Designer/illustrator Matei Apostolescu has continued to update his website with his dense pen and pencil to vector imagery as his style continues to evolve into something that is uniquely his own.
“The Double You Theory is an ode for individualism, freedom of expression and creativity. We can be more than we let ourselves to believe. The Double You is an initiative for making the unimaginable.
We believe in the spur of the moment, breaking the form and expanding our horizons. We believe in making life more colorful and fun.”
Well okay then. As a part of this ‘initiative’ The Double You has been hosting a design challenge with a grand jury award prize of $2000 that concludes on May 5th. There are some interesting images coming out of the challenge so far and for a decent cash prize, supported by what sounds like a positive network and message you might as well throw your hat in the ring if you are feeling up to it. Visit the Double You site for more information about entering the design challenge.
Eduard Mateo, Jordi Oró and Joel Barber have relaunched the Medusa Team studio website with a bright new look and an updated portfolio featuring their multidisciplinary project work. It’s bright, trendy and colorful and it looks like they are having a good time doing what they love. Good for you guys, go get ’em.
I stumbled upon Sydney based Like Minded Studio’s Behance portfolio today and it looks as though there might be a few bits of work there that I didn’t see at their website. Like Minded is headed by the exceptionally talented illustrative typographer Luca Ionescu whose work I have always admired.
Scottish designer/illustrator Steven Bonner has recently updated with some especially nice drippy urban typographic illustrations.
Icelandic illustrator Siggi Eggertsson has made a large update to his portfolio. If you follow design and illustration (as I am sure you do), his name really needs no further introduction as his highly recognizable geometric vector style has graced the cover of many a creative magazine in the last 2 years.
St. Louis based illustrator Natalie Sklobovskaya has some impressive vector work in her Behance-folio including both densely layered ‘Vexel’ art and simple black and white pictograms.
Fendy Ibrahim is currently a student at Nanyang Tech University, School of Art, Design and Media, Singapore. Only two years in and already in possession of a mature, colorful and considered body of work that would strike envy in the heart of an experienced designer.
Although you could say the name ‘Tnacir’ is a little questionable, it’s hard not to like the combination of contemporary art nudes with patterns using a warm muted color palette. You can see them in the Tnacir Flickrfolio. I wish I knew more about this artist but I guess the work speaks for itself.
Josh Clancy A.K.A. Toothjuice has continued to stay busy producing some fun and sporadic design and illustration work. You can see some of the newness in his Flickrfolio including the above image created for Lady Gaga’s upcoming tour.
Illustrator Koren Shadmi lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and if I could be so bold I recommend checking out Sadmi’s personal work.
What do you think the odds are that if you threw a rock into a crowd in Brooklyn it would hit a designer, artist or illustrator?
The Brazilian design and illustration trio known as ‘Bicicleta Sem Freio’ (bicycle with no brakes) that is comprised of Douglas de Castro, Victor Rocha and Renato Reno have continued to fill their Flickr-folio with fantastically kitschy work that is downright impossible not to like. I am digging their brand of cynical pop big time.
Lina Ekstrand is a freelance illustrator who splits her time between Sweden and Berlin. In the last few years she has lived and worked in London, Sweden, Mexico and New York. At one point she held an internship at Vault 49. Her work is largely inspired by fashion and she has illustrated for several fashion industry publications.
My guess is that it takes 3D artist Chris Labrooy a lot of time to generate one of his highly-detailed typographical illustrations. I wish I could say more about him but all that is up at his site is his work, his name, his email and his number.
Madrid based graphic designer/illustrator Vicente García Morillo has a very unusual style. It’s a bit retro-inspired but there is something different going on that is definitely unique. It will be interesting to see where his work goes as his portfolio progresses.
‘Second Wind’ is an animated short produced as a school project by Ian Worrel. He produced the short by using a “straight pencil and paper for the man and cat line animation. colored in photoshop, composited in after effects onto backgrounds constructed in photoshop out of various pieces of media (pen/ink, pencil, paint, photos, etc.”
Emmanuel Malin left a comment on the blog earlier this week under the name ‘Animatic’ disagreeing with me in that he didn’t think the work of Eesley Eggebrecht was as good as I claimed it was. I left a comment stating that if he had done better work himself to back up his comment by posting a link to where people could see his own work. So he did. And I really liked Emmanuel’s work. The site has an old school Flash preload you have to wait for but once it has launched you can click through the thumbnails to see the work. Malin’s work is heavily influenced by Japanese art but he has his own style and he has produced a large body of imagery. He currently lives and works in Paris and is available for freelance commissions.
Thank you Emmanuel.
UPDATE: Alright well I am going to negate everything I said, the comment left earlier was not actually Emmanuel Malin, it was left as an example of work that was more inspirational. So there goes the notion that for once, a hater was backing up his/her comments with examples of their own work that was better than what they were hating one. Regardless, it was still a pleasure to discover Emmanuel’s work and my hat is still off to his talent.
Madrid based freelance illustrator and graphic artist Gary Fernández uses a muted color palette to create his organic retro/fashion inspired imagery. His work is absolutely striking in a gallery setting as can be seen at his website. Fernández is also the co-founder and of the T-shirt brand Velvet Banana.
