creer for designers who blog
featured designer
Ana Himes the the illustration illustration of of
Pope Saint Victor the the photography photography of of
graphic graphic designer designer
the the artwork artwork of of
student student profile profile
Aigin Larki Leon Keay
Santosh Koneru Violet Tchalakov #3 may 2010
creer for designers who blog
featured designer: Ana Himes
Pope Saint Victor
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Aigin Larkin
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Violet Tchalakov
photography
illustration
student profile WTBp40 What The Blog
By Koneru.Santhosh
Leon Keay
p56 artist
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Santosh Koneru
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graphic design
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crĂŠer news
We have some great freebies this month, plus a special créer community challenge!
Pope Saint Victor wallpaper www.creermag.com/special-article/pope-saint-victor
A Lyric A Day Challenge get your work featured in créer! C ha l l a n ge
www.creermag.com/special-article/the-alad-challenge
We would also like to welcome our new Editor Stephen Gaudet.
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Santosh Koneru When I was a kid I used to love cartoons just like other kids did, but what attracted me the most was the fantasy, sci-fi, and the amazing world of cartoons which is filled completely with loads of imagination and dreams. These cartoons influenced me and showed space to create my new world with my own characters. But when I saw the movies of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas I realized how I could give life to my characters virtually. Inspired by them I decided to master my skills in drawing and animation and completed my 2D Animation course. As I learned my interest only grew. I started self-mastering 3D, matte painting, character designing, digital painting, photography and VFX compositing from the enormous resource of the Internet. I am getting into the final year of mechanical engineering while working as freelance graphic designer with clients such as MyInkBlog, CrazyLeaf, and Design Instruct. My upcoming project would be my mixed animation short films. www.santhoshkoneru.daportfolio.com
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By Koneru.Santhosh
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1 Land Of Temples 2 xtreme makeover 3 makeover 2 4 The Phoenix
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Aigin Larkin Aigin Larkin is an Iranian Canadian artist; she is trilingual, well-traveled and mostly interested in language, people, art and culture. She is a professionally trained photographer who prefers taking portraits in natural light in surroundings she finds comfortable and intimate. Aigin Larkin shares with her subjects and audiences her love of surrealism, poetry and play through photography. She considers her photographs to be collaboration between herself and her subjects and enjoys the process as much as the results. She actively participates in and attends local art shows and enjoys being a part of the Vancouver's growing art community. www.flickr.com/photos/aiginlarki
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How did you get started? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught? I started liking photography in my early teens. Graphics class was a course that was offered at my high school and half the year was photography. I remember taking photography courses at the community center in grade 9 because graphics wasn't offered until grade 10.
After high school I went to Langara College for photography and later to Vancouver Community College for Fashion Marketing.
Where do you go for inspiration? I find inspiration comes from the person I am photographing. It doesn't always come until I have the camera in my hand and we are actually working together and taking photos.
What do you feel are the most important skills for a photographer to have/develop? I think the skill that helps me is my personality and ability to make people feel comfortable around me. I also think that always looking for different perspectives is a good skill to develop; that and knowing your camera and feeling confident in order to make your subject trust you and have a fun time being photographed.
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How has having a blog and being social with Facebook and Twitter benefited you as a photographer? I think that using Flickr has helped me promote myself to people who would otherwise never have seen my work. I am constantly in awe of the Internet and the massive changes it has made in our lives.
Would you recommend that other photographers start a blog and get social? Sure. I think that the only reason not to would be fear of being copied or of having your images stolen, but that is worth the risk in my opinion.
Can you walk us through your process before you begin a shoot? I like to be very spontaneous when I take photos and I really like it to be a fun experience for both myself and my subject. Sometimes it will just be a friend date and we will meet at my house and hang out all day. Other times it’s me going over to their place with a bottle of wine. It’s really about having a fun time together and a collaboration between friends. The only thing is that I need a lot of natural light so either a warm sunny day or a big bright window.
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What is your camera of choice? I've used a Canon Rebel xt for years and before that it was a film version of the same camera. They are cheap and light and I’m not a huge gear person, but my dream camera would be a digital medium format camera.
Do you prefer digital or traditional photography? I prefer digital because of the freedom it allows ... before when I shot film I would stop shooting because of the cost of printing, but now I can take as many as I like. That being said, I do shoot too many similar frames now with digital and find that the post takes so long since I can't decide between the shots.
Who are some of your favorite online designers/photographers? I love Ryan McGinley's work. I love the freedom in his photographs.
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What are some of your favorite online design communities? I’m trying not to look up too many online photo sites these days because I am finding it overwhelming. But I like tumblr and i heart photograph the best.
If you were going to photograph me, what would you make me do? I would spend some time getting to know you, maybe go for a walk and drink some wine on the beach and then take a few photos if we felt like it.
If you could photograph anyone in the world who would it be? Kate Moss is a natural and iconic beauty, or maybe Angelic Huston – she is pretty amazing looking. That is a very difficult question. I guess I'd like to photograph someone who would be fun to photograph, someone interesting, friendly and outgoing.
What’s next? Where do you hope to take your work? I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and I'll keep finding new ways to be inspired and be creative.
Thank you for taking an interest in me and my work.
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Ana Himes
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I was born in Burgos, the year that ARCO Art Festival celebrates its first edition, the autobiography of Luis Buñuel “Mi último suspiro” is edited, Michael Jackson’s Thriller hit came out, Gabriel García Márquez receives the Nobel Prize, and Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly passed away. After spending fourteen years in a religious school being taught by nuns and with a powerful need to cross the walls of Burgos, it made me want to move away to Segovia to study Advertising and Public Relations. After earning my degree I decide to get my first camera: a 350D. A few months later I moved to Madrid. In Madrid, the jungle, my hobby for photography began. Little by little, I began to express and extend my eyes and fingers with the camera. I´ve contributed to publications such as Neo2, Lamono, Mixtape and Nobrow, and my work has been published in magazines around the world: Argentina, USA, Colombia, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Malaysia and England. Currently, I´m meshing photography with graphic design, collages and illustration, and I love it! 27
My house is a chaotic library My only real vice is books. Vintage books, encyclopedias, and magazines ... from all around the world. At first, when I was cutting photos from magazines like Paris Match (1952) and Morze (1935) I felt a little sad and nervous. But now I´ve changed my mind: I like thinking that I extend its life. It´s like a reincarnation. As you can see, I have a specific table and place at home. A little spot for me, and my crazy world. I usually listen to some music with my wireless headphones while I'm doing my collages, this way I combine two of my favorite hobbies. Bonnie Price Billy and Pamela Hute was the soundtrack of this collage “Up & down & vice versa” (cover of créer magazine issue 3). I really think that the type of music you listen to while creating any type of art greatly influences your work; this collage wouldn't be the same if I had been listening to Sigur Rós or Teenagersintokyo. I have to recognize that I never really know how I´m going to finish my piece. I just play with my scrapbooks and let my imagination free… it´s more fun this way!
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aviatophobia
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bazaar
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don’t stop playing
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drink your life
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family
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WTB
The top 10 best blogs of the month - chosen by our readers
What The Blog
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Nathan Rice www.nathanrice.net
Binary Moon www.binarymoon.co.uk
Doug Burgett www.dougburgett.net
Lens Culture www.lensculture.com
Andre Goncalves www.andregoncalves.posterous.com
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Born In Tents www.bornintents.com
Nathan Sanders www.nathan-sanders.com
We Blog Better www.weblogbetter.com
We Heart It www.weheartit.com
Robo Roku www.roboroku.com
How to submit a blog Send your submission to submit@creermag.com include WTB (What The Blog) as the subject line. In the email include the link(s) your name and original source (if required). 40
what are you waiting for?
btw’s discovery series presents
$POTFDSBUFE (SPVOE By George Boyd Directed by Tyrone Benskin based on true events May 17th, 7:30 p.m. at Mai Café Tickets: $12 - 514-932-1104 ext 226
africville, nova scotia 1964
built over generations destroyed in one day
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a.k.a.
Victor Hukabee
Currently residing in Nashville, Tennessee, Victor Samuel Huckabee spent his formative years studying design in Switzerland where he began Pope Saint Victor design. He currently works full time as the Brand Design Architect for a non-profit organization called Blood:Water Mission that seeks to empower communities to work together against the HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa. www.popesaintvictor.com
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I Think God Put Me Here I am by nature a contemplator. I spend a lot of my time thinking about nature, the universe, my creator and creation, but I also spend most of my time in a state of confusion regarding such issues. So due to my lack of understanding, I like to take the big questions down a level and give them a sense of fun and irony. I love the idea of a creature obviously from a planet other than Earth asking the same questions and observing creation in the same way that I do. This illustration was born while re-reading one of my favorite books, Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. While it isn't based on anything in the book in particular, the influence is undeniable.
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People Never Notice Anything This is the first illustration I did in my Illustrated Thoughts series. It's based on Holden Caulfield from the book The Catcher in The Rye, one of my favorites by J. D. Salinger. I read The Catcher in the Rye for the first time when I was in high school and (like many teenagers who have read this book) identified with Holden Caulfield in my rebellion and teenage questioning. Plus I love the way he is described in the book, down to the hat he is wearing. The illustration isn't directly depicting a scene in the book, but hopefully it echoes Mr. Salinger's incredible work.
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You Have Really Changed This is one of my personal favorites. I remember having this idea of a duck dressed like a human talking to a real duck. I've always imagined that the human-like duck is telling the real duck that he has changed, but I think most people see it the other way around.
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I Feel Really Weird Today This is one of my illustrations that literally came straight out of how I was feeling at the moment. It's interesting how even though my drawings are all a little lighthearted in nature, the colors and emotions that I depict really do sometimes match my moods. I would say, though, that a majority of my illustrated thoughts really have no explanation nor do I like to give them much explanation. I like to leave the situations and stories to the viewer’s imagination.
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She Told Me to Wait Here Sometimes I just put my stylus on my tablet and let my imagination go ... this one is just an example of that. This particular illustration was born out of thinking about my childhood and growing up near the beach.
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Leon Keay L.@.K.ART began whilst on my travels through Israel in 1999. Although I attended art college in Leicester before this, I didn’t really class myself as an artist until I started producing my own drawings whilst travelling. On my travels in Israel I ended up in Eilat in the south of Israel, living in the famous Home Hostel. I was sitting in the garden of the hostel one day, with not a lot going on, and decided to pick up a pen and start drawing. It had been a while as I had lost interest since finishing college. From that day as soon as I finished a picture I started straight on the next. I suddenly found myself with a small amount of work and started to wonder what to do with it. This was the start of my progression into an artist but at this stage it was more of a hobby and I wasn’t really thinking much past getting more work done, as I needed a portfolio. Just over a decade later I have a strong portfolio of work in many media, from illustration to paintings, and recently I’ve put my hand to stencil and spray paint art. www.flickr.com/photos/lakart/ 57
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Style and Inspiration My style of artwork is a cross between many, many things including pop art, abstract art, comic books, surreal art, hip hop, popular culture of today. Anything goes really ‌ no restrictions. One rule I kind of have is it has to be bright and colourful and pleasing to the eye; art for art’s sake and not always with some deep meaningful explanation behind it.
My eyes are always open to art. Everything I come across on a daily basis can be used in a piece of work, and with a good knowledge and interest in art history, this helps and inspires my work by learning from the best.
My inspirations mainly come from colourful abstract and surreal artists, such as Picasso, Dali, Joan Miro, M.C. Escher, Gaudi and Kandinsky, as well as pop artists like Warhol, Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist.
I enjoy art and hope to carve out a living from my work. To date I have been published and exhibited and have sold work also, and I look forward to getting more involved in the coming years.
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In your bio you mention that you attended Art College in Leicester. What program did you take? I studied graphic design at college; this was before computer graphic design. I passed the course, but didn’t really think much sank in. It’s only later that I realised how much I picked up and how graphical a lot of my work is.
You mentioned that your artistic career began when you travelled in Israel. Have you travelled to other countries and has this been an inspiration for you as well? I haven’t travelled as much as I’d like, due to lack of money, but I had a brief 5-day holiday in Barcelona in 2007. This was the start of a greater love of Spanish art and colour, and graffiti art, which was everywhere in Barcelona … such a beautiful city. A lot of the museums inspired me to work bigger and start using paints and canvas instead of just illustrating. I took a lot away with me from that trip.
Your style is varied and mixed from pop, abstract, comic books, surreal, and hip hop. Many of your fans, including myself, would also consider it abstract graffiti. If you had to choose one word to sum it all up what would it be? I’ve been trying to figure this out myself for a while now. It’s a mix of so many things; maybe I’ll use yours – abstract graffiti. I quite like that … cheers.
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How has blogging and joining social networks benefited your career? Networking has helped in a huge way. It’s helped me get work published; it’s helped me find exhibitions; it’s helped me meet people and collaborate with other creatives. I just wish I’d of done it sooner. I also find that one thing leads to another, and if you’re out there constantly something will turn up for you to get involved in.
Who are some of your favorite online designers? What are some of your favorite online design communities? My favourite designers are really the new generation of stencil artists, such as c215, Logan Hicks, CFYE crew, Faile and many more. They’ve pushed my art into another direction completely. I’ve now gone from illustration to painting to stencils … I’m addicted to stenciling at the moment. One online design community for me is Flickr; although just a photo site, there are so many different communities on there from stencil, photography, painting, drawing, graphics and everything in between and some quirky groups as well. There is also Juxtapoz, which is always worth a look. There are the obvious Facebook and Myspace and my local Leicester online communities such as FD2D magazine and Creative Boom.
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Can you walk us through your design process? Where does the inspiration come from for each piece? My process with illustration is to find an image that I like, for example, a woman. Then I’ll draw out the image most of the time in the middle of a page, style it, colour it, and then from here kind of work around it. I never plan the whole picture; I like for the work to change each time I come back to it. I love working this way. It’s much more free and creative than planning your whole work out first. Also, I try my best to never have two colours touching each other and try to get a good colour balance throughout the work. It’s pretty much the same process with my paintings, too.
Other than design, if you could have a different career what would it be? I love photography. Also, as an artist I like to think I have a good eye, but I don’t have the time for it with everything else. I can’t do it all … maybe I’ll give it a go one day.
Finally, what’s next for Leon Kay? Next is world domination … only joking. This year I’ll be entering some local open exhibitions in Leicester, with more published work with FD2D magazine. In the future I’m looking to sort out a good website, get a solo show of my work, collaborate with friends and artists, and start trying to carve out a career as an artist. It’s my one true passion; If others can do it I’m sure I can get there. Watch this space, people!
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Violet Tchalakov Student Profile
I am a senior at Eastern Washington University getting my BFA in Visual Communication Design. In addition to print design, I am interested in vintage analogue photography, which tends to come through in my designs. I am inspired by seventies design and fear the day people are looking back to the nineties for inspiration.
violetcake.tumblr.com
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KYRS Identity System 68
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Promotional Poster for Loma Chocolates 70
Promotional Poster 71
PSA Bike to Work Week 72
Say Vintage Poster 73
creer news
May 2010
We’re going quarterly! This will be our last monthly issue. Beginning July 2010, we will be publishing 4 times a year.
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Why? We want to ensure that every issue delivers the most relevant topics and meets the standarsds of our readers. 74
Next issue... The FITC Toronto Review Listen while work CMS from a design point of view Plus another great lineup of designers, photagraphers, illustrators, and more.
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creer for designers who blog
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