The Chase

The Chase is a graphic design and branding company with multiple annual awards ranging from Creative Review Awards - 1000 Words and Almost Extinct, to Design Week Awards. They have offices in a few local areas, they are based in Manchester, and have smaller ones in Preston and London

One of my favourite pieces of work that The Chase has produced is the Manchester Dogs Home Annual Review. I live quite locally to Manchester, which initially caught my attention however then I realised it was in aid of rescue dogs - something which I am passionate about as I have a few rescue dogs myself. The review is almost like an advert for the dogs, they use subliminal messages within the pieces which provoke sympathy and empathy for the dogs in the photographs. 

For such a large company to still do small business commissions is brilliant, it keeps them true to their roots and gives them the credibility and recognition. 

Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver is a British graphic designer from Surrey, now based in South London, he is known for his work with design studios "V23" and "23 Envelope" Here he creates lots of famous album covers that are "sometimes gritty, sometimes dreamy" He uses colours, composition and typography to express moods to match the music inside.  

This example of his work 'Fluid Songs' is one of my favourites, it is simple and yet still captivating. Photography is a hobby I have done for many years however I have recently taken to other media's. To see examples of amazing sepia photography is a possible direction I could include within my work. The typography on this photo is brilliant, the main focus is the simple black text which is encased in the maroon subtext, the swirls and curls of this illustrates the plant behind and natures curves - this I believe is Oliver's intention.

Why Not Associates

Why Not Associates is a British graphic design company. They have big clients such as Nike, Virgin Records and the BBC, and are continually producing brand new ideas and concepts for clients.

"Effective communication contains an element of surprise and often the best way to solve a problem is to turn it on its head. we're not afraid to run through a dark room with an arm full of lighted fireworks. fingers grow back, and great work lasts forever." whynotassociates.com

Their work overall is interesting and definitely takes a different perspective on simple items, this uniqueness is something that has given them all the well-earned reputation. Something, as a young illustrator  to take inspiration from - that no matter how bizarre an idea seems, if its something you want to do, you should do it.  

Neville Brody

Neville Brody was born in London, Brody studied at the Hornsey School of Art and at the London College of Printing. The British designer and director is linked with areas within Constructivism and Dadasim he tries to explore ideas that were outside the box, in similar way to Dada movement; one of which I'm a fan of myself. He found that breaking the classic rules of art is similar to the way the music movement was going at this time. Brody was helping to create a new way within design. His work pushed boundaries in type and experimenting with image, especially working as a designer for magazines, newspapers and album covers. A recent example of Brody’s guest appearance work can be seen on the front cover of Wallpaper magazine. 

He uses mixed media and several influences of that time to create his work, this is a good way to create work that is in-time and up to date with all the other artists of that time. However due to his unusual aspect of life and the simplicity idea his work, although similar to other artists at his time, are unique with his choice of context. 

Spike Jonze

Adam Spiegel is more commonly known as Spike Jonze, the famous American film-maker, and directer of films, television, commercials and music videos. Furthermore he is part owner of a skateboard company, and directors label. He gained his nickname from competing in skateboarding competitions. 

Most recently Jonze was the director of 2009 'Where the Wild Things Are' but has previously liaised with Weezer, Daft Punk, Beastie Boys, and Notorious BIG, to name a few. Within all his work he injects his style of sly and ironic humour. Most recently he has worked on the "Jackass Movie." However he is still most famous for the 1999 film "Being John Malkovich" and the 2002 film "Adaptation", both written by Charlie Kaufman.

As an artist I think he is successful, although he has an unusual style of injected humour; he is able to adjust and adapt to the criteria, this makes all the films fantastic and successful. As a freelance artist this is a good quality to have as your able to reach a wider audience.

John Lawrence

John Lawrence is a classic English illustrator and wood engraver, widely regarded as the best in his time. Recently retired from lecturing at The Cambridge School of Art, MA Degree course in Illustration, John continues to work full time for Random House, Walker Books and The Folio Society. His distinctive wood engravings and drawings have been his style for over 40 years. The process of his print/collage technique involves different colours and textured backgrounds, these are separate prints that are overlapped into the overall design. He uses a mixture of wood and vinyl to create contrasting textures and which he then manipulates together using a computer. I love this mix of very old fashioned style to new day technology of computer technology.

Over the course of a career that began in the 1960s he has illustrated 100's of books from including ones such as Shakespeare, and one of my favourite, Watership Down, he creates rabbits using watercolours which, have a realistic element to them and yet still given human characteristics.
I myself have previously tried many types of print as was a massive lover of the techniques, especially Lino-cut as they create one-offs that have the unpredicibitly that give them character. From this research it has made me want to create more printing pieces and rekindle the love of printing I once had. I love the fusion of technology as it makes it available on multiple levels, whether it be traditional or newly digital. 

Hi-Res!

Hi-ReS! was founded in 1999 by Alexandra Jugovic and Florian Schmitt after they moved to London from Germany. Their work falls into multiple categories of graphic design, fine art, product design, film and music, which was then decided to combine all these separate disciplines in one and experiment with Adobe’s Flash technology. Their first online commission project, soulbath.com, gained more popularity which created more work and the start of the website for the film Requiem for a Dream by director Darren Aronofsky. 

They are multiple award winning designers, including awards such as D&AD Silver Award and BAFTAs. These awards have helped them get high-profiled clients, including Docle & Gabana, Chanel Hyundai, etc. They always mage to make fantastic adverts and websites. 

They are big influence within my own work because they use simple layouts and styles and yet they seem to work out much better.

Daniel Brown

Danny Brown is a artist and designer, from Liverpool; who specialises in Creative Digital Technology and Interactive Design as well as Applied Arts. After leaving school he joined Amaze, the design company attached to the Liverpool Metropolitan University. Danny Brown has developed his own specialist area using generative animation – using patterns that continually grow, develop and mutate within a set of programmed rules. His subjects that he uses in his work, Flowers and Butterflies for example, is inspired by the growth of shapes and patterns in nature. 

I have never seen some of his work before however after finding him on the Internet due to this blog, it has made me a massive fan of his work. I love the floral pieces of work where he manipulates digital images to create his petals. I have also liked this sort of effect after myself experimenting with a similar technique of layering images. I will definitely be looking into his work further and using it as inspiration within my own style.

Susan Kare

Susan Kare, who lives in San Francisco, designed most of the distinctive icons, typefaces and other graphic elements that gave the original Macintosh Computer, its characteristic appearance. Her goal is to make them easy to remember. 

‘I would say an icon is successful if you could tell someone what it is once and they don't forget it’

She graduated from New York University with a Ph.D. in Fine Art. Kare’s first assignment for Apple Mac was developing fonts for the Mac OS. This was just the start and has then gone on to designing icons for Windows operating systems, bitmapping the virtual deck in the Windows version of Solitaire, crafting logos for startups, products for New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and making prints of memorable icons like the Bomb, the Watch, the Paint Can etc.

From this research it has given me the ideas to possibly draw designs using squared paper, just as Susan Kare does, this would help me create designs using the 'pixel' ideas, either way it would definitely help me to get ideas and roughs that are in line and proportion. It would also make my initial drawings much quicker by simply blocking-in sections; this is something I have been struggling with recently as I take too long in the designing section.

I love her work, and especially appreciate it more now after seeing and using some of her original ideas, in my everyday life. I think she is very successful and highly thought of. 

Yugo Nakamura

                     

Yugo Nakamura is currently "the face of interface" throughout the design industry, more specifically within web design. He studied engineering, architecture and landscape design; after graduating he worked as an engineer specialising in bridge design. He bases all his work around his constant research in the interface environment. 

He is said to be "looking for a good balance between digital and creative work"

He's held exhibitions and lectures of his own from Asia to America and London. He is very clever and keeps the same few element in every piece of work - maths. He actually incorporates mathematics into the designs themselves. 

In my opinion, I really like this work, the use of numbers, although his work is mostly monochrome they are all striking, they look modern , and are incredibly clever; most importantly they are still effective today even on a very large variety of audience - that comes naturally with web design. 

As an artist he regular shares where his inspiration comes from, including traditional sources sources such as traditional Japanese art - he attempts to imitate the detailing and refinement of traditional Japanese craftsmanship on the web. Another inspiration of his is fellow designer - John Maeda, who is said to be the person that drove Yugo to start the path of graphic design. 

I really like his work, the inspiration that he gets from everything comes across within his designs, and as a fellow lover of traditional Japanese art I can see how the traditions are hinted at within his modern web design work.

Jonathan Barnbrook

Barnbrook is a well-known British filmmaker/director, typographer and graphic designer from Luton. He is probably most recognised after his commission on the David Bowie album Heathen, for which was also the launch of his own typeface Priori; this was soon followed by many typefaces which he went on to design. Most of his fonts are named after controversial subjects or emotions as this is a theme in which he continues throughout all of his work. 
He now owns his own company designing fonts called Virus, based in his hometown of London. Here he has teamed up with other typographers to create books based on his field of expertise. 
Although not my usual taste due to me being more of an illustrator but I can appreciate the work of a graphic designer and typographer; the skill it takes from designing the basic ideas of a font to the positioning and layout of the text within a page. Jonathan Barnbrook is a designer that I recognise from previously seeing his designs around before starting my research, this is my eyes makes him successful as his work is already reaching a wide range of audiences. 

Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle was probably most famous for his creation of the famous St Trinian's, it was popular first in print, then as a series of films for which Searle created title sequences, and has still been reused to this day. However his artist career began when he created hundreds of drawings while a POW during WWII, some of the drawings he produced was an inmate illustrations of Changi Gaol, the Japanese Prisoner of War camp. 

Ronald Searle drew hundreds of magazine and book covers throughout his illustration career. He incorporates the traditional English comic ideas which include pointed elbows and shoes throughout all illustrations, and include all the satire that we love as the audience.  

To match his humour he used traditional media of watercolour and ink, teamed along with minimalistic lines and details - retaining more detail to selective areas that draw your attention in. The way he uses this reminds me of Roal Dahl's work with the "inky" effect.

"Searle's work out is genuine wit, intelligence and unabashed ambition. He is one of our greatest cartoonist, with a lifelong dedication to his craft unequalled by any of his contemporaries."

I really love his work, the drawings are loose and simple but I think they capture so much character especially in the ink-based sketches. I can definitely take inspiration from his way of working, looser sketches that have caricature based elements emphasising the main points of illustrations. I definitely want to try more work in ink and little colour. 

Pete Fowler

Pete "The Monsterist" Fowler is a very recognisable illustrator. His work is mostly displayed around his home-place of Wales however now resides in East London, although his fans stretch all over the world due his unusual style.

'The Professor'

He creates bright and colourful characters that have the classic "monterism" that Fowler imitates within his characters, artwork and even music. As you can see his illustrations are quirky and full of his own His motivation and inspiration is said to come from "nature, daily life, psychedelica, monsters, music  and much more." He has recently taken to creating 3D characters with vinyl, this is to go along with other merchandising products, these are sold nationally and also known to be some selling in Asia. Furthermore he is part of a band 'Seahawks' demonstrating his multi-talented artist skills that are reflected within his work. 

I really like his work, they are quirky characters that, although slightly edited afterwards in photoshop he applies the original techniques of acrylic paint and pen. This skill is emphasised in his original sketches that can be viewed on his blog. The use of lines and block colours creates these flat illustrations that are simple yet effective, a technique that I could experiment within my own work, especially using more graphic skills as that is something I have yet to fully explore. 

April Greiman

April Greiman is a born New-Yorker who studied in Switzerland and has recently moved back to America, Los Angeles. Her unusual artwork that touches on colour, images and words altogether across different platforms, whether it is traditional paintings to new electrical installations; makes her one of the up-coming artists within the art & design technology process, and driving the process further. 

One way Greiman exhibits her work is public exhibitions. A most recent public commision piece of work is a 8200 sq ft oil painting, based on a video that was focusing on a bowl of rice. She chose rice as it is "underestimated" and symbolises multiple elements all around the world. This massive painting is on the side of a metrostation in Koreatown, Los Angeles.
April Greiman has multiple installations/studio works on at a given time, her wide usage of photography, painting, 3D modelling work, etc reaches and pleases a wide range of audience; this, along with her unusual vibrant colours and views on simple objects makes her one of the most famous modern-artist of today. 

Lars Von Trier

Lars Von Trier is one of the worlds most famous and controversial director & screenwriters ever. He is best known for his passion and motivation, which make his films sometimes the most shocking and yet interesting for the audience. He is even said to have a set of rules to abide by whilst considering the next films ideas/location, without having to use the same-old "Hollywood Set" that others do. This is where is motto "a film should be like a stone in your shoe" originates from as he strives be different from other film makers. 

He started his career by publicly realising the film "The Orchid Gardener" which was an experimental film with a mysterious and symbolic plot, in 1977. His career grew fast from here and was later known as the co-founder of  Zentropa Entertainment, along with producer Peter Jenson. Furthermore he started the film movement Dogme 95, which has created more interest in Danish films, and inspired film makers all over the world. Some of his awards include: Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix, and the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

I have seen a few of Trier's films however one that I remember the most is 'Dancer in the Dark' which is a musical staring Bjork. 

Although I agree with others that his work is controversial and sometimes out-of-the-ordinary, however I like the idea of this as he is an artist via a camera; his unique style is what sets him apart from others and makes him more sort-after and memorable. Something that we strive for as artists.