It's about time someone realized it's hip to be square. The Excel spreadsheet, loathed by office drones for more than a decade, goes from CPA desktop to MFA portfolio thanks to Danielle Aubert. The Detroit-based graphic designer looks inside the box for inspiration, turning the dull columns and rows into brilliant canvases. While working on her thesis about how information is compiled and tracked, she started tweaking cell colors, fill patterns, and border styles only to find that she could coax compelling visuals out of the boring grid. The result: 8-bit interpretations of landscapes, words, and psychedelic abstracts like the works shown here. In August, 70 of Aubert's pixelated explorations will hit bookstores in A Year's Worth of Drawing Exercises in Microsoft Excel.
– Sonia Zjawinski
credit:
PLAY
>
The Art of Spreadsheets
