I’m slowly coming around to preferring the antiquated (but arguably more accurate) title
commercial artist to
designer.
John Gall absolutely personifies this aspiration. A constant peruser of others’ portfolios, I’ve followed his book designs for years (his cover for Shalom Auslander’s
Hope is an absolute classic), but more recently I’ve been delving into his illustrative work, particularly these pieces for the New York Times. I don’t know what you’re looking for in collage, but these absolutely tick all of my geometry, texture and obfuscation boxes. Lots more on John’s
insta, but it’s also worth checking out some of his
older sketches and his
out-of-print monograph from a few years back, if you can find it.