michael jantzen's distorted series of photos explores reinterpretation of road signs

michael jantzen’s ‘reforming meaning’ is a series of photos that investigate the relationship between information and the meaning of that information, by distorting the original recognizable object into many different possible renditions of itself. jantzen also explores how the original idea can be reinterpreted as a new whole from the layering of distorted versions of the original road signs.

‘only only only only’

various road signs were photographed by american reinventive designer michael jantzen with a digital camera along with the landscapes in which they were installed. the signs only were then isolated from their original landscapes, in a computer. the isolated signs were then duplicated and layered one behind another in the original landscapes. each layer except for the first was sequentially increased slightly in size and distorted in different ways. the first image of each of the original signs were left undistorted in order to establish a reference from which the final whole was created.

‘curve right’

‘which way?’

‘turn left’

‘stop’

‘barrier’

’roundabout’

‘keep right’

‘yield’

‘cross walk’

‘road closed’

‘no parking’

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: apostolos costarangos | designboom