Computer Arts Gallery: February 2010

Claire Hartley
Location Birmingham
Job Graphic designer and illustrator
Contact www.clairelouisehartley.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

Birmingham-based graphic designer and illustrator Claire Hartley graduated from university with a first-class degree in graphic communication, and was offered her first design job a month later. With a diverse range of styles under her belt, she attributes her distinctive use of colour and imagery to a "love of all things vibrant," and eventually hopes to move to London to feed her passion for urban culture mash-ups.

"I take my inspiration from the places I've visited and the cosmopolitan mix of people I'm exposed to on a daily basis," Hartley explains. "I've always been more hands-on than the average graphic designer. I enjoy working both on and off screen, and love it when projects arise that allow me to incorporate both of these aspects within a design. Illustration-wise, a good old pen and pencil are my weapons of choice, but I've learnt how to express my ideas in different styles to suit each project."

Feel Good Drinks An entry for the YCN Student Awards 2008. Hartley took a hand-drawn illustrated approach to this poster, increasing brand awareness and reinforcing the "feel-good ethos" of the drink.

Claire Hartley
Location Birmingham
Job Graphic designer and illustrator
Contact www.clairelouisehartley.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

Birmingham-based graphic designer and illustrator Claire Hartley graduated from university with a first-class degree in graphic communication, and was offered her first design job a month later. With a diverse range of styles under her belt, she attributes her distinctive use of colour and imagery to a "love of all things vibrant," and eventually hopes to move to London to feed her passion for urban culture mash-ups.

"I take my inspiration from the places I've visited and the cosmopolitan mix of people I'm exposed to on a daily basis," Hartley explains. "I've always been more hands-on than the average graphic designer. I enjoy working both on and off screen, and love it when projects arise that allow me to incorporate both of these aspects within a design. Illustration-wise, a good old pen and pencil are my weapons of choice, but I've learnt how to express my ideas in different styles to suit each project."

V&A Cultural Diversity For her self-set final major project at university, Hartley created a range of material that combined patterns, colours and imagery based on different religions and sub-cultures to demonstrate that diversity can be reflected in a single, unified piece.

Chris Wilkinson
Location Sheffield
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.nineteeneighty.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

"I wouldn't say that I have a definitive style, as each project will often bring the need for a new technique, depending on the brief," states Sheffield-based Chris Wilkinson. A graphic designer, he originally studied packaging design at university before switching disciplines. "However, I'm moving more towards using photography these days, and try to capture more in the shot rather than relying on Photoshop afterwards. I feel it's a much more rewarding experience."

A recent project for the Sheffield Institute of Arts gave Wilkinson the opportunity to develop some ideas that he had been musing on for some time. "It's been my career highlight so far," he smiles, before citing iconic design company Insect as a major influence on his work. "When I first saw their designs they were like nothing else I'd ever seen. I also enjoy making things from card, and find it refreshing to see lo-tech styles making a comeback."

Creative Spark Wilkinson created this installation, which represents the inspirations of the artists exhibiting at the Creative Spark end-of-year show, out of a collection of creative tools that he then sprayed black.

Chris Wilkinson
Location Sheffield
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.nineteeneighty.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

"I wouldn't say that I have a definitive style, as each project will often bring the need for a new technique, depending on the brief," states Sheffield-based Chris Wilkinson. A graphic designer, he originally studied packaging design at university before switching disciplines. "However, I'm moving more towards using photography these days, and try to capture more in the shot rather than relying on Photoshop afterwards. I feel it's a much more rewarding experience."

A recent project for the Sheffield Institute of Arts gave Wilkinson the opportunity to develop some ideas that he had been musing on for some time. "It's been my career highlight so far," he smiles, before citing iconic design company Insect as a major influence on his work. "When I first saw their designs they were like nothing else I'd ever seen. I also enjoy making things from card, and find it refreshing to see lo-tech styles making a comeback."

SIA Prospectus Each letter is composed of 90 sheets of card in this commissioned piece for Sheffield Institute of Arts, which saw Wilkinson taking two-dimensional type and painstakingly recreating it in 3D.

Ellie Foreman-Pack
Location Bristol/Oxford
Job Illustrator
Contact www.elliefp.co.uk
Software Photoshop

Illustrator Ellie Foreman-Pack uses a combination of pencil and Photoshop to create her narrative-inspired works. From Victorian posters and Japanese woodcuts to the half-tone patterns and washed-out colours of early commercial advertising, she cites the aesthetic of traditional print as her biggest inspiration. "I aim to emulate a similar feeling of antiquity in my own designs," she reveals.

Line-work is of particular interest, and Foreman-Pack often bestows an etched quality onto her drawings by scanning them and adjusting the contrast through Photoshop. "I'm really interested in the different expressions you can make with a mark on a page: lines can be serpentine, scratchy, spontaneous, lively, hard or erratic," she explains, "and I'm also experimenting with a part-collage part-hand-drawn technique at the moment."

Metropole Foreman-Pack modelled this screenprint - a visual interpretation of the Hungarian novel Metropole - on a Japanese wall panel, using scanned images of items such as radiators and stacked books to act as buildings.

Ellie Foreman-Pack
Location Bristol/Oxford
Job Illustrator
Contact www.elliefp.co.uk
Software Photoshop

Illustrator Ellie Foreman-Pack uses a combination of pencil and Photoshop to create her narrative-inspired works. From Victorian posters and Japanese woodcuts to the half-tone patterns and washed-out colours of early commercial advertising, she cites the aesthetic of traditional print as her biggest inspiration. "I aim to emulate a similar feeling of antiquity in my own designs," she reveals.

Line-work is of particular interest, and Foreman-Pack often bestows an etched quality onto her drawings by scanning them and adjusting the contrast through Photoshop. "I'm really interested in the different expressions you can make with a mark on a page: lines can be serpentine, scratchy, spontaneous, lively, hard or erratic," she explains, "and I'm also experimenting with a part-collage part-hand-drawn technique at the moment."

The Crew Inspired by a grainy photograph of the first ever submarine crew, this image was hand-drawn before being composed and collaged in Photoshop and later screenprinted for an exhibition in Bristol.

Felix Pfäffli
Location Lucerne, Switzerland
Job Student/Graphic designer
Contact www.feixen.ch
Software Illustrator, InDesign, CINEMA 4D, Photoshop

A student at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Felix Pfäffli says his style is dictated by his creative preferences and fears. "I'm afraid of pixels," he states, "but I like working with vectors because they're accurate, and I prefer using little or very selective colour." Pfäffli is also a firm believer that each individual project should determine the look of its own design. "As a result, I don't have a set way of doing things - I start from the beginning every time," he says.

Aside from focusing on his BA thesis, Pfäffli has found time to notch up a number of career highlights in the past year, including receiving second prize at Chaumont. "A real climax was the annual open-air B-Sides music festival," he says. "I was responsible for the corporate design of the event and enjoyed the job from beginning to end. They set me no boundaries, so I was able to work completely freely. It was crazy - the concept worked really well and the festival sold out both days."

3Fach Poster Asked to create a newspaper advertisement for local youth radio station 3Fach, Pfäffli produced this detailed poster using CINEMA 4D and Illustrator. "The poster is complex, but the message is simple," he says.

Felix Pfäffli
Location Lucerne, Switzerland
Job Student/Graphic designer
Contact www.feixen.ch
Software Illustrator, InDesign, CINEMA 4D, Photoshop

A student at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Felix Pfäffli says his style is dictated by his creative preferences and fears. "I'm afraid of pixels," he states, "but I like working with vectors because they're accurate, and I prefer using little or very selective colour." Pfäffli is also a firm believer that each individual project should determine the look of its own design. "As a result, I don't have a set way of doing things - I start from the beginning every time," he says.

Aside from focusing on his BA thesis, Pfäffli has found time to notch up a number of career highlights in the past year, including receiving second prize at Chaumont. "A real climax was the annual open-air B-Sides music festival," he says. "I was responsible for the corporate design of the event and enjoyed the job from beginning to end. They set me no boundaries, so I was able to work completely freely. It was crazy - the concept worked really well and the festival sold out both days."

B-Sides Poster "The concept of the B-Sides festival is simple: the popular A-side is rubbish, while the B-side is great," says Pfäffli. "This poster therefore shows a machine that destroys A-sides. The concept turned out well in black-and-white; it seemed natural not to use any colour."

Helen Mycroft
Location Sydney, Australia
Job Illustrator/graphic designer
Contact www.helenmycroft.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop

Having graduated from the University of Lincoln last year, Helen Mycroft is currently living in Australia while looking for work placements and creating artwork before her return to the UK.

"All my works starts on paper, but I can usually visualise how I want the final image to look from the moment I start," she says, "so I have a very clear idea of the direction and process."

She especially enjoys looking in unusual places to find inspiration - and has plenty of it: "My parents had a lot of their childhood things given away so they resolved to never do the same thing to me and my sisters, so now I have this massive collection of rare things that I can used for inspiration."

Life Isn't Fair "This is one of my dad's favourite sayings," laughs Mycroft, "and after hearing him say it so many times when I'm having a whinge, I made it into a poster. It was designed in Illustrator from a mix of typefaces, with the shading added in Photoshop."

Helen Mycroft
Location Sydney, Australia
Job Illustrator/graphic designer
Contact www.helenmycroft.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop

Having graduated from the University of Lincoln last year, Helen Mycroft is currently living in Australia while looking for work placements and creating artwork before her return to the UK.

"All my works starts on paper, but I can usually visualise how I want the final image to look from the moment I start," she says, "so I have a very clear idea of the direction and process."

She especially enjoys looking in unusual places to find inspiration - and has plenty of it: "My parents had a lot of their childhood things given away so they resolved to never do the same thing to me and my sisters, so now I have this massive collection of rare things that I can used for inspiration."

Gone Too Far The cover artwork for a journal Mycroft made, containing a selection of visual references and photos from her "adventures" in both the UK and Australia. "There have been two issues so far," she explains, "and they're great to flick through when I'm stuck for ideas."

Chris Osment
Location Somerset, UK
Job Illustrator/designer
Contact www.killstudio.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

"With so much inspiration floating about in our world, I find it difficult not to get excited by new concepts and ideas," says Chris Osment. He now channels those ideas through Killstudio, the business he set up in February of last year, having previously graduated from The Arts Institute in Bournemouth in 2005 and then worked for a studio in the south-west of England.

"I was always taught from early on in my creative years that I should try to absorb everything around me and use it to my advantage through my creativity," Osment adds. This has manifested through work for clients such as Volkswagen and Penguin in Killstudio's short life to date, and the designer has plans to expand further, launching an online shop very soon. "I can honestly say I love my job and the industry I'm in!" he says.

Typo Experimento A personal piece and typography experiment. "I've always been interested in shapes and form, especially within typography," says Osment. "I love creating my own character shapes and seeing what I can do in terms of creating visuals from them. This promotional piece just concentrates on form and simplicity, allowing the letter shapes to work with each other inside a closed space."

Chris Osment
Location Somerset, UK
Job Illustrator/designer
Contact www.killstudio.co.uk
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign

"With so much inspiration floating about in our world, I find it difficult not to get excited by new concepts and ideas," says Chris Osment. He now channels those ideas through Killstudio, the business he set up in February of last year, having previously graduated from The Arts Institute in Bournemouth in 2005 and then worked for a studio in the south-west of England.

"I was always taught from early on in my creative years that I should try to absorb everything around me and use it to my advantage through my creativity," Osment adds. This has manifested through work for clients such as Volkswagen and Penguin in Killstudio's short life to date, and the designer has plans to expand further, launching an online shop very soon. "I can honestly say I love my job and the industry I'm in!" he says.

Shameless Licks Created for the UK band Shameless Licks, this poster for their debut EP Lick It Up fits inside the EP packaging. "It has a very 'galactic' feel to it," says Osment, "almost as if you're looking through the words into another world. The inspiration came from thoughts of empty space - free-flowing movement inside a solid structure."

Jon Haste
Location London
Job Illustrator
Contact www.kolbillustration.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Despite completing a degree in 3D Design, Jon Haste - aka KOLB - soon found that he much preferred 2D work. Once he'd landed a job as an in-house illustrator at a Brazilian newspaper, he began gradually building up his illustration portfolio.

"KOLB, my studio, was initially created as a showcase for that illustrative work, setting itself apart from the more graphic design-orientated work I've produced," Haste explains. "I always work within a narrative, with the image representing a piece of a story or text, or an imagined event. It's the illustration of the moment that inspires the work, and I bring as much feeling and emotion to it as I can muster."

Face of a Thousand Fists "I'd had an idea of creating an image with hands or body parts, a concept that isn't new," Haste explains, "but I wanted to add extra dimensions in detail, almost so that the hands or body parts are unrecognisable and take on a different quality in the image. It came about quite quickly once this idea had materialised."

Jon Haste
Location London
Job Illustrator
Contact www.kolbillustration.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Despite completing a degree in 3D Design, Jon Haste - aka KOLB - soon found that he much preferred 2D work. Once he'd landed a job as an in-house illustrator at a Brazilian newspaper, he began gradually building up his illustration portfolio.

"KOLB, my studio, was initially created as a showcase for that illustrative work, setting itself apart from the more graphic design-orientated work I've produced," Haste explains. "I always work within a narrative, with the image representing a piece of a story or text, or an imagined event. It's the illustration of the moment that inspires the work, and I bring as much feeling and emotion to it as I can muster."

The Orchard is Such a Very Silly Place "This four-colour screenprint sprang out from some sketches I was making while playing around with positive and negative shapes," says Haste of this illustration. "The environment and storylines playing out within the wood are oblivious to the mischievous creatures all around them."

Heinritzh Sales
Location Manila, Philippines
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.ritzh.carbonmade.com
Software Photoshop

Heinritzh Sales is another artist who changed his mind regarding his career. After graduating from an engineering course, he took the decision to become a graphic designer instead, armed with little more than a few T-shirt design contest successes and some friends in the creative industry. Eventually - "with guts and Photoshop to back me up," he says - Sales applied for his first design job at leading Philippines clothing label Folded and Hung.

"It's really a dream come true, seeing your designs on the streets worn by different people whom you don't even know," Sales enthuses. More recently he has joined another well-regarded local studio, Team Manila, and seems to have found his niche.

"Designing for me is not a 9-to-5 job," he continues. "It hunts me any time and anywhere - while riding on a bus, taking a shower or even while I'm sleeping. Ideas will come naturally in the least expected situation. Just remember that when that moment comes, don't store it in your brain; write it down so you can free up some kilobytes of memory in your head."

Pleasure Another T-shirt design, mixing typography, hand-made type, drawings and symbols. Sales says he chose the silhouette of a woman because of its "sophisticated, fragile and yet dangerous characteristics… well actually, it's just a good shape to start with. There are no fancy meanings behind it. I chose words at random again - and it takes a lot of patience because it consumes hours for such a project, from start to finish."

Oriol Fernandez Tur
Location Barcelona, Spain
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.urikane.com
Software Photoshop

"Since I was a child I've had a problem with language," says Oriol Fernandez Tur. "I'm dyslexic and I think it helps me to see words as objects, not just as words. I like experimenting with them and playing on the limits of comprehension."

Unsurprisingly, then, much of Tur's work incorporates typography in some form, although often meanings (and double-meanings) are twisted and played on in an interesting manner. "I don't have a strict way of working," he explains. "Sometimes I start with a pencil, and sometimes I go straight to the computer. I like experimenting with each project, but most of the time I prefer starting with a concept." In fact, Tur's difficulty with words seems to have been of some benefit to his art, at least: "As I don't normally find the right words, I try to find the right images."

Vine a ca la Meri The title of this piece, which was essentially a poster invite for a party, translates as 'Come to Meri's House'. While working on the image, Tur decided that the best way to read the text was from front to back. "Then I saw I was wrong, because everyone reads 'Meri la a ca Vine'… anyway, the party was packed, so I concluded that people get smart when a party is on." He adds that he has always liked 3D typography: "I enjoy the contrast you get when you combine a drawn technique with 'real' perspective."

TakeCare
Location Moscow
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.thelocalgenius.com
Software Photoshop

"Someone who can really teach must be learning himself, and people who enjoy teaching others usually have too much free time and too little wisdom," says TakeCare - AKA Kostya Sasquatch from Russia - rather controversially. It's hardly a surprise though, as he adds that he finds classic art and the academic style of teaching boring. "I consider life itself to be the serious study, where you can't practise in one discipline above all others."

One of the things that had the strongest impact on him, Sasquatch says, was broadband internet, "enabling me to watch thousands of images, videos and other art from all over the world. In 2005 my future bride Lisa and I created our first website with our own art… Although it doesn't seem that long ago, I wonder how much I've learnt within those five years. I hope this evolution never stops."

Donut Control "The donut is a symbol of eternity in the 3D evolution of the circle," says TakeCare, perhaps not entirely seriously. "It also has taken its place in science-related culture after the remarkable topological example of the similarity of a donut (torus) and a mug." One of a series of images which TakeCare claims to not even understand himself, he adds that "the style is clear, with simple shapes and some special and considered details."

Nina Hunter
Location Leeds, UK
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.ninahunter.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

"During my career I have developed a unique feminine style in graphic design and illustration," says Nina Hunter, "which led to me to leaving my full-time job and setting up a creative agency called LoveLife, focusing on the female market and the fashion and beauty industry." LoveLife, she adds, is designed to showcase female design in an industry seemingly dominated by men.

Originally from Gdansk in Poland, where she graduated with an MA in Fine Arts, Hunter now lives and works in the UK. She combines the development of LoveLife with her own career. "I've recently been exploring the art of digital illustration; the digital collage, a relatively new art form, is a combination of a skilled hand and modern technology."

Alice in Wonderland Hunter began working on this series of images a few months ago. "My illustrations are not truthful representations of the story, they are just inspired by it," she says. "I find myself very comfortable creating storytelling work that has a very strong connection to fantasy. In this illustration I have used elements of Polish folk art to add a bit of identity and make reference to my home country." Several of the images have appeared at the Gallery North exhibition in Batley, and she also hopes to collaborate with a fashion designer to print some of this work onto clothing.