NOTCOT Magezine Design

Issue #36 Oct 2015

INTERVIEW

TUTORIAL

Ardavan Hp

Bird Illustration

Matei Apostolescu ART&DESIGN

BOOK REVIEW

Vector Art

Jo Davies & Derek Brazell

Content

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Interview Ardavan Hp

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Article

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Tutorial Bird Vector Art

Book Review Successful Illustrator

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Interview Ardavan Hp

Vector Art

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06

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Website Ben the Illustrator

Events Art Events

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Subscribe Subscribe and save

Interview

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

Ardavan Hp “ I think Legendary Designer Paul Rand said it best: Its so simple that is difficult ,, Q. WELCOME TO NOTCOT, PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF. COULD YOU TELL US WHERE YOU’RE FROM AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE FIELD?

Thanks for having me here. Im Ardavan Hemmatpour aka Ash aka Ahp. I started studying multimedia at first in IACT College, Which led me to explore different mediums of design. All that led me to do Vector art, specially when i realized its significance in modern age of design.

Q. CAN YOU PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR EXPERIECE AS A GRAPHIC DESIGNER TO THIS DAY? Well i wont call myself a designer YET. I still dont think i have earned it yet. I think Legendary Designer Paul Rand said it best: Its so simple that is difficult. Sorry, i love refrencing the greats, studying them helps a me understanding their process better, started doing this ever since the first day i began my study.

Q. CAN YOU TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE SUBJECTS YOU ENJOYED DURING YOUR STUDIES? A few subjects comes to mind, The first one that is my favoriet, is, Drawing Class. That class really opened my eyes to new roams of art.

Q. CAN YOU PLEASE ELABORATE MORE ON THIS ?

There are so many aspects you need to concider before you take action. The colours, the spacing, the typeface, the meaning, the idea, the feel, why are each one the things mentioned the way they are. After that, you have to deal with the client and is your design meeting his requirement etc...

Q. AFTER YOU FINISH YOUR DESIGN COURSE, IN WHAT AREA DO YOU PLAN TO VENTURE TO AS YOUR CAREER PATH LINE? To be honest, im now beyond facinated by information design and significant its role is in our everyday life, but im not gonna tell you today what exactly is ahead for me because it might undecided. My idea is that to learn as much as i can regarding design and explore my own personal connection with the topic of my study.

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Oct-2015

NOTCOT

Interview

“ My idea is that to learn as much as i can regarding design and explore my own personal connection with the topic of my study,, Q. THAT IS INTERESTING, CAN YOU PLEASE ELABORATE MORE ON THIS TOPIC? Well today you see how everyday, everything moves forward and improves drastically. everyday new possibilities emerge and with them, comes new ideas, and im want to be able to explore everyone of them and hopefully, find the perfect place for myself to set in. This does have a difficult aspect to it, and that is the constant struggle of not falling behind.

Q. Thank you Ardavan for taking this time, to share your experiece with the NotCot magezine and others.

Thank you for having me, and giving me this opportunity to share my experience with other designers.X

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Interview

NOTCOT

Matei Apostolescu ‘‘In our conversation Ma tei shares some interesting stories about why he prefers to add so much detail into his art. We also discuss why hobbies outside of graphic design can really enhance a designer’s eye and imagination.

,,

Q. WELCOME TO NOTCOT, PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF. COULD YOU TELL US WHERE YOU’RE FROM AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE FIELD?

Thanks for having me. I’m Matei Apostolescu, I’m 27 and I was born in Romania EU. I am a full time freelance illustrator; I started out as a graffiti artist and migrated from web design to illustration and most recently clay modeling and animation.

Q. YOU INCORPORATE COMPLEX SHAPES AND PATTERNS INTO MOST OF YOUR ILLUSTRATIONS, WHAT EXACTLY DRAWS YOU TO USE THIS TYPE OF STYLE?

I drew from a very early age, and detail has always been one of my favorite things. When I was a kid my mom used to bring home from her work place huge blueprints of all types of machinery from mining equipment to aircraft engines, I copied quite a lot of them and even colored some and ever since then I remained hooked on very detailed stuff.

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Oct-2015

Oct-2015

Interview

NOTCOT

Q. ILLUSTRATIONS LIKE “FLIPPIN BITS” & “SILENCER” FEATURE SOME AMAZINGLY INTRICATE PATTERNS, HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO CREATE THEM? AND PLEASE WALK US THROUGH MAKING THE PIECES. With Flippin Bits I wanted to illustrate self repairing technology, for the background part I tried to create a futuristic vision of a huge multi-processor motherboard, I used Illustrator to assemble it from various shapes and brushes and then some minor shading tweaks in PS along with the repair robot which is also drawn in illustrator using a Wacom tablet.

Silencer was a bit trickier as I had to make the character and its moves more obvious in all those patterns, so I broke the symmetry by shading the hand and killing off some of the color surrounding the skeleton’s hand.

Both of the pieces are using one of my favorite color combos red, white and black, they were created for Depthcore 40th chapter Mythic (I encourage everyone to check out this release it is full of amazing artwork).

‘‘

Not at all digital art actually adds new dimensions to the traditional art and I think they complete each other. A small challenge is to capture the stuff done traditionally and implement them into the digital environment

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Q. YOU HAVE A PACK OF 27 AMAZING WALLPAPERS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY GIVING AWAY FOR FREE, WHICH ONE WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR FAVORITE WALLPAPER AND WHY? WALK US THROUGH HOW YOU CREATED IT AS WELL. When I started working as an illustrator I was confronted with an obvious problem: who will see my stuff? How will I be able to enter peoples homes so to speak.

The answer was creating this collection of wallpapers and trying to expand it all the time just updated with HD versions for all wallpapers!), I was amazed when I saw my wallpapers on peoples desktops, so I included icons and a small set of brushes too, I intend to keep it free forever.

My favorite wallpaper is Battle 13,(my current desktop) it started as a practice sketch in illustrator, I then pasted it in PS, ditched all the coloring (it was quite vivid) and went for a deep underwater tone. It took me a while to get it to where it is, but after some fighting with the burn and dodge tool I was happy with the result.

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Interview

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

‘‘In our conversation Ma tei shares some interesting stories about why he prefers to add so much detail into his art. We also discuss why hobbies outside of graphic design can really enhance a designer’s eye and imagination.

,,

Q. YOU WORK WITH A LOT OF TRADITIONAL ART TOOLS LIKE PENCILS, MARKERS, AND EVEN SPRAY PAINT. IS IT A CHALLENGE TO MIX THESE TRADITIONAL TOOLS WITH DIGITAL ART? Not at all digital art actually adds new dimensions to the traditional art and I think they complete each other. A small challenge is to capture the stuff done traditionally and implement them into the digital environment, for that you need good digital gear (I have had problems in the early stages of my career because my computers were slow and working with 600dpi scanned artwork was quite a challenge). I am very concerned with quality.

Q. ON THE SIDE YOU ALSO CREATE THESE AMAZINGLY DETAILED POLYMER CLAY MODELS, DO YOU BELIEVE DESIGNERS SHOULD TAKE UP HOBBIES LIKE THIS AND NOT ALWAYS FOCUS ON DIGITAL ART? Modeling clay has really opened my eyes to a new dimension of art and taught me quite a lot of things about perspective and form, I feel it is a great way to enrich a designer’s experience with digital art, I recommend everyone to give it a go. I want to create even bigger models and take modeling beyond a hobby level.

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Oct-2015

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Interview

Q. IN YOUR PORTFOLIO YOU STATE THAT YOU WILL BE OPENING UP A WEB-SHOP SOON, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE IN IT ONCE ITS UP? Yes I am trying to open it for quite a while now, but I’m happy to announce it will be online in about two weeks. The main reason for the delay and hopefully one of the highlights of beaucoupzero (up now) will be a collection of shoulder bags and laptop bags featuring my illustrations. The bags design and development was quite slow as we had to find the right materials and especially the right people to assemble them and I can say now that they turned out awesome.

I will be also selling limited editions huge sized prints of my illustrations and some of my best polymer clay toys.

Q.THANKS AGAIN FOR PROVIDING PSDTUTS+ WITH THIS OPPORTUNITY TO INTERVIEW YOU. ANY FINAL THOUGHTS FOR OUR READERS? Thanks again for having me. Good luck to everyone, and remember “there is no style like freestyle!” Peace!X

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Interview

1 ,1 0 0

NOTCOT

D E S I G N

WAYS

TO

Interpret Shakspeare

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Oct-2015

Oct-2015

Interview

NOTCOT

‘‘To create a poster for a

Shakespeare play is to tap into its essence and evolve an ideograph, a visual gesture that epitomizes the particular production

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Take Hamlet, for example. The iconography of skulls, hearts, daggers, and crowns reoccurs through the poster designs spanning hundreds of years.

Illustrator Edward Gorey hones into the theme of psychological turmoil by depicting a solitary figure standing on a precarious ledge. Similarly, Paula Scher relays the dra-

Just as directors have interpreted Shake-

matic nature through a pensive portrait of

speare’s stories of star-crossed lovers, famil-

the lead actor.

ial power struggles, and political corruption in myriad ways, graphic designers have experimented with their visual representation in equal measure. “To create a poster for a Shakespeare play is to tap into its essence and evolve an ideograph, a visual gesture that epitomizes the particular production,” writes Julie Taymor in the preface to Presenting Shakespeare, a new book from Princeton Architectural Press by Steven Heller and Mirko Ilic.

«Like the director and the stage designer, the

Because the plays have been in near constant production since the 1600s, posters advertising the work also reads like a veritable history of graphic design. «To be or not to be» might be the question, but the answer for representation could lie in a cartoonish illustration, in expressive typefaces, or in a morbid hyper-

and graphic imagery presented in both word and action and also from the overarching political, psychological, and philosophical themes of the play,» Taymor says.

be the question, but the answer for representation could lie in a cartoonish illustration

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realistic heart gushing blood Catch a few of our favorite Hamlet posters in the slide show

Following shakespear, youll see the growth of

above and purchase Presenting Shakespeare:

graphic design, from traditioal illustrations

1,100 Posters from Around the World at pa-

of his theater posters, to todays digitaly de-

press.com for $50.

signed arts.

poster artist searches for emblematic clues in Shakespeare’s poetry, from its fantastical

‘‘To be or not to be» might

Though today we dont know the future and Designers should be admired by how respect-

the next step in graphic design.But one thing

ably and carefully they approached shake-

there is for sure, is that shakespear, no mat-

spear, and designed works loyal to each story

ter how advance we get in future, shakespear

and its arc.

and his stories will remain.X

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Interview

T H E

NOTCOT

D E S I G N

H I S TO RY

Danger Posters

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Oct-2015

O F

Oct-2015

Interview

NOTCOT

‘‘Safety first! Even as

far back as the inaugural World’s Fair in 1851, graphic design has played a big role in extolling the innovations of the industrial age

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Margaret Bourke-White, Herbert Bayer, Julius Klinger, and Louis Lozowick.

Focusing on safety materials produced between 1851 and 1945, the exhibit brings together more than 200 posters, pamphlets, postcards, and brochures.

Designed to warn people of the dangers of the changing times, the works caution against

‘‘At one end, you have the

year of the first World Fair, this great exhibition dedicated to the Utopia, just on the horizon, that the Industrial Revolution was going to bring forth

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it can slice off your hands, electrocute you,

everything from changing a light bulb to fly-

light you on fire, and even explode you. Con-

ing an airplane. In the safety materials scat-

For example, the exhibition has a series of

sequently, graphic designers have spent just

tered between, Abess argues that you can see

Italian postcards on display from 1938. The

as much time warning people about the dan-

reflected the political, social, and economic

prints look almost like pages from a chil-

gers of new and old innovations as they have

concerns of the age.

dren’s book, but they warn Italians (with amusingly pedantic verbiage) about the

advertising their virtues.

dangers of everything from electrocuting

The design history of the safety poster and

“At one end, you have the year of the first

other safety materials is the subject of Mar-

World Fair, this great exhibition dedicated to

gin of Error, a new exhibition curated by

the Utopia, just on the horizon, that the In-

Matthew Abess at Florida International

dustrial Revolution was going to bring forth,”

Abess says that these designs were informed

University’s Wolfsonian museum. Starting

explains Abess. “And on the other, you have

by the Fascist government taking respon-

November 13 and going until next May, it

the end of World War II, when everyone can

sibility for the well being of all its citizens,

features memorable work by a diverse group

see that the so-called Utopia has turned into

therefore viewing them as children of the

of artists including Man Ray, Lewis Hine,

something else entirely.”

state.X

yourself in the bathroom to getting your hair caught in a sewing machine.

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Tutorial

NOTCOT

Intro to Geometric Vector Art

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Oct-2015

Oct-2015

Tutorial

NOTCOT

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First i selected a photograph so i can use as a background for my illustration. It’s important to have a clear shape and different colors.

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I begin by locking the layer with the image and making a new layer on top. On this new layer i begin making triangles with the pen tool, making smaller triangles in the areas that need more detail (Like the eyes).

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First i selected a photograph so i can use as a background for my illustration. It’s important to have a clear shape and different colors.

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Interview

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

04 Now our grid is finished. This is when i begin to look for mistakes. The most common mistake is a triangle that is not properly alligned with the grid, creating “holes” in the grid.

05 The coloring is pretty easy. You just select a triangle and with the eyedropper tool select a color from the original image. Many times you won’t be able to select a triangle, because it will be underneath other triangles. Don’t mind that and continue. You will be able to select those triangles one by one in the layers window.

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In the process of selecting the color for each triangle, it is important to see the colors of the triangles surrounding the selected one, so the color is not so similar.

But also you have to select a color that represents the area you’re coloring.

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Oct-2015

Interview

NOTCOT

07 Now the illustration is almost done! Now you can remove the background to see clearly if any white “holes” appear in your grid.

08 I usually add something else just to make the illustration not so similar to the original image. More triangles usually do the trick!

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And that’s it! now you can put your illustrated vector on top of the original one, or just put it in a solid background.

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Review

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

Becoming a Successful Illustrator £26.99

PRICE

COMPANY AUTHOR

Bloomsbury Jo Davies & Derek Brazell

‘‘This book tells you what you need to do between completing an Illustration degree and setting up as a freelance illustrator

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R AT I N G

If you’re just graduating from an illustration degree and wondering how to start your career proper, this could be the book for you. Becoming A Successful Illustrator is especially useful if your course was one that focussed entirely on developing your creative practice and eschewed informing you about the business of illustration (unfortunately these courses still exist).

Written by the Association of Illustrators’ project manager Derek Brazell and regular co-author, freelance illustrator Jo Davies, the book gives a broad overview of what a new grad must know across six sections – plus a set of activities that might be worth the asking price alone.

The sections include information about what the ‘illustration industry’ is, how it works (and how to behave in it), how to promote yourself and get work – and, perhaps most importantly of all, how to run your freelance business in a way that helps you and it grow. The words of the authors are broken up by quotes and interviews with illustrators from Pomme Chan to Jack Teagle (below) – and there are also contributions from commissioners at the likes of Penguin and M&C Saatchi.The section on professional dealings details how to be, well.advice on how to conduct yourself that sounds like common sense but is worth reiterating.

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Oct-2015

Review

NOTCOT

The first of these sections both informs on areas such as your rights and how to work with contracts and provides some advice on and provides some advice on approaches to negotiation and when to give up your copyright (in short, only for a lot of cash).

The second covers both how to set and run up your business: from registering it to managing your finances so you don’t end up with a massive tax bill at the end of the year that you’d forgotten to put cash aside for (which has happened even to the likes of Mr.Bingo).

Of course, neither of these sections tells you everything you need to know – at about 20 pages each they barely scratch the surface but they do touch on every area, and by working through then you’re going to end up knowing where you need to do more research. The book ends with simple activities to help you work through all of the things you need to do without feeling overwhelmed by them, backed up by sample contracts and invoices (below). While aimed at graduates, Becoming a Successful Illustrator would be better read during a course rather than after it – but if anything mentioned above sounds alien to you, this is a worthy read.X

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Review

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

Ben the Illustrator I’m excited by shapes, form, movement and colour. The tip of a pine-tree, the wave before it drops, the corner of a building, the curve of an eyebrow; I find these forms exciting. A kingfisher’s feathers, new sneakers, new sunrises, orange Lego blocks; I find these colours exciting. In life we’re provided with endless forms and colours and I excitedly recreate them in my illustration work, I enjoy creating exciting illustration, illustration that excites people.

I am a highly experienced illustrator, renowned for a positive, creative outlook and a solid understanding of commercial design, the visual arts and successful business. I love it. I relish diversity and welcome all opportunities; large or small, print or digital, editorial, advertising, publishing, interiors, fashion, surface patterns, murals and any other world beyond.

If you would like to talk about a creative project you can email me on : ben@huddleformation.com call me on +44 (0) 7816 470787.

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Oct-2015

NOTCOT

Review

Podcast Portraits Stuff Magazine asked me to illustrate a feature article about 4 of the biggest podcasts online, with portraits of the hosts, guests and related artefacts!

The podcasts were Scroobius Pip’s Distraction Pieces, The Bugle, Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast and The Serial Podcast.

Shelbourne Property Working with Moshe Bien, I illustrated Shelbourne’s portfolio of office buildings from across the United States for use in their marketing, brochures and stationery.

I was asked by Form & Glory to create some sports-inspired art prints, this series focuses on 5 of the UK›s Premiere League soccer stadiums. abstracting the architecture and adding a sizeable amount of team colours.X

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Events

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

A Guide to Art Evets

KHAYAMIYA: KH EDIVAL TO CONTEMPORARY Islamic Arts Museum, KL

NOW 31 JAN

Khayamiya is the Egyptian art of tentmaking. Visitors will get to explore the stunning transformations of khayamiya from the late Ottoman Empire to the present day in this exhibition. This is a special cooperative effort between IAMM and guest curator, Dr Sam Bowker of Charles Sturt University, Australia.

PICTU RING TH E NATION Ilham Gallery, KL City Centre

Now 31 Dec

Ilham gallery, owned by former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin, opened to much fanfare two months ago. First, it features the earliest works of Dato’ Hoessein Enas (1924-1995), a venerable figure who defined portraiture in our country post-Independence. He’s the ‘Father of Malaysian Portrait Painting’, if you will. Second, Ilham gallery also boasts two international names: On the grassy front lawn of the award-winning Foster + Partners-designed Ilham Tower.

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Oct-2015

Events

NOTCOT

PAVILION NOW Shalini Ganendra Fine Art (SGFA), Petaling Jaya

Now 18 Feb

The PavilionNOW presents an active deliberation of living, creativity and sustainability through the investigations of the familiar ‘pavilion concept’.

Jade Saw Architect will be the lead project of this exhibition with the firm’s winning design, ‘tacit’. A lecture programme will also be available throughout this five-month showing of PavilionNOW.

GU ERRILLA PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION 2015 Av e n u e K , K L C i t y C e n t r e

Now 25 Oct

Showcased in a series of photos without a common theme or topic, the Guerrilla Photography Exhibition is a platform for photographers to present their works. The freestyle exhibition at Avenue K’s Spanish Steps is akin to free speech, giving the photographer a chance to choose whatever they want their viewers to see.

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Events

NOTCOT

Oct-2015

POP!

14 Nov 15 Nov

Ku a l a L u m p u r P e r f o r m i n g A r t s C e n t r e , S e n t u l

The Actors Studio Academy is here to take you on a journey through some of the best pop hits over the years from ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ up to Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’. Written by The Actors Studio Academy’s director-in-residence Mark Beau de Silva and choreographed by the academy’s Lex Lakshman Balakrishnan, this musical will explore the different eras of music through classic hits.

TALES OF 4 DIALECTS

Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Sentul

21 Nov 29 Nov

Four short tales will be presented in four dialects: Hakka, Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese. There will also be folk songs sung in the respective dialects within the stories.

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Oct-2015

NOTCOT

Interview

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Issue #36 Oct 2015

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