Taxi Laser / The Signal

"Taxi Laser" is a digital collage that try to blend urban energy and abstract design. Using a split taxi as the centerpiece, the artwork explores themes of fragmentation and motion. By combining stock images with digital painting techniques, the piece creates a dynamic blend of realism and surrealism. This project is part of a larger series where cars take center stage, serving as a recurring theme to examine modern city life in unexpected ways.

To create "Taxi Laser," the process involved a combination of digital tools and selected resources to achieve the desired effect. With combination of stock imagery, digital tools, and custom enhancements allowed for flexibility and creativity throughout the project, making it easy to experiment and refine the design at every step.

Here’s a breakdown of the essential supplies:

STOCK IMAGES

— High-resolution images sourced from platforms like Unsplash provided the base materials. These included car images and abstract textures that were later manipulated.

SOFTWARE

— Adobe Photoshop: The primary tool for photo editing, collage assembly, and the creation of graphical elements. Layer management, masking, and adjustment tools played a crucial role in achieving the split composition.

— Custom Brushes: Oil-paint simulation brushes were specifically chosen for crafting the smoky textures, offering a hand-painted aesthetic to contrast the clean-cut shapes.

DESIGN ELEMENTS

— Geometric Overlays: Created directly within Photoshop using shape tools to introduce structure and a modern, graphic style.

— Color Swatches and Gradients: Carefully selected to complement the taxi's orange tones in contrast with a militar-grey background, to enhance the visual impact.

REFERENCE MATERIALS

— Inspiration was drawn from urban photography and modern design trends, guiding the selection of shapes, colors, and layout.

WACOM TABLE

— I use always a tablet used to create freehand elements, but also in general, is my mouse, but special useful with the smoke strokes that can be blend using pressure with greater precision, giving the piece a more organic feel.

The idea originated with the car, a universal symbol of motion and transformation, as the central motif. Cars represent progress, chaos, and the rhythms of urban life — perfectly suited for a piece that seeks to explore disruption and energy in a modern, minimalist style. Early sketches and drafts mapped out a composition that would take the familiar — a city taxi — and fragment it, reimagining it through abstraction. The addition of smoke and geometric elements introduced layers of contrast: the organic versus the structured, the real versus the imagined.

The use of lasers, hinted at in the title "The Signal," invites the viewer into an open-ended narrative. Are the lasers a force of divine intervention, a technological intrusion, or something entirely abstract? The title plays with this ambiguity, not in a strictly religious sense but as a nod to the uncontrollable forces that shape our lives — sometimes precise, sometimes chaotic, always unexpected. In this conceptual stage, the goal was not to dictate meaning but to create space for interpretation, allowing the viewer to find their own narrative within the fragmented composition.

Stock images from platforms such as Unsplash were carefully chosen, focusing on cars with strong, recognizable shapes. The selected cab image, chosen for its vibrant orange color and reflections, was cropped and divided into segments in Photoshop, laying the foundation for the fragmented composition. The background was replaced with a clean, neutral color to focus attention on the central elements.

Photo retouching was done to refine the base image by adjusting brightness, contrast, and color tones for a sharp and vibrant look. Geometric shapes, lines, and color blocks were layered to introduce structure and movement, adding a graphic and modern dimension to the collage.

Oil-simulated paintbrushes were used to craft swirling, textured smoke effects, bringing an organic, fluid quality to the composition. For that I a Wacom tablet and a Kyle T. Webster Oil Brush for Photoshop but modified a little.

Final details, like shards, particles, and subtle typography, were added to balance the visual elements and complete the artwork.

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