Last week I managed to steal some time from Factory311’s director Nicholas Hardy for an interview I’ve been wanting to do from the moment I saw the awesome work they produce. Factory features a star cast of the hottest digital media artists featuring names like SOEOMONE, Alberto Seveso, Federico Bebber and Sakke Soini. It’s this creative talent combined with the impressive list of professional photographers such as Jamie Nelson, Paco Peregrin, Valerie Morignat, Eric Canto and Andreas Stavrinides that gives Factory 311 the cutting edge style and versatility they are know for.

Welcome Nicholas. Thanks for taking the time off for this interview. Please introduce yourself to the Designfeedr readers.

Hi… Im Nick the director here at Factory311. Factory311 is an agency that represents international artists and photographers. Our main studio is based is in London where we work on really cool projects, mostly revolving around the fashion and music industry.

We’re constantly pushing our talent towards big magazines, focusing on high end editorial works. We are a very young company, only two years old, so we work with a small but tight knit base of artists and try to keep everything very personal. Factory311 consists of 5 photographers, 7 illustrators, 3 street artists and the in-house team of Sara, Maurice and myself.

We are definitely not your normal kind of agency. We started the way we wanted, worked with who we wanted and just grew the way we were supposed to. The backbone of 311 is that we only get involved in cool shit *chuckles*

Your photographers and artists come from all over the world. How hard is it to assemble and manage such a widespread and diverse team of talent?

I think it all came quite naturally. Everything started with one spanish graffiti artist, after that it was a real natural progression. All kinds of artists from all kinds of countries started contacting us online so the internet became a huge part of what we do. When we set out we didn’t mean to get involved with people from other countries, it kind of just came together that way.

What we didn’t want was to just take the easy and obvious route, you know, to take what was right on our doorstep.. you know what I mean!? We wanted to find undiscovered artists whose work hadn’t been seen before.

Once we found our artists it became a matter of communication. We use tools like as skype on a daily basis to communicate. The one really difficult thing about working with our international talent are all the different time zones. I remember sitting at my kitchen tables at 11pm freezing my nuts off speaking with Lionel Deluy in Los Angeles who was sitting on his balcony getting a tan! Fortunately that changed when we started pulling in the work which allowed us to travel away and out of Manchester… Now we get to sit on Lionel’s Balcony in the sun!

One of Factory311’s main draws is celebrated photographer Lionel Deluy. How important has getting someone like him on board been for the company’s growth?

Lionel brought fantastic imagery to the table since the early days. You really can’t do too much with someone like Lionel! His portfolio was immense and way beyond anything we could help grow and define! What i thought to myself was “what can we do different? What can 311 bring to this table?” Thats when we first thought about mixing it up with photo real street art and insane digital illustration – to use his existing portfolio out in the streets in a way thats never been seen. On one hand we were producing four meter high picture perfect murals created using spray cans and on the other hand we were creating exhibitions that included some of the biggest names in the movie and music industry, putting them in environments you would never think or dream of. So yes, working with someone like Lionel Deluy has been a great opportunity.

Factory does work for established celebrities and music industry artists on a frequent basis. How hard was it to get to that point?

As i said before a lot of the initial work sprang forth from Lionel’s portfolio but after the success of the Evolution exhibition we started to get approached by celebrities, magazines and record labels. What started out as a collaboration is actually turning out to be something very unique and popular, and definitely something we will continue to do and grow as an agency.

The line of clients factory works for are very trend sensitive. A style or means of communication might be hot today and gone tomorrow. How does this influence the way Factory approaches their work?

From day one Fac311 has always targeted the people we want to work for, whether that be an artist or a clothing brand. Our team is constantly out there researching new things, putting together new ideas and running internal projects. We dont follow patterns or trends, we’re constantly creating our own new things, which then gets filtered through to our clientele.

What advice would you give designers and illustrators that are trying to enter the industry wanting to work for a similar client base as factory311?

I would tell them dont bother… we have it covered!! *laughs*

Seriously though, I think with anyone entering the market you must be fresh and exciting.
Todays market is so open… you just need to stand out, take risks and do things different. The most important thing is to be true and focused, by which I mean you really have to devote everything you have!

What’s the most important aspect you look for when you decide whether to work with a certain individual?

Im not exactly sure what it is i look for in creatives. I think its very much like my music, I dont have a specific genre that i follow its just what moves me. Within the first few seconds I can tell whether or not someone is suitable for us.

The best artists are the ones that send their portfolios and just blow you away, work that actually makes your mind think of new possibilities and combinations. Those are the artists I look for.

That’s a wrap people. I would like to thank Nicholas for his time and I hope you guys enjoyed the interview. For more Factory 311 check out their website.

From the soft illustrations of Bangkok’s ISE , the brooding work of Hong Kong’s Calvin Ho or the clever product intergration of Finland’s Laura Liane, this post is extremely diverse. Filled to the brim with awesome fashion illustrations this over 80 pieces of inspiration article is Designfeedr’s largest inspiration post to date.

This post was a lot of work on Pandii’s part. This was partially due to the huge quantity of images showcased but also because she’s fairly new to all the coding that goes on behind the screens. If you enjoy it I imagine she would very much appreciate a Tweet or Facebook mention.

ISE

The 24 years old Ratinan Thaijaroen a.k.a. ISE is born and raised in Bangkok,Thailand where she works as a freelance illustrator and opened her own clothing store named “Weisschwarz” She thinks of paining as “her best friend” and is fascinated by the female figure and fahion style.

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Calvin Ho

The Hong Kong based Calvin Ho is the owner of the in 1997 founded Atomic Attack where he’s working on a wide range of projects that cover design,art direction,illustration& motion for the music,fashion,art,film and entertainment industriesHis fashion related,fresh and futuristic style is loved by prestigious clients such as Cartier,Harper’s Bazaar,Levi’s,Nokia and Wired amongst others .

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Esra Roise

Esra from Norway started out with 2 years at Einar Granum School of Arts and is currently taking her bachelor degree in Viual Communications at Oslo’s National Academy of the Arts while working as a freelance illustrator.

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Geraldine Georges

This young Belgian artist uses a wonderful and sophisticated blend of illustration and photography.
Geraldine’s work – often abstract of the female form – captures the eye and imagination. Influences of fashion and couture flow throught her wonderful pieces which recently can be found in a number of leading design and style magazines.

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Laura Laine

While studying fashion design the Finnish illustrator Laura Laine found out that designing wasn’t really her thing and that she only liked illustrating the designs for the portfolios.Only after the first course of fashion illustration she felt she found the perfect field for expressing herself.Now at an age of just 24 she has got quite a respectable resume witch big clients like Zara,Tommy Hilgiger,Escada,Elle Girl,NY T magazine,pap magazine and muse magazine.

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M.C. Turgeon

M.C .Turgeon describes herself as an artist,traveler, explorer and blogger based in Montreal,Canada.
With a background in fine arts and graphic design and years of experience in web art direction and some years as a business owner she is nowadays writing and illustrating everything that inspires her from snowflakes to predicted ufo landing.

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Nikki Farquharson

Nikki is a 23 year old girl based in London,England.In her work the focus often shifts between communication,colour, pattern and typography which results in a great variety of visual outcomes.Nikki’s work got a lot of attention lately do the awesome serie she illustrated for Missbehave magazine.

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Nina Chakrabarti

Born in Calcutta,India, Nina moves to the UK in her teens taking little else than her stamp collection. She studied illustration at St.Martins and many years later at The Royal College of Art. Working with Rotring pens,felt tips,biros, pencils, inks and the Apple Macintosh,she enjoys using different technologies and mediums and collaborating with others.

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My Dead Pony

Raphael Vicenzi,working under the name “my dead pony” is a self-taught illustrator living in Brussels,Belgium represented by Colagene .
While his illustrations may look fresh and light most of the time a darker and more provocative undertone can be found which in my opinion makes his work very interesting.
Raphael’s work is published in magazines like Computer Arts, Advanced Photoshop, Rockpile, Idea Design as well as in books about contemporary illustration like Illusive 2, Zeixs Illustration and Fashion Wonderland.

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Cocopit

COCOPIT started out illustrating as a favour to friends who needed them for lookbooks,magazines and websites while setting up her company getconfused which offers creative solutions and consultancy . Nowadays she creates imagery for publication spanning both the independent and mainstream press and recently started a small collection of scarves,forget-me-not.

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Some designers and illustrators seem to get all the attention. They get the good clients, spotlights in respected magazines, interviews in high traffic online publications and more. They’re all over the place and as a result their brand recognition is building like wildfire, clients love them and the community respects them.

Ironic as it is, if you visit a lot of inspiration sites like I do you’ll come across people who are actually more skilled than the creatives getting all the attention and yet they aren’t doing half as well. Are they content being in the shadow? It might be a lack of ambition… Or is there perhaps something else at play?

A lot of people think that if you love what you do and work feverishly on building your skills set you’ll get what you deserve. After all, shouldn’t it be skill that leads to exposure in online and offline publications? Doesn’t the person with the better portfolio always come out on top?

I can be short, the answer is a definite no. If you think you can ride artistic or design talent to victory in this modern day and age you’re wrong. There’s so much talent out there right now that it’s become extremely hard to stand out on just the quality of your portfolio. You have to get out there and build your brand by personally connecting with your peers and potential clients. You have to build your Online Presence, or as my favorite social media and marketing expert Gary Vaynerchuk would say – “you have to be willing to hustle”.

What is Online Presence?

Strictly speaking, Online Presence is nothing more than having an expression outlet on the web. If you have your own site or own a social media account you have presence on the web, simple as pie. This simplicity is deceiving though because a blog, Twitter account and everything in between doesn’t achieve anything by itself. It’s like buying Mike Tyson’s boxing gloves in an eBay aution, putting them on and jumping into the ring thinking you’re invincible. We can all predict what that scenario leads to…major ouch.

It’s not the gear that makes someone great. What defines your successful in any professional environment are the strategy and tactics you employ, the amount of work that you’re willing to put in and the skills you hone along the way. Online Presence is no different, it can lead to a situation where clients flood your mailbox and magazines offers become a regular happening. Before you reach that sweet spot however you’re going to have to put in the work and learn how to use the tools at your disposal like a pro. It’s time to hustle.

Why is Online Presence so important?

Because the times have changed and the internet has become the first point of contact. Let’s say you’re looking for a job. Unless you are a web designer your printed port still goes with you to the interview, but long before they lay their eyes on the work it contains they’ve already seen the portfolio pieces on your website. In the interview you’ll talk about yourself but they’ve already read your about me section, checked your Myspace, Facebook, Behance, Twitter and whatever else you’re on. Your Online Presence has shaped their first impression of you before you even enter their office.

Above The printed portfolio is still important but it’s influence is diminishing while that of Online Presence grows. [Book by Radim Malinic]

Online Presence is even more important for freelancers. Thanks to the mass adoption of the internet the days where you send unsolicited mail, make cold calls or go into offices uninvited with a portfolio under your arm are almost entirely over. Today you must use the web as a means to make a first impression, showcase your portfolio, demonstrate your knowledge and get word of mouth. If you do it right you have an enormous amount of tools to positively shape the way your clients see you and your brand. If you do it wrong your first impression is a miss. Because you’re trying to score jobs through the internet there often is no second chance.

The benefits of Online presence

I’ve been talking about Online Presence and how important it is but I haven’t really mentioned what it can do for you. Giving a full list of benefits is impossible because the outcome is defined by the goals you yourself set and the creative branch you wish to work in. I can however list some of the most common benefits creatives strive to achieve by leveraging their Online Presence.

1. Make a strong first impression with potential employers
Having a strong and well thought out presence on the web can leave a positive impression with a client or employer before they’ve ever seen your face. You don’t have the job yet, but you’re off to a good start which is always important.

2. Builds your brand.
When people see your name come up in multiple places like blogs and magazines they can’t help but think you’re a professional player in this game. If someone doesn’t have the skill or expertise why else would he get all that attention? Faulty logic of course, but one that you should use to your advantage nonetheless. Make the contacts that allow you to showcase your work in many places and your brand recognition will skyrocket. Obviously this works best if your self-presentation is consistent.

3. Easier access to publications.
Want your work in Advanced Photoshop, Computer Arts or Imagine FX? Online Presence helps open these doors as well. Magazines will have an easier time noticing you if they see your work in more than one place. It’s also an efficient way to demonstrate you’re serious about your craft and are willing to do what it takes to reach your goals. Put yourself in their shoes, who would you rather expose, a designer who’s busting his butt off trying to make his dream a reality or a lazy artist that posts to his DeviantArt once every two months?

4. Generates traffic
Traffic is the lifeblood of the internet, which makes sense, after all if no one is seeing what you have to show you’ll never reach the goals you’ve set for yourself. As such a lot of our tactics will have strive to create traffic (well I know mine do). If you promote yourself in multiple places you’ll start to ensure that you get a stream of traffic to going around your presence on the web. As long as you make sure this traffic is targeted and not coming from random sources you can be sure your brand is getting a major booster.

4. Will bring in clients
If you have a good port and focus in the right places a strong Online Presence will bring in clients from time to time. Don’t expect to be done with all your regular ways of winning new clientele though, most designers I know are still dependent on returning clients, recommendations and mouth to mouth.

5. Creates a network of contacts you could call on for various purposes
Whether you need someone to give you some constructive criticism, need some coding help or want to outsource a piece of a project, building a good Online Presence will automatically lead to getting to know the right people. While blogging I’ve learned that knowing the right people isn’t just important, it’s essential.

8 powertips to bring your game to the next level

Getting Online Presence is actually the easy part, just launch some sites and start up a few social media accounts. The thing that complicates it is that you should make it your goal to get a strong presence – one that can be leveraged to help achieve your goals. Below are 8 tips that I guarantee will bring you some very tangible rewards if you stick with them.

1. Determine your focus
Without focus you’re just shooting blanks hoping they’ll hit a target. As far as Online Presence is concerned this means you should have a good view of what it is you’re trying to sell yourself as and then start looking what the best places are to do this online. Want to get your foot in the door as a contemporary character artist? Mojizu and Behance are solid starting places. Want to get your name out there as a Flash web designer? Make it your mission to get one or two of your sites on the FWA for starters.

2. Clean your port up
I often see a lot of portfolio’s that have work that’s three or more years old. That’s great if you had it going on then and haven’t improved much, but most of the time your old work will start to dull compared to your newer pieces and your focus might also have changed. It’s imperative you give your portfolio a harsh look every now and then and leave only your best pieces. Most professionals agree that it’s better to have a small but strong port then a large mixed quality one.

3. Don’t spread yourself too thin
There are tons of places and tricks online you can use to get your name out there. The problem is that once you start focusing on a few you’ll realize it cost quite a bit of time. Accounts need to be set up and kept up to date, comments need answering, networking need to be done and so on. If you don’t do the needed maintenance there really is no use to promoting yourself on a certain site at all. This means you can’t be everywhere so you need to start making choices. Ask yourself how much time you can spend and what places are most effective as a means to reaching your goals.

4. Be consistent in how you present yourself
Whether you work under your own name or not doesn’t matter, when you’re building Online Presence you are the brand. We all know a brand has to be protected and should be instantly recognizable. This means that if you represent yourself as “The ultimate Design lord” on one site you can’t be “John Jackson” on another, you have to pick one and stick with it. The same goes for style attributes you use. Don’t use bright colors in your portfolio design and then go all black and grey on your Behance, you’d be wasting your recognizability. Aim to be as consistent as is possible.

5. Do not expose information that might shock your target clients
We all have our “out of the ordinary” hobbies or crazy skeletons in our closets. You like listening to retro black metal music with your face painted black and white for that extra bit of credibility? That’s cool with me, I won’t judge. Some clients and peers however will. If you choose not to hide the aspects of your life others might look down upon I applaud you for your courage but I would advise you to think carefully about what information you expose about in a professional environment. I’ve found strangers get judged much harsher then the people we have closer ties with. Why not wait until you’ve established a bond before exposing possibly awkward details about yourself?

6. Try to get exposure through blogs
If printed magazines are out of your league at the moment chances are you could be very successful getting exposure on blogs. Getting exposure through blogs usually leads to some good traffic hitting up your site. One good strategy is to hit up multiple blogs every time you have an important update or launch a new project. You can also barter a bit with bloggers to ensure that stuff you think is important get mentioned in the post.

Note: When contacting bloggers make sure to go with blogs that are alive. It doesn’t have to be Smashing magazine but you really want some good exposure, so have a look at the amount of comments or ask the owner what the average daily visitor count is. I personally wouldn’t go with a blog that has less than 1500 visitors a day if it’s a lot of effort on your part (tutorials take time for example, a showcase on the other hand is as easy as sending some images over).

7. Get a tutorial published
Creating a good tutorial costs a bit of time but can have some great benefits. The first benefit is that you set yourself up as a specialist in your craft which is obviously never bad. Second is the fact that depending on where you get it published you’ll get a nice flow of traffic to your site and you might even get payed.

My personal advice would be to get your tutorial published on medium/large blogs or dedicated tutorial sites. For the blogs try Abduzeedo or Smashing Magazine. As far as dedicated tutorial sites go I’d advise you to look into the TUTS network first which features sites like Psdtuts. They get great traffic and pay your for your effort.

8. Collaborate with artists who also actively work on their Online Presence
Working with other artists has multiple benefits. First of you’re doing some strong networking for yourself. Second you’re investing time in a project that you know will be exposed from both sides. If both you and your partner are actively trying to make a name for yourselves this will lead to benefits for the both of you. A win win situation occurs and that’s not even mentioning the great work you and your partner might end up with.

Now you know what I will be working on the coming year: building and leveraging my Online Presence. I wish you the best of luck forging your own and would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Artbooks come and go and I must admit, rarely do I find one interesting enough to actually make the purchase. Marko Djurdjevic’s first artbook, filled to the brim with coverwork for Marvel, has seriously infected me with a bad case of “want it now”. I grew up on characters like Spiderman, Captain America and the X-Men and to see my childhood heroes brought to life with such amazing skill is just mindblowing. Below are over 40 pieces from Marko’s book “The Marvel art of Marco Djurdjevic”, enjoy and be amazed.

If you want to check Marko’s 240 page artbook out have a look here at Amazon (not an affilaite link mind you). If you want to know more about Marko Djurdjevic have a look at his Wikipedia biography which features a bunch of links to more of his work.

I digged this post from the Designfeedr archives, I found the post in the “draft” section of the blog’s articles and immediately knew I had made a mistake in taking it offline. Since this article dates from well before Designfeedr’s reboot it has a large amount of comments, just thought I’d mention it to avoid any possible confusion.

I had to put in the necessary work to remove the weaker pieces, add some more awesome typography and update the formatting and designer info. Definitely worth it in the end though. Enjoy!

Tony Ariawan

Tony Ariawan describes himself as a digital artist and graphic designer. He’s based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Tony didn’t attend any graphic-design school but instead educated himself. He’s deeply influenced by the beauty of the female form, light and vivid color.

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Alex Trochut

Alex Trochut is a freelance designer from Barcelona, Spain. Alex manages to combine the best he’s picked up from his classic design education with modern day eye popping illustration effects.

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Nik Ainley

Nik Ainley is a UK based illustrator who produces both personal and commissioned work. He rather bizarrely taught himself Photoshop in his spare time while gaining a degree in physics at Imperial College in London. He enjoyed it so much he ditched physics and moved full time into design and illustration.

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Theo Aartsma

Theo Aartsma is a 27 year old designer and illustrator from the northern region of Holland. Theo currently works as a Flash/interaction designer for TFE in Groningen.

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Jeff Finley

Jeff Finley’s one of the owners of Go Media along with Bill Beachy and Wilson Revehl. He’s an artist first and foremost but also has a passion for marketing and the internet. When he’s not contributing to a design project he’s usually exploiting the internet for networking, promoting and relationship building.

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Chris Wicks

Chris Wicks is a John Doe Designer that I can’t tell you anything about. He’s gotten into this showcase purely on the awesomeness of the pieces below.

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Pablo Alfieri

Pablo Alfiery is a designer located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work has graced the pages of Computer Arts Magazine, Slanted Magazine and more.

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Craig Shields

Craig Shields is currently in his final year as a degree student studying Graphic Design at the School of art and design in Lincoln, UK. When he’s producing work for his education Craig does freelance gigs for small businesses, doing mostly illustration work.

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Emeric Trahand

Emeric Trahand is a graphic designer, art director and illustrator. Emeric , known as Takeshi online, has established himself as a freelance graphic designer in France in mid 2006 and has already been commissionned by a diverse array of companies and publications worldwide.

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Rodrigo Braga

Rodrigo Braga is a 30 years old brazilian Art Director, Dj and Illustrator based in Montreal / Amsterdam. He’s been working in Interactive Projects since 2003 at Agência Click and Tribo Interactive for clients such as Johnson & Johnson’s, Nestlé and FIAT.

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Daniel Gordon

Daniel Gordon is a designer/creative director who does a variety of work on a daily basis. Graphics for t-shirts, album covers, websites, magazines, entire marketing campaigns or personal projects – you name it, he’s done it.

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Luke Lucas

Luke Lucas is a designer from Melbourne, Australia with a taste for shiny, metallic and often retro inspired design. Definitely my type of guy.

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Si Scott

After gaining a degree in graphic design at Buckinghamshire University College, Si Scott used his skills to develop a characteristic style which combines hand-inked and penned artwork with modern typography.

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Kliment Kalchev

Kliment Kalchev is a designer based in Sofia, Bulgeria. Info on Kliment is scarce – you’ll have to make due with the pretties below.

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Nicolas Alexander

Nicolas Alexander is a graphic designer passionate about type and motion graphics. He’s currently working at Much&MuchMore music as a motion designer.

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The film industry is a hard place to stand out in, a decent movie requires a huge budget, tons of skill and a talented cast. While that might be a tough reality for movie makers it’s actually good news for us, it means their creatives will have to double their efforts when it comes to movie poster design.

I’d love to hear what your favorites are, I have to confess the GI Joe Ninjas are pretty damn cool from a nerdy perspective while the Japanese Flash Gordon poster is in one word epic.

Note: A lot of these come from Internet movie poster awards – if you like stuff like this be sure to check them out.

Massive Black has a client list that’s so impressive you would almost think it’s all made up. What other concept art studio do you know that has done work for Blizzard, LucasArts and Sega just to name a few? When you peek into their portfolio however it starts to set in – these guys are for real. The artists on the Massive Black team are spectacular by themselves but it’s as a whole that they give the studio a quality and versatility that has yet to be matched in the concept art and game industry.

For today’s showcase I’ve selected 30 exceptionally cool Concept art and Illustration pieces from the Massive Black portfolio to serve your insatiable inspiration need. Should you want more I have good news, the portfolio Massive Black showcases on their site is huge, I haven’t even scratched the surface here. Be sure to check them out.

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• Feature on CGSociety

Illustration Portfolio

Concept Art Portfolio

I grew up with shows like the Transformers, Thundercats and He-man – cartoons the likes of which many complain aren’t made anymore today. I remember the gratifying frustration of playing games like Zelda, Metroid and Mega Man in a time when strategy guides didn’t exist.

As a result of growing up in the 80s I get all warm and fuzzy inside every time I see neon color schemes, over the top shiny metallic typography and Tron inspired grid backdrops. At first I thought I was the only one with this absurd fetish but lately the web has me believing otherwise. Designers, illustrators and everyone in between seem to be picking up the 80s as a new trend for the coming years. So I did what I do best on Designfeedr, I scoured the interwebs and my hard drive for the hottest retro pieces the web has to offer.

Alex Trochut & Marta Cerda Alimbau

Barcelona based Marta Cerda Alimbau teamed up with Australia’s Alex Trochet to create these deliciously retro typography illustrations. I hear the illustrations were rejected by the client…what a shame.

• Alex Trochet
• Marta Cerda Alimbau

Sakke Soini

As the unofficial ambassador of retro illustration Sakke Soini knows like no other how to blend trendy elements (yes monkeys are considered a trend in design) with yesterdays color schemes and lighting effects. Sakke is currently working on a portfolio site, in the meantime you’ll have to make due with his Behance profile.

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Genaro de Sia Coppola

“Neon up your *ss” is how Genaro de Sia Coppola’s describes his own work on his DeviantArt account. Genaro’s bright neon and blacklight filled illustration style screams 80’s in a high pitched voice – now who would want his retro illustration any other way?

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Sebastian Bentler

Germany based designer Sebastian Bentler has got his retro down. Funky washed out colors? Check. Lighting effects from another era? In abundance. Yesterday’s typography with a modern edge? Represented.

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Joao Oliveira

Portuguese graphic designer and illustrator Joao Oliveira is currently studying communication Design and working as a freelancer. Joao has a style that looks influenced by the classic designers but isn’t afraid to dabble into more commercial and stylish regions of design and illustration when it suits his whim.

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Adrian Unger

Adrian Unger is a twenty year old designer and illustrator living in the Greater Vancouver Region. His website Staydecent.ca is a project all on its own: Adrian uses the site to constantly experiment and remix to further learn and evolve his skills.

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Will Consiglio

Will Consiglio, working under the name Theponderousmind, has an art style that is unmistakingly 80’s. I only have a link to his DeviantArt for you since info on the man is hard to find.

• DeviantArt

Nicolas Alexander

Nicolas Alexander is a French Canadian Graphic Designer working for MuchMusic in Toronto. On the sidelines he does freelance work in motion graphics and type illustrations, some of which have a very 80s inspired look and feel.

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kidplastik

Kidplastik is a designer based in Salt Lake City in the United States – I wish I could tell you more but the kid is rather low key as far as personal information goes.

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James White

If Sakke Soini is Finland’s ambassedor of Retro Design than James White must be Canada’s. Floating somewhere between a designer, illustrator and artist James White always imbues his work with an unmistakable 80s look and feel.

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Hannibal Chew

If the images below are any representation I think we can safely state that Poland based Hannibal Chew loves neon quite a bit. This 25 year old illustrator does not reveal much about himself unfortunately, nonetheless I’ve linked to his Behance for your viewing pleasure.

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Ed Price

Closing this showcase is talent designer Ed Price, living and working in Bristol in the United Kingdom. Ed has a mixture of styles going on in his portfolio that confirm two things – the man’s got skill and has his retro down like a pro.

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Justin Maller is a freelance illustrator and art director based in Melbourne, Australia. He has been creating digital art for over eight years and has produced professionally in both private and studio based capacity for the last two. He is represented by the Jacky Winter Group.

Justin has had the pleasure of producing illustrations and concept art for a diverse array of companies and publications worldwide. He currently enjoys a cordial collaborative relationship with several prestigious international design studios. Justin is an inner core member of the Keystone Design Union, an avid sneaker collector, a savvy blogger, occassional tweeter and a mild force of nature on the basketball court.

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• Behance

In the world of fashion photography proper use of lighting is the key to producing a professional looking image. As the lines between Digital Media, illustration and photography blur there seem to be a lot of creative experimenting going on. Amazing and inventive lighting techniques, colours pushed to the brim and digital effects give these experimental fashion photos a surreal and extra magical or urban reminiscent look and feel. Below is a compilation of the most creative lighting in fashion photography I spotted on the web. Enjoy!

Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel is an American photographer who obtained popular acclaim with his work in US and Italian Vogue and his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book Sex. He is now considered one of the most successful fashion photographers in the industry, shooting regularly for both US and Italian Vogue and lately W.

• Steven Meisel bio on Wikipedia

Michael Muller

Michael Muller is an American photographer known for his celebrity and advertising photos. He has photographed portraits of a wide range of actors, musicians, and artists. Michael has shot movie posters and promotional photos for many big-budget Hollywood movies such as Iron Man and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

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• Michael Muller bio on Wikipedia

Julia Pogodina

New York based Julia Pogadina is originally from St.Petersburg, Russia. Her passion for photography was kindled at the age of just 5 when she watched her father print black and white images in his darkroom. By the age of eight she got her first camera which eventually led to Julia abandoning her career in law for one in photography.

• Homepage

Jaques Dequeker

Jacques Dequeker, born 1970 in Southern Brazil, has lived in São Paulo since 1998. Self-taught, he started to photograph in 1997 influenced by friends such as photographer Pedro Flores and make-up artist Duda Molinos. In 2002 Jaques won the Brazilian Association of Textile Industry award for best fashion photographer in Brazil which lead to all kinds of opportunities for him.

• Homepage

James Meakin

James has established himself as a lighting expert after assisting photographers like Laurie Bartley and Kevin Mackintosh around the world and working on shoots for big campains and brands like Vogue,Sony and Gucci. “I often reference horror movies for lighting. That ambience and chill factor is where I’d like to be. I want to shoot in a style that can be identified as my own which is fantasy based, dark glamour and always slightly surreal.”

• Homepage

Richard Burbidge

Richard’s inventive editorial work appears in leading fashion magazines like Italian Vogue, i-D, Another Magazine, V and Self-Service. His still life and beauty photography can be seen in in the elegant and experimental campains for MAC.Givenchy,Chaumet, Hermes and Louis vuitton Eyewear.

• Hintmag interview

Bruno Dayan

Bruno Dayan was born in London but grew up in France where he went to study Fine Arts in Montreal. After starting his profession in Toronto and ten years of being deported in japan he finally returned to his roots in France at the end of the 90’s. The world of Bruno Dayan is definitely one of glamour and sopistication, the two main characteristics of his work are sensuality and intricate use of light.

• Homepage

Andreas Stavrinides

Andreas studied sociology and history yet realized at the age of 24 that has true passion lay in the expression that photography enables. Andreas believes the key to understanding light comes from the quality of the shadow it creates, it’s this relation Andreas aspires to master and understand.

• Homepage
• Behance

Andrey Yakovlev & Lili Aleeva

Andrey and Lili are a team of creative photographers from moscow. I wish I could tell you more about them but unfortunately their Behance profile has no biography and their homepage is in Russian.

• Homepage
• Behance

Michael Raveney

Michael Raveney is a versatile photographer from Miami, Florida in the United States. Micheal does a lot of fashion work but his portfolio is also well represented as far commercial and advertising pieces go.

• Homepage
• Behance

Whether you like the new skool digital media illustrations, the more abstract designer flavoured work or the typical commercial photo manipulation we’ve got you covered today. I’ve searched high and low for new work from established and unknown photoshop artists alike and I must admit, what I found left a smile on my face. Enjoy and be inspired, if you like what you see remember a Tweet or any other type of social support means a lot to us.

Skamworks

I can tell you very little about the man that goes by the name of Skam online other than that he lives in Zagreb, Croatia, that his real name is Max and that his work is extremely inspiring. He rightfully leads the pack in this collection.

• DeviantArt

Anthony Harmon

Anthony Harmon has a permanent calcified bump on his right ring finger from the amount of drawing he did at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. It was a regular occurrence for Anthony not to sleep from Sunday morning until Monday around midnight in order to complete assignments. In two years he filled ten two-hundred page sketchbooks cover to cover. For more info on Anthony check out the below linked to Psdtuts+ interview.

• Homepage
• Behance
• Psdtuts+ interview

Angel Rivera

Angel was born on August 14th, 1994. He has many interests, but one of his favorites is art. He was introduced to photoshop around 2007 and has been hooked since. He mainly does digital art with a little bit of photography here and there.

• DeviantArt

David Waters

David Waters is a student/freelancer currently studying Graphic Design with the University of Idaho. He’s looking to hook up with interesting creatives to work with and help further his art an design skills.

• Homepage
• DeviantArt

Dave Hill

Dave Hill is a well established commercial photographer living in Los Angeles. He was born in 1979 and grew up in San Diego. His love of photography has evolved over the years, and now seems to have branched out to the extreme sides of the spectrum.

• Homepage
• Blog

Sullivan&Lane

Sullivan&Lane is a two man team consisting of Photographer Brandon Sullivan and Illustrator Kyle Lane. They integrate the unique aspects of each others work to form unique stylized compositions.

• Homepage

Craig Sprecher

Craig Sprecher is another mystery talent, his Behance has a four liner that tells us he’s 21, lives in Portland, Oregon and that he designs… Other than that there’s not much to be found about the man, so we’ll let the images do the talking driving.

• Behance

Kjegwan Leihitu

Kjegwan Leihitu is a 21 year old Designer hailing from the Netherlands. Kjegwan likes to think that while he might be modest in posture his design and illustration work more than makes up for it. Who are we to argue?

• Homepage
• Behance

Koen de Muynck

There is little information online about Belgian photographer and Photoshop mastermind Koen de Muynck. Perhaps he’s too busy doing excellent commercial work to set up an about me section?

• Homepage

Marco Escobedo

Peru based Marco Escobedo makes it hard for bloggers to write about him, his bio is written in something that seems to be Spanish. I couldn’t care less though since his Micheal Jackson manipulation more than makes up for any lack of info.

• Homepage

Hock

Singaporean Photoshop talent Hock is another artist that shares little about himself, that is, unless you read Malay. Since I don’t and you probably don’t either I’ve hooked you up with his Behance profile below.

• Behance

Elena Nikiforova

I’m starting to think there’s a conspiracy going on. Creative talents are hiding their personal details so we can’t find them when the truth comes out. Russian based Elena Nikiforova shares nothing about herself on her Behance and one page portfolio site, she leaves us with a collection of gorgeous pics instead.

• Homepage
• Behance

Platinum

Platinum is a Brazillion studio that specializes in combining 3d, photography and anything else they can get their hands on to make eye-popping imagery.

• Homepage

Jan Oliehoek

Jan Oliehoek is a photo manipulator residing in Leiden, the Netherlands. If you like the zebra frog below be sure to check out Jan’s other work, he’s got lots more clever creature manipulations.

• Homepage
• DeviantArt

Sergio Vichique

Twenty-eight year old Sergio Vichique is a designer based in Mexico. He’s an active member of the DigitalFlow art group and can be found socializing on Behance and DeviantArt.

• Homepage
• Behance
• DeviantArt

Mariano Villalba

Mariano Villalba is a self-taugth photographer and digital artist born in 1977 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He started to have interest in photography when he was 16 and began to experiment with digital techniques in Photoshop when I was 25.

• DeviantArt

Olli Pekka Jauhianen

Olli Pekka Jauhianen is a 27 years old graphic designer and illustrator who’s currently living in Helsinki, Finland. He’s finishing his studies for the TAMK university of applied science, where he specializes in Digital Media.

• Homepage
• Behance

Adam Spizak is a self taught professional illustrator and designer. Adam hails from Poland but is currently residing in the United Kingdom’s design center London where he works as a web designer and interactive developer.

As with everything in life photo manipulation comes in many styles and flavors. I love many types of work but when it comes to stylized photo manipulation I have to hand it to Adam Spizak – he’s my current number one.

What makes Adam’s work unique for me is the way he combines believable manipulation, stylized elements and story. That last one is the ingredient that’s missing in a lot of work these days, much to Adam Spizak’s benefit, because his skill as a visual storyteller leaves many of his colleagues light years behind.

• Homepage
• Behance
• PSDtuts interview

If you want to know more about Adam’s work be sure to check out the interview PSDtuts recently did with Adam.

Twenty-one year old Craig Shields is currently in his final year as a degree student studying Graphic Design at the School of art and design in Lincoln. He does freelance illustration work in his spare time and is an active member of the DepthCore collective.

With magazine publications under his belt and listed as one of the Uk’s top 10 illustrators to look out for in 2009 Craig is building quite a name for himself. Definitely one to watch I’d say.

• Homepage
• Behance
• DeviantArt

Most of the pieces are not pure black-and-white, a lot of them have splash a tiny bit of color. While they feature some color they’re still perfect for the purpose of our study though and I’m sure they’ll get you’re creative juices flowing whether you’re a hardcore black-and-white buff, color lover or somewhere in between. Enjoy and be inspired!

This is an archived article from before Designfeedr’s re-launch, it was not created by the current team and the layout might be a bit iffy.

Joao Oliveira

I love coming across illustrators that blow me away at first contact. Joao Oliveira definitely falls into that category, I had never seen his work but the class and style of his pieces is very impressive.

Joao’s work is both classic yet modern at the same time. In the first two pieces Joao uses the extreme contrasts black-and-white allows combined with digital effects to attain a classic sci-fi look. The third and fourth illustrations look much more classical but still have digital elements that makes them very intriguing.

Pete Harrison

Multi-faceted designer and illustrator Pete Harrison loves to combine a black-and-white base image with colorful lighting effects. By using well placed lighting effects and strong contrast his pieces nearly pop off the screen.

Alberto Seveso

Italy based Alberto Seveso needs no introduction in the illustration scene. Dark backgrounds with hues of gray and some color splashed in give Alberto’s work a modern look with a classic undertone.

Mike Harrison

Mike Harrison’s non-digital look immediately sets him apart from the general field. In the pieces below Mike uses deep dark backgrounds, black-and-white models and a soft splash of color to set the mood.

Alessandro Pautasso

Alessandro Pautasso combines classic black-and-white photography with vector splashes, swirls and patterns to create a sexy marriage of extremes (classic looking photography with very digital looking elements).

In the pieces below Alessandro uses a gray on gray base to create low contrast between the background and the models. This makes the bright colors in his work really stand out.

Christopher Haines

Christopher Haines, located in Australia, has a very broad style to his illustration. In the Electro set below Christopher uses monochrome color bases that he then brings to life with “designery” purple.

Bram Vanhaeren

Belgian illustrator Bram Verhaeren has a lighthearted open feel to his work. The pieces below have a soft look to them due to the fact that Bram uses little black and instead goes with subtle hues of gray.

Depthcore’s latest chapter: Noir

I also feel that Flash’s good name has been spoiled mostly by designers who love making pretty sites but know or care nothing about usable, user centered web design.

See more of the awesome submissions to the Noir chapter on Depthcore.

So enjoy, be inspired and be sure to check out the source sites listed at the bottom of the post. While you do that I’ll decide if I should do a showcase on Vodka bottles – some are just so brilliantly creative. I would love your opinion on that by the way!

If you want more packaging design inspiration check Packaging world, Veerle’s blog, Smashing Magazine or have a look at the cool hunter.

Most of these are in here because I think they’ll inspire with their use of typography, effects or a unique approach. There’s a few on the other hand that are here simply because I’m a huge fan boy for stuff from my youth – new Conan and Red Sonja films? Hell yea!

This is an archived article from before Designfeedr’s re-launch, it was not created by the current team and the layout might be a bit iffy.

The majority of these came from the movie poster awards. Give them a look-up if you’re into movie posters.

This pulled me over the edge to do a showcase on digital painting, something I’ve been following for years now. Even if you don’t know the first thing about digital brushwork you can still be greatly inspired by the awesome color choices, composition and sometimes totally unique angles these paintings have.

So forget about your doc types, drop that Wacom pen and simply get inspired by something totally different. Digital painting at it’s best.

This is an archived article from before Designfeedr’s re-launch, it was not created by the current team and the layout might be a bit iffy.

01. Artgrerm | Deviantart

02. Roboto Kun | Visit site

03. Omen2501 | Visit site

04. Aneyeoni | Visit site

05. Alexiuss | Visit site

06. Chris de Lara | Visit site

07. Gunner Romantic | Visit site

>08. Jason Chan | Visit site

09. Jesse van Dijk | Visit site

10. Jo Yang | Visit site

11. kheleksul | Visit site

12. Kunkka | Visit site

13. Rado Javor | Visit site

14. Marc Brunet | Visit site

15. Marta Dahlig | Visit site

16. Pavel Lagutin | Visit site

17. Rozefire | Visit site

18. Ruan Jia | Visit site

19. Enayla | Visit site

20. Tea Young Choi | Visit site

21. Michael Oswald | Visit site

22. Wen M | Visit site

This is an archived article from before Designfeedr’s re-launch, it was not created by the current team and the layout might be a bit iffy.

01. Platinum FMD | Platinum FMD’s site

02. DB + EM | DB + EM’s site

03. Jerico Santander | Jerico’s site

04. Didier Guy

05. Jill Greenberg | Jill Greenberg’s site

06. Matias Posti | Matias Posti

07. Miles Aldrige | Miles Aldrige’s site

08. Orikon | Orikon’s site

09. Ricardo Salamanca | Ricardo Salamanca

10. Steven Young

11. Gian Paolo Tomasi | Gian Paolo Tomasi’s site

A while ago I did an article on sexy character illustrations and asked some illustrators who create that type of art some questions. While doing my research for that article I came across some great artists that just begged to be compiled into a showcase. In this collection of images you’ll find some established names and some up and coming artists, all of them with a unique style.

01. Candybird | Candybird’s site

02. Junko Mizuno | Junko Mizuno’s site

03. Kukula | Kukula’s site

04. SKAFFS | SKAFFS’s site

05. Jarovich | Jarovich’s site

06. Liz Lorini | Liz Lorini’s site

07. Aleksandra Marchocka | Aleksandra Marchocka’s site

08. Miss Van | Miss Van’s site

9. Lostfish | Lostfish’s site

10. Fafi | Fafi’s site

01. by Absolut | Absolut’s site

02. Triangle carton package

03. by Daniel Eek | Daniel Eek’s site

04. Happy cider

05. I need help

06. Lush

07. Clear men

08. Illy | Illy USA’s site

09. Boot collection

10. Sprinkles

11. Perrier

12. by Orgut Cayli | Orgut Cayli’s site

13. by Route 29

14. by Studio43 | Studio43’s site

15. by Catherine Harvey | Catherine Harvey’s site

16. Puschkin | CPuschkin’s site

This last one is my personal favorite, for obvious reasons;)

If you want more packaging design inspiration check Packaging world, Veerle’s blog, Smashing Magazine or have a look at the cool hunter.

If you’re a fan of modern illustration you’ve no doubt noticed that those of the digital school like using extreme lighting effects and vivid colors to make an impression. One very effective way to give these elements extra power is to use a dark background for your piece. This ensures that you’ll have the basis to make the lighting and color really stand out.

I’ve searched the web and my hard drive for some eye catching examples. Enjoy and be inspired!

01. Daniel Delgado Volchaire | Daniel Delgado Volchaire’s site

02. Cristiano Siqueira | Cristiano Siqueira’s site

03. Atila Meireles | Atila meireles’s site

04. Brian Gossett | Brian Gossett’s site

05. Mischa Loppies | Mischa Loppies’s site

06. Jeremias Virtanen | Jeremias Virtanen’s site

07. Bosslogic | Bosslogic’s site

08. Mike Orduna | Mike Orduna’s site

09. Xegalstudio | Xegalstudio site

10. Peter Maciocha | Peter Maciocha’s site

11. Sakke Soini | sakke Soini’s site

The following 10 artists and studio’s definitely know what they’re doing though. So enjoy the work and be inspired.

This is an archived article from before Designfeedr’s re-launch, it was not created by the current team and the layout might be a bit iffy.

01. Emeric Trahand | Emeric’s site

02. Allesandro Bavari | Allesandro’s site

03. Quentin Shih | Quentin’s site

04. David Waters | David’s site

05. Partners Portugal

06. Lauri Ahonen | Lauri’s site

07. Sullivan & Lane | Sullivan & Lane site

08. Heiko Klug | Heiko Klug

09. Dave Hill | Dave’s site

10. Anthony Harmon | Anthony’s site

11. Impossible is nothing campaign

12. Usefull recourses

If the above has gotten your creative juices flowing but you don’t know where to start when it comes to photo manipulating the following links will help you out.

Making good cut-outs and extractions
Refine edge
Defringing hair on Computer Arts

Interresting making offs from Eagis Strife and some usefull tips
Eagis Strife tips and tricks
Making of Venus
Making of Hidden Place

Random usefull tutorials
Vivid color effects on Computer Arts
Blur effects on Computer Arts
Bottle as lens on Computer Arts
A bunch of tuts on Psdtuts