Computer Arts Gallery: March 2009

Ashleigh Barron
Location Sheffield, UK
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.redbubble.com/people/ashleighbarron
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

After studying a foundation degree in Graphic Design at The Sheffield College, Ashleigh is currently in her second year of Design and Art Direction at Manchester Metropolitan University. She's a big believer in that simple but often forgotten advice: keep your eyes open. "I believe that curiosity and awareness of the world are important, as a designer," she says. "I like all of my creations to have meaning and conceptual value. Researching a topic heavily is an important part of my design process, as I take pleasure in approaching briefs from unusual angles."

Ashleigh also has an eye on the future, having taken on three work placements already and having plans for more. "I'm keen to gain further experience in industry that will provide a strong foundation for future employment after graduation," she adds.

Everyday is Like Sunday "This piece represents the lyrics to Morrissey's track of the same name as a mass of greyscale blocks," Ashleigh explains. "Each letter of the alphabet has been assigned a shade of grey. My intention was to not only consider the visual aesthetic, but also the process by which I created the piece. That process reflects the themes of the song: repetition, blandness and frustration."

Ashleigh Barron
Location Sheffield, UK
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.redbubble.com/people/ashleighbarron
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

After studying a foundation degree in Graphic Design at The Sheffield College, Ashleigh is currently in her second year of Design and Art Direction at Manchester Metropolitan University. She's a big believer in that simple but often forgotten advice: keep your eyes open. "I believe that curiosity and awareness of the world are important, as a designer," she says. "I like all of my creations to have meaning and conceptual value. Researching a topic heavily is an important part of my design process, as I take pleasure in approaching briefs from unusual angles."

Ashleigh also has an eye on the future, having taken on three work placements already and having plans for more. "I'm keen to gain further experience in industry that will provide a strong foundation for future employment after graduation," she adds.

Mutation A piece of experimental typography based around the concept of evolution. "It represents the first mutations that occurred due to the hydrothermal vents under water millions of years ago," says Ashleigh, "which some scientists believe created a suitable environment for life."

Jason Devine
Location London
Job Graphic designer/illustrator
Contact www.jasondevine.net
Software Illustrator, Photoshop,

"I'm a firm believer in spontaneous doodle artwork," says this graduate of the University of Ulster. "I often randomly scribble on paper in an attempt to create typefaces and develop landscapes or my next weirdly shaped monster."

After graduation, Jason moved to London to work with a fashion supplier, designing T-shirts for the high street. Given a fairly loose rein with his designs, he developed his own style and gained the confidence to become a full-time freelancer.

Currently, Jason is heavily involved with promotions for bars and clubs in the north east of England. "Next I hope to screen-print my work to give away in various media, and hopefully I'll be able to do a large wall installation and create my own T-shirt label as a side project."

Bacteria Bandit Of this T-shirt design for the 2008 Uniqlo Grand Prix, Jason says, "The idea was to show some of the main organs of the body being invaded by strange monsters and bacteria. The fluoro colours represent the 'gunge and goo' of infection."

Jason Devine
Location London
Job Graphic designer/illustrator
Contact www.jasondevine.net
Software Illustrator, Photoshop,

"I'm a firm believer in spontaneous doodle artwork," says this graduate of the University of Ulster. "I often randomly scribble on paper in an attempt to create typefaces and develop landscapes or my next weirdly shaped monster."

After graduation, Jason moved to London to work with a fashion supplier, designing T-shirts for the high street. Given a fairly loose rein with his designs, he developed his own style and gained the confidence to become a full-time freelancer.

Currently, Jason is heavily involved with promotions for bars and clubs in the north east of England. "Next I hope to screen-print my work to give away in various media, and hopefully I'll be able to do a large wall installation and create my own T-shirt label as a side project."

Nature is in Our Hands This poster was created for the most recent Don't Panic design competition. "The theme was nature," Jason explains. "I wanted to show the idea of a single seed exploding from the palm of a hand, then growing into a landscape mixed with monsters and swirls. These seem to creep into my drawings almost without me knowing..."

Farhana Jaffer
Location London
Job Illustrator, graphic designer
Contact www.farhanajaffer.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, FreeHand

Farhana was just 14 years old when she had her first piece of work published: a design for the promotion of a theatre, for which she won first prize in a competition run by her school. Unsurprisingly, this convinced her to pursue her love of art and design with greater zeal.

Following graduation from Chelsea College of Art and Design last year, she is now designing, editing and producing an online magazine dedicated to promoting new talent within the creative arts. "I started this magazine because I believe very strongly in helping and encouraging others to achieve their goals," she says of Remedy. In the meantime, she has been taking on various freelance work, such as illustrations for Alberto VO5 and Dr Martens.

Eastern Floral This design was the winner of an international competition run by Nokia to produce a phone cover. "I was heavily influenced by European folklore art whilst working on this project," Farhana explains. "I did some sketches of animals and flowers, scanned them and then created a repeat pattern and applied colour using Photoshop. Seeing the final result printed on Nokia's phones was incredibly rewarding."

Sergio Jiménez
Location Madrid
Job Illustrator
Contact www.subcoolture.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects

"My idea of a studio is something like the laboratory of a mad scientist," says Sergio. "I like drawing in the sketchbooks that accompany me all day. I usually start with handmade images and then rescue them on the computer, and I usually work from mistakes and failures."

Although he studied fine art, Sergio has a special interest in calligraphy, with influences ranging from skateboarding culture and urban fashion to B-movies and "domestic and amateur stuff." He particularly enjoys seeing how other people use his type designs, as has happened with Sergio's Pastas_Black font, with appearances on MTV, Nike, Footlocker and Vans graphic pieces.

Vallnord Poster design for a freestyle ski-snowboard station campaign, with art direction by Avalancha and logo by Alex Trochut. "It's based on the graphic illustration style of the '80 and '90s boards, and dirty alley graffiti, with a lot of punk and rock influences. It also explores the idea of 'fake bad guys', which appear a lot in the new snowboarder generation."

Sergio Jiménez
Location Madrid
Job Illustrator
Contact www.subcoolture.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects

"My idea of a studio is something like the laboratory of a mad scientist," says Sergio. "I like drawing in the sketchbooks that accompany me all day. I usually start with handmade images and then rescue them on the computer, and I usually work from mistakes and failures."

Although he studied fine art, Sergio has a special interest in calligraphy, with influences ranging from skateboarding culture and urban fashion to B-movies and "domestic and amateur stuff." He particularly enjoys seeing how other people use his type designs, as has happened with Sergio's Pastas_Black font, with appearances on MTV, Nike, Footlocker and Vans graphic pieces.

Submgz Sub magazine is self-published as a limited edition of 550 copies, and is described as "a kind of map-zine" by Sergio. "In this issue, we invited various artists and designers to take part in a two-tints war. Each artist chose either fashion or religion, represented by different Pantone colours, and the result is a graphical battle."

Enis Maksutovski
Location Dusseldorf
Job Illustrator/designer
Contact www.addictedtographics.com
Software Adobe CS3

"Ever since I was a kid I've been involved with photography, thanks mainly to my dad, who's a photographer in Germany," Enis explains. "The inspiration from my dad was one of the biggest reasons I decided to study something in the creative field."

Thus, from 2003 to 2006, Enis took a course in graphic design, while also working as a freelance designer. He is currently art director at Parasol Island, a Dusseldorf production company for film, animation and interactive media.

He says much of his inspiration comes from the fashion and music industries: "For example, I always take a look at fashion magazines or walk to the fashion stores in Dusseldorf, or just walk through the city and listen to music." The result is a mixture of design, motion graphics and illustrations with a very contemporary feel, a mix between minimal or bold shapes combined with photos and bright colours.

She A personal project created after a photoshoot session with the model Miss Morina. Enis felt the original image needed a little something extra, so he created the triangles that are flying around the model.

Marcroy Smith
Location New York
Job Illustrator/designer
Contact www.marcroy.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Marcroy was fortunate enough to learn from 'amazing designers and illustrators' such as David Foldvari, Jasper Goodall and Roderick Mills on his University of Brighton Illustration course. He's currently working in New York at a collective called Urban Inks at Post Expose studio, alongside Sarah Mead, a typographer and screen printer from San Francisco. "Name-dropping aside, these are the people who have influenced and directed me in my work," says Marcroy.

At university, Marcroy co-founded Philosophy Club together with Salamat Ali and Tom Hutchinson. In true experimental style, the trio had numerous exhibitions, and decided never to take the work down or document any of it. "We don't know where it all is now," adds Macroy.

o One of Marcroy's favourite projects to date. He started by collecting a large number of images from Ceefax (a UK broadcast text-based news and information service) pages. These he emailed to his friend Nic Bennett in the UK. "I told him the elements that I liked most, and he plucked his out too," Marcroy recalls. "He sent me a file back, I took parts from his file and added or subtracted what I thought necessary. This went back and forth for a month or so. It's one of those projects that means absolutely nothing, hence the title."

Damian Jagielski
Location Gdansk, Poland
Job Illustrator/graphic designer
Contact www.behance.net/Dycha
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

"Sometimes I like to present my work as unfinished, although that's not the case," says 25-year-old illustrator and graphic designer Damian Jagielski. "This leaves a free field for the viewer to use their imagination and imbue my work with their own emotions."

Although Damian has been using Photoshop and digital techniques for a long time, he has recently begun to experiment with incorporating traditional media too: "All my works now begin on paper and move to the computer." Illustration has always interested Damian, and he says that he tries to make each image as emotional as possible. "For example, all the characters have their own expression, which means that people can understand the images a lot faster."

Revenge Originally called 'Revenge of Unfinished Works', this is a montage of some of Damien's uncompleted projects. "The illustration shows the style and psychedelic character of my works, which I love to use," he says. "Each of the characters was drawn in pencil, but because they were created at different times, they differ in style, so I redrew them all."