Computer Arts Gallery: February 2013

Ingmar Spiller
Job: Graphic designer
Location: Berlin, Germany

From snowboarding and science right through to theatre and techno music, Ingmar Spiller’s work always takes its cues from the content. This approach has led him down some interesting creative avenues: “You get guided by the content, and because of that you do things you wouldn’t normally think about,” he says.

Spiller graduated with a masters degree in Visual Communication from Berlin University of the Arts this summer. The institution is still very much a part of his life, with Spiller continuing to work with multidisciplined student collectives LzDt (the Laboratory for Contemporary Presentation Techniques) as well as the Projektgruppe UdK-Verlag (Project Group UdK Publisher).

White Lines
The concept behind White Lines magazine was to create a publication offering a different emotional and atmospheric point of view on the sport of snowboarding

Ingmar Spiller
Job: Graphic designer
Location: Berlin, Germany

From snowboarding and science right through to theatre and techno music, Ingmar Spiller’s work always takes its cues from the content. This approach has led him down some interesting creative avenues: “You get guided by the content, and because of that you do things you wouldn’t normally think about,” he says.

Spiller graduated with a masters degree in Visual Communication from Berlin University of the Arts this summer. The institution is still very much a part of his life, with Spiller continuing to work with multidisciplined student collectives LzDt (the Laboratory for Contemporary Presentation Techniques) as well as the Projektgruppe UdK-Verlag (Project Group UdK Publisher).

Homo(Sapiens)3
Programme for a theatre project called Homo(Sapiens)3, created with the LzDt collective. The play illustrates a conflict between 12 scientists regarding the concepts of logic and emotion

Ingmar Spiller
Job: Graphic designer
Location: Berlin, Germany

From snowboarding and science right through to theatre and techno music, Ingmar Spiller’s work always takes its cues from the content. This approach has led him down some interesting creative avenues: “You get guided by the content, and because of that you do things you wouldn’t normally think about,” he says.

Spiller graduated with a masters degree in Visual Communication from Berlin University of the Arts this summer. The institution is still very much a part of his life, with Spiller continuing to work with multidisciplined student collectives LzDt (the Laboratory for Contemporary Presentation Techniques) as well as the Projektgruppe UdK-Verlag (Project Group UdK Publisher).

Homo(Sapiens)3
“To support Homo (Sapiens)3 we created a poster installation,” explains Spiller. “The personality of every scientist is graphically represented.”

Ingmar Spiller
Job: Graphic designer
Location: Berlin, Germany

From snowboarding and science right through to theatre and techno music, Ingmar Spiller’s work always takes its cues from the content. This approach has led him down some interesting creative avenues: “You get guided by the content, and because of that you do things you wouldn’t normally think about,” he says.

Spiller graduated with a masters degree in Visual Communication from Berlin University of the Arts this summer. The institution is still very much a part of his life, with Spiller continuing to work with multidisciplined student collectives LzDt (the Laboratory for Contemporary Presentation Techniques) as well as the Projektgruppe UdK-Verlag (Project Group UdK Publisher).

Nina
As well as creating a poster, programme, video installation and the set design for a “theatrical experiment” called Nina, Spiller, LzDt and the play’s actors also designed a book about the making of the play, including articles about the financial crisis

Ladislav Hubert
Location: Croydon, London
Job: Illustrator

Based in Croydon, UK, Ladislav Hubert is a freelance designer and illustrator. He graduated from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, with a masters degree in Art Education with Slovak Language and Literature.

After graduating he first worked as an art teacher, and later as an art director and graphic designer. Today he focuses on freelance design and illustration. His creative process normally begins with Hubert drawing in Painter using liquid inks and a Wacom tablet. Later he adds textures using scans of natural materials. His personal works are usually influenced by “rock and roll” imagery, pop culture and literature.

“My work comes from a love of line and colour – exploring what they can turn into, then seeing whether that can become art,” he explains. “They say there is a thin line between fine art and illustration.”

His commissioned pieces follow a similar process to his personal art: “I always try to create something communicative, bold and right for the brief. It makes an impact on the viewer by being elegant, colourful, mystical and decorative.”

Sabatta album artwork
An illustration created for South London-based rock band Sabatta, inspired by the song ‘Makes Me Feel Alive’. The base drawing and the pattern background were designed using Corel Painter XI with a Wacom tablet.

Ladislav Hubert
Location: Croydon, London
Job: Illustrator

Based in Croydon, UK, Ladislav Hubert is a freelance designer and illustrator. He graduated from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, with a masters degree in Art Education with Slovak Language and Literature.

After graduating he first worked as an art teacher, and later as an art director and graphic designer. Today he focuses on freelance design and illustration. His creative process normally begins with Hubert drawing in Painter using liquid inks and a Wacom tablet. Later he adds textures using scans of natural materials. His personal works are usually influenced by “rock and roll” imagery, pop culture and literature.

“My work comes from a love of line and colour – exploring what they can turn into, then seeing whether that can become art,” he explains. “They say there is a thin line between fine art and illustration.”

His commissioned pieces follow a similar process to his personal art: “I always try to create something communicative, bold and right for the brief. It makes an impact on the viewer by being elegant, colourful, mystical and decorative.”

Jimi Hendrix Tribute
Created for the Art Rebellion gallery, this is Hubert’s tribute to the legendary guitarist. The main idea was to create a mystical triple portrait influenced by the visuals and colour schemes of the 60s.

Jakub Gwiazdowski
Location: Manchester, UK
Job: Graphic designer

“Good design is beautiful and useful,” states Jakub Gwiazdowski. “That makes it timeless. Bad design is created just to satisfy commercial fads – thinking about it as a product in categories of gain and loss.” It’s an ethos the graphic designer applies to all his creative work.

Originally from Gdynia in Poland, Gwiazdowski now lives in Manchester in the UK, and has been drawing for as long as he can remember. Recent clients include clothing brands Bench and Umbro, and while his preferred software is Illustrator – with Photoshop and Cinema 4D used for added effects where necessary – Gwiazdowski’s projects still begin life on paper.

“I start from a really quick sketch. Then I gather some reference photos or graphics, just to have a plan for what I’m doing. Sometimes a good brief can be real inspiration,” he adds.

Kid’s Dream
Gwiazdowski designed this T-shirt print for Bench. “As a kid I dreamed about being an astronaut,” he says. “I drew tons of pictures with astronauts back in those days.” This graphic was chosen by Style Sight as one of the graphic trends for spring/summer 2013.

Jakub Gwiazdowski
Location: Manchester, UK
Job: Graphic designer

“Good design is beautiful and useful,” states Jakub Gwiazdowski. “That makes it timeless. Bad design is created just to satisfy commercial fads – thinking about it as a product in categories of gain and loss.” It’s an ethos the graphic designer applies to all his creative work.

Originally from Gdynia in Poland, Gwiazdowski now lives in Manchester in the UK, and has been drawing for as long as he can remember. Recent clients include clothing brands Bench and Umbro, and while his preferred software is Illustrator – with Photoshop and Cinema 4D used for added effects where necessary – Gwiazdowski’s projects still begin life on paper.

“I start from a really quick sketch. Then I gather some reference photos or graphics, just to have a plan for what I’m doing. Sometimes a good brief can be real inspiration,” he adds.

Jon K Poster
This poster was created to promote a club night with Canadian DJ Jon K headlining. The image was originally designed as a T-shirt print.

James Olstein
Location: Philadelphia, USA
Job: Art director

“Nice clean drawings, ruined with dirty textures.” That’s how Philadelphia-based art director James Olstein describes his visual style. The self-confessed “total comic book nerd” is influenced by 50s and 60s animation and film, and the work of Saul Bass in particular.

Olstein’s earliest design memory, however, is of looking at the covers of his parent’s records and admiring the type on Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality. He began to draw and collect further examples of work he liked, his passion eventually leading him to Indiana University to study graphic design. His career highlights so far range from an illustration-heavy campaign for Philadelphia Federal Credit Union to a full bus wrap, which passes him on his walk home every week.

So aside from working on an illustrated comic zine – which he’s writing, drawing and printing himself – and more editorial illustrations, what is Olstein up to next? “I’m doing more screenprints of my illustrations. It’s very fulfilling to take something made on the computer and turn it into something tactile,” he smiles.

Homing Pigeon
Sporting a tag reading ‘Help me’, this is Olstein’s tribute to the homing pigeon: “The original Twitter,” as he call it.

James Olstein
Location: Philadelphia, USA
Job: Art director

“Nice clean drawings, ruined with dirty textures.” That’s how Philadelphia-based art director James Olstein describes his visual style. The self-confessed “total comic book nerd” is influenced by 50s and 60s animation and film, and the work of Saul Bass in particular.

Olstein’s earliest design memory, however, is of looking at the covers of his parent’s records and admiring the type on Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality. He began to draw and collect further examples of work he liked, his passion eventually leading him to Indiana University to study graphic design. His career highlights so far range from an illustration-heavy campaign for Philadelphia Federal Credit Union to a full bus wrap, which passes him on his walk home every week.

So aside from working on an illustrated comic zine – which he’s writing, drawing and printing himself – and more editorial illustrations, what is Olstein up to next? “I’m doing more screenprints of my illustrations. It’s very fulfilling to take something made on the computer and turn it into something tactile,” he smiles.

What If I Were...
Working with US agency Brownstein Group, Olstein illustrated this cover for the WPO New England Chapter’s annual membership directory.

Giga Kobidze
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Job: Art director and digital artist

Giga Kobidze’s work is a subtle but stirring mixture of photography and illustration. The digital artist, from Tbilisi, Georgia, finds inspiration all around him – in life, people, circumstances and memories. Because of this, he says, his work is imbued with feeling and emotion.

“My style represents my character,” Kobidze says. “It’s a visual expression of my personality – complex elements that all gravitate around me.”

As a child, before moving into digital art, Kobidze was passionate about traditional media. Nowadays his style emerges somewhere between the physical and tactile, and harnesses the power of digital creative tools.“Style can’t be found,” he says. “It gradually evolves – the result of constant effort, love and devotion to your work.”

Kobidze considers ‘Seven’, a project about the purest human emotions, to be one of the highlights of his career so far. It features stark and often troubling images of his subjects. Meanwhile, his upcoming projects will see him producing a new series for the Keystone Design Union.

Sakideamsheni – Sim
This is a personal piece by Kobidze, but it was inspired by the logo of the Tblisi agency Sakideamsheni. The image is an interpretation of a creative direction that the studio could take.

Giga Kobidze
Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Job: Art director and digital artist

Giga Kobidze’s work is a subtle but stirring mixture of photography and illustration. The digital artist, from Tbilisi, Georgia, finds inspiration all around him – in life, people, circumstances and memories. Because of this, he says, his work is imbued with feeling and emotion.

“My style represents my character,” Kobidze says. “It’s a visual expression of my personality – complex elements that all gravitate around me.”

As a child, before moving into digital art, Kobidze was passionate about traditional media. Nowadays his style emerges somewhere between the physical and tactile, and harnesses the power of digital creative tools.“Style can’t be found,” he says. “It gradually evolves – the result of constant effort, love and devotion to your work.”

Kobidze considers ‘Seven’, a project about the purest human emotions, to be one of the highlights of his career so far. It features stark and often troubling images of his subjects. Meanwhile, his upcoming projects will see him producing a new series for the Keystone Design Union.

Barcelona
Kobidze participated in the second Show Us Your Type online project, celebrating the city of Barcelona through this illustration.