Computer Arts Gallery: July 2011

Jonny Packham/JAYPEE
Location Leeds, UK
Job Illustrator

Leeds-based Jonny Packham, who also works under the name Jaypee , is finishing off his BA in graphic design – an experience he says has transformed his approach to design. “In the last three years I’ve started using a Wacom tablet in conjunction with Illustrator and Photoshop,” he explains, “and in doing so I realised that this way of working has opened up a whole new range of possibilities for what I do as an illustrator.”

As well as preparing for his end-of-term exhibition, Packham is producing artwork for two bands. “It’s a very busy time. Illustration is my stress therapy,” he says.

Good Hair
Part of a proposal for installation artwork for a salon in Leeds, this piece celebrates innovative hairstyles. “It’s part of a triptych, based on original sketches that were worked up in Illustrator,” Packham explains.

Jonny Packham/JAYPEE
Location Leeds, UK
Job Illustrator

Leeds-based Jonny Packham, who also works under the name Jaypee , is finishing off his BA in graphic design – an experience he says has transformed his approach to design. “In the last three years I’ve started using a Wacom tablet in conjunction with Illustrator and Photoshop,” he explains, “and in doing so I realised that this way of working has opened up a whole new range of possibilities for what I do as an illustrator.”

As well as preparing for his end-of-term exhibition, Packham is producing artwork for two bands. “It’s a very busy time. Illustration is my stress therapy,” he says.

The Kraken
“One concept I’m fascinated with at the moment is that of nature being much bigger than man. To communicate this concept, I often use animals in conflict with man, as seen here,” Packham says. “I used Illustrator to digitally work the initial sketch up into a nine-colour piece, and added brushes over this in Photoshop.”

Spiros Halaris
Location London, UK
Job Graphic designer

“I’m a graphic design graduate, but illustration has since won my heart,” smiles Spiros Halaris, who is freelancing on graphic design and fashion projects while continuing his course in fashion illustration. “I love the result of combining something of a graphic nature with something purely handmade,” he adds. “I’ve had several opportunities to collaborate and work with fashion designers and labels. I’m now looking to do the creative direction for a brand or label. I suppose that’s my big ambition at the moment.”

Where The Wild Things Are
A personal piece. “When I created this, I was heavily influenced by folktales and fairytales,” explains Halaris, “but I also wanted to create an image that would portray a certain fashionable mystery and vibe.” After working on the linework, he collaged together the different elements, and this piece was the result.

Spiros Halaris
Location London, UK
Job Graphic designer

“I’m a graphic design graduate, but illustration has since won my heart,” smiles Spiros Halaris, who is freelancing on graphic design and fashion projects while continuing his course in fashion illustration. “I love the result of combining something of a graphic nature with something purely handmade,” he adds. “I’ve had several opportunities to collaborate and work with fashion designers and labels. I’m now looking to do the creative direction for a brand or label. I suppose that’s my big ambition at the moment.”

YSL
A simple paean to the Yves Saint Laurent logo, and in particular the way its three letters intertwine. “I wanted to make a more ‘dirty’ version of the luxurious role it usually has,” says Halaris, “so I decided to focus the image on a very detailed pair of lips and let the letters have a decorative role.”

Jono Hislop
Location Auckland, New Zealand
Job Graphic designer

Jono ‘Kivex’ Hislop is a 21-year-old designer hailing from New Zealand, although he intends to move to the UK later this year. “I do advertisement design for Paramount Pictures and balance a freelance career on the side, usually way late into the morning,” he says. “Any other spare time I can muster is spent producing electronic music.”

Most of Hislop’s clients are musicians and he’s produced a large number of album/EP covers and gig posters. He’s keen on a collage style: “To build new visions out of parts of photos – I love it,” he explains. “It’s the ability to create entirely new worlds.”

Soundtrack to Forever
Artwork produced for singer/songwriter Tiki Taane’s first single from his new album. “I’d love to say this piece had a deep meaning to it, but really it was all about making the man in the image look like a badass,” says Hislop.

Jono Hislop
Location Auckland, New Zealand
Job Graphic designer

Jono ‘Kivex’ Hislop is a 21-year-old designer hailing from New Zealand, although he intends to move to the UK later this year. “I do advertisement design for Paramount Pictures and balance a freelance career on the side, usually way late into the morning,” he says. “Any other spare time I can muster is spent producing electronic music.”

Most of Hislop’s clients are musicians and he’s produced a large number of album/EP covers and gig posters. He’s keen on a collage style: “To build new visions out of parts of photos – I love it,” he explains. “It’s the ability to create entirely new worlds.”

Falinox
An EP concept for indie-electronic label Lifted Music: “This shows the balance of nature and destruction on a single land mass.”

Chris Manfre
Location Utah, USA
Job Graphic designer

Chris Manfre is an audio engineer turned graphic designer: “While working as an engineer at night, I studied graphic design and interactive media during the day,” he says. He currently works full time as in-house graphic designer and teacher for a non-profit youth media arts and education centre called Spy Hop.

“I’ve always loved to take things apart and put them back together again in a new way,” continues Manfre. “Lately in my design work I’ve been obsessed with dismantling images of old buildings and creating new ones with strange proportions. I also scan a lot of old books and even like to sneak some of my nine-year-old son’s doodles in the backgrounds of my work.”

Building Communities
A personal piece. “It’s simply about people supporting each other in their own cities with their individual ideas and talents, and how our lives are weaved together in sometimes long and unknown paths,” Manfre explains.

Tim McCluskey
Location Cheltenham, UK
Job Graphic designer

Tim McCluskey first discovered digital art when he was very young, playing about with the seminal Deluxe Paint on his Amiga computer to produce frame-by-frame animations. “I wanted to learn more and work in the creative industry,” he says. Now, at the age of 28, he’s about to finish another two-year design course: “I believe no one is ever too old to start a career in the creative industry, and keeping on top of new styles and techniques is a must for any designer.”

McCluskey’s sketchbook, constantly by his side, is the source of most of his completed images, with sketches being scanned into Illustrator and worked up there. “Each page consists of bizarre images and highly detailed illustrations,” he says. “Sketchbooks are very personal and I dislike people glancing at mine. It’s almost as if they’re snippets of an artist’s mind.”

Colour Chaos
Developed from doodles in his sketchbook, McCluskey describes this image as “an experiment with doodle chaos”. He says, “This type of design work produces an addiction to detail that can be hard to stop. I later put the linework into Illustrator and traced over it, then added colour.”

Linton Rogers
Location East Sussex, UK
Job Graphic designer

After graduating from the University of Brighton last year, Linton Rogers decided to set up his own graphic design studio. “Projects so far have included rebrands, web design, layout designs for a monthly publication, art direction and promotional material for a business event, charity work and personal digital manipulation work,” he says. “I hope to get more work in for my studio this year and would also love to work on some more charity projects.”

I’ve Got the Magic
This piece was inspired by the single ‘Magic’ by B.o.B. “It’s a feel-good song, colourful and upbeat,” says Rogers. “To make it visually engaging, I used custom typography designed to look gooey, squidgy and full of life.” He adds, “I used the Dodge and Burn tools to make the typography less flat, together with overlaid textures, custom shapes and a Gaussian blur to give a sense of depth to the piece.”

Nathan Walker
Location Texas, USA
Job Illustrator and art director

Working at a small agency in Austin, Texas, Nathan Walker designs in his spare time under his studio name of All The Pretty Colors. “I enjoy designs with several elements and emotions happening at once, so my style tends to be very busy,” he says. “I love making one piece within the illustration connect to another, keeping the image flowing while still being chaotic – sort of a flowing chaos.”

All Walker’s images start out as sketches, which he then goes over with a Micron pen: “There’s something soothing about tracing lines. It’s almost like therapy for me.” He then works on the sketch in either Photoshop or Illustrator, depending on the style he wants to achieve. “I think a lot of my inspiration comes from the ‘big city’ atmosphere,” he adds, “like New York or Chicago, where there’s non-stop action and visual eye candy everywhere.”

Designers Against Child Slavery
A promo image created for the art collective of the same name. “I wanted to show a disgusting view of what’s happening to these victims of child sex trafficking. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that my time and efforts were used for a great cause.”