The German illustrator and designer known only as DXTR has made some recent additions to his street-inspired portfolio including some new illustrations for Nike and K2 snowboarding. Look closely at the image above and see if you can spot the word ‘Nike’. It’s in there. Great visual.
Magomed Dovjenko is a designer and illustrator I’ve been following for several years now. He is one of those select few who learned to make a name for himself when he was still in his teens and is experiencing quite a bit of success as a commercial designer while still only being in his early twenties. He has since updated his site quite a bit since I last dropped in on his portfolio. His bright, colorful, poppy and pulp-infused work is always worth the inspirational browse.
Russian illustrator Evgeny Parfenov is turning out some excellent, colorful and classic portraits for publications like Newsweek, Rolling Stone and Interview. His work is a lot of fun and is just the right mix of pop and art to lend itself towards a broad appeal which is no doubt why he is attracting the publications he’s illustrating for.
There is a tongue and cheek kind of a thing happening in the portfolio of David Ryski AKA Talkseek whose father was a firefighter. His love of skateboarding, music and street art apparently diverted him from following in his father’s footsteps.
Bill Mund is the kind of guy you feel like you know or at least kind of understand after surfing through his uniquely illustrated pop-inspired satirical take on culture and consumerism. It’s the kind of stuff that involves farting Brazilian butts, He-Man, Hugh Hefner and He-Man. If I ever had the opportunity I think I’d buy Bill Mund a beer and probably get totally ripped with the guy because he seems like he’d be a helluva lot of fun to do that with.
Daryl Feril is based in Bacolod City, Philippines where he hand renders some wonderful ink and watercolor illustrations inspired by flora and fauna. His self-initiated ‘brands in full bloom’ project integrates brands he felt worked with his specific style to communicate their ‘feminine mood yet still conserve the sophistication and identity of each brand’.
Rick Berkelman has a ‘not too in your face’ style as he describes it that combines elements of hand rendered typography, patterns and characters that are finished with a printerly touch that sometimes leans towards the ‘vintage appeal’.
One of my favorite illustrators Shan Jiang, formerly of I Love Dust has since moved into a new partnership at Shotopop. His presence can be immediately felt on their recently updated website where they are now showcasing some of his best feats of illustration. He is no doubt a loss to I Love Dust and a powerful gain for Shotopop.
“For our Summer 2012 collection, we worked with British illustrator Adrian Johnson. We met up with Adrian at his studio in Lewes.
Over the years, Liverpool born Adrian Johnson has developed a unique and strongly identifiable body of work. His trademark economical, highly crafted, graphic work is constantly evolving, whilst always maintaining a healthy distance from current trends and passing fashions. Adrian’s work has already led to a prolific working career and a client list which includes Paul Smith, Adidas, Monocle, The New York Times and Unicef. He also has exhibited work in London, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Attention to detail, humor and a simple timeless sophistication mark him out as one of the leading illustrators currently practicing.”
I don’t hide the fact that I am a big big fan of both Adrian Johnson and Stüssy.
The Stussy x Adrian Johnson collection is available now at: stus.se/KTyTLV
Written by Drake Martinet withdrake.com
Illustration and Animation by Emanuele Colombo emanuelecolombo.it
Music: Monday – Jon Brion
Emanuele Colombo found an infographic on Visual.ly this by Drake Martinet he proceeded to ask Drake for permission to create an animated version of the graphic and this is the result.
Logan Faerber is a Boston based illustrator with a kinetic and expressive style. He’s currently working on a comic, children’s book and other ‘childish’ projects.
Kronk is a South African illustrator inspired by street culture, graffiti, comics and pop art. There is a nice range happening in his portfolio that suggests a strong set of skills in both graphic design and illustration.
Canadian graphic designer and illustrator Patrick Seymour has developed an interesting technique generating pop and film related portraits out of simple line work.
Kyle Stecker has some fun, kinetic and pop-infused illustrations in his ever-growing body of work. He is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York and is accepting commissions.
There is something to be said for knowing who you are and where you fit in with this industry and illustrator Boneface seems to have a good grasp on his identity as you can read in his description about him and his work:
“the things that make me right for this job… maybe they’re the same things that make me wrong for everything else.”
staple diet: videogames / cartoons / comic books / crappy b-movies
I very much like the imagery he is generating.
Giampaolo Miraglia has a strange 3d meets retro kind of thing happening in his imagery. It feels like a generational clash and mishmash of 80s, 70s and just enough of ‘now’ peppered in to make it interesting. It doesn’t look like anything I have really seen lately and it’s worth a quick look.
Sam Green has been an influence in the past on my approach to illustration work. For a time I would work first in graphite and finish my imagery in Photoshop to create a soft look as is what I suspect Green does to generate his imagery. Green is the master of this approach though and he continues to evolve the style into even more rich and surreal imagery. He has recently updated his portfolio with more of the same goodness and a browse will no doubt yield a heavy dose of inspiration for those looking to break into the world of contemporary illustration.
Markus Hofk is a ‘conceptual image maker’. I like that description a lot. He has recently updated with exactly that and seems to approach each new project with a uniquely individual perspective that wins out over the embrace of a consistent style. That’s not an easy thing to do and he appears to be doing it very well under his monicker Rainbow Monkey.
