ever since. The Rational Beauty collaboration is the first art print by the award-winning graphic and editorial designer.
In addition to the Texas desert, Abbink also found inspiration in the graphic work of German designer and typographer Otl Aicher and Italian artist and furniture designer Enzo Mari.
“Both Aicher and Mari take a stylized and simplified graphic approach that amps up the visual impact of their work,” she shares. “In particular, [I was] drawn to the volumetric presence achieved through solid shades in Mari’s drawings and the way Aicher reduces reduces drawings to black and white lines.”
Along with the limited edition giclée prints, Mojave Art’s online store features eight books and magazines, designed by Jeanette. Included in this collection are newly released Blue Violet: Cig Harvey (first printing sold out in five days, following accolades from the New York Times, Aesethetica, Photo-Eye), and As We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic (which was recognized by Time Magazine as “one of the best 20 photobooks of the year”).
Fore the full details on the collection, head to mojaveart.net.
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