Sparth is the name used by French artist, Nicolas Bouvier on all his work. He is a fantastic sci-fi artist and concept designer for the gaming industry. His digital art has a fantastic organic quality to it that I find most appealing. He has a book of his work out called “Structura” that I thoroughly recommend.
Check out his website at:
Although Vegas is known for its surreal architecture and mega-resorts, this hotel brings a fresh new look to a thriving city. As part of an invited competition, JDS/Julien de Smedt Architects has designed this proposal for the Mondri and Elano Hotel in Las Vegas. They wanted to create a genuine experience while extracting the identity of the Mondrian and the Delano Hotels without producing copycat versions.
João Oliveira is a portuguese graphic designer, illustrator and art director based in Porto. I love his work and this is the level I am striving for with my own stuff. Brilliant.
Check out his website at:
I found out about Richard’s work on the Behance Network. He’s an American photographer specialising in shots of sports cars.
Check out his website at:
Karen is a fantastic graphic designer who produces some particularly good poster designs.
Check out her work at:
http://www.behance.net/cmykaren
Blind Salida is a French graphic designer who does some very nice illustration work.
Check out his website at:
When I first thought about how to write this essay, I must admit I found it quite daunting. Lets face it, we have all struggled to fill in that part on an application form that asks us to describe ourselves. I also have the added problem of trying to condense thirty-two years of existence into a 700 word essay. But when I thought about it, the parts of my life that have contributed to my inspiration as a designer are pretty clear.
As a youngster, my inspiration came from the world of science-fiction – after all, I am from the Star Wars generation. Everything seemed possible and any idea, no matter how strange, had promise. In fact, the first career I ever dreamed of was as a special effects creator for ILM back when they were created with models and compositing. Even now, I still have a passion for sci-fi art and concept design, even though the technology has changed.
My next artistic passion that consumed a great deal of my time was car design. Many of my work books at school had doodles of new sports car designs on them and any available space would be taken up with a new idea for a spoiler. This very nearly became my next career choice and one of my biggest regrets is not taking the car design course at Coventry University when I had the chance.
In the early ’90’s, the exciting new world of psychedelic trance music became my new source of inspiration. It certainly encouraged me to expand my thinking and question the boundaries of what is considered art. My work became much more colourful and I started helping with designs for flyers and posters. It was a lot of fun and I still keep an eye out for the new designs of club flyers. This is when I became very interested in the work of The Designers Republic and this was probably my first introduction into the world of graphic design.
When I started the course after a long absence of anything artistic other than a few paintings, I did not know if i still had a thirst for knowledge or any creative juices left. But I have found that my interests have broadened and now I find that I see things differently. When looking at advertising I think about what font it is or whether the layout is effective. The library is a great source of information and I am currently setting up my own set of graphic books to help take me in new directions. In fact, one of my aims on this course is to publish a book of some kind – maybe a major project for the third year.
After working in the printing room last year, I found that I loved the random images that could be created with this medium. It was then I became interested in David Carson’s work as his style of using printed letterforms suited my own. I also love the mechanical nature of printing, the whole digital art scene seems to have taken over now but I still find it
a bit too clinical.
Since I started working on my weblog, I have found it extremely useful for organizing my research. Over the summer, I had downloaded hundreds of images from designers off the internet but I had no way of organising them. This blog now gives me a great platform for collecting my thoughts and also sharing my ideas with others. Only the other day, one of my favourite photographers left a comment on one of my posts about him. It is this link to my inspiration that could prove so useful.
The blog has also opened my eyes to many new and upcoming artists who have not yet been published in any books. With the internet being so prevalent nowadays, it is easy to get information about any artist you like. This has meant I am not constrained by any particular designer and have the influence of so many.
I feel that now the blog is ‘up and running’, I will continue to keep it updated as a way to keep up to date with current design trends. This term has been a great platform to build from and I am thoroughly looking forward to the next term.
V&A South Kensington is the world’s greatest museum of art and design, with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity. It has 3000 years’ worth of amazing artefacts from many of the world’s richest cultures including ceramics, furniture, fashion, glass, jewellery, metalwork, photographs, sculpture, textiles and paintings. As an added bonus, it is next door to the Natural History Museum – another great place to get lost for a day.
Check out their website at:
The Hayward is the heart of the visual arts at Southbank Centre. In addition to putting on major exhibitions and commissioning new artworks in the gallery, The Hayward also organises projects, installations and talks across the site.
Check out their website at:
http://www.haywardgallery.org.uk/
The Riverfront is a thriving arts centre, full of activities for participation, enjoyment and education, with a diverse range of live entertainment, workshops and free exhibitions. It is part of the redevelopment of Newport City Centre and will become even more important when the university moves to the area. I have visited it several times for exhibitions or performances and it is always worth a look.
