Finding Inspiration on Instagram (Foie Graphics)

In my printmaking class during Spring 2022, one of my best friends (who also inspires me immensely) showed me a designer on Instagram that goes by @foiegraphics. They’re an award-winning designer in LA, and they also post regularly on social media.

Foie Graphics combines art and design in the most thoughtfully provocative way. Many of their designs look printed as if done by silkscreens, but they’re posted digitally. Conceptually, they demand your attention. With images of tough women, snakes, and grim reapers paired next to weighty (and potentially controversial) phrases, they demonstrate how much an artistic mindset can inform what design can look like. After all, opinionated prints are often meant for mass production with the goal of being plastered onto every brick wall and cement pole in a city. Interestingly enough, posting this type of work on social media can have the same effect. In an expression of our philosophical selves, design and art can be combined to take a stance socially and politically. And Foie Graphics often does this in an almost satirical way.

I think they must take some inspiration from those 1950s, retro, funny posters that say something like “I drink coffee because I’ll sleep when I’m dead!” It’s grim but funny, and Foie Graphics definitely feels reminiscent of that same vibe. This type of satire is often a reflection of the human condition based on forces out of our control. For example, we might be working over 40 hours a week, and without coffee, we’re a zombie at work. Thus, maybe a coffee with two sugars every morning isn’t good for us, but it’s necessary to live in these conditions—and it often feels like these conditions will last until we’re dead. I think Foie Graphics is affected by these short, almost poetic phrases, and it can inform us on their perspective of certain social issues.

I want to share a few of their pieces here so that you can understand what I mean:

I should warn you that Foie Graphics is not for everyone. Their designs could be potentially very challenging or even vulgar, but this is the part of Foie Graphics that reminds me of art. In my opinion, art is meant to make you feel uncomfortable.

The art pieces that I am most proud of are those that are either so strangely worded that it has questionable undertones or they’re just flat out uncomfortable. A challenging read is where growth lies. It’s like talking to someone with a completely different worldview than you. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s eye-opening. It allows you to perceive that other people live differently than you—speak differently—hold different beliefs, and yet we’re unified because we are all people who are living right now on this earth under different and similar conditions.

And I’m reminded by these unfamiliar, challenging perspectives that our mission on earth is to love one another despite our differences. And that’s one of the things that makes art so beautiful. You can hear so many different voices in the world because of art.

You may see a post from Foie Graphics or even me and not understand it…but it leaves a mark. The image is burned into your memory—a triggering ache of “what does that mean?” You’re too uncomfortable to ask—the artist won’t tell you a satisfying answer. And it’s this constant piece of art that lives in your brain that hopefully will receive a pleasing meaning when a conversation or piece of media reminds you of it.

(Also, maybe this goes without saying, but PSA: if someone puts together a scary image or something seemingly dark, the potentially perceived evil nature of that is usually not the goal. These are often done for style or shock factor. And in my opinion, it’s these grim depictions that often show reality better than light hearted ones.)

Life isn’t to be lived with rose-colored glasses and a perception that life is always free of harm. If life and art are a reflection of each other, then art is going to be filled with everything that life puts us through. Foie Graphics reminds me of that, and they do it so well because they combine art, design, and creative writing in a way that I find so inspiring. And they have been so successful doing it.

Consider checking out their website by clicking here. They have a variety of incredible prints, shirts, and totes for sale. (And dare I say that their style is incredibly fitting for these items!)

I hope you leave this blogpost with a new itch in the collision of your brain and heart—a seedling of a coming awakening to what deep truths you want to bring forth towards your community.