COGUZ: MADE BY CANKAT. LOOKS LIKE A STUDIO.
RUN BY ONE. DISGUISED AS MANY.
COGUZ
UNVERIFIED REPORTS INDICATE
THE WORLD MAY HAVE ENDED LAST WEEK –
I’m Cankat Oguz; a multidisciplinary Senior Art Director and Creative.
I build brands, tell stories, burn scrollbars, and occasionally animate entire websites just to land a single punchline.
– In a world that may or may not have ended;
where everyone is crafting creative experiences
and outsourcing their personality to AI…
– I design important things
you need to see.
More or less…
RECENT
ARI
A great price was paid, just so you can become a bee.
An experimental AI generated music video for a dark techno track that doesn’t exist. – because we were the maniacs of the future.
PIXIU AGENCY
Re-Branding of a new era.
Re-branding of Pixiu, a creative advertising agency. “We made the complex so simple, then explained why it took so long.”
CORNETTO VALENTINES
Love may melt
but Cornetto stay cool!
A collaboration between Dinahmoe and Pixiu Agency and with dinahmic.ai; I created some shorts for Valentine’s Day for Cornetto – turned out the most successful Valentine’s Day campaign of the brand so far.
DINAHMIC.AI
This is the APE you’ve
been looking for.
Branding Design, Platform UI, UX Design for dinamhic.ai The custom AI solutions for the creative industry.
And some readings about “Why do AI company logos look like b*ttholes?”
ICE CREAM EXTREME
The most extreme brand
that I’ve ever designed.
I promised myself I would never try to impress vegan people again. But the idea was worth breaking that one; creating deviant hand-crafted ice-creams for millennials, hipsters, rebels, contrarians, trolls, and people with broken hearts.
Discover Ice Cream Extreme; the most extreme brand that I’ve ever designed.
“Congratulations, you have solved the problem! You have not only been genuinely creative, you have changed the world to the better! Money and fame to you!”
1.
My professional career began in 2010 at an international digital advertising agency, where I had the chance to work on various projects for clients in diverse industries, ending up leading a team of art directors and copywriters.
Self portrait. Oil on photoshop.
Since 2017, I’ve been working as the Sr. Art Director & Creative at Dinahmoe. Since 2018, I’ve also had the privilege of serving as a jury member for the FWA, helping to recognize and celebrate the best in design –and watching cartoons as a daily work.
HIGHLIGHTS
KAIDAN (RENGOKU LEGENDS)
A fantasy world where Cosmic Horror meets sengoku period Japan…
Kaidan Universe is where Cosmic Horror meets Sengoku-period Japan, a mesmerizing fantasy world created by Connor Sheehan and Drasko V.
Creative & Art Direction, Branding Design, Website and other interactive works…
BOHEMIAN RHAPSOD.AI
…at one point, I found myself singing “Mama mia, let me go” during a team meeting.
An interactive choir of 16 AI-generated “Freddie Mercury”, animated with voice-to-video in celebration of Bohemian Rhapsody’s innovative legacy. Because why not?
TONECRAFT
Transforming silence into unappreciated effort…
Design of Tonecraft; an innovative music creation game developed by Dinahmoe, where players can build soundscapes, much like constructing a musical composition with some Minecraft blocks.
FORMULA 1 ISTANBUL GP
Designing the Trophy;
Injected speed, style, and a dash of Turkish flair…
As a die-hard F1 fan myself (no), I injected speed, style, and a dash of Turkish flair into every detail, ensuring that fans and racers alike had a blast.
Behind the scenes of designing the trophy and swag for the Istanbul Grand Prix…
“Competition is for horses,
not for artists.”
2.
Throughout my career, I’ve been honored with numerous awards, including multiple FWAs, accolades from CSS Design Awards, and Awwwards.
From my agency days, I’ve earned Golden Spiders, Felises, and a few Crystal Apples. I was also featured in Advertising Age’s “30 under 30” article (most probably when I was under 30…).
Receiving the best Public Institution Website Award.
THE NEW PLINK!
Worst Beetles cover ever…
Re-design and branding for the new Plink; the famous multiplayer music experience by Dinahmoe, still played by a great fan crowd and declared as a part of internet history.
DINAHMOE
We build digital things…
As the Senior Art Director at Dinahmoe, we’ve tackled countless challenges with Johan. Late-night brainstorming sessions fueled by too much coffee and a few impromptu dance-offs to shake off the creative blocks resulted in a new branding, a new design system, a fresh website, and some touches here and there.
SYNTHETICA
An immersive interactive exploration of identity’s complexity.
An immersive interactive exploration of identity’s complexity. Based on the interactive audio + touch art installation by Drasko V. and Function Store.
Once, I burned my art diploma in an art gallery in front of the art professors.
…and they called it performance art.
3.
“Striving for originality in art is like chasing a mirage in the desert; the closer you think you are, the more it slips away into the sands of mediocrity.”
…but originality is overrated. Embrace the comfort of conformity in your design
Me. But less cute.
CANKATOGUZ.COM V1
…and the performance art.
cankatoguz.com represents my second take to the concept of personal websites after the first (and now ancient) version of coguz.com. All designed and developed by me; it’s a personal stance aganist the websites without a soul; earned me my first individual FWA award; with tears and memories in every pixel.
BOOKTIMO.COM
“Aren’t we all on a quest to find our true identity?”
Design of “The Lonely Creative” – the interactive keynote speech by Finland’s Speaker Of The Year Honorary Award winner Timo Kiuru.
SWEDISH IDOL
The Interactive VIP Backstage for Swedish IDOL.
A scalable streaming media platform design, the interactive backstage for IDOL Sweden.
KUVOKA
Designing a DJ’s mark.
A logo that dropped harder than the bass at 4 a.m.
4.
In addition to my professional experience, I hold a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and a PhD (somewhere around) in Graphic Design -with a 200 pages of a thesis about interactivity.
Screenshot from the original coguz.com
…and sometimes I give future designers and design professors the hard truths and a few laughs “-I would like to sing you a few songs from my own repertoire.”
From Anadolu University Fine Arts Faculty, Graphic Design – Spring Meetings Conference ’24
SCRAPS
Falling coconuts no reason to cut trees.
For some years, I’ve been creating pieces of animation—short, entertaining snippets, and some artworks, completely devoid of meaning and utterly pointless. Enjoy the randomness!
Including some shoes, fried chickens, some jokes that noone laughed, some samurais, historical art pieces, interactive installations, some mindfullness for sensitive hearts, children towns, late night entertainment and more…