My Manifesto

I am a visual translator. I enjoy translating the real into the digital by exploring the textures and material of objects finding ways in which I can rebuild my surrounding in my work. My approach to design is both considered and experimentational with a love to explore new ways of working. Experimenting with different medias and materials is a large part of my creative process as I greatly enjoy painting, printmaking, paper cutting to create 3D graphical objects and 3D printing exploring how these elements interact with one another to create a final outcome. I revel in bringing my passion for fine art into my design work incorporating traditional medias within my digital designs.

In my work I love exploring the use of negative space and silhouettes within my imagery, typography and page layout to give my compositions greater balance. I find negative space in design so imperative to me as it generates images that the viewer must unravel like a puzzle and read deeper into like a good story. The viewer first sees the foreground of the image containing the most important information but as they look closer, forms, shapes and new information emerge to the surface from the negative space forming a natural and exploratory hierarchy of information. It is this feeling of exploration I aim to capture within my practice.

Silhouettes are beautiful to me as the present the subject in its purist most simplistic form removing all distractions of texture allowing the viewer to see in greater depth it’s shape. As a designer working with silhouettes, you have the creative liberty

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of deciding what elements of the form you will keep in the positive space of the silhouette and what details to remove moving those areas into the negative space of the image. This controlled depth in imagery reminds me of layered paper. One designer who specialises his practice on the three dimensional depth created from layered silhouettes is Eiko Ojala and his digital illustrations of layered silhouettes that he carefully adds highlights and shadows to in order to give his designs the appearance of layered paper beautifully cut out. I greatly relate to Eiko’s design philosophy of bringing material textures from the world into my own work.

“I really enjoy producing the real world on my computer screen, It’s a bit like painting.” Eiko Ojala

I am primarily a visual learner who draws in inspiration from my surroundings, I love walking through nature taking in the various colours and forms around me to influence my work. I also explore different worlds and scenery through video games drawing inspiration from their varying art styles in particular Olly Moss’s beautiful, layered silhouette art within Firewatch. The work of Olly Moss inspires me due to his ability to combine image, colour and negative space together in a way that communicates the themes and narrative details of the subject he is portraying in which I strive to achieve through my own design.

I am a graphic designer to communicate the meaning in the world surrounding me to people in the people in the world around me.