Computer Arts Gallery: January 2009

Charlotte Day
Location Essex
Job Illustrator
Contact www.charlottedaydesign.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand

After graduating with a textiles degree in 2001, Charlotte spent a year honing her botanical illustration skills at the Royal Horticultural Society.

Since going freelance in 2008, she's undertaken commissions for boutique clients and joined the books of design agent Lucy Woodhouse. "Designing patterns suits my personality," says Charlotte, who digitally tweaks designs created with pencils and paint. "I'm almost obsessive about finding pattern and order in everything I do. I'd like to diversify a little more and fulfil my childhood dream of illustrating a book."

Horse Chestnut Of this near-psychedelic, modern design featuring the ubiquitous tree, Charlotte says, "It's a more contemporary design, but [horse chestnut trees are] familiar subjects for me. A number surround my studio and I love them."

Charlotte Day
Location Essex
Job Illustrator
Contact www.charlottedaydesign.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, Freehand

After graduating with a textiles degree in 2001, Charlotte spent a year honing her botanical illustration skills at the Royal Horticultural Society.

Since going freelance in 2008, she's undertaken commissions for boutique clients and joined the books of design agent Lucy Woodhouse. "Designing patterns suits my personality," says Charlotte, who digitally tweaks designs created with pencils and paint. "I'm almost obsessive about finding pattern and order in everything I do. I'd like to diversify a little more and fulfil my childhood dream of illustrating a book."

Tropical Wings "Intended for use as greetings cards and gift-wrap, this design looks to the Japanese influence in British art during the early 1900s, and the hibiscus flower that grows on my kitchen windowsill," reveals Charlotte. "I always try and include something personal in my work as I find it helps me to connect with it and stops it getting too sterile - a danger when you're looking at jobs purely with a business head on."

Samuel Freeman
Location London
Job Freelance graphic designer
Contact www.samuel-freeman.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Cinema 4D

Samuel studied graphic design at the University of the West of England and moved to London after graduating in the late 1990s, where he now works as a freelance graphic designer.

As well as paving the way for the launch of his forthcoming limited-edition T-shirt label, Friends And Countrymen, Samuel's portfolio has taken in work for music industry names including Hall or Nothing, Unkle and Defected Records, in addition to editorial design for the likes of The Big Issue.

"My influences are fairly varied," Samuel tells us. "Anything from comic books and 19th century engravings to screengrabs of crashed computer screens! I have a passion for typography and have recently started creating my own fonts."

The Bigger Picture private view poster When The Big Issue magazine sought to promote its exhibition of 16 years of Big Issue photography, it turned to Samuel. "Having looked through their shortlist of photos that would be shown, this one of Jarvis Cocker (shot by Andrew Cotterill) stood out for me," he recalls.

Samuel Freeman
Location London
Job Freelance graphic designer
Contact www.samuel-freeman.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Cinema 4D

Samuel studied graphic design at the University of the West of England and moved to London after graduating in the late 1990s, where he now works as a freelance graphic designer.

As well as paving the way for the launch of his forthcoming limited-edition T-shirt label, Friends And Countrymen, Samuel's portfolio has taken in work for music industry names including Hall or Nothing, Unkle and Defected Records, in addition to editorial design for the likes of The Big Issue.

"My influences are fairly varied," Samuel tells us. "Anything from comic books and 19th century engravings to screengrabs of crashed computer screens! I have a passion for typography and have recently started creating my own fonts."

Under Da Poetree CD promo "Under Da Poetree are a spoken-word hip-hop duo from London," says Samuel. "Their music has a very organic, roots feel to it, with poetry featuring strongly. I felt that a black and white, high-contrast treatment on the artwork would be striking, and create an air of mystery as to what they're about. The custom typeface helps to strengthen their forward-thinking attitude to hip-hop."

Magomed Dovjenko
Location Cologne, Germany
Job Illustrator
Contact www.dovjenko.net
Software Illustrator, Photoshop

Originally a graphic design whiz, it was on discovering the work of Alex Trochut and Si Scott that Magomed "fell in love with illustrations". His style has developed in step with his skills, and he's currently stuck on liquid effects, as displayed in his typography for Urb magazine.

"A highlight of my career so far has definitely been joining the KDU," he says, "And the depthCORE collective. These guys gave me a lot of help, exposure and motivation." Magomed's time is currently taken up with preparing his website for its forthcoming relaunch, so watch that space for news of both his client work and his other, self-initiated projects.

Proof7 Magomed was asked by the Keystone Design Union to contribute to the KDU Summer Solstice Book - this is the result. "The main motivation was having my work printed in a book - I'd love that," he says. "That's why I had a lot of fun doing it."

Kev Gahan
Location Stamford, East Midlands
Job Illustrator
Contact www.kevgahan.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Boredom can prove a great creative motivation, as Lincoln University graduate Kev Gahan discovered during his studies: "I was uninspired by images that were highly realistic and heavily airbrushed. I became more excited and inspired by images that had a back-to-basics, hands-on, physical look to them." And so his bold, stripped-down, sketch-based collage style was born.

Kev's work has already garnered praise from judges at London's New Designers 2008, and he hopes that it'll take him to the capital and a studio environment in the Peepshow Collective vein. "I attempt to push the boundaries in the way we perceive physical objects, [their] perspective and dimensions," Kev says of his work. "I also love using found textures and marks that are handmade. Why use paint splatters within a computer texture library when you can create them yourself and scan them in?"

Seasick Steve By settling on a stripped-down aesthetic for his portrayal of Seasick Steve, Kev hoped to capture the blues songsmith's "honesty and charm". The initial concept was to have a certain childish cutout look, with sections arranged together to form a playful composition.

"I drew the majority of the image crudely with pencils," says Kev. "Then I transferred the image into Photoshop, where I adjusted the composition and levels then added colour."

Marcin Kuligowski
Location Wroclaw, Poland
Job Graphic designer/Illustrator
Contact www.werke.pl
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Something of an enigma, despite his website being home to hundreds of mind-bogglingly hectic illustrations that attest to his being a prolific creative force fuelled by the surreal, sinister worlds dreamed up by the likes of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, Marcin insists that, "I don't feel that I have a creative career. I'm still working on it." But the highlight of his portfolio so far? "I'm really proud of the Walt Disney is Dead exhibition, because it was the first time I did something on my own terms and on my own turf."

Marcin's guess as to where he'll be in five years time is as good as ours ("That would be a year after Maya calendar ends with Doomsday and a great, great cataclysm?"), but the immediate future looks bright. He recently linked up with a group of his Polish contemporaries to launch 'secret' project www.miligram.net, a platform for the presentation and sale of some of the most thrilling illustration and design work coming out of the cold right now. Keep it close to your chest, though - we can only assume that the first rule of Miligram is that nobody talks about Miligram…

Werke 06 "A juxtaposition of ideas from Alan Moore's Promethea and John Tynes' Unknown Armies," says Marcin. "Basically, it's a porn star who ascended to godhood. Searching for references was fun."

Tim and Bram Vanhaeren
Location Antwerp, Belgium
Job Graphic designers
Contact www.into1.be
Software Illustrator, Photoshop

Five years ago, brothers Tim and Bram discovered the inspiring world of graphic design, and haven't stopped trying to develop their own design style ever since. Tim is currently studying Cross Media Design, and Bram Graphic Design, in Antwerp.

The pair have their own distinctive styles. Tim, the elder of the two, is a Photoshop fan who gets his creative kicks from bringing an element of realism to physically impossible concepts. Bram is the Illustrator aficionado, an advanced artist who uses drawn elements to give his work a specific look. The brothers' techniques and visions combine in their online portfolio, into1, which marks their first step towards the dream of starting up their own design studio.

Free Bram produced this experimental artwork after graduating from high school. In Bram's own words, "The work depicts my feeling of freedom after being 'captured' in high school, with the only goal being to finish it as fast as possible to start in college learning about something I really love!"

Daniel Johansson
Location Gothenburg, Sweden
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.venompalette.com
Software Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects

Growing up in the "beautiful but sleepy" Swedish countryside, designer Daniel - AKA Venom Palette - found his portal to the heady world of popular culture in Powell Peralta skateboards, anime hit Cyborg 009, Twisted Sister's I Wanna Rock and a stack of colourful crayons.

"This is what created me and moulded the foundation for my images," Daniel says. "During my teenage years I made posters and CD covers for local punk bands, which led to the start of my own record label. But I quite quickly discovered that I enjoyed making the album art more than selling records."

And so began Daniel's freelance design career. With tools as varied as "dried-out felt pens, broken cassette players, used napkins and Adobe CS3" at his disposal, Daniel has little trouble turning his brash, often sinister, always striking designs to a multitude of media. This versatility has already seen him attract clients including Rock Sound magazine and record label Undergroove, as well as an exhibition at London's Brick Lane Gallery. A show at Design Festa Gallery in Tokyo is scheduled for May 2009.

Undergroove T-shirt design This T-shirt design for London-based record label Undergroove is a prime example of Daniel's thematically dark but visually vivid style. "Their request was an eye-catching and twisted large print," says Daniel. "I decided to go with fluorescent green and pink colours."

Eduardo Fuentes
Location London
Job Illustrator
Contact www.edufuentes.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Spanish-born Eduardo landed in London mid-2008, armed with a degree in Photography and Illustration from Madrid's Escuela de Arte, a portfolio of distinctive, comic character-based illustrations and a desire to break into the world of editorial and children's book illustration. Yet it wasn't an easy creative journey…

"It's been hard for me to find a style I'm happy with," Eduardo admits. "In fact, for four years I've been experimenting and changing my workflow, which in turn changed the look of my illustrations. Sometimes technology is a trap in which too many possibilities get you dazed, and with no clear idea of where to go. Eventually I relaxed, picked a pretty normal Photoshop brush and started playing."

Currently working on illustrations for a children's book about pirates, and Spanish magazines including Training and Development Digest - "I enjoy giving a funny twist to these (sort of) boring subjects" - Eduardo counts illustrators including Yuko Shimizu, Dave McKean and Javier Olivares as influences. "I think my style, like everybody else's, is a mix of all the work I love from other people," he says. "All mashed up and digested with my own gastric juices. That's what makes it personal."

Raining This illustration is part of a series of editorial pieces that Eduardo was commissioned to produce to accompany features about the current international economic crisis.