Computer Arts Gallery: May 2008

Joel Evey
Location California
Job Student
Contact www.mikronized.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, MS Paint

Joel grew up on the California coast and at the age of 15 got his first computer. A copy of Photoshop soon followed and his career in digital art began. After being asked to create a number of party flyers, Joel started taking design classes at the local community college and from there he went on to work in an advertising agency. Eventually he took an undergraduate degree at the California Institute of the Arts. According to Joel his motto is: "Make it weird".

Ed and Geoff Poster This is a collaboration between Joel and his classmate Mansi Shah. It promotes an art exhibition at the REDCAT gallery in Los Angeles.

Olly Howe
Location London
Job Freelance designer/illustrator
Contact www.4playgraphix.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

"I try to bring something different to every project I work on and, as a result, don't get bogged down with just one style," says Olly. "This keeps each project I work on fresh and exciting and also helps with my own development as an artist."

Olly feels that his work represents himself as a person as well. "I'm extremely hard-working, but I don't take myself too seriously. This enables me to build great relationships with clients and results in a lot of fun along the way."

Recently, Olly produced limited-edition prints of his work, which are available to buy at ClickforArt.

Fused Club flyers and magazine adverts are regular work for Olly. Here he wanted to pull together elements from both into one piece, producing a fusion of colour and madness. "It's a piece that you have to go and stand right in front of to really understand," Olly explains.

Graham Sykes and Robert Walmsley
Location Manchester
Job Students/designers
Contact www.teacakedesign.com
Software Creative Suite 3 (mostly Illustrator)

Twelve months ago Graham and Robert formed Teacake Design. Like its name suggests, they see it as a quintessentially British project with a focus on visual organisation, people, places and facilitating a tangible interaction between their work and its viewers.

The pair are passionate about design for print and typography, the latter developed after working at the TypeGallery in Amsterdam for Ewald Spieker. "During this time we were not only exposed to the fundamentals of using type but also to a systematic design process that we now use on a daily basis," says Graham.

Since founding Teacake Design, the pair have worked on a range of self-initiated and freelance briefs. "We're really interested in a practical outcome for our design work, not just selling commodities."

6 "This is a collection of some of the pieces we produced while working in Amsterdam," says Graham. "We used die-cut lettering to develop typographic renditions of Teacake while being guided through a methodological design process."

Chrissie Abbott
Location London
Job Illustrator/designer
Contact hello@chrissieabbott.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Chrissie lives and works in East London, drawing pictures. Her work is usually vividly colourful and often touches on themes of nature, which she attributes to growing up in a leafy suburb. Clients include Virgin, Orange, Dazed & Confused and The New York Times. In addition, she's done T-shirt designs with 2K, The Story Store and Lowlife. Chrissie is obsessed with typography and old photographs, and she has the ambition to one day live by the sea.

ASOS "This is an illustration for the fashion website www.asos.com. I was asked to create a page to depict the coming trends for summer 2008 using patterns, summertime imagery and bright colours," says Chrissie.

Jack Noel
Location London
Job Freelance illustrator, graphic designer
Contact http://jacknoel.co.uk
Software Photoshop

In 2006, Jack graduated from the University of Bristol with a BSc in Mathematics. Since then he has been freelancing as an illustrator and designer. "Not an obvious degree with which to proceed into an illustration career," admits Jack. "But it regularly comes in useful, such as for filling in my self-assessment tax forms. My images are 30 per cent concept, 40 per cent line work, 15 per cent Photoshop, 8 per cent humour and 7 per cent English Breakfast. And I should know."

Lily Bloody Allen When MTV and Penguin ran a poster competition entitled My Hero last year, Jack entered this work and was chosen as the winner. The poster was put on display at the Design Museum in London. "While it is vaguely embarrassing to ostensibly have Lily Allen as your hero, she is a lot easier to draw than Amy Winehouse," says Jack.

Luisa Bernardes
Location Sao Paulo
Job Freelance motion designer
Contact luisabernardes@gmail.com
Software Fireworks, Photoshop, After Effects, Combustion, 3ds Max, Maya

Luisa is 25 and working in video, design and animation. She takes on a range of freelance jobs and works in an interactive agency dealing with motion design for the web. "That's a nice new experience for me," she says. "Illustration is a new project that I'm excited about. I work with different techniques, mixing vector, hand-drawn, photo-compositing and basic 3D stuff."

Before embarking on her career, Luisa studied industrial design and later publicity in southern Brazil. During an internship she learned how to make her designs move and thus began her passion for motion work.

Ultramen Luisa created this CD cover for a Brazilian band that she loves. It was designed in collaboration with a friend. "We used elements of the lyrics to create white-stroked hand drawings," she says.

James White
Location Nova Scotia
Job Graphic artist
Contact white@signalnoise.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

After going through school constantly being shouted at for drawing during lessons, James graduated in Graphic Design and Interactive Technology back in 1998. Immediately he started working in the graphic design industry.

Working in design, James absorbed a range of technical skills and experience, which he now applies in his personal artwork in Photoshop, Flash and Illustrator. He has worked on a wide range of personal creative projects including animations, children's books, comics, generative artwork and posters. According to James he is hugely influenced by television and psychedelic special effects from the 1970s. He's currently producing a body of retro-cosmic artwork that plays on the idea of the perspective people in the past held of the future.

2001 Here's James' own interpretation of a movie poster for 2001: A Space Odyssey. "I thought Kubrick's distinctive cinematic style might lend itself to different visual interpretations, so I created a design in an attempt to keep the flavour of the movie intact while at the same time injecting a colourful retro-cosmic style."

Jeroen Sikma
Location Rotterdam
Job Freelance graphic designer
Contact www.jeroensikma.com
Software Creative Suite, Aperture

Jeroen has set up his own magazine for design students entitled Brag. Each issue he'll be working with a newly graduated designer and the first issue features an artist called Andy Callahan. Alongside this project, he's busy setting up a design studio with his girlfriend Janneke de Rooij, which is called Ohyescoolgreat.

His inspiration comes from sources including product design, photography and fashion, as well as well-known design studios and magazines such as i-D and Dazed & Confused. Currently, Jeroen is looking for new international projects to embark upon and is calling for designers and students to contact him.

Unbelievable True A poster displaying an array of facts and views about Latin America. Folding the paper juxtaposes contrasting facts, so the layout and interaction give two sides to the story.

Derek Prospero
Location Florida
Job Print and web designer
Contact http://derekprospero.com
Software Creative Suite 3

Currently working as a web designer, Derek recently launched an online shopping cart that aims to provide other designers with original stock imagery and elements for their work. With 13 years' experience working in the creative industry, he has dabbled in a variety of fields including Flash animation and photography, but he specialises in Photoshop work for web and print. "Inspiration often comes to me in the means," says Derek. "I'm fascinated by the tools artists have these days. Having been in the field for so long, I've seen it come far. These are magical times we live in."

Hungry "This is me, times three, in my old kitchen at the historic Flamingo Building, West Palm Beach. A steady tripod is crucial for these compositions."

Lehel Kovacs
Location Budapest
Job Freelance illustrator
Contact www.kolehel.com
Software Photoshop

"I'm inspired by a lot of things," says Lehel. "Taking long walks in the park, looking at buildings. Children's drawings and old photographs have influenced my work as well. I also like muskmelon and tuna sandwiches."

Lehel is 26 and not only has training in graphic design but also holds a degree in window dressing. He's been freelancing for a year now with clients mostly in the editorial category, including The New York Times and the Guardian. "My illustrations are a mixture of hand-drawn lines and digitally added colours, but I also do screenprinting," he says.

I Need a Vacation Lehel created a series of illustrations showing non-existent neon signs in cities around the world. This one is positioned on a building in his home town of Budapest.