Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud was born in 1960 in America and is a famous cartoonist. He has written books such as understanding comics and making comics. He studied illustration in Syracuse University where he graduated in 1982. In 1984 he created the science fiction series zot!
I know very little about comics as when I  was younger I never read them and never liked them so to have to look at this artist to me doesn’t inspire me as it doesn’t connect with me. I think he is very good at drawing and to people who like comics they would probably love his work yet I don’t. I don’t want to create comics or read them, however I think in future it would be nice to create something within the same layout style of a comic as they are very eye catching and have a link with pop art which is something I like, but as an artist I don’t really like his work.

 

see his work at http://scottmccloud.com/

Peter Fowler

Peter Fowler is a welsh artist born in 1969 who is most famous for his toys called monster. He is a freelance illustrator who focuses on his monster collection which is inspired by animals, music and folklore. His art work is very unique in style and looks very postmodern and cartoony. The ‘monsters’ which peter fowler have created all live on monsterism island again a place created by peter fowler. The ‘monsters’ all have specific traits and peter fowler has set different levels of monsterism. These toys are very popular which he makes in his own company.
As well as creating toys he has also worked on adverts which has aired in the UK and japan< his most famous advert was the kia piccanto car advert.
I don’t really like the work of Peter Fowler I think it is al to bright and it looks very 60’s which is an ear I don’t really like. The repetition of the bright colours and the psychedelic feel to me is very off putting; however I can see why illustrators would like this work because he is very skilled at drawing.

visit his website http://monsterism.net/

April Greiman

April Greiman is a graphic designer born in New York in 1948. She studied at the Allgemeine Kunstgewerbeschule in Switzerland and then the Kansas City Art Institute. She then started working as a graphic designer in New York whilst teaching as the same at the Philadelphia College of Art.
IN 1976 April moved to California and opened a graphic design studio in Los Angeles, made in space.
I like the bright colours that April uses in her work as it makes it look more interesting, I also think the way the text is on the work as the way it flows is unique. The way the images are overlaid make the work look like a collage which I really like. The fact that she has studied in different counties can be seen reflected in her work as it looks very modern and slick. I think I would use her work as inspiration in the future however I don’t think I will create work that looks similar to hers.  

 

visit the made in space website http://madeinspace.la/

Ian Pollock

Ian Pollock was born in Cheadle in 1950, where he went on to study. He went to the Manchester College of art and design then in 1970 went to Manchester polytechnic. After he graduated he went to the royal college of art and in 1976 became a freelance illustrator.
Since becoming a freelance illustrator he has publishing books such as ‘the miracles of Christ’ and ‘beware of the cat’.  As well as publishing book Ian Pollock has also produced posters for the royal Shakespeare Company. He work often appears in magazines and newspapers due to its style.
In 1984 Ian Pollock published a cartoon version of king lear, the reason for this was to make Shakespeare accessible to all ages as when Ian was in school he didn’t connect with the works of Shakespeare and hoped a cartoon version would encourage children to enjoy and read it more.
in 1997 he was commissioned to create stamps for the bicentenary of Mary Shelleys birth.
I like the idea of designing stamps as I feel that when you get a letter the stamp it usually the only colour seen and it catches the eyes attention so I would like to try and create a few when I’m older also the fact that they are so small would incorporate problems of there own which I think would be fun to overcome. Overall I think Ian Pollocks illustrations are nice but again they are not the type of thing I would want to create and I doubt I would get inspiration form his illustrating’s but I would like to look at the stamps he has created.

 

see more work at http://www.eastwing.co.uk/artist/ianpollock/

Jonny Hannah

Jonny Hannah was born in the kingdom of fife and studied illustration at Liverpool art school. He graduated in 1998 and since then as worked in the majority of the illustration fields, including working on the animation ‘The man with the beautiful eyes’ which aired on channel 4, this animation then went on to win numerous numbers of BAFTA.
As well as working on animations he also produces work for books and posters, he experiments with screen printing and creating work for box sets. In 2001 he co-published the book ‘the captain’s alphabet.’ He has also published ‘hot jazz special’ which was shortlisted for the 2005 Victoria & Albert Museum Illustration Award.
I love screen printing but I don’t really like the work of Jonny Hannah the colours used aren’t the colours I like and I don’t like the overall feel of the images. I like the use of typography in the work but that’s about it, it’s not something I would look at in the future and I doubt I would work in this style ever, because the images look so dark and depressing.

see more of his work here http://www.hornseys.com/art/contemporary/jonny-hannah

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry was born in 1963, and is an award winning screenwriter, film, commercial and music video director. He has been commended for his new and unique visual style, and takes inspiration from the mise en scène.
He first started his career by making a music video for the French rock group oui oui. This video was what put his career as a music videos into full swing because soon after making his first videos he was directing music videos for the likes of Daft Punk, The White Stripes, The Chemical Brothers, The Vines, Steriogram, Radiohead, and Beck.
As well as creating music videos he has worked with artist such as spike jonze and made a feature film called human nature which was released on 2001.

Michel Gondry's Levi's 501 Jeans "Drugstore" spot holds the record for "Most awards won by a TV commercial". I really like this commercial as the music builds up and you don’t get to see the face of the man until the end which gives a sense of secrecy and tension. The advert aslo has humour which I think would attract lots of people to the product which is the aim of the TV advert so it shows how good Michel Gondrys work is.

 

see more work http://www.michelgondry.com/

MetaDesign

MetaDesign has been one of Europe's most respected design agencies for over ten years. This company has worked on branding some very big companies such as Audi. The company was set up in Berlin in 1992 by Uli Mayer-Johanssen and Erik Speikermann and now has offices around the world such as one in san Francisco, as well as working with Audi meta design has also worked for Adobe.

I really like the work they have done for the clients especially the work they did with Audi it looks really high class and I like how the ideas have not been overly thought and complicated and I think it goes to show that simple ideas can be just as good as complicated ones. I want to start doing minimalistic work more so after reading the book by John Maeda and now that I have found this company I feel I will get some good inspiration from them.

see more work http://www.metadesign.com/clients/audi

Susan Kare

Susan Kare was born 1954 in Ithaca, New York. She is very famous for designing some of the interface which is found on the original apple Macintosh. Some of her icons she designed are still on the software used today such as the Lasso, the grabber and the paint bucket. Another element she designed for apple was the welcome face when you turned the man on and has only recently been replaced with the apple logo. She has also worked with Microsoft designing icons that are still used on the machines today such as the notebook icon and a few of the icons displayed in the control panel.
Susan Kare also designed the playing deck for the game solitaire game. I like how the bright blue stands out from the green and how you can see that the image has been drawn using pixels which makes it look quirky and different, although I do like her work I doubt I would ever use it as inspiration as it is not the style I want to work in in the future.

see more of her work http://www.kare.com/

The Designers Republic

The Designers Republic is a group of graphic designers, founded on July 14, 1986 by Ian Anderson, and based in Sheffield. It is known for its anti-establishment aesthetics. There company shut down in 2009. The worked with brands such as Coca-Cola and Orange as well as PlayStation games designing sleeves and covers for some of the most popular games like GTA. They have also designed Cd's sleeves for the ministry of sound. In 1987 the company designed the cover for the band age of chance, titled "Don't Get Mad... Get Even! (The New York Remixes)" this sleeve was in the top 100 best record cover of all time by Q in 2001.
I like the work they have created because it is bright and vibrant in style and looks like the people who created it had fun doing it and this is reflected in there work. It looks a bit futuristic and there looks like they have been inspired by Japanese work, which personally I don’t like as much.

See there work here http://www.thedesignersrepublic.com/

Barnbrook

Barnbrook is a creative design studio located in London, over the years it has become increasingly popular and is now one of the best known studios in Britain. The company is a mixture of graphics and motion graphics therefore it is very visually strong and has worked on many different briefs for clients such as the BBC. The company has also created work for books; CD covers, websites and fonts, and currently releases the fonts they make to be used worldwide. In 2007 there work was exhibitions in the design museum in London.
As well as working for big companies like the BBC Branbrook also works with a lot of charitable organizations such as the British heart foundation and created an advert from them to promotion what the charity can offer people suffering with heart problems. I like how the camera angles around the heart in the center of the screen and how the fonts are all different which could link with how different people would relate to heart problems. I haven’t done any work with motion graphics but would like to start and feel that this advert is the type of style I would aim towards.

Link to the british heart foundation advert http://vimeo.com/8224038

 

See more of the work http://www.barnbrook.net/index.html

Why not associates

Why not associates has been running for 25 years creating a wide range of projects and different media types such as projects, including corporate identity, digital design, motion graphics and television commercial direction, editorial design, environmental design, publishing, and public art. They create work for many different clients including the government. They have worked with very large companies such as Nike, Virgin and the BBC.  No matter who the clients’ are the work is known for pushing the boundaries and experiments to suit the clients needs.
Since looking at this group of graphic designers I have noticed they did the TV adverts for the BBC dickens season. These are made and look so beautiful as they have combined the feeling of the old with the modern technology to create a perfect balance to advertise one of the great literary figures. The adverts use textures that look like paper and then the change and transform into video clips and this affect is really lovely and looks delicate which relates to the characters in Great expectations. 

See the dickens advert herehttp://www.whynotassociates.com/recent-work-2/bbc-dickens-season

Vaughan Oliver

Vaughan Oliver is a British Graphics design and typographer, who has worked in 23 envelope and v23 where they produced many designs for the record label 4AD and between 1982 and 1998 created many different covers for bands such as dead can dance and pixies.  Vaughan Oliver is said to have inspired many different artists as his covers where so popular and had a big impact of the music culture, as his work is very punk looking. And with his use of experimentation has created some of the best album covers.
The bright colours and the use of the typography really makes the covers stand out, the colours are often clashing which links into the decade these where created in. They have been layered up so they are never boring and there is always something more to look at and to discover about the album covers. I also like how the typography is not just going across the image horizontally but vertically as well as this gives another dimension to the work.

See more of his work http://www.vaughanoliver.co.uk/

The Chase

The chase is a design agency which has offices in Manchester, Preston and London. They focus on working with corporate identity, branding and packaging but have do work in other subject fields.  They have worked with companies such as M&S, BBC wildlife trust, original source and Manchester dogs home.
I really like the work the Chase have created over the years and the fact that they use all different techniques means there work stays creative and up to date. I particularly like the work they have done for Manchester dogs home as I got both of my dogs from there and go there regularly to give money to the charity. I like how the photo’s have been taken and the fact that it uses an interesting angel on street art helps to catch the viewers attention. I also like how they have given the dogs human characteristics as this creates a greater sense of sadness and I think more people would be able to relate to the images because of this.  

 

 

When looking through there work I noticed that they had designed the bottle for original source, this is a brand of shower gel which I sometimes buy and to learn that the people who created it was the chase I was surprised by how i've seen so much of there work already and still didn't really know a great deal about them.

I really like the use of type on the bottles as the text is not just going horizontal across the bottle but it also goes vertically and I think it fits the product and the demographic well.

 

 

 

This company is someone I think I will look back through a lot because there style of work I feel is similar to my own and I would like to think that someday my work would be as good as theirs.

 

The work they did for the garden lighting company is very simple but this adds a lot of elegance to it and from the start of the year we where always told that reduction is sometimes the key to great design and I think the work sums up that. I really like the bright colours used in the work and think that its really eye catching even though it is a very simple idea.

 

 

The I feel fruity work is another piece of work I like because it has a sense of humour and I sometimes think that people can take themselves and design to seriously and its nice to have a laugh, which is a really good way of getting people to remember your design. 

Their work always looks clean and really well put together and I like how they don't take everything to seriously, I would like to think that one day I could be working in this company. 

 

 

See some more of there work http://www.thechase.co.uk/

David Carson

David Carson is an American graphic designer and art director, who is famously known for his typography especially when working at the magazine Ray Gun. Whilst working at the magazine it was his job to get the layout of the magazine just right. His work was very popular in the 1990’s when the grunge style was at its peak. In 1995 he left the magazine in the pursuit to start his own business which was a success as after 3 years he had worked with the likes of Pepsi cola, Ray Ban and Nike.
I had never heard of David Carson until now but I have fallen in love with his work. I love the randomness it has and the way it makes you look into the image, I also like the way the text is on the page and can understand way he is famous for his typography. The colours used are eye catching either because they are so bright or because they are dull and unexpected. the composition of each image is different and always ensures you look at the work.

See more of his work http://www.davidcarsondesign.com/t/

 

Tomato

Tomato is a group of artists, designers, musicians and writers, who work on multi media projects. The company was founded in 1991 and since then have gained more clientele and built up a reputable business. As the have people who specialise in many different fields it makes there work more interesting and has given them the opportunities to work on projects which aren’t just graphical, they have delve into projects in publishing, advertising  fashion, public installations, music, television, film and graphic design, as well as putting on exhibitions and live performances.
One of my favourite pieces of work done by tomato is the underworld barking films. I love the vivid colour on the flowers and who you can see the life cycle of the plants and how the colours change with the cycle. I also like how the film has been played backwards to give a different perspective.

 

See more of there work http://www.tomato.co.uk/graphics-reel

eBoy

Eboy are a group of pixel artists who have nicknamed themselves the god fathers of pixel, they where founded in 1997 and are from Germany and U.S.A.  The group creates art work mostly for websites but also for magazines and adverts. The company has worked on projects for very large companies such as Coca-Cola, which shows how strong there work is. The art work the group create has a strong emphasis on old video games, as you can see in there work as the pixels give block colour this relates back to many peoples childhoods which could be why there work is becoming increasingly popular, in contrast to other digital work where the lines are as smooth as can be made with the hope that the pixels are hidden, eBoy relish in the old school look.
 “Handling pixels is fun and you are forced to simplify and abstract things, which is a big advantage of this technique."

For me the work is over crowded and to busy for me to look at however I do like how they are being so different and creating work which pushes the boundaries.  

Learn more about this company www.eboy.com/

  

Pentagram

Pentagram is a design studio which was founded by Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Colin Forbes, Kenneth Grange and Mervyn Kurlansky in 1972 in west London since then they have opened offices in America and Berlin. The foundation of the company was that everyone was to be equal to everyone else because of this premise there are no executive officers or CEOs, everyone has a say and they believe this to be the best way of generating ideas and keeping there ideas fresh and up to date. As well as working in graphic design the firm also work with companies to produce an identity, companies such as citibank and united airlines, they have also worked on areas to do with architecture, interior design and product design, including product design for Tesco, Boots and Nike. Pentagram have also worked with the co-operative brand and this lead to them winning a silver award at the design business association. I like how they do not just focus on graphics and that they have branched out to go into architecture and interior design as both of these where fields I wanted to go into when I was studying at college and knowing that there is a company that does everything I’m interested in means that I could in the future be a graphic designer who works on briefs which include an element of interior design and architecture.

 

More of there work http://www.pentagram.com/work/#/all/all/newest/2835/