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A selection of designers, artists, practitioners, studios, collectives, b r a n d s , agencies, & companies relevant to myself as a designer.
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BLK MRKT is a creative studio best known for their ability to integrate a message directly into today’s youth oriented culture. They have been providing engaging visual communication, fresh ideas & strong brand identities since 1996, working with agencies like TBWA/Chiat/Day and companies like Nike, as well as boutique brands looking for a unique approach. They maintain an acute understanding of cultural climates and a dedication to precision research to insure that campaigns they’re involved in appeal to the hard-to reach trendsetters without alienating the general consumer. Whether reworking an established brand or creating a new identity system, the BLK MRKT mantra remains the same: creat dynamic graphics and campaigns that incite interest, awareness and audience acceptance. Communication as an art.
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Although the idea of ‘advertising and branding’ still scares me a little there is something very striking yet slightly more playful about BLK MRKT’s approach. The work to me is quite heavily based around illustration and urban/street style design. The work is fresh as they say, but it seems to be very fluid as an approach and can be adapted to any project whilst still looking right. So, whilst idents may not be something I’d immediately be looking to go into after the course- design like this gives me more confidence in my own approach to graphic design.
I think the effective use of type and image is something I find inspiring also. The idea of creating bold and effective visual communication as art is something that really hits home with me as a creative.
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Diftype was established in 2006 as the creative playground of Niklas Lundberg, born and raised in Umeå, Sweden. Specializing in design and illustration he has worked with a wide range of international clients such as Nissan, Infiniti, Red Bull Racing and the Grammy’s to name a few. His work as been featured around the world in various books and publications amongst world leading design magazines such as IdN Magazine and Computer Arts. With an intricate eye for detail this young creative is always pushing to create the best work possible with his own spark of originality. Aside from running Diftype, he is also a part of the Depthcore Collective. This site was built using corecms. Full resume available on request.
Although the idea of ‘advertising and branding’ still scares me a little there is something very striking yet slightly more playful about BLK MRKT’s approach. The work to me is quite heavily based around illustration and urban/street style design. The work is fresh as they say, but it seems to be very fluid as an approach and can be adapted to any project whilst still looking right. So, whilst idents may not be something I’d immediately be looking to go into after the course- design like this gives me more confidence in my own approach to graphic design.
I think the effective use of type and image is something I find inspiring also. The idea of creating bold and effective visual communication as art is something that really hits home with me as a creative.
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Foreign Policy ‘Design bureau & Think Tank’ describe themselves as a team of idea makers & story tellers who help craft, realize and evolve brands with creative and strategic deployment of ideas narrated by various appropriate media. They are located in Singapore, independently owned and creatively motivated. I found them on a website called ‘Looks like good design’ whilst trying to find some graphic design inspiration.
So, again- an area of graphic design that I wouldn’t necessarily say my style lends itself to. However, I find the majority of the work created by Foreign Policy to be very inspiring and it makes me want to try different ways of designing but more importantly the work makes me want to think differently.
This is what they claim to do: Strategic Consulting Brand Strategy Research & Analysis Idea Making Story Telling Branding Creative Direction Art Direction Graphic Design Space/Environment Design Experiential Design Interactive Design Problem Solving Fire Fighting
The projects that particularly stand out to me are the projects that stand out for being simple but also quite traditional. I love the handrendered and inky feel of alot of the work. What is especially inspiring is the bringing together of different cultures and styles whilst keeping it contemporary through careful and articulate design. Foreign Policy above anything else, inspire me to experiment with print and stock. I don’t see myself going into branding. But I’d love to be able to create in a similar way...
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Aryz,a young graffiti artist from Barcelona. Aryz first got known for his crazy Pop Surrealist style done with the spray can, but after an accident leaving him not able to use his index finger (crucial for graffiti artist) he was forced to look for other ways to express his visions. This incident lead him to working more with the brush and also doing bigger versions with a roller. It is incredible to think that what is already so amazing with a paint brush or spraypaint can also be translated to a supersized version with a roller! His work is recognised particularly due to the amount of shades used in one character or mural. His classical Spanish art training mixed with the culture of Hip Hop and an upbringing of Breakdance, Aryz uses this character and energy in his painting and has left his mark in countries all over the world.
R E L E V A N C E Aryz is a painter not a designer. But I think its important to include him in my influences as he’s one of my very favourite artists. I think theres something to be recognised in turning a rather negative event/position into a reason to push yourself and make your work equally as good (better) than those technically more able than yourself. Just by coming at creativity from another angle. Obviously theres an automatic attraction to scale and the location of these piecesthere’s nothing to stop graphic design being created in the same sort of atmosphere, it simply has to communicate effectively. The colour, composition and confidence is what really influences my work and ideas. I think there’s a lot to be learnt from pulling in aspects of creativity from other creative fields.
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Byroglyphics- Also known as Russell Mills graduated from Leeds Met University completing a BA in Graphic Art and Design. After finding gainful employment in various non-creative institutions went back to basics and began work with pen, pencil and computer. He has spent almost 20 years crafting skills, absorbing influences from every facet of visual culture and archiving found objects and ephemera to substantiate his work. He has worked as a freelance illustrator with numerous clients in publishing and entertainment, His current work is an clash of styles from classical to pop surrealism, focusing predominantly on the human form, though also abstracting elements from nature and the animal kingdom. Covering subjects such as superficiality and isolation progressing into more socio-political expressions.
R E L E V A N C E Byroglyphics/Russell Mills has been one of the designers I keep coming back to for inspiration. His work has so many different levels of technique to it and the outcomes are always striking and thought provoking. The one thing that I do wonder about is what he communicates as a designer- or is he just an artist? The work is great and aesthetically (to me) stunning, but the subject is always rather loose and predictable. His portfolio regarding professional projects and big name clients isn’t as strong as his personal work. As a designer as well as an artist I’m keen to persue a career communicating ideas rather than just creating pretty pictures. I’m particularly influenced by the idea of motion, movement and texture within his 2D works. These are the aspects I’d love to appropriate to some of my design work.
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Rui Torres is a graduated graphic designer, developing design work and illustration under pseudonym of Anoik, which in Inca mythology presents itself as a giant eagle with a thousand hands, used to draw the landscape.
“A long time ago I did Graffiti, but destiny caught me, and tried to convert me into a numb designer,but some of the spirit of street action remained in me, therefore, you can see some coolness in some stuff I’ve made.God bless Graffiti”
Apart from that, Anoik likes working illustration closely with Music, trying to capture the essence of this art form, apparently without graphic translation, in small detail, metaphors or visual gags, as can be seen in several of his projects. Worth of notice are his projects, with gallery and restaurant, Avesso and cineclub ZOOM.
This guy is someone I think I can strongly relate to designwise. I think once you have a background in graffiti, it almost becomes apparent in everything you do. But unfortunately, more often than not this produces unsuccessful design work.
However he aims to approach illustration in other ways, like T-shirt’s illustrated collections various illustrated objects collections (Avesso’s MUJI illustrated collections) and collaborations with other illustrators and artists, such as Cátia Vidinhas and Artur Durão.
I think it takes a lot to get the balance between street art styles and good graphic design and I seem to find this within Anoiks work. I like the hand rendered meets design style and think his use of colour and shape/line produces very eye catching and recognisable work.
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After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels Géraldine worked as a graphic designer in various advertising agencies for 7 years. Towards the end of 2006, She started to work as a freelance illustrator. She did not feel like she was leaving behind the graphic design world but rather she was able to see & bring some graphic design elements into her illustrations. The two are inevitably linked for her. Her approach is pretty simple, she tries her best to transcribe emotions, find a perfect balance through the collages without falling into the trap of over-using Photoshop or other effects...
R E L E V A N C E Although her work is a little overly feminine for my liking I find the subject matter and techniques within her work very inspiring. I think what is becoming more and more apparent is that I don’t need to become a Graphic Designer as such, but I need to be able to be a great graphic designer when it matters. It has to be said that I don’t see too much graphic design influence within Georges’ work. I think what inspires me most about her work is that every individual piece is of a high standard. Her work rate and style is consistant. I like that she takes her style and adapts it to more professional projects for other clients. However, its a difficult one to judge- keeping you own style and minimising your client base or learning the tricks of the trade and becoming like every other good designer out there.
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Andrey Shch (Andrey Ushchenko) is a Kiev, Ukraine based multi-talented graphic designer, typographer, calligrapher and Principal of SHCH graphics group. The artist’s hand precision and ability can rival any computer software. This kind of talent does not appear overnight, but is honed through years of hard work and dedication. He claims to have mastered his technique one windy autumn day during an apprenticeship among Chinese monks of Hunan province. One of his favourite projects was for Vogue; “A project where the client had full respect and understanding for my artistic perspective and gave me liberty of action for realization of the original idea.” He gets alot of comparison to another typographic designer Si Scott. They have very similar styles.
R E L E V A N C E I’d love to able to say SHCH influences my work but its more to do with copious amounts of skill envy. I’ve always been fascinated by good hand rendered typography and this is by far one of the most inspiring typography I’ve found so far. I think Shch’s work is successful due to knowning when to stop and not over doing it. To me the success lies in the negative space. As a doodle influenced illustrator myself I do understand the idea of him trusting himself with knowing when to stop and it being much more of a natural fluid process rather than a rigid design scheme. However, this is something I need to apply within my graphic design work, as I’m still stuck believing there is always a very right way to do things when infact my work could benefit from more experiementing.
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Jon Garcia & Joe King. They have come together to form ROOK, a brand defined by its art. ROOK Brand’s goal is to create the highest quality, eye catching and provocative art and design. Common responses to first seeing ROOK designs are “I recognize this artist from somewhere.” The reason for that is, if you have worn a graphic t-shirt from any skate/ surf/streetwear brand in the past 6 years, Jonathan Garcia and Joe King, have probably worked on the art for it. Their idea is that quality art can and should be strong enough to create a brand’s identity. It is a celebration of talent, ambition, and quality design. It was created to not only recognize talented designers, but to also inspire other artists to continue to push the limits of design and their own conceptions of what is possible.
R E L E V A N C E Jon Garcia & Joe King are probably my absolute favourite illustrators and designers. The concept behind Rook Clothing as a brand has inspired me to a point that I’m attempting to follow their path and create my own streetwear brand based around the design and artwork. What inspires me the most about Rook/Garcia/King is the back to basics idea of using raw talent within design. It gives me more confidence and ambition as a graphic designer with illustration as my USP. Its refreshing to see hand rendered work pushed to the very limit to create stunning design for print. I think what sets Rook apart from all the other designers and streetwear brands out there is the ideas behind the creations. I think the ambition behind the design concepts allow for easy progression and editing to refine the work to become more and more successful.
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Pentagram is the world’s largest independent design consultancy. The firm is owned and run by 19 partners, a group of friends who are all leaders in their individual creative fields.
Pentagram are not a company I ever see myself working for. I don’t see my work fitting in with their styles but I do always look to Pentagram when I’m stuck for graphic design inspiration. Not so much for content or ideas, but more for methodology and ways of undertaking design projects.
Pentagram work in London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Austin. They design everything: architecture, interiors, products, identities, publications, posters, books, exhibitions, websites, and digital installations. Each of their clients work directly with one or more of our partners. This reflects our conviction that great design cannot happen without passion, intelligence, and personal commitment, which is demonstrated by a portfolio of work that spans five decades. I’m particularly focussing on the design for print produced by Pentagram.
The most prominent feature to me about the giant body of work produced through Pentagram is the confidence. Every single project no matter what scale is executed with such a high level of ‘knowing exactly what they’re doing’ which I admire. The reason I focus mainly on the print/poster design areas produced by Pentagram is because its more to my creative understanding. I find myself more intimidated by the web design and digital aspects of some projects whereas in print i feel I have the ability to work towards and adapt some of the ideas with more confidence.
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Harriet Wood Graphic Design Self Directed Study