Computer Arts Gallery: Summer 2008

Pablo Alfieri
Location Buenos Aires
Job Graphic designer/illustrator
Contact www.pabloalfieri.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

A native of Buenos Aires, Pablo began his career in graphic design by studying at the university there, which sparked his passion for design, illustration and typography. Since 2007, he's been working with the Richard Young Design Group, and earlier this year created his online portfolio, Playful. "It's a free space where I can play and have fun with others, as well as explore typography and geometrical shapes - the basis of my creative work," he explains.

A Sound Supreme "I always try to work within the structure of one font - in this case, ITC Lubalin, which I expanded. I took the vector type to Photoshop and worked in the galaxies, the stars, the flares and the other elements of the image."

Dean Cook
Location Birmingham
Job Digital artist/designer
Contact www.sa3s.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D

Dean Cook is fond of pseudonyms, preferring to be called Falsify and working under the house name of SA3S. He's a self-taught digital artist and a native Brummie, who says his ambitions are to twist minds and turn heads as he continues on a journey of digital weirdness. In practice, this means designing for many music-related clients, including DJ Escape and Bassland. "The final destination is unknown but I do have a wish to work in the music industry and to keep pushing my style further and further," he adds.

Fast Soul Music "An art piece synthesised somewhere between smoking a cigarette, pondering the theory of everything and scribbling on a serviette. A fast, dominant love affair wrapped in a colour-surround influenced by the London Elektricity tune of the same name. Music always plays a vital part in my creative process."

Lewes Herriot
Location Birmingham
Job Illustrator
Contact www.myspace.com/thedarkinventory
Software Serif PhotoPlus X2

25-year-old Lewes has always been interested in drawing and the arts, but has never had any formal training, either at school or college. Indeed, his day job is nothing to do with art, but he has recently set up a blog - The Dark Inventory - to showcase his work, build up a portfolio and find a style of his own.

"Through MySpace I met This is Tomorrow, a local gig promoter, which led to work with local band Johnny Foreigner," he says. "I've recently started working with Charlotte Hatherley on some album art and T-shirts. Ultimately, I'm working towards becoming freelance."

El Carnival poster Lewes based this image on a game he played as a child. "This involved drawing a random shape onto paper then passing it onto a friend for them to change into something. Once all the important information is on there, the free space is mine to experiment upon, using characters, patterns and scenes from my personal work."

Ross Crawford and David Souch
Location Surrey
Job Graphic designers/illustrators
Contact www.ahoythere.org.uk
Software Creative Suite

Ross and David make up Ahoy There, a freshly minted design studio from two graduates of the University College for the Creative Arts in Epsom. The pair collaborated on their final major project, Five Briefs in Five Weeks, specifically to simulate a commercial level of pressure to prepare them for the real world.

As Ross puts it, "We've only been on the scene this last month and have been busy networking and promoting ourselves through exhibitions like Free Range and D&AD New Blood. We have just picked up two Best New Blood awards for our work at the New Blood Exhibition back in June, so we are on a nice high."

Ted Baker in-store wallpapers - Australia and Thailand (Australia is shown) "For each country, we referenced an identifiable colour palette combined with some type treatment and the most iconic links (landmarks, objects), and included the initials TB for branding."

Keiran Sandal
Location London
Job Graphic artist
Contact www.docvek.co.uk
Software Illustrator

"My work tends to be entirely vector-based as it suits my drawing style perfectly, and I love to be able to apply colour quickly and cleanly," says Keiran, also known as DocVek. After working as a freelance for a few years, he's currently a full-time in-house designer, but takes on various other projects in his spare time. He regularly collaborates with Detectives of Perspective, a multimedia event company based in Bristol, where he studied graphic design at the University of the West of England.

DJ Kentaro From a flyer created for Detectives of Perspective. "The multiple-limbed form is reminiscent of certain eastern god-like figures," says Keiran. "This religious element becomes enhanced with the 'Hamsa'-like hand - although here, instead of a symbol of protection or good luck, a figure stares blankly out of a futuristic window, giving the image a cynical 1984-type twist."

Maria Sagun
Location Surrey
Job Student
Contact www.mariasagun.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

"I grew up being interested in arts and installation," says Maria, "but soon expanded my interests into illustration and design." This led to Maria taking a BTEC multimedia course, followed by study at the University College of Creative Arts in Epsom and eventually a degree in graphic design and new media.

"My aspirations are to pursue a career involving illustration or editorial and layout design," she adds, "especially with an editorial magazine with subjects based on music, art and street culture, which are my main interests, and at the same time to produce my own work."

LDN Transportation Part of a 16-page submission for D&AD. Maria says it's about her and her love for London. "This is based on the Underground, with the stations leading you to an eclectic mix of areas."

Ronald Ashburn
Location California
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.electriksuicide.com
Software Photoshop

Describing himself as a one-man design studio from Southern California, Ronald creates work with an art-punk edge for local and international clients, including Ride Snowboards, IDPURE magazine and Line Skis. "I studied graphic design and multimedia design," he says, "and I've been working freelance for around three years now."

His designs have graced a wide array of projects, ranging from snowboards and T-shirts to promo posters and video flyers, including brands such as The Hundreds and Rockett Clothing. "In the future I'd like to do more art shows and run my own private design studio," Ronald adds.

Deth Disko "Created for a series of self-promotional posters I'm working on. It was also animated into a video loop for a recent VJ set of mine."

Laura Southcott
Location Brighton
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.laurasouthcott.co.uk
Software InDesign

"I like to use photography in my work, as well as craft-based processes such as photograms, screen-printing, letterpresses and various other experimental things," explains Laura. Having just finished her final year at the University of Brighton, where she studied graphic design, she's now keen to move to London and find a job or placement. Her work has been on show in Brighton and recently at Free Range in London, as well as being featured in D&AD New Blood. "I enjoy being experimental wherever possible," she adds, "which for me makes my work exciting to produce, as I never quite know what will happen."

Laura's identity designs for the Brighton Degree Show, created in collaboration with Shaheena Pooloo, were chosen to represent the event, and the pair also went on to design flyers, tickets, banners, postcards and a brochure.

Arts Foundation invitation and booklet Created to a live brief for the Arts Foundation Awards 2008, in collaboration with fellow student Shaheena Pooloo. "We used the process of making photograms to create imagery for each category in the awards," Laura tells us. "These were then printed onto silver paper and made into stackable cards, making it interactive and playful."

Matt Gwynne
Location Swansea
Job Freelance illustrator
Contact www.mattgwynne.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

While he's happy enough as a freelancer, Matt's dream is to work full-time for a surf or skate company's design team. He graduated from Swansea Institute of Higher Education in 2006 and since then has been constantly updating and improving his work, as well as his knowledge of the major design programs.

Matt's creations, a mixture of hand-drawn and digital techniques, have been used by clients as diverse as Mixmag, Subvert magazine, Campus Legend Clothing and Low Tide Jewellery. "I like to keep an open mind and explore a variety of techniques," he adds.

Magic Lamp "I love to combine Illustrator vectors with texture/ paint marks from Photoshop. This illo, which is all about magic, is one of my personal favourites using this technique."

Nick Stoney
Location London/Cambridge
Job Illustrator
Contact www.nickstoney.blogspot.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

After graduating from the Arts Institute at Bournemouth in 2005, Nick went on to work for famed animation studios Cosgrove Hall and King Rollo Films, contributing to a variety of children's television programmes. He's now a freelance illustrator but admits that a lot of his influences come from Cartoon Network design and graffiti art. "I want to turn my characters into vinyl toys and travel around the world drawing weird characters," he adds. He says he's not a big reader: "I like books with pictures in them."

Brains "I love to draw monsters… I always imagine zombies to be decrepit rockers, so I embellished the hair, tattoos, tight jeans and trainers. I was influenced by playing Guitar Hero III. I drew the zombie straight into Illustrator and added the other elements in Photoshop."

Greig Anderson
Location Glasgow/Sydney
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.effektivedesign.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

"I'm looking forward to the challenge of working in a different country with new people and new ideas," says Greig, of his recent move to Australia for a year. It's a long way from his former base of Glasgow, but the freelancer believes it's time to challenge himself in a whole new way: "I recently completed a self-promotional mailer with which to approach agencies in Sydney, and the response so far has been very positive."

Greig previously worked with Curious, the Glasgow agency, which he says gave him the chance to work with a healthy variety of clients. At the same time he set up his own freelance studio Effektive, as well as becoming a prolific contributor to design blog The Serif and his own blog.

Self-promotional mailer/poster The A5 booklet and A2 poster that Greig sent as promos to agencies in Sydney. "My portfolio pieces in the booklet are organised in a grid-based layout and number-referenced. I wanted to create something that would leave a lasting impression and that wouldn't end up stuck in a drawer alongside other CVs."

David Callow
Location London
Job Illustrator
Contact davidsillustrations@googlemail.com
Software Photoshop, After Effects

"I believe colour and shape to be integral to how you read imagery," says this 2007 graduate of the Arts Institute at Bournemouth. "Their orchestration empowers a subject in the same way a soundtrack can decorate a film."

Since graduating, David has moved to London and concentrated on working as a freelancer, with representation by AgencyRush (formerly ZeegenRush). He's particularly interested in combining cut-out shapes with pencil drawings: "I now dedicate the majority of my time to my practice, diving headfirst into the vast deep end of the industry."

Femme A personal piece developed from an original commission by the Independent on Sunday's book review section. "Feeling the need to emphasise mood, I developed the drawing into an orchestrated cut-out assemblage. The cut-outs were never designed to obstruct the original drawing, but to add a voice to the content."

Pretesh Mistry
Location Birmingham
Job Graphic designer
Contact mistry_pretesh@hotmail.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D

"At work I'm designing branding for a political party conference in Birmingham," says Pretesh of his current projects. "For myself, I'm putting together a showreel of my design work, which means learning After Effects."

The graphic design graduate of Nene College (now the University of Northampton) keeps an open mind about his inspirations and says he's influenced by anything that can help him improve as a designer, including cutting-edge graphic design, typography and even architecture. While some projects have him heading straight for the Mac, generally he prefers to produce some rough sketches first before choosing a particular design route to go down.

Top Rock One of the images Pretesh produced for the BASS Festival competition, which he saw advertised on the Computer Arts website earlier this year - although these have not been exhibited until now.

David Prosser
Location London
Job Illustrator, animator
Contact www.daveprosser.co.uk
Software Photoshop

Having graduated from Norwich School of Art & Design, David is jumping back into the educational fray with an MA in animation at the Royal College of Art. One look at his portfolio confirms his love for pencil sketches and traditional media in general, although he tends to combine these with Photoshop. "I often scan my images and then paint on top of them digitally using a variety of custom and dual brushes," he says.

Moog The classic synthesizer - or, in David's words, "a strange and forgotten instrument" - became the focus of a project in David's final year. "I feel these images helped me in blending computer and hand-drawn elements more precisely."

Frosti Gnarr
Location Iceland/London
Job Graphic designer/illustrator
Contact www.frostignarr.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

As a native of Iceland but spending his summer in London as a freelance designer, Frosti is one of three directors of Dot Design. He says he's been working hard for the last three years to build up his portfolio and reputation as a freelancer. In the meantime, he's studying for his final year at the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

"I sketch a lot and I always have, but now I've just started to sketch straight into the computer because I've become so used to the Wacom tablet," he adds.

Poster of the Day "This was a project I started in early February to challenge myself and make a poster every day for a month," says Frosti. "When the month was coming to an end I decided to just go all the way and do them for a year." Each poster represents a particular day in his life, acting as a kind of diary, and to make the project more interactive he has begun sending them out to a regular mailing list of more than 500 people.

Dawid Kiljan
Location London
Job Graphic designer/illustrator
Contact www.dawidkiljan.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Originally from Katowice in Poland, Dawid is currently senior graphic designer at the Polish Cultural Foundation in London, producing newspapers, magazines and other publications. In 2007 he won the Puma Create design competition - producing the artwork for a limited-edition perfume package.

"I use a lot of drawings, which I integrate into my work," he explains. "My inspirations are mostly street art and contemporary illustration, but also artists such as Beksinski and Giger. Some of my works draw from ideas of post-humanism, while others are aimed at representing certain emotions and feelings. I think loneliness and a sense of wonder are inseparable parts of my works."

Feniks "I wanted to create something more dynamic than usual, but didn't want to end up with some meaningless colourful abstract piece. The image was made from scratch in Photoshop, without any 3D or vectors."

Ee Venn Soh
Location Singapore
Job Student/graphic designer
Contact www.behance.net/vennsoh
Software Photoshop, Illustrator

Working under the creative identity of EIII, Ee Venn is a self-taught designer from Malaysia. "I don't have any formal training at all," he explains. "The only training would be the late-night experiments and tutorials that I produce."

To stop himself falling into the trap of producing clichéd works, he says he likes to "participate actively in the international art scene - mostly in the US, UK and Europe - while keeping a close watch on the market-leading creatives". And he's not joking about the international aspect: although he's studying for a computer science degree in New Zealand, he's currently on a one-year student exchange in Singapore.

White Valentine A commissioned desktop wallpaper image for model Jeanene Fox's website. "I get my main inspiration from the photo itself. Most of the time my artwork is a blend of raster and vector images. I create various shapes in Illustrator and work on the colours and textures in Photoshop."

Ciara Phelan
Location London
Job Graphic designer
Contact www.iamciara.co.uk
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign

Having just finished a graphic design degree at Brighton University, Ciara is poised to launch herself into the real world of work. "In every new project I tackle, I try to be experimental and push myself further each time," she explains. "This experimentation means I don't have a predominant style, but I would describe my work as playful and vibrant. In the future I want to continue to explore a mix of illustrative elements and geometrical ones."

As well as co-creating materials for the Brighton Fashion and Textiles Graduate Show 2008, one of Ciara's biggest projects to date has been The Environment Is Everything That Isn't Me (from a quote by Albert Einstein). "This was a series of placements and one-day projects I completed at various studios," she explains. "I went to Crush, Hyperkit, YCN and Square Enough, and had an amazing time."

Visual Systems "A series of 12-inch generic, black record sleeves with a collaged triangle corner slip," explains Ciara. This project, created for her course, features different illustrations for the A-side and B-side.

Stuart White
Location Glasgow
Job Illustrator
Contact www.stuartwhite.eu
Software Photoshop

Stuart says he's a big fan of projects that involve collaboration and a hands-on approach - as is evident from his work since graduating from the Glasgow School of Art in 2006. Having scooped up a D&AD New Blood award and undertaken a placement in London, he helped set up Hitherto, a creative, independent shop/gallery space in the heart of Glasgow.

Together with manager Krista Blake, he designed the promo material, interiors, facade and website, as well as organising the shop's many exhibitions. As a freelancer, his clients include The New York Times, Howies and KesselsKramer.

Six Cities Design Festival Five hundred hand screen-printed monochrome inserts for the 7-inch split single by Glasgow bands 1990s and The Royal We. "A colouring-in party for the artwork was held at Hitherto. The people of Glasgow customised each sleeve," says Stuart.

Ross Colquhoun
Location Edinburgh
Job Designer
Contact www.rosscolquhoun.com
Software Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Final Cut Pro

Although still young, Ross has already led an interesting life. As well as nearly dying from meningitis at the age of 19, he was the first artist in the world to create art from the E. coli bacterium - specifically, a genetically modified strain which he recorded growing in the shape of the MTV logo, using time-lapse techniques.

Unsurprisingly, he says he's strongly influenced by technology and its ability to cause design innovation: "New technologies along with a solid grasp of style can greatly help you create original graphic interpretations."

Found: Imperfect Harmony The title refers to an experimental music performance that accompanied Aggregate, an exhibition by artist Jamie Shovlin. "My promotional print was designed to typographically represent the imperfect harmony found in the performance."